The first job is to cut them up to an approximate size. As they're pretty heavy, it needs two people to do this, so here is Alan - dressed appropriately for November - giving me a hand.
As neither edge starts very straight, it's usually an iterative process: a bit off one side to give a straighter edge, then a bit off the other. This does make some waste, but perhaps the thin strips will do for the wedges needed under each step.
Some of the big planks had warped a little, so I had to plane each side to get a reasonably flat surface. As the stringers will be just under 25cm wide, they won't fit through the planer/thicknesser. And even if they did, they'd be a bit to heavy for it to do a good job. So it was planing by hand. I was surprised to find that the best plane for the initial cut was the old wooden "coffin" plane, but I am learning a lot.
After that I cut a jig for the router-work on the sides, and spent an unreasonable amount of time making sure I'd laid out the steps properly. The jig has a batten underneath to keep it at the same angle and the same position for each step, and one on top to prevent me cutting down too far - the rebates need to go right to the edge of the stringer, as the stairs will be slotted in from behind.
You can see a partially cut rebate in the picture.
After that was done, it didn't take very long to cut the stair rebates for the whole stringer:
The end nearest the camera was cut with a hand-held circular saw - only just big enough, which is why it shows burn marks rather than a clean cut. I haven't yet plucked up enough courage to cut the tenon on that end: a job for tomorrow.
The router produces a very clean cut:
During the day I also glued up another step (only another 24 to do) and cut a second thick plank for the matching stringer. The second stringer looks like a good piece of oak: quarter sawn so with very little warp in it, and once I started planing it the oak grain - with its characteristic medullary rays - showed very nicely.
No comments:
Post a Comment