Comment by nappy-doo
2 years ago
Aside: Building stairs that way is a really bad idea. Don't use angle brackets – you cut stringers. And besides the first and last step, stringers are pretty straightforward to layout with a carpenter's square with some stair guides (two little posts that screw to the square). And, generally you just layout 8" rise, 12" deep stairs, so you really don't lay out anything at all.
But, really, don't build stairs like OP suggested.
I also don't like that fixtures at top and bottom are SPOF. Why not add pillars to the top and ~3rd from bottom steps, then tie with another beam, like an H overlapping a ladder?
That way, there will be far less chances that bolts spontaneously rip off and stairs go down, nor the lengths of pillars to have to be critical dimensions. The pillars can optionally be cut to precise lengths to be screwed through both steps and slopes for maximum Apple-ness, or, can be lazily cut to long-enough lengths, nailed through to steps from the "outside", and used as base for handrails as if it had been the plan.
(dc: not an engineering advise. consult a real engineer for safety. Also add cross beams in width-height plane, they help tremendously)
Yeah, having the steps only connected by some small screw brackets is borderline redneck engineering, someone's gonna get killed when two screws come loose.
What OP was really making were misused ladders.
Somehow as easy as it is conceptually, I still find cutting 3 stringers that line up well to be surprisingly difficult. In part because I’ve only has to do it a handful of times in my life.
Either you use jigs or you tie them together temporarily and cut the stack.
Yup. If you're doing almost anything in wood, a set of clamps is more useful than you'd think.
I made a table. The legs are all exactly the same length, but don't ask me what that exact length is - I eyeballed the height I wanted and then clamped all the legs together before cutting them.
Another tip for building things with legs - a 3-legged object is stable on any uneven surface while a 4-legged objects will wobble on uneven surfaces.
This is because 3 points make a plane, adding a 4th point that is not on that plane introduces a wobble.
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pretty amazing how the simplest of solutions seems to be so elusive. i've been guilty on more than one occassion of making something seemingly simple as difficult as wrangling cats.
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A sister comment to mine gives you one strategy, but you can also use the first stringer as a template to the rest.
You can create a template online, print it out, and use it to get perfect results:
https://www.blocklayer.com/stairs/straighteng, click "Show Notching Template", then "Diagrams to PDF"
The author should just have learnt how to build stairs in a craft school instead of wasting time on unprofessional trial and error.
I'm not sure that author in that times was able to afford craft school..