WORKSHOP "HOW TO MAKE A SPIRAL STAIRCASE" (without cursing too much)
INTRO
Hi all! My name is Marcel, AYK's husband. Since she asked me to build her a new staircase for the snack bar, I thought, hey, let's make a workshop out of that. Now it's your turn to get annoyed........
Some general info:
- All measurements are in millimeters (mm). I'm Dutch, remember? We don't use inches.
- Scale 1:12.
- Read the whole manual before starting! Because it might LOOK easy, it's most definitely not!
- Use the menu below to navigate through the chapters.
MENU
PHASE 1: Preparations
Okay, we are going to make a right-turning spiral staircase with boarding. Not round, but rectangular. To help you out along the way I added some photos here and there. Every pic opens in a new window. Just close or minimize that window to return here.
And now: what do we need for our showpiece? Let's start with a shopping list.
piece of wood as used in model building; thickness 2mm
piece of board 8x10mm (or whatever suits you best)
piece of MDF, thickness 8mm (size depending on the size of your stairwell; see further down below)
sturdy hobby knife
millimeter paper (plus calculator, if necessary)
mathematical triangle
metal ruler
pencil and/or ballpoint
superglue
good hobby glue
sandpaper (100 and 180 or anything in that size)
electric drilling machine with 2mm HSS drill for metal
drilling machine holder
common sense
Click the picture to see what I gathered to make the thing.
Well, we got out stuff together. So on to phase 2: creating a mold.
PHASE 2: The mold(s)
Hey, hold your horses there! First some explanation about the calculations, starting with our stairwell. Our stairs are going to be 79 x 148mm, so your stairwell has to be a little bigger than that. For example, 80x150mm. If you want your stairs to be placed in the back of your house, then do so before mounting the back cover. Do you want to place it soewhere in the middle, than make sure your stairwell is a little longer and wider. Your staircase can only be put in place by twisting it into the stairwell and there's a big chance that your stairs get stuck. Believe me, you don't want that... The remaining gaps can easely be filled with whatever you want to fill it with. Okay, on with the lesson....
Of course you need to know how much steps your stairs need in order to reach the next floor. Normally the distance between steps varies between 20 and 23 cm, depending on the distance between the two floors. Example: the distance between the two floors is 306 cm. Divide that through 20 and you would need 15.3 steps. Impossible, so we round that down to 15. IMPORTANT: THIS INCLUDES YOU LAST STEP! And you're not gone make that one, because that's where you enter the next floor. So that's one for free.
All right, we now know that we have to make 14 steps which normally would be 20.4 cm apart(306 : 15 = 20.4). Now divide 20.4 through 12 (scale!) and there's our distance between the steps: 17mm.
Now back to the mold: copy your stairwell to the millimeter-paper. Use a sharp pencil or a ballpoint. Since the stairs will get a boarding of 2mm, you have to include that in your drawing. The mold in the picture below is 77 x 144mm. With boarding, the end-result should become 79 x 148mm. I made my stairwell a litter larger, 80 x 160mm, so it shouldn't be any problem placing the stairs in place. Again, the remaining gaps can be filled easely.
So, you drew your rectangle. Now the partition of the steps. We need 14 steps which together make a turn of 180°. So every step turns 180 : 14 = 12.85°. Yeah right, just 13°, thank-you-very-much. Now calculate where the middle of your stairwell is and use you triangle to draw lines from that point at every 13°. So 13, 26, 39, 52 etc., etc. Finally you have drawn 13 lines. Number them 1 to 14.
Now cut out your drawing. Than cut out a space for your capstan (8x10mm). Take the MDF and cut out a piece matching the size of your drawing, including the space. Glue those together and voilá!!! your very own spiral-staircase-mold!
And then of course the second mold. Don't worry: that's a piece of cake. This mold is for your steps. A normal step will overlap the lower step between 5 and 8 cm at its widest point. In our (stair) case we'll use 5mm for the overlap. Your just-finshed mold will show you they exact distance between step 1 and 2. Add 5mm to that and you know exactly how wide your step should be at that point. Transfer your measurements to the piece of 2mm wood and the result should be in a step which is 3mm at its smallest point, 100mm at the bottom and 30 mm at the side. Your mold should be long enough to make all steps, including the longest ones. In our case those are steps 4 and 11. OK, now cut out that damned step-mold and check below if it matches a little.
All right, now we're done with the preparations and the calculating. Time to really start building those stairs!
PHASE 3: The capstan
Since we have to make 14 steps (and therefore have to make 14 holes in the capstan), it might be handy to know that the last hole is a reflection of the first hole. That also goes for steps 2 and 13, 3 and 12, 4 and 11, etc.etc. So if you're done with the first 7 holes than the remaining 7 should be easy.
The length of your capstan depends on both the height of the ceiling and the situation on the next floor. My capstan must connect with the roof on top of the house, so my capstan is going to be 38cm. Gives me more grip as well. If your capstan should be shorter, than cut it to the right length AFTER mounting the steps.
Now get your ruler and place your drill marks. As we calculated before, you'll have to place a mark every 17mm. Keep the turn of the steps in mind. Look at your stair-mold for reference.
Finished marking? Than let's turn to the electric drill. Your dril should stick out no more than 1cm. That way you can use your drill as a grinder as well without having to fear that it'll break off. This gives you the possibility to make small corrections or adjustments.
Place your driller in its holder and make sure it won't drill deeper than 5mm. Now you'll have to drill two holes on every marked point. They should be 1mm apart. Than use your drill as a grinder to remove the wood between the holes. Now you should have nice slot, 5mm long. Drill and grind your way along the entire capstan. The result is supposed to look a little like this (backside):
Like the mice ate from it........On with the steps!
PHASE 4: The steps
First make all your steps. Use your step-mold to create them. Don't forget that steps 1 to 7 are exact copies of steps 8 to 14. So make 2 steps at the time. This will spare you wood and that's expensive enough.
Every step should be at least 1cm longer than its final size. Gives you room for little mistakes and its easier to mark what has to be cut off later.
Now we're going to make the steps fit into the capstan. Put the first step in its slot and check whether it's positioned right. Shorten in it on the small side if necessary. If you drilled well, your steps should get stuck when plugged in. Handy when it comes to marking and checking. So now you need your mold. See below.
The first step is easy. To check whether your step is placed right you can use the lines on your mat. Place your capstan along one of those lines and check if your step makes a 90° angle compared to your capstan. Then check again with the naked eye.
Do so with all steps. You'll soon find out that not all steps will be in the exact right spot in your capstan. Doesn't matter because it's not noticeble. The mold is there to show where the beginning of each step should be at its WIDEST point.
Don't forget to copy each step immediately. So step 14 will become a copy of step 1, 12 will become a copy of 2, etc.etc. You should know that by now.....
Finally you should end up with a pile of steps like this:
Well, time to finish our steps. Start with the first one. Push it into its slot, put the mold behind it and mark the piece that sticks out. Remove your step and cut off the piece you just marked. Now place the step back again to check.
Sand and finish your step as best as you can. Also remove glue-stains immediately, because when your stairs are finished you won't be able to do so properly.
The first step should be glued using superglue. It's the easiest step to do and while you get along it will become the major support for your stairs (trust me here!). So it should be really stuck!
Continue like this with the next three steps. Those you place using standard hobby-glue. That gives you a few minutes to correct the position of the step. Important: the lines on the mold show the FRONT of every step. Your step and its corresponding line should cross at the side of the mold.
Well, 3 steps later we get this picture:
Now it's already starting to look like something, isn't it? Use your ruler (or a light piece of straight wood) if your steps still line up. They have to hold the boarding later on! A little push, a little pull there and all will fall in good place. So on with your 5th step. After your 11th step you should have produced something like this:
Okay, you're on the right track. Ram down those last three as well now!
If you used hobby-glue then now is the time to put your work aside. The glue needs to dry thoroughly because your stairs is having a hard time to come yet, so your connections should be firm. Let it all dry overnight. Good night!
PHASE 5: The boarding
This requires a strip of woodm of about 30mm wide. Normally 25mm should do, but if just one of your steps sticks out a little to much than you're gone see that. You can always take of more later on. It's much harder to add some...
Start with the back board. No cutting yet, just glue an overlapping strip to the steps like below. Again, dry thoroughly!
And then there were only the sideboards. Take a piece of your remaining 30mm-strip and cut of an angle of 45°. If your stairs were made following the instructions so far, then that should be the right angle. If not, start sanding...
From here on it's hard to help you further Basically you put the sideboard against the backboard and cut of everything that sticks out. All under the 45° angle! The result should look something like below:
Use your senses for this part, especially when working on the board on which your stairs will "lean". Sanding-paper is patient..... Sand everything round and smooth. And look at your result!!
And than of course in its "natural" surrounding:
Well girls and boys, that wraps it up. I certainly hope that your stairs are going to look just as good as mine(yes, I'm proud). By the way, this was only my third. You can see the first two in the Restaurant.
The molds are my own idea, so if someone comes up with something better: please let me know! And in case you might have created your own staircase using the little story above, than I want to know that as well, preferably with a picture of the thing. Last but not least: all comments are welcome; in both positive as negative way. Mail me here: marcel@ayksminis.com
Grtz from Marcel
1st version; november 2007