Architectural Wood Turnings

The lighthouse newel for this project was similar to a newel that we made for a customer in North Carolina. This particular stairway went to a customer in South Florida. The architect wanted to match the balusters to the newel so we created a simple taper with matching beads top and bottom.

The wood paneling on the walls is salvaged heart pine as well as the stair treads. The stair handrail, however, is mahogany. We turned the balusters and newels from poplar.

The challenge for the installer was to “cope” the handrail fitting unto the radiused newel (not shown). Most handrails attach into a “flat” on the newel or over the top in the case of an over the post newel. This one, however, attached to the round part of the newel.

Other images of the balusters and newels can be seen here: Lighthouse newels and balusters

This is a new baluster design that I thought I would draw and render before I actually manufactured it. I got the idea from a stairway I saw in the Pacific Northwest. It is a simple taper with a small bead right at the tread. The size is somewhat deceiving from the rendering. The diameter of the bead at the base is actually 2 1/2″ inches. The pin at the top of the baluster is 1 ” in diameter. I wanted to try a two baluster per tread pattern but a three baluster per tread would look equally as good.

The drawing was made in Google Sketchup and rendered with Irender. I like the first rendering “style” supplied right out of the box by Sketchup.

Below is a close up of the baluster. Sometimes simple is the better than anything else you could do. BTW the newel is one drawn in a previously post. You can see more here: Pedestal Newels.

These beauties went into a home in the Carolinas. (You’ve got to love the balcony with the large radiused rail.) There were two staircases in this home.

The image below is the balcony seen from the first floor

This is the rear stairway in the home.  The difference in this staircase is that the balusters alternate between a plain tapered and barley twisted balusters.  The newel is what we call our “pottery” newel since it sort of replicates a newel one of my customers saw in a Pottery Barn catalog.

These are white oak barley twisted balusters for a customer in Idaho. I am grateful that they remembered to send me pictures of the final staircase. We made the newels to match the balusters as you can see. The balusters are 2 1/2″ wide at the base. The “pins” at the top are 1 3/8″. The architect strictly wanted two balusters per tread with pin tops. The pins, as such, had to be quite large to meet the four inch rule which is required in most communities.

We just finished these large stair newels for a customer in the Chicago area.   They are crafted from cherry and measure eight inches wide at the base.   I typically turn my over the post newels 44 inches high.  The top is 5 1/2″ inches in diameter with a 3/4″ pin to attach the newel cap (also shown).

The cap has the same profile  as a 6701 handrail from L J Smith Stair Manufacturing.  The installer is responsible to cut a “pie” shaped cut from the cap and attach the hand rail fitting.

Other stair newel images can be seen here in my Picassa account.

Lyptus is a very hard hardwood imported from South America that has gained some popularity in the US in the last few years.  Lyptus is a wood that is being grown on farms and harvested by some produces.  In hardness it is probably slightly harder than red oak but it seems to me to vary quite a bit in harness from one piece to another.   It is pinkish in color with a rather wild grain pattern in many pieces.   These stair newels went to an interesting stairway in Illinois.

I thought these newels were an interesting switch.  The newel cap that we added to these is normally reserved for an over-the-post newel where the hand rail miters into the cap.  But in this case the customers wanted the cap added to a post-to-post newel.  These are crafted in poplar to be painted.  The larger of the four newel ( eight inches wide at the base) will sit at the bottom of the stairway – the “starters”.  The smaller, five an one half inch newels will be installed at the balcony level.

These marching newels and balusters went to a home in Key West, FL. Because Key West is a coastal city, the architect wanted to use a maritime design for the stairway. We had designed a lighthouse newel once before for a customer in NC and turned this one in a similar pattern. The balusters were designed to pick up the same lines as the newel. The handrail and fittings are in mahogany. This should make for a very fine staircase.

By the way, the large newel measures 9 inches wide by four foot 10 inches.  The smaller newels are 4 3/4″ and 5 1/2″ wide.

These 4 inch wide rope moldings were made for a customer in CA.  The images are taken of the three footer and the  eight footer.  There was also a 6 footer and 4 footer.  The longer molding was made in poplar to be painted.  The shorter piece was from alder.  To make these the two halves were glued with news paper between.  After the pieces were turned and roped one simply has to use a hammer and chisel to split them with little trouble.  Presumably these will be used to apply to cabinet fronts.  Should look great.

These balusters are going to a historic preservation site – a nineteenth century court house near Dallas, TX.   I have not done much in yellow pine – sappy wood.  The “committee” wanted yellow pine because they believe it is what would have been used in this locale 150 years ago.  The pine was furnished by the good people at Bunkie Wood Products in Bunkie, LA.  It’s not easy to find three inch pine (the “committee” did not want laminated pine).  The balusters measure 2 1/2″ X 27″