# Create Dowel On Bottom of Stair Baluster



## JIMMIEM (Apr 4, 2010)

I'm replacing the carpeting on my interior stairs with 3/4" solid wood treads. I cut the balusters off flush with the plywood subtreads. Now I have to remove 3/4" from the bottom of the balusters, add a dowel to the bottom of the shortened balusters and insert into a hole drilled in the stair teads and re-toenail the top of the balusters into the bottom of the stair rail. The bottom section of each baluster is currently 2" long and 1 1/2" square. The rest of the baluster is cylindrical and tapered toward the top. Any ideas on how to use a router to turn the bottom of the baluster into a cylindical shape and keep a square shoulder? Or should I just cut the baluster to new length, drill a hole, and insert a piece of dowel?


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## CharleyL (Feb 28, 2009)

Being able to clamp the balusters so that every hole or tenon will be straight, correctly sized, and centered on your balusters will be the most important and difficult parts of this project.

The dowel, floating tenon, method will likely work best for you because it requires the least setup and expense, but you are going to need a good floor standing drill press with a table that tilts 90 deg. to drill a straight hole in the bottom end of the baluster. If you have such a drill press you are then going to need to devise a good positioning and clamping fixture and attach it to the drill press table so you can repeatedly mount and clamp the balusters in the correct position for drilling. Since you have very little straight material on each baluster this will likely be the only place that you can clamp it into position in the fixture, but you might be able to add a board with a centering hole or V block in position as part of the fixture to hold the tapered end of the baluster. Once set up you can repeatably drill centered holes in your balusters to fit dowels (floating tenons).

To make a true centered tenon on the baluster you are going to have to make a similar clamping fixture and then devise a template with a hole of the correct size to be able to rout the tenon using a straight or up cutting spiral fluted straight bit and a guide bushing. You will then need to attach this template to your baluster clamping fixture so that it is perfectly centered over the end of the baluster. Using a plunge router with a bushing you could then trim away the baluster to leave a tenon of the correct length and diameter. Using progressively larger diameter bushings you could do a very shallow climb cut (clockwise) around the balluster that would create a shoulder and minimize chipping in further machining, then change the bushing to larger diameters to make progressively deeper cuts in a counter clockwise direction around the baluster until you reach the desired tenon diameter.

Do you know anyone who has a Leigh FMT jig? This is an easy task for the FMT jig as it provides an ideal way to easily position and clamp the balusters, and guides that allow you to cut the tenon very quickly using a plunge router with an up spiral cutting straight router bit, but buying one of these jigs will be way too expensive to justify for this one project.

Charley


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## JIMMIEM (Apr 4, 2010)

CharleyL said:


> Being able to clamp the balusters so that every hole or tenon will be straight, correctly sized, and centered on your balusters will be the most important and difficult parts of this project.
> 
> The dowel, floating tenon, method will likely work best for you because it requires the least setup and expense, but you are going to need a good floor standing drill press with a table that tilts 90 deg. to drill a straight hole in the bottom end of the baluster. If you have such a drill press you are then going to need to devise a good positioning and clamping fixture and attach it to the drill press table so you can repeatedly mount and clamp the balusters in the correct position for drilling. Since you have very little straight material on each baluster this will likely be the only place that you can clamp it into position in the fixture, but you might be able to add a board with a centering hole or V block in position as part of the fixture to hold the tapered end of the baluster. Once set up you can repeatably drill centered holes in your balusters to fit dowels (floating tenons).
> 
> ...


Thank You for your detailed response. 
I do have a floor standing drill press with a table that will tilt to 90 degrees. I don't know anybody with a Leigh FMT jig. I've seen a few dowel making jigs in mags for the router table and table saw but these would need some tweaking to work with the balusters.


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## MAFoElffen (Jun 8, 2012)

Just another technique:

Since you are doing multiple pieces, you could make a jig to locate the hole (shoulder fits around an end, but has enough meat there to clamp onto the end). Drill the jig in your drill press... thick enough to guide a drill through it and keep it perpendicular to the surface. --> To be able to locate, clamp on to and drill all your banisters with a hand drill. The jig would locate and keep the bit straight while drilling. That is much quicker and a whole lot less work overall. Picture in your head, a customized doweling jig.

If you needed to do _many_ holes or want to save it for other projects down the road, then line the jig with a non-ferrous tubing, so the guide hole doesn't wear as fast.

Dowel holes for floating tenons are not a tight press fit onto a dowel. You need just enough room in there to leave room for glue adhesion. So you do have a little leeway with fitting the joints.

Past Experience with that-- if you make things too tight, you may end up with problems...
a) the expansion / contraction between the two later on down the road splits out the mortise side...
b) not enough glue in there and it looses adhesion between the two.
c) the one end you machined is dead-on accurate... but the other side of the joint is not and it is too tight a joint to adjust to it.
d) even on a drill press, wood grain is not straight nor consistent in density. A drill bit is not a precision cutting instrument and will want to follow the grain slightly (the path of least resistance). Planning for that will make your life easier.
It's a balance.


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## Cherryville Chuck (Sep 28, 2010)

A couple of thoughts Jim. First, is the baluster going to look off balance with that 3'4" chopped off? I'm assuming that you are doing this to keep alignment with the railing at the second floor. Is it possible to raise the other railing 3/4"?

The other thought is the drilling jig for the stair tread. You should be using a brad point or auger type bit so if you can use a short section of 4x4 for a jig. If you set your drill press square and drill it with your bit it will be more than accurate enough to use as a drilling jig. Just drill each hole 1/8" to 1/4" by hand and then stick the bit into the jig to finish the hole. One jig will easily finish all your holes before it starts to wear.


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## MAFoElffen (Jun 8, 2012)

Actually, if you were replacing the treads and didn't have them mounted yet, the strongest way would be to lay out and trial fit the treads. Then mark the layout while everything is in place. Then pre-drill the banisters and treads... and bolt the Banisters to the treads from underneath, bolts through the treads. 

Nail the treads down with the banisters attached, with construction line to ensure your layout is still plumb. You can cheat the tread left to right as the stairwell trim usually covers that. Over-built strong, but the fasteners would be hidden. Of course, that doesn't work if the treads are existing (not loose) and you don't have access from the other side of the tread.


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## JIMMIEM (Apr 4, 2010)

*stair baluster dowels*



Cherryville Chuck said:


> A couple of thoughts Jim. First, is the baluster going to look off balance with that 3'4" chopped off? I'm assuming that you are doing this to keep alignment with the railing at the second floor. Is it possible to raise the other railing 3/4"?
> 
> The other thought is the drilling jig for the stair tread. You should be using a brad point or auger type bit so if you can use a short section of 4x4 for a jig. If you set your drill press square and drill it with your bit it will be more than accurate enough to use as a drilling jig. Just drill each hole 1/8" to 1/4" by hand and then stick the bit into the jig to finish the hole. One jig will easily finish all your holes before it starts to wear.


There are 12 steps. The first 5 steps at the bottom are open on one end and have the rail and balusters. The other 7 treads are closed between the walls. There is no other railing or balusters. The balusters had wall to wall carpeting surrounding them so the bottom 3/4" was never visible so I figure that what was visible will still be visible. The treads are already installed. I left the railing and newel post untouched and fit the first tread around the newel post. The balusters were doweled into the plywood subtreads under the carpeting and just toenailed into the railing. I was planning on using a forstner bit to drill the holes into the new treads. I was also going to use the forstner to drill the bottoms of the balusters if that is my best option for doweling them. Somebody said I should be able to tip the balusters into place if I don't drill up into the railing for clearance.


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## Cherryville Chuck (Sep 28, 2010)

You won't be able to drill very deep into the treads and still get the dowel to go in and be able to swing into place. Also, you won't be able to use mine and Mike's suggestion for a drilling jig with a Forstner but you may not be able to go deep enough to matter and still be able to swing them. Going by eyeball may be good enough. Some Forstners are hard to keep centered when you start a hole. Try making a few test holes first.


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## JIMMIEM (Apr 4, 2010)

*Baluster Dowels*



Cherryville Chuck said:


> You won't be able to drill very deep into the treads and still get the dowel to go in and be able to swing into place. Also, you won't be able to use mine and Mike's suggestion for a drilling jig with a Forstner but you may not be able to go deep enough to matter and still be able to swing them. Going by eyeball may be good enough. Some Forstners are hard to keep centered when you start a hole. Try making a few test holes first.


Tom Silva used a spade bit to drill into the treads. I could go that route although my forstner bits have brad points in their centers. I had read that the dowel should protrude about 3/8" from the bottom of the baluster. I wondering if I round over the bottom of the dowel that will give me a little more swing room. If not then I could drill into the railing a bit to get a little more room then cut a small wedge or use one of those screw pocket hole plugs to fill the hole and give the top of the baluster something to wedge against.


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## 64 ford (Apr 21, 2013)

Jim
They make mechanical fasteners for larger posts and balusters .I've never used ones this small but they very well may make them. They do hold quite solidly.


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## JIMMIEM (Apr 4, 2010)

*Stair Baluster Connectors*



64 ford said:


> Jim
> They make mechanical fasteners for larger posts and balusters .I've never used ones this small but they very well may make them. They do hold quite solidly.


I've seen the hanger bolt type of connector and the threaded insert type. Is there another mechanical connector that you are referring to?


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## JIMMIEM (Apr 4, 2010)

*Attach balusters to stairs*

I saw a youtube video that demonstrated installing a baluster with the connecter that screws into the bottom of the baluster and then into a threaded insert that is screwed into the tread. They have driver bits for inserting the screw into the baluster and the threaded insert into the tread. I ordered them and had them the next day. I will have to drill into the hand rail so I made a drilling jig.
Thank You all for your input and suggestions.


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