Gulf Island Building.

cocobolo

I'm sure it will be obvious to everyone, but those 2 x 3's will be trimmed as well.

tpolk

do you have to rip or chamfer the edges of the boards at the intersection of the two radii

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The older I get the better I was

cocobolo

No. The radius - at 6 feet - is large enough that the intersecting angle is very small.

Actually, the ends of each intersecting board are starting to turn back towards each other. I know it looks like a pretty sharp angle in the photo, but really it's not.

The boards are all dado'd on both edges anyway. So that in itself takes care of the angle.

Here, I just cut a few pieces to show you how easy it is to get around a corner. The angles here are sharper than the real thing.

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tpolk

it looks like your boards are hitting the intersection perfectly each time without having to rip the last one. is it laid out like that?

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The older I get the better I was

cocobolo

Pure luck so far. But even if some of them are off, the angle is so light I don't think it will be a problem.

cocobolo

In between rain showers today I used up the rest of the screen boards I have made. At the end of the last section, the board hit the intersection right on the money.

It really is a coincidence.

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cocobolo

The steps to the hot tub deck are very short. They only need to rise 34" from the lower deck.

However, the two stringers will need to be different lengths in order for both of them to land on the deck satisfactorily.

After taking a couple of measurements last night - in the dark - I figured the short side would have four treads at a 10" run and the other side would be a 15" run. That would make the middle of the treads around 12 1/2", which will be a very gentle step.

Look at it like this. If you had a really big circular staircase, something like 18' across, and you put two straight stringers over four steps, well - that's what these steps will be like.

So, after I laid out the stringers and cut them to size, I discovered that the longer one didn't need to be so long. I changed the run to 14" per tread, and re-drew the lines. That's why you will see two sets of lines on the long stringer.

The moral of the story is don't be a dummy like me. Take your measurements in daylight!

With the stringers laid out, it was time to cut them out. Here's the simple jig I used.

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cocobolo

That jig is nothing more than a piece of plywood cut out so that when the router is used inside, it will cut a groove just slightly over 1 1/2".

What you do is to measure the width of the base plate. This one is 4 5/16". I could have put the ruler the right way up for you, but what the heck...

I needed a groove just over 1 1/2" wide, and the bit is 1/2". That means that I needed the plywood cutout to be just over an inch wider than the router base.

Remember that the bit will be cutting a 1/2" swath, and you want to increase this by a little more than 1". Therefore the 1"+ wider theory.

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cocobolo

Most router bases are round. I think all my other ones are, except for an accessory base which uses guides. That's a square one.

So, if your base is round, all you need to know is how big it is.

The first thing you need to do when your jig is made is to do a test cut on a scrap board. I used the offcut from the long stringer.

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cocobolo

Measure the actual size of the finished cut to make sure it is just what you need. This one came out at a trace under 1 9/16". Perfect for these stairs.

Incidentally, you probably all know this, but when you make the bottom cut on your stringers, you get a nice clean cut if you cut it away from the stringer...like this.

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cocobolo

When you are using the jig, the router makes an awful mess. If you are not careful debris will pile up inside the jig and you may get an incomplete cut...like this.

See that little lip at the bottom? That's caused by debris inside the jig. It happens while you are doing the cut, so you need to either blow it out just before you get to the end of the cut, or clean it out afterwards and re-do the end. No big deal, but you do want your stringers to be perfect.

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cocobolo

...much better when it's cleaned out like this...

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cocobolo

And here is a finished cut with the guide in place.

I used 3 clamps to attach the jig for each cut. Also used the step as with the curves for the screen boards.

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cocobolo

The finished stringer looks like this...

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cocobolo

And this is the short one...

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