Stairs as ART, a project I wish I'd been in on. *LINK*

Re: Stairs as ART, a project I wish I'd been in on

John McGaw

There a lots of impressive stairs out there. One of my favorites is at the old Shaker community at Pleasant Hill, KY. Not so much because of its perfection, although it is pretty close, but because it was made entirely by hand from local materials on the wild frontier.

Photo courtesy of TripAdvisor

Yes John, I really like that one.  *LINK*

Keith Newton

My sister has a poster of it on the wall of her dining room, taken by her best childhood friend's son. The clean simplicity without embellishment really works for me.

Here is one I designed and built back in the mid nineties. It was a lot more difficult than might appear in that the curve as you look down on it from above is an ellipse rather than a smooth arc of a circle, so the pitch was constantly changing in inverse ways between the inside and outside stringers and handrail. For some reason I have the propensity to make things that look simple really hard. It's my secret formula for loosing money. ha. Most non woodworkers wouldn't appreciate how difficult just doing some of the details like winding the elliptical rail around the tapered elliptical newel post like a vine would grow around a tree, while it ties into rest.


https://www.flickr.com/photos/7391658@N03/albums/72157640482388695

Masterful!

Ellis Walentine

Nice project, Keith. Did you build a full height stud wall to laminate the stringers on? I've done that for circular spiral stairs, but never for an elliptical one.

Thanks for posting. I can only imagine how involved this project was.

Ellis

Thanks Ellis, Yes, I took a few ceiling joist out

Keith Newton

I started by going out to the job site while it was being framed, and put down a few sheets of plywood on the floor that I drew a full-size pattern on right in the space where it would go. The house plan that they started with didn't have anything like this, so I had to modify some things like adding a pier under the landing zone, and extra gear to tie into on the upper landing. The long arcing curve of the balcony rail was my idea too. Then I brought the plywood pattern to the shop, cut plates and studs to bend around.

I had done the math and drawn the steps on the pattern at the job site, so I knew where where nose of each step ended, so I could measure up from the floor mark the height. I then could bend my pattern stock around and mark it, to establish the doglegs curving that my laminates needed to hit the marks.

The rise run ratio 18" in from the outside rail is something typical like 7.5" rise x 11" run, so it's easy to walk. But through the tightest part of the turn, the inside stringer would only have about 3" run, while the outside might be around 18". The stringers and railing laminate edges looked something like this ~ before they were glued together.

As luck would have it, I had taught a vacuum bagging course at the Arkansas Art Center. After it was over, some of the students talked me into teaching another more advanced class here at my shop. While that class project was going on, this project came through. Then because I'm such a nice guy, I gave the students the added bonus of letting them help me with parts of this at no extra charge, ha. It was great to have their help since by then, we were a pretty good team and had a lot of fun.

Re: Yes John, I really like that one.

Bruce, a MN Galoot

That is some superb work, Keith. I can’t even imagine undertaking a job like that.

One of my faves... *LINK*

Jason Roehl in Lafayette, IN

Not so much because of the artistic element, though an argument could be made that it is indeed artistic, but largely due to the engineering solutions involved.

Jason


http://www.finehomebuilding.com/2001/07/01/a-stair-in-the-air