Porch Railings

[Mike_Chrest]

Hello All,
  Here is a project I put off for a really really long time. : I was asked to replace these railings. It's nice to have one monster project in reserve for slow economies.

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They don't look so bad from a distance but I'll show a close up later.
Mike

 

[Mike_Chrest]

The first floor railings were made of mahogany and might be original to the building. The second floor railings were replaced in the 1970's and have pretty much disintegrated. The more recent ones were made of poplar (a really poor choice for constantly rainy climate).
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[Mike_Chrest]

We kicked around ideas for how to replace these in a cost efficient manner. The first attempt by another crew involved making a cad program of the railings and milling them on a CNC router.

Problem #1 : There is a lot of variation in the spacing and size of the cutouts. We had two people give up on programing. :-[

Problem #2 : The guys with CNC routers around here a real busy and this project looks like a PITA. Heard a lot of "I can't get to it for five weeks". :-[

 

[Mike_Chrest]

Being the dinosaur that I am, I said screw it, I'll just trace the goofy things and slap em together.

Reality check, they are three dimensional and pretty hard to trace. What I ended up doing is tracing the holes onto MDF for a positive pattern,correcting the shape by whittling away until it fit hole, then making a negative pattern to use as a router template.

Roughing out the inner layer with Festool jigsaw. Dust collection very important with Azek

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[Mike_Chrest]

Here's some pictures of the templates. Made one out of Plexiglas so I could orient the inner shape to the outer shape.

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[JJ Wavra]

mike that looks like a great project.  For some reason the moe pita it is the more I like it.  That should be a nice project to attach your name to.

best of luck
JJ

 

[Mike_Chrest]

Thanks JJ,
 

For some reason the moe pita it is the more I like it

Your gonna love this project ;D

Mike

 

[Mike_Chrest]

Here's the router set up to smooth out the outer layer. Guide bushing rides on the template. Note dust sucker between Workmates. The Azek makes such a mess of static charged dust/snow flakes that it clogs the Festool dust collection system even with the larger hose.

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[Mike_Chrest]

Here's what the inner layers look like after smoothing with the router/template and profiling with a cove bit.

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[Mike_Chrest]

Here's all four layers before being glued together.

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[Mike_Chrest]

OK. Azek is not intended for structural applications. So we gotta add some structure. I could have used pressure treated lumber or mahogany for the cap rail but I went a little nuts with the Azek theme. I got some 3" x 2" x 1/8" wall aluminum extrusions and bolted them to the top of the assembly (don't have a picture, use your imagination ;D)

The aluminum  gets covered with a U shaped assembly.

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[Mike_Chrest]

After a little work on the tablesaw, Festool 850 planer, and router. We end up with this:

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[Mike_Chrest]

In some of these assemblies I used finish nails to tack the parts together after applying glue. This stops the parts from sliding around when clamped.
 

If you use these plastic nails,

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you won't have to worry about hitting a nail with your very expensive router bit or saw blade. ;D These shoot fine in my Hitachi 16 gauge finish gun. They won't work in my Dewalt.

 

[Mike_Chrest]

To be continued...  Feel free to ask questions,  make snide remarks , what ever...

 

[Brice Burrell]

Mike, outstanding work! I've done my share of work with Azek reproducing exterior moldings, corbels and the like but nothing quite as intricate as this. Looking forward to the rest of your thread.

 

[Bill Wyko]

WOW. Looks fantastic. That will give that place a new lease on life. Nice job.

 

[Eli]

I couldn't think of a really good zinger snide remark, so I'll just say those look really great! Hadn't seen the plastic nails before, good get!  ;D

 

[JJ Wavra]

I am really enjoying the pictures. excellent work!

Would you mind posting where you purchased the nails.

JJ

 

[robtonya]

Great job, I am amazed ay how it turned out. I probably would of given up, and used pressure treated.

 

[Tinker]

Great job.

FWIW, there has been mention of using pressure treated lumber.  I am no where near as experienced as those of you who have commented here, but I have used pressure treated for several outside weather exposed projects over the years. (porch decks and railings)

My experience has been that altho there had been no decay, there was no guarantee against splintering.  A porch railing or deck flooring could become quite hazardous to bare feet or a hand sliding along a rail after a few years.  even with chamfering exposed edges.  Maybe i was doing something wrong, but it is a consideration.  I like your idea for covering the top of the rails.
Tinker