JEM Carpentry

Finish Carpentry & Custom Woodworks

Custom Handrail

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Custom curved handrail in Hemlock. By JEM Carpentry Home Builder – Serenity Homes of Northern Co

We built this custom handrail in a new construction home in Wellington, CO. This staircase presented some new learning opportunities for us. The highlights were bending a section of rail, and figuring out the correct way to build the radius floor cap. We are excited to build the next custom handrail!

To achieve the curve, or bend in the rail, we start with thin profiled strips of material. This rail was made from hemlock. We spread the glue on each strip with a paint roller, being quick and making sure to cover everywhere. Once you start spreading glue you have about 30 minutes (depending on what type of glue used) to get it clamped up.
The gooseneck fitting has to be cut to size and assembled prior to fitting the handrail to the newel posts. We used the Festool Domino machine to connect the parts.
To build the radius cap we used 3 sections of 1×12 hemlock, overlapping them to determine the tangent cuts and then used a scribe jig to transfer the curve of the floor to the bottom of the 1×12 boards. We built a simple scribe jig to transfer the curve to the top and back side of the 1×12 boards. Then we cut out the individual pieces with a jig saw and smoothed them with the belt sander before pocket screwing them together. Once assembled we sanded the entire curve by eye with a belt sander.
To achieve a strong glue bond to the cap I drilled shallow holes with a flat bottom bit for the glue to squeeze into when tightening the rail bolt.
To determine the placement and cut for the handrail we use a string line to simulate the rail.
This handrail has it all! Curves, rakes and drops!