The Tansu Stairs are Done

Well, I was redoing the jobs list on my office bulletin board this morning and the little clipping above was pasted onto the corner of it. I put it there a while back and forgot about it but today, it caught my eye again. So true .... Most every big project takes 'a little longer' than expected and this one was no exception. But, now we're pretty much done. Shipping to Palo Alto has been arranged and all that's left is the shaping of the wall mounted handrail and a little welding on the mounting brackets for it. We had a few 'last details; to work out this week and they are detailed below. There are two other posts to this project .... here ... and here... Great project ....

The finished cabinet ... Click the photos to enlarge them ..

The boys got a little happy as they were about to put together the back cabinets ...

Tricky post moounting details and

tread to riser joinery

Shows the breakdown for shipping

and the skids with wheels we put under the base cabinets

Assembling the back cabinets ... More info on this project here ... and here ...

Railing Progress

3/4/09 One more section to go .... down the steps ... carboard template is in place .. Click the photos to enlarge them

Back in January in a post titled 'No Time For Details' I mentioned a new railing project Sam was about to start. We put the second section of it in place on Wednesday and the rest will be finished in the next week or so. It's coming out nicely, and starting to look remarkably like the sketch below...

The fourth, a long straight section is on the bench ... It needs a couple more details on the close end where it attaches to the wall ...

Proposed connection

Third section in place

sketch

First two sections

Third section in place

Sam's Railing's Done

All in, all done ... Sam and Jim wrapped it up today with a little more on site bolting and welding .... I'd like to see it in person before the folks move in though Sam's pictures came out well considering what a sunny house it is ... I think he's happy it all fit and it's all done, and the biuilder came by with the check this afternoon ... My kind of client .... Onward ... click the photos to enlarge them ...
Up the steps ...
Top of the steps ...
Ditto ...
Down the steps
Sam's secret, super special, leopard skin finish ... very cool
Next !

New Handrail

Well, we've got a new handrail out front ... Sam had a request from a client for railings like this and we weren't sure on the technique of sweeping horizontal bends so I decided a prototype would be a good addition to our entryway. We also had a friend come by with her 92 year old mother and her exit from the front porch with no handrail was sort of terrifying ... Anyway, it's up there ... looks good ... interesting process ... Click the photos to enlarge them ...

It's got a certain 'welcoming' feeling ...

First cut every couple of inches until what you're bending is essentially a piece of square stock ... Fill in the resulting spaces with weld, grind and smooth. Repeat for the second layer...

make the upsweep, figure out the length of the support

Make a jig to weld it to the horizontals and whip up some brackets ... prime, paint, drill a hole and install it using some epoxy stuff from the lumber yard ... I'll post the name of it here later but it was pretty slick stuff. Hardened up just like the stone and is the same color too ...

Rounding Up The Railings

Sam and I have recently had a number of new requests for metal railings, both indoor and outdoor. The pictures that we have on the web are scattered throughout our blog and website and I thought it best to organize at least most of them here for a good quick overview ...
Click the photos to enlarge them ...
Follow the underlkined links for more info ...

A contemporary railing with fabricated tapered posts and floor mounted post flanges.

A typical hand drawing for a railing project proposal

A typical CAD drawing for a stair and balcony railing

Plasma cut 3/8ths" thick tapered spindles

The Williams Store Railings

Railing from the CAD drawing above

One inch twisted balusters, 1 per step, with fabricated metal base collars.

The Rupert, Vermont, Town Hall

I just happened to catch these as Sam was painting over the primer on the back side... I thought it was a cool look ... We don't have a picture of the full railing installation yet ..

The JK Adams gas heater railing/guard

Straight, twist and repeat

This is an antique railing from Boyertwon, PA ...Cast elements similar to these are still readily available ..

While not like the railings above, the photos show some other metalwork Sam has completed in the last year ...

A custom steel and gold leaf window grill

A fabricated and gold leafed bench ... Wood parts by DCF

Some Custom Snowboard Event Trophies

A New Railing Project

Sam finished up his big railing project this week. no picture of the dog gate at the bottom of the stairs yet. I think it's a stunner .... The clients do too ....

Down the stairs .... The posts spacings we're unequal, which necessitated a little creative spacing and design .... Actually it makes it more interesting I think ....

8/27 ... Straight sections are in ... on to the angled stair railings

8/20/2008 ... Sam's on a roll .... He's underway on a rather extensive project he's been designing and refining with the clients over the past couple of weeks. He took the time to make an accurate CAD drawing which we were then able to use to cut an mdf assembly jig on the CNC. Also from the same drawing he was able to get accurate cut lengths and precise angles, a huge time saver when you're working on a project with this many repetitions. I believe the bucket of parts has all the short, angled, cut medallion parts for the straight sections. Ready to weld tomorrow .... We'll need to make another angled jig for the stair sections .... Click the photos to enlarge ...

The railing actually loops around a balcony but is shown stretched out straight here ... looks like 35' plus the stairs

The CAD drawing with the angles and cut lengths. We can put a drawing like this, if it''s the right type of file, into our router toolpathing program and pretty much start cutting...

The finished jig

With some of the parts

Progress 8 22 ... the four straight sections are welded ... Here are three of them
This one has the finish on it .... it also has a small design wrinkle in the lower right hand corner
1st section in the jig