sutton046

This a bit like the Star Wars movies saga. The first post I did on this Staircase Saga came midway through the story, and now we have gone back to the beginning with this, the second post! Getting started. First you need somewhere requiring a set of stairs. My customer has been doing a renovation on her lovely Art Deco double brick and tile home from the 1930s. This has involved extending out the back and going up - putting on a second storey. Hence the need for a staircase!  I have the plans, but plans are always theoretical. There is never the level of accuracy that you need for building a staircase in a defined and confined space. The architect has the basic idea on the plan, but my task is to convert the concept to reality, in conjunction with the customer's ideas and preferences. A photo of part of the architects' building plan. The concept.  These stairs would start in the hallway with treads 1 & 2 leading to a set of winders (Winding treads go around a corner, radi...

I really enjoy building staircases. Yes, the finished product will be functional, very beautiful, and a feature in the house. However, it's the journey I enjoy the most - the process of getting to the end product. The stairs I'm currently building in a renovated 1930's Art Deco house are very tricky, complex, and really testing my skills. I like that!! The "cornerstone" of the whole staircase is a trio of newel posts which take the stairs up and through an opening in the wall and provide the corner "hubs" for two sets of winders, connected by a pair of straight steps. Today I did the test fit for this complex trio. Tomorrow I get to glue and fit them in place. Up through the hole in the wall. Cramps used to do the test fit. There's no room for error...  The tulip motive in the balustrading is a copy from the original entry statement in the hallway from which the new stairs will ascend. Pictured below. In the 1930's, some big velvet curtains may h...

In line with my New Year's Resolution - for 2013 to be the year I become proficient in saw sharpening - I have been at it again. Filing and setting lots of saws, that is. Using a saw set takes some concentration! You've gotta be careful to set every second tooth. Putting set on the teeth means bending each alternate tooth outwards. When this is done from each side of the saw, each tooth points the opposite direction to it's neighbours. A Saw Set is a special tool like a form of pliers designed for applying set to the teeth, pictured above. Squeezing the handle pushes a pin which bends the tooth against an anvil. The angle of the bend is determined by the adjustable anvil. You dial in the tooth spacing (in Points Per Inch) on the anvil's dial and set every second tooth. You then turn the saw around and come down the other side to set the remaining alternate teeth. The reason for giving the teeth set is to increase the size of the kerf - the width of the wood material rem...

Today I was doing woodwork with around 110 kids at Roseworth Primary School, spread across 4 classes - mostly pre-primary and Year 3 kids. It was a great day. Nice plane! We were doing what I call "free creative play". I had 16 of my small two-vice benches there, each one with hammers, nails, pencils and pincers. I had 6 tenon saws (technically carcass saws) at the sawing station, freshly sharpened. There were two big bins of wood pieces for the kids to dig into, and they supplied the creative enthusiasm. After I did a spiel and demo about safe and effective tool use, it was over to them. One flying pelican... There was a steady stream of creations through the day, including aeroplanes, boats, bird houses, dolls furniture, birds and more. Another nice plane. For many of the kids, it was their first time handling tools. In these gigs, it's not unusual to find a few kids who spend almost their whole time at the sawing station. They didn't make anything, except a pile of...

Last night I was guest presenter at the North Metropolitan Triton Club. I called my presentation: "Five Good Reasons to Chuck Away Your Dovetail Router Jig", where I went briefly through the history of the joint and different types of the joint. I followed this with a demo on hand cutting a Through Dovetail Joint. Then it was time for them all to have a go. I had taken enough tools and timber for 20 people to be making their joints simultaneously. It was a lot of fun, with all the usual traps and pitfalls being experienced along the way, and lots of people being pleasantly surprised with what they achieved. For some it was the first time they'd ever cut a dovetail by hand ... for others it was the first time since they last did it at school half a century ago! A great night. The Club meets in a high school woodworking classroom. Busy cutting dovetails by hand. My demo worked well, despite the low light conditions! It's hard to see pencil lines on jarrah in low light. ...