Picture Blog:: From Drawing to Stair Stringer

The finished product! These are our last set of stair stringers.

I thought it would be fun to share the process from drawing to final beam. This week I finished the last and longest set of stringers. They were fun but tedious at times as I worked on 16 back-to-back mortises!

1. After planing the beams, the first step is to lay them out.

This is what I start with. Warren made a drawing for every piece in the house!

I layout both sides. Accuracy is key!

2. Next I cut the two ends using a Skil saw and a handsaw.

3. Here's the fun part where I drill out the mortises...

I drill halfway through from both sides with a 1.5" bit to prevent blowout. This means I have to drill ten holes per mortise.

These were the longest set of stringers with eight steps. That means I had to drill 160 holes total for all the mortises! 

4. After the mortises are roughed out, I clean up the long edges with my 2" Barr chisel (again from both sides so there's no blow-outs).

5. Next I square out the edges of the mortises. *Side note: Belly has exceeded size of bum!*

Here's how it looks after the mortises are all squared up. (Also featured is a cute little owlish knot).

After sixteen mortises in a row my forearm, elbow, and oddly my pointer finger are very sore!

6. After the holes are perfect, I router the housings where the steps will eventually sit. 

After setting the depth of the router, I get as close to the lines as I can manage.

7. More chisel work: now I square out the sides of the housing.

8. To make the tenon, I use our Skil saw to rough it in, break out the slats, then fine-tune with the chisel.

Before cleaning up with the chisel on the left, after on the right.

9. Getting close to the end! Time to drill the holes for the pegs. 

Warren made this custom drill press for our badass DeWalt drill to ensure the holes are straight.

One-inch holes for the end tenons.

3/4" holes for the railing mortise. I didn't document the making of that, but it happened.

10. After routering a decorative edge, the sanding commences.

11. Lastly we spray the finished beams with an insecticide/fungicide, seal the end-grains, and when that dries we oil them with a 50/50 mixture of raw linseed oil and pure gum spirits of turpentine. Voila!

 

Detail view of the drawing and finished piece.

 Looks about right! The end is always extremely satisfying.