Railing ideas

[tlmartin]

I was watching a show the other day and saw that the show used old wooden baseball bats as the vertical part of railings. I think that is a cool idea but not quite my style. Does anyone have any unique ideas for railings?? Thanks

[MaineRhino]

I like these....

[tlmartin]

I like these....

I love the little dog peaking through the railing..

[MountainDon]

One thing to remember is stair code calls for the verticals to be close enough together to prevent the passage of a 4" ball. Even if the build is free of inspections, there are good reasons, mostly to do with small children getting stuck/dead in anything with a larger space. Also horizontal rails are simply ladders and so are not a good idea or code.

As far as unique style; imagination is the limit.

[AdironDoc]

Didn't want to hijack, but I've been pondering styles as well. From what I've been told by builders, the "bark-on" gets a bit messy as time goes by. The twig styles are popular now and the nice thing is they're not overly hard to do if you have the trees to select, a tenon cutter, and lots of patience.

On my porch, which is around 2ft off the ground, I'm not as concerned with the 4" rule or a CO for that matter, but do want a strong top and bottom rail. What's in between shouldn't block the view of the creek as you sit back in an easy chair. I'm thinking clean, simple design, with some diagonal elements to bring in the "adirondack" flair of the area. I considered the twig style but wanted more design symmetry. I'm leaning towards the first of the following choices. I've cut some small pine of suitable diameter. I am wondering how to get the tenons in between the posts. Dad said cut a deeper tenon on one side, push it in, then slide it out a bit to catch the other side. Makes sense to me. Any thoughts?

[Sassy]

I really like the 2nd to last, Adirondoc...  they all look nice, though 

[Don_P]

The interpretation here is, whether code required or not, if you build it, it must comply. So that's the toughest interp. In English that translates to, even if a rail is not required if I choose to install one it must be to code. Not saying I agree.

When I've done natural/tennoned rails I've done them as Adirondoc's Dad suggested. The picket strength requirement is tested by taking a 1' square of plywood and placing it in the center of the picket/fill area and pulling a spring scale attached to the center of the plywood square to 50 lbs. This tests the pickets or fill as well as their attachments.

I believe the prohibition on "ladder type rails" was dropped. From my understanding a series of differently constructed 36" tall rails was set up in a room full of kids, none restrained the kids. Ladder type or not the kids could get over any of them.

[Redoverfarm]

As Mt Don stated imagination is your only limit.  For a more conventional railing you could use 1/2-3/4" pipe for pickets.  You could also use rebar.  You could use livestock pre-welded panels.  I have seen both demonstrated in this forum.  As for mine I will be using the standard rustic rail with traditional pickets.  I think I have about 90 ' to build as soon as I can find a reasonably priced tenon cutter.

[AdironDoc]

I think I have about 90 ' to build as soon as I can find a reasonably priced tenon cutter.

I bought three sizes of cheap tenon cutting bits last year. I've found that with a hand held drill, they're prone to cutting unevenly as they wobble a great deal with the rotation of the bit. 3 of 4 sections cut will have a tenon cut on a slight angle or of uneven diameter, even when held steady by several extra hands. The uneven density and angles on the wood end make this likely if not inevitable. That makes precision work difficult if not impossible, especially when the bit lacks the ability to use a centering hole and associated guide pin. They do make a drill brace and wood brace to mitigate this. The drill is centered and mounts to a sled that slides into another brace holding the butt end of your log. Pricey.  Conclusion? Pencil sharpener style tenon bits are fun to play with but seem very unreliable for freehand precision projects. 90ft of railing means something like 270 spindles, 560 tenons. You'll waste a great amount of stock.

If I were to do it again, especially for railing spindles, I'd consider a tenon jig kit for a router. The router mounts to a box, a perpendicular pin in the box holds the project perfectly steady. Supposedly, it allows for far more precision, albeit a bit slower. Still inexpensive too. Anyone have any experience with this system? There's also a modified version of the drill bit tenon cutter that seems new to the market. It features a guiding pin in the center of an adjustable caliper bit.

http://rusticwoodworking.com/

[Ernest T. Bass]

We have the router jig you mentioned. Much more economical than the pencil sharpeners if you already have a powerful router (and maybe even you had to buy one), as the jig will make tenons from 1/2'' diameter all the way up to 3''. A collection of pencil sharpeners that could do all those sizes would put you back a grand easy.

It is a bit slower depending on the wood, and your arm gets tired after turning the log for a while..

[Redoverfarm]

Ernest could you give me any info on where you got it at and the approx price? Thanks

[Ernest T. Bass]

I'm not sure where my dad got it.. I think we have the "Logman II". http://www.logmen.net/ Looks like they have a fancier rig for sale now, and the link to their Logman II is broken. I found one on amazon but it still doesn't look exactly like ours, and didn't make as many different tenon sizes. Seems like they've been tweaking the design a lot.

[Redoverfarm]

Thanks Andrew.  Now we return you to your regular thread.

[AdironDoc]

I've seen the videos of the Logmen and LogmenX unit and may end up buying one. I've also seen another inexpensive tenon cutters such as that at http://rusticwoodworking.com/ which takes a usual pencil sharpener concept and improves on it. Adjustable diameter and a centering pin seem to do away with the troubles I've had with the earlier pencil cutters. Demo is at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVzltrv8clU

Wonder which is the better choice. I couldn't find any reviews or shootouts in woodworking or tool magazines.

[Ernest T. Bass]

Never saw that ez-tenon cutter before... Looks pretty nifty! Much faster than the logman in the video, but than again, that's usually the way commercials are.. I want to try one someday.. The blades look like they'd be easier to sharpen then the pencil-sharpener types too.

[TheWire]

I came up with a method to cut round tendons on logs with a hole saw and a table saw.  Get a hole saw with its ID the size of what you want the OD of the tendon to be.  Drill into the end of the log with the hole saw until it bottoms out.

Then take a 1' 2x4 on edge and put a horizontal bolt in it that fits into the guide hole left by the hole saw.  Put the bolt high enough so it keeps your biggest diameter log off the  surface he 2x4 is resting on.

Place the 2x4 against the fence of a table saw and slide log over the bolt.  Put the saw blade at about a 45 deg angle with the top of the blade closest to the fence.  Adjust the fence and the height of the blade to intersect the deepest part of the cut by the hole saw.

Start the saw, slide the log over the blade, rotate slightly on the bolt and repeat until the outer piece separates.  This leaves a round tendon  and with the multiple saw cuts, leaves a taper that looks hand hewn.

This can also be done on a radial arm saw with the 2x4 & bolt clamped to the radial arm saw table.  I think this is faster and maybe a bit safer but radial arm saws are less popular.

With practice and a sharp hole saw in a beefy drill, it can take less than 2 minutes per tendon

[tlmartin]

Anyway, I think I may use copper plumbing tubing for the railings and some fancy copper garden trim pieces I found.. will post pics when I get started

[davidj]

Here's a picture of our black pipe railings:

There's more info in our thread.  

It ended up being pretty expensive but copper should be a lot cheaper as it's the fittings that soak up the $.

[tlmartin]

Here's a picture of our black pipe railings:

There's more info in our thread. 

It ended up being pretty expensive but copper should be a lot cheaper as it's the fittings that sock up the $.

Thanks for the pics and link to your post, it all looks great and you have inspired me !

[Don_P]

I'd be willing to bet if you price the fittings it'd be cheaper to buy the steel and a wire welder and have some fun