Beautiful balustrade !!!!
You're a consummate master craftsman, Mark !!!!
I have not any pens for a for awhile, so this was a welcomed project to learn some tool control and 100's of caliper measurements.
WOW!! Mark way to go outstanding work. I can see it now This Old House renovation by Mark coming full steam ahed.
LOL, I do not see custom spindle turning in my immediate future.
Wow! Those look Original Mark! I can see a lot of love and patience went in to that project. That stairway is absolutely beautiful! Makes me wish I had an upstairs so I could hire you to make some for me. Lol
The stairway and other sections of the house moldings are beautiful. A few leaded glass windows, scrollwork on fireplaces, etc. Unfortunately the basic house is falling apart. All electrical and plumbing is out of code and in places dangerous, in many rooms the ceilings are beginning to fall out. We can't get them to move out. MIL has mid-stage dementia and is essentially bedridden, FIL was born here, both are 94. My wife and I are spending more and more days here to assist (10-12/month). This project was simply to do something they wanted done and could take pride in. In a few years the house will be gutted or simply torn down.
Mark, I can only imagine how pleased your In-Laws are, to have the missing baluster's replaced. And they probably even more pleased, with the job you did of turning the baluster's. You did a pretty good job turning them,and yes, there a a few uh-oh's in them. But, they are not very noticeable, and unless they are pointed out, they will hardly be noticed.
Len
I would say that I usually am very critical of my turnings, but the skills to do these more accurately would take a few more months of trial spindles. For the needs of this project, I was very happy with the results; sometimes "close" is "good enough." There is one spindle I grumble over, but all is well.
Very Nice - Projects like this make me wish I had a longer bed on my lathe. - Dave
Dave, These were of varied length, but were done in two sections each (hey, I guess I did some segmenting this month
. I did the first two with a join at the narrowest point. A GREAT suggestion from
Curly was to move the joint to a thicker section, just 3/4" away. This allowed me to have a thicker tenon/mortise joint that also was essentially non-visable. I'll add a picture at the end.
I'm not sure if I've ever seen a repair that matches that well. Great job!
That is from when men were men and real houses had spectacular woodwork!
The house has an interesting combination of high craftsmanship scroll work, moldings, windows and fireplaces; alongside pine moldings/trim of the lowest grade. After 120 years, the history of renovations and additions is lost. Very interesting. But for those special areas, I really admire the skills that are displayed.
