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Posted by Don Young on June 13, 2006, 11:12 pm
> On Tue, 13 Jun 2006 17:20:26 -0700, "Eigenvector"
>
>>I need to make a railing for my front porch, but the length of the porch
>>is
>>about 186 inches long (~16 feet). So far as I know that's longer than a
>>single 2x4, which is what the railing is now. The current solution is to
>>have 2 2x4's come together nailed to a vertical stringer but that looks
>>crappy and the railing is wobbly and uneven.
>>
>>So how do I make a nice stable top railing out of 2 pieces of lumber
>>coming
>>together and still keep the same stringer dimensions? The only thing I
>>could think of would be 2 stringers joined together to provide a solid
>>mounting surface for both rails but then it would look uneven as I would
>>have like 15 normal stringers and 1 double stringer.
>>
>
> Many hand rails are made from laminated pieces which provides both
> interesting curves and incredible strength. You could do something
> similar by ripping 1/4" strips of 2x4s, glue them using outdoor wood
> glue, and clamp them with as many clamps as you can get your hands on.
> Trim off the edges, sand and sand and sand, then finish. A staggered
> butt joint here and there won't make much noticeable difference. As
> you glue up the strips make sure they are positioned against a
> straightedge (I might use a snapped chalk line).
You could also use 2 (or even 3) layers of 1x4's and stagger the joints. It
might even look better than a single 2x4.
Don Young
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