Help me, Im slowly destroying my home.

Allen, for a guy who thought he was destroying his house, you are working in reverse!!! I see a very nice stairway developing!!! Good job! Oh, regardless what others think, when the wife approves, it is golden!!!

Looking real good Allen!

way to go allen!

its 11am, I havent been able to get any motivation today. didnt want to get out of bed, been having those crappy health issues, but I logged on, and I cant figure it out, the people on this site motivate me to push myself.
Im off to start notching and putting together the post, start some rail work.
thanx.

allen we arent motivating you its the other way around for me at least,, every time i think i can take day off and do something else i think of what your doing or would do.. and i get back in the saddle and do something even if its small to get closer to the final goal. you have given many of us inspiration!!!! we just need more than you some days

well, its now 6 pm, and I skipped lunch,(its not like I couldnt live off my meat for a couple of months), I didnt take any calls, and Ive had a real tough day.
AFter a slight accident on the lathe, while spinning a top knob, I had to start the top all over again, and attempted to make a top without a new glueup, only used what I had laying around.
Dowel screwing these heavy pieces together proved to be extremely difficult for me, all in all, wasnt a good time today. 7 straight hours and I basically did very little, except waste alot of mahogany on the lathe.
That top section, is not staying, the square plate, the round plate, and the top knob I whacked off, my daughter said no way, one big knob, so I glued up more stock for tomorrows try.
Lag bolts were countersunk, and I plugged them with plugs I spun on lathe, didnt take a pic of the plugs.
(pics have top that is no longer on it, and I made a huge mistake putting it together, I put the top square portion, that holds the rail, upside down, wanting the beveled edge to face down, too late to change that)

also in that first picture, I cut a piece of 2x4 to exact size and put it inbetween the post and the stair stringer(?)and put another screw through that. Eventually when all the floors are in, I will put some type of molding over the 2x4 and up the stringer, )

If I was a contractor, (no insult to any contractors here ofcourse), or if I just took on this job as a handyman, Id be making around 19 cents per hour, or maybe owing the homeowner money in the end.
I believe making a simple stairway railing and posts, ballusters, is just a bit over my skill level. Im still trying to get something.

Looks great to me Alen.

not every day goes as planned and you arent the first one to use more wood than you thought you needed for a job i got extra 8/4 cherry that i ended up gettin twice as much to get the stuff i was looking for..on the bed.. but hey next project that needs 8/4 i got some here and the design changes are somthing we all go threw as well exspecailly if you enter in the ladies thoughts.. they just dont think like we do allen bet yu didnt know that huh

My lathe just has to cooperate a bit more with me, and I think Ill work it out.

It's looking real good !!

Any day in the shop is better than a day sitting around or being at work!
Heck if you were doing this for someone else, you could charge for the prototype wether used or not, then put on a shelf and another customer falls in love with it and you sell it for twice what you charged for it as a prototype! Sometimes our mistakes lead us into directions we wouldn't have headed and then the light bulb comes on and viola!!! we have a masterpiece (at least vaughn and stu and others do, me not included). It is looking great and the best part, you are doing it and it will be done correctly when it is done. It really isn't above your skill level, step back, take a deep breath, (don't forget to exhale!) and remember the little train that could! We got faith in you man! Now get out there, turn on some Christmas tunes, get in the groove, mindset about tranquility and it will happen!

Never lock the sliding mitres blade cover back into open position when you are cutting 45 degree bevels. Another lesson I learned today.
Thankgod my fear of moving blades saved me, I only hit the back of the blade as it was shutting down, took a bit of skin off my finger, but woke me up. This is the second accident I had in as many days in the shop.
Im leaving the project, the painting, the sanding, the stairrails all till next week.
I did manage to get a top ball for the post the right size, at least that everyone said ok too, cut 2 of the plugs for the lag screws, cant get third, will have to sand it down.
I think Drew said I should cover the walls in with same wood, so I did, broke down bought my first ogee router bit, and put a nice edge on the wall pieces.
Cut down the ballister track,(whatever its called), cut 1.25 square ballisters, then cut 4 down to see how they would look, so the wife could tell me wider, round, different shape, whatever she wants, but I failed to allow an extra inch for the channels that hold the ballisters. These are samples anyway, maybe should have used cheap wood, but wanted her to see exactly how it would look. I think I prefer 1.5 x 4 inch wide ballisters with 3.5 inches between, or somewhere close to that.
The handrail will be 2 inches total height, I will shape it with whatever router bits I own, probably a combination of round over and corebox bit.
It will be attached to upper balllister track, and I will put spacers(fillets?) in between each ballister. some pictures, where IM at.
I will do all the final sanding in house after assembled. Not the best way to go, but leaving pieces in the garage is asking for trouble, Id rather finish it all when the house is cleaned up and theres no sawdust.
Unfortunately, I did promise to finish sanding walls today and get one last touch up coat of spackle on where needed so my wife could put the room back in order, alot of company tomorrow night for Chanukah, but that isnt going to happen. Let them hang out in the back, food tastes the same.


I am a bit suprised the weather has been cooperating, its been ok to work outside in the garage so far. This is the reason I started the stair rail, figured leave the painting and junk work for when it turns cold out.

Lookiing good Allen, Be careful around those sharp bl;ades, glad it wasn't worse.

Please be careful Allen, no fingers or body parts are worth it.

this style or type of work is not for me. I will not give myself any other projects in the house unless they are nothing more than painting or something simple.
A house as old as mine, is just too much of a challenge for me.
Its crooked. I guess after 60 something years a house settles and moves, and with that, there is no plum or even.
Im not familiar with construction, nor do I know much about hardware.


I finished it all up, just need one more piece of trim on top wall, and some plugs, some filling in, but the construction and all the trim molding is done.
I made fillets? to fit all the spaces between ballusters,
A huge problem I found,The stairs are not the exact same height. Seems somewhere along the way, someone did some work on the platform where the bottom stair is, and lessened the height of the riser by raising the platform what seems like almost 3/4 inch. I got a little upset after measuring all the ballusters and everything else, I was too high, at 34 and 5/8 ths rail height, I wanted 34.
I even built the post off 3/4 of a inch by measuring the bottom step.
I attached it all, its a bit low on the post top, but will be ok, my wife liked it all.
I did have another problem, Im not sure how much I have left in the afternoon to turn a 5.5 inch lag screw, since my arm and hand strength diminish greatly later in the day, so I used a bit too much torque and broke the lag screw head off the one I was securing the post to the handrail.
I asked my neighbor, a contractor, to take a look, and he said there is still 4 inches of bolt in there, to leave it alone, plug the hole, but gave me two 3 inch trim screws to go in from under the rail into the post for added security.
I made the rail with 2 inch by 2 and 1/4 inch mahogany.
I first used a 3/4 corebox router bit to groove out a bit below center, then used a 3/4 inch roundover to round over the top part of the rail.
I sanded down the edges to smooth it all out,still have to do some more sanding to get it to where I want it, but didnt have the strength today to attempt it. Hand sanding is a tough chore for me, tomorrow is another day.
I cut a rosette block, simple, used the same ogee bit for the edge as I did for the bottom trim, attached the rail first, then attached the rosette to the wall.
Heres some pics, I tried to get some closeups of the foul ups and what the trim looks like.
(in the second picture, I made a top and bottom track to hold the ballusters, trimmed the bottom track, and made the handrail the same width and attached it from underneath the track, needs alot of sanding still)

what I thought was going to be a simple quick project has taken me over 3 weeks and I havent begun to put any finish or final sanding.

Allen, Don't be so critical of your self, what I see is a finely crafted staircase. Looks good from here.

It looks better than the guys on the jobs I've been on can do and they do it for a living. It's ok to be critical of yourself cause thats how you learn. If I gave up after my first remodeling project I wouldn't be were I'm at today. You have a rare gift in that you know when to ask for help. Keep it up Allen cause its all a learning experience.

Looks real good Allen.

I've been told by master finish carpenters that staircases are the most time consuming and exacting job there is.
You done good

I appreciate the kind remarks, there are just a few errors I made out of carelessness,wish I would have triple checked my triple checks.

Is your wife pleased with it?

If she is, and I cannot see why she would not be, then you dun good!

I like it too!