[TheForge] spirialstairs

[Rafter Lazy C]

There is a machine that really does handrails well.  This is an angle iron
roller.  You can put in the curve and twist at the same time.  If you don't
have one in your area, then you might do it the way I saw a guy on TV last
week. It was on the This Old House (I think) show and they were touring a
place that made only stairs, this was their main job.  They rolled the curve
first, then sent it to a worker that used 2 wrenches with long handles and
"tweaked" it at intervals until it fit the stairs. (He had the stairs on a
jig in his work area.) (Sideways)  This  was how he got the lift into the
railing, but he was using flat bar for the handrail.  I have done it before
with a pipe on the angle iron roller and had good results.  I was not the
one installing it, however, so I can't say it fit perfectly, but the
installer came back and said it fit "close enough" for him to get it tweaked
in with a torch.

Rick Crawford at Rafter Lazy C
Home of Rick's Forge and Lem the Wonder Mule
In the middle of Northern Illinois


> R.C.Mundt wrote:
>
> >The rail for a curved stairway has a twist in it as wellas a curve.
> >Do any of you have any good ideas for doing this twist?
> >I've done several of these, the curve is easy, make a pattern from the
stairs or lay out the curve on the shop floor and bend the iron to it.
> >The twisting is where I always have trouble.  I go to war w/ big wrenches
etc. and fight for hours to get it right.
> >Randy Mundt



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