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#188273 - 07/28/09 09:54 AM Re: The things we do [Re: Trumpy]
JoeKP Offline
Member

Registered: 03/29/08
Posts: 127
Loc: Berkley, MA
i take it that you like hard wood?
_________________________
-Joe
“then we'll glue em' then screw em'”
-Tom Silva
TOH

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#188281 - 07/28/09 03:21 PM Re: The things we do [Re: JoeKP]
HotLine1 Online   content

Member

Registered: 04/03/02
Posts: 4904
Loc: Brick, NJ USA
Alan:
Mighty fine woodworking cratftsmanship!
_________________________
John

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#188284 - 07/28/09 07:35 PM Re: The things we do [Re: HotLine1]
gfretwell Offline

Member

Registered: 07/20/04
Posts: 7144
Loc: Estero,Fl,usa
Nice work.
We are heavily into wood and natural stone too. That is strange to Florida people. We have neighbors who said we built a hunting cabin here.
_________________________
Greg Fretwell

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#188298 - 07/29/09 02:46 AM Re: The things we do [Re: gfretwell]
Trumpy Offline

Member

Registered: 07/05/02
Posts: 8344
Loc: SI,New Zealand
Alan,
I have to agree with the concensus here, this stuff is absolutely mint.

You were saying that this is your 11th staircase in 10 years, I find that fact in itself, pretty mind-blowing, especially when I see pictures like this, it's obvious that these things aren't merely chopped up with a saw and nailed together.

The design and planning that goes into one of these projects must be huge.

BTW, I must say I like Mrs B's finishing work, timber should always be shown as timber.

I know of some people that had a really ornate 1920's staircase (made of heart rimu) in their house.
They sanded all the french polishing off of it and painted it (get this) Gloss White, because the new wall-paper clashed with it. mad

Oddly enough Alan,
Where do you get exotic timbers like Cedar of Lebanon from?
Exotic timber over here has more or less died out (the supply of I mean), about the most exotic sort of thing we can get here is Jarrah, and that is from Aussie.

One last question,
How are them "snails" at the bottom of the stair rails made?
It looks like a lot of work in them alone.
_________________________
Let's face it, these days if you're not young, you're old - Red Green grin

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#188327 - 07/31/09 03:14 AM Re: The things we do [Re: Trumpy]
Alan Belson Offline
Member

Registered: 03/23/05
Posts: 1758
Loc: Mayenne N. France
Mike,
Cedar of Lebanon has been a popular park tree in northern europe for centuries, but rarely comes on the market for that reason. This one fell in a storm in 1999 in a friend's garden- in fact it fell through his roof so it was a double whammy! I bought the trunk and several other trees and had the lot [ 900 cubic feet! blink] boarded at a local mill, and I sold a lot of it on, including most of a Sequoia [?] Giant Redwood, which is now cladding a workshop in Ireland. Weird bark, like coconut fibre and it stinks! eek

Cedar works up well, dries fast [ it's a softwood] and smells divine, which is probably why the Pharoahs used it it building their tombs. Municipal or park trees are lost all the time due to storms, road schemes or developments, and I have bought a few. The secret is to get in quick before some idiot cuts it up for firewood or worse, burns the lot on site!

As to snails or wraiths, I just made an accurate pattern from birch ply and used a router with a bearing-guided bit to copy the pattern, flipping it over to do LH/RH. Other bearing-guided form cutters are then used to machine up and match the handrail section. It's 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration on projects like this, there is no substitute for hard work!
_________________________
Wood work but won't!

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#188370 - 08/03/09 07:55 AM Re: The things we do [Re: Alan Belson]
Alan Belson Offline
Member

Registered: 03/23/05
Posts: 1758
Loc: Mayenne N. France
No mill nearby? You need one of these! laugh
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJOvnsMJHJ8

Norm showed something like this once , for hire, on NYW:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DtSuvwk5Ao&feature=fvw
Let us Rock! yay

Or you could build a homebrew, like this suicidal maniac! sick
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2c486ERD7-0
_________________________
Wood work but won't!

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