Stairwell railing for doll house

[pop-pop]

Pop-pop’s wife Nana recently bought a doll house at an estate sale and is fixing it up. She asked me for a stairwell railing and here is how it came out. The balusters were purchased and I made the rest.

The newel post were turned from maple. The skew was a planer blade and the first lathe tool that I made.

Handrails are 1/4” oak dowels with a flat planed on the bottom.

If I were going to do this again, I would make a drill guide with a groove for the stock and use an egg-beater drill. That should reduce the fuzzies at the hole mouths.

 

[drw]

You are not only a man with many vises, but also a man with many talents!

 

[tghsmith]

looks great,, sometimes the small is much harder than full size..

 

[mpeele]

Great job. I was at the Williamsburg Woodworking in the 18th Century conference a few years ago and there was a miniatures makers group meeting at the same time. The prices they had on display were amazing. A guy had a high boy he was building and it had all of the parts a full sized one would.

 

[JRedding]

That looks great! I love working in miniature, particularly creating single historic rooms.

 

[LeftyTom]

I appreciate the intricate detail.

 

[JNCarr]

That almost looks real - great job!

 

[Hmerkle]

I guess I thought the (miniscule) "miniskewle' was the most delightful part of this post!

Great work in small format!

 

[pop-pop]

I guess I thought the (miniscule) "miniskewle' was the most delightful part of this post!

Great work in small format!

As you can tell, I enjoy a good (or bad) pun.

The hardest part was the base railing. I tried oak and maple and about five broke after the baluster holes were drilled. Even made some with diagonal grain and that yielded an angled break. Finally gave in and used 1/4” Baltic birch.

 

[tghsmith]

tapered drill bits will put less stress on the wood.. drilling the holes in a wider and thicker piece of stock and then cutting it to size.. (learned through the trial and error method) small stuff requires much tighter wood selection, In some model work I often use fine grain cherry in place of mahogany because most mahogany will not hold the fine detail work..

 

[pop-pop]

Put up the dollhouse bedroom wallpaper & crown molding today and installed the railing.

 

[pop-pop]

Last detail was a stair railing.

 

[HITCH-]

Such detail!
Are you using CA glue?

 

[pop-pop]

Such detail!
Are you using CA glue?

Titebond for the mitre. Made a simple wedging fixture from scraps and wax paper to hold the pieces.

 

[tghsmith]

wax paper, saran wrap and my favorite for some spots, scotch tape all work well to keep your parts from becoming one with the surface or clamps