Frank Pellow
Member
- Joined
- Jan 16, 2007
- Messages
- 2,743
A couple of years ago my Festool Multi-Function Table got a good industrial strength test when I used it in the construction of new basement stairs at my daughter Kathleen?s house.
Before getting to that part of the project, here are a couple of shots of temporary modifications that I made to the old stairs:
[attachthumb=#1] [attachthumb=#17]
I did this in order to provide access for a contractor who was placing a waterproof membrane around the entire interior of the basement.
Here is my grandson Ethan fooling around after the membrane was in place:
[attachthumb=#2]
I fabricated the replacement stairs in my shop. The wood used to make the stairs was construction grade 2 x 10 spruce. I did get to ?cheery pick? some good boards.
01) The first task was to reconfigure my Festool multi-function table (MFT), so that the fence was at a 45 degree angle to the guide rail:
[attachthumb=#3]
Notice that one end of the fence had to be held in position with a hold-down clamp. My Nobex square with stops at 45 and 135 degrees in addition to the ?regular? 90 degrees came in very handy here (and also in many of the following steps).
02) A 45 degree cut was made at one end of the stringer:
[attachthumb=#4]
03) Grooves for the steps were cut with a router. The grooves were too wide for any of my router bits, so two passes were needed for each groove. For each groove, first the bottom (rightmost on the MFT) position was marked then, with this as a reference, lines were marked to the left to be used in order to position the guide rail for the two cuts.
[attachthumb=#5]
04) The guide rail was positioned on the line drawn for the rightmost cut:
[attachthumb = #6]
05) And the cut is made with the router:
[attachthumb=#7]
06) The bottom of the next groove is measured. In order that any errors in one groove did not propagate themselves to the next groove all these measurements used the bottom of the stringer as a base-point:
[attachthumb=#8]
07) With one stringer completed, the MFT had to be reconfigured in order to work on the other stringer (which was a mirror image of the first):
[attachthumb=#9]
08) Having cut all the steps (again from 2 x spruce) and the risers (from construction grade 1 x 8 pine), I then did a dry assembly in my shop.
[attachthumb=#10]
Everything fit well!
09) In Kathleen?s basement, nothing is even or level, not the original walls, nor the floor, nor the ceiling, nor the brick pillar you can see in the picture below, nor edge that I needed to connect the stairs to. I needed to pull/push/persuade everything into place with clamps/spreaders/hammers/bars and to use shims. For example there is a, 3 milimetre shim below the right hand stringer where it meets the cement floor.
[attachthumb=#11] [attachthumb=#12]
Somehow ???, I managed to get all the steps level.
(10) It was necessary to cut angles on the sides of the risers before screwing them into place. But quarter round at the sides hides this flaw. In order to provide more rigidity, notches were cut into the stringers for the balusters.
[attachthumb=#13]
(11) Here a baluster is being driven into position with a hammer block. There is a dowel projecting from the bottom of each baluster which goes into a hole drilled in each of the slots. Also a long screw was dilled from the stringer through the base of the baluster then into the stringer on the other side.
[attachthumb=#14]
(12) Here I am along with Isla and Kathleen sitting on the completed (but still unpainted) stairs:
[attachthumb=#15] [attachthumb=#16]
I later went on to build a "secret" hideaway under the stairs for the kids -but that's another story.
I have happy "customers" in Kathleen and her family and Festool has a happy customer in me.
Before getting to that part of the project, here are a couple of shots of temporary modifications that I made to the old stairs:
[attachthumb=#1] [attachthumb=#17]
I did this in order to provide access for a contractor who was placing a waterproof membrane around the entire interior of the basement.
Here is my grandson Ethan fooling around after the membrane was in place:
[attachthumb=#2]
I fabricated the replacement stairs in my shop. The wood used to make the stairs was construction grade 2 x 10 spruce. I did get to ?cheery pick? some good boards.
01) The first task was to reconfigure my Festool multi-function table (MFT), so that the fence was at a 45 degree angle to the guide rail:
[attachthumb=#3]
Notice that one end of the fence had to be held in position with a hold-down clamp. My Nobex square with stops at 45 and 135 degrees in addition to the ?regular? 90 degrees came in very handy here (and also in many of the following steps).
02) A 45 degree cut was made at one end of the stringer:
[attachthumb=#4]
03) Grooves for the steps were cut with a router. The grooves were too wide for any of my router bits, so two passes were needed for each groove. For each groove, first the bottom (rightmost on the MFT) position was marked then, with this as a reference, lines were marked to the left to be used in order to position the guide rail for the two cuts.
[attachthumb=#5]
04) The guide rail was positioned on the line drawn for the rightmost cut:
[attachthumb = #6]
05) And the cut is made with the router:
[attachthumb=#7]
06) The bottom of the next groove is measured. In order that any errors in one groove did not propagate themselves to the next groove all these measurements used the bottom of the stringer as a base-point:
[attachthumb=#8]
07) With one stringer completed, the MFT had to be reconfigured in order to work on the other stringer (which was a mirror image of the first):
[attachthumb=#9]
08) Having cut all the steps (again from 2 x spruce) and the risers (from construction grade 1 x 8 pine), I then did a dry assembly in my shop.
[attachthumb=#10]
Everything fit well!
09) In Kathleen?s basement, nothing is even or level, not the original walls, nor the floor, nor the ceiling, nor the brick pillar you can see in the picture below, nor edge that I needed to connect the stairs to. I needed to pull/push/persuade everything into place with clamps/spreaders/hammers/bars and to use shims. For example there is a, 3 milimetre shim below the right hand stringer where it meets the cement floor.
[attachthumb=#11] [attachthumb=#12]
Somehow ???, I managed to get all the steps level.
(10) It was necessary to cut angles on the sides of the risers before screwing them into place. But quarter round at the sides hides this flaw. In order to provide more rigidity, notches were cut into the stringers for the balusters.
[attachthumb=#13]
(11) Here a baluster is being driven into position with a hammer block. There is a dowel projecting from the bottom of each baluster which goes into a hole drilled in each of the slots. Also a long screw was dilled from the stringer through the base of the baluster then into the stringer on the other side.
[attachthumb=#14]
(12) Here I am along with Isla and Kathleen sitting on the completed (but still unpainted) stairs:
[attachthumb=#15] [attachthumb=#16]
I later went on to build a "secret" hideaway under the stairs for the kids -but that's another story.
I have happy
"customers" in Kathleen and her family and Festool has a happy customer in me.
I might send it to Festool service to be looked at and brought up to spec like yours.
;D
I forgot that I was using the secret prototype jig saw and that I am not supposed to let people know about it until Festool is ready to release it. :-X
