mike mcnerney
Posts: 87
Joined: 2003-07-17
Location: ottawa ontario
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Aloha Kim,
My wife & Ijust got back from Maui, now back to business.
This is just the kind of project I love to spend too mutch time designing & constructing, so I will get some vicarious thrill by giving you my thoughts. Can you give us a more specific picture of the details. Is it a 5" rise or more so there would be a gap between each step.
How is the step set into that curved stringer? If the stringer is dadoed,
OK, fine. If you have to scibe that end cut & use dowels or something else, then it can get tricky. If you make steps or a box, either way you will need a strong helper or 2 in the installation.
There is a standard particle board tread on the market 1 1/8 thick with with .125 veener on both sides maybe thicker. So I believe you could do a thick veneer on ply. But it's a lot of resawing. Sapelle here is 6 bucks a bf. If the design can be adjusted I can imagine ways to attatch a solid board to a piece of ply with screws in a slotted pilot hole & no glue. Then build up your box.
You should build a simple box out of .75 ply glue & screw it. Maybe 1" ply for the verticals. then set it up on some blocks & get at least 1 300lb dude to check it out.
I always wonder about glues effectiveness on edge grain ply. so I would use a gap filling pva or possibly sub floor adhesive although tricky to spread evenly.
If you go with a solid ply, that comes in around 1.75 sheets of ply each so at 100lbs + each they are going to be challenging to attatch to the stringer 1 at a time.
I think it would be easier to make a box out of solide stock 4 pcs. More bucks for the wood but less time overall.
If this crossection is a simple rectangle at 5 x 12 with no nosing or such
there is another issue. When you are walking up stairs there is a reason for those nosings. It gives your toes an inch ore so when your toe potentially goes to the end of the riser. If the designer doesn't want a nosing you could consider angling the riser to where the tread stays at 12" but at the bottom it is 11".
On the business side of a project like this. This is a fairly challenging project to do, especially if it is to have a furniture grade finish. I hope your customer is not going to nickel & dime you.
solid wood tread material around 2000
Daryl certainly makes the stringer look easy but a 5" thick one, I'd say 2 weeks. My wild guess is 15 to $20,000 you may need a helper for the entire time.
If this was going in a commercial location & it was farmed out to a larger millhouse, I'd bet $40,000
Be careful
On a side note I have been to Kauaii twice & spent most of the time on the north shore & love it. Somewhere near you, I saw a wood sculpters shop.
cheers
Mike McNerney
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