I had to make some stair stringers. I'm a surveyor, I can figure this out. It's a mind bender. I had so many lines on my board I had to flip it over and start over but I got it figured out.
I did the construction staking of my little landing and two steps with a framing square and a tape measure. I checked the diagonals and they were neary perfect.
The same thing happens to me. Funny how geometry gets more confusing when it moves from paper to wood, isn't it? 😛
Isn't all the geometry laid out on most framing squares? All I've used in the last 30 years have everything laid out.
That type of thing has always been a weakness of mine. What really happens inside an internal combustion engine in a modern automobile is a mix of real scientific theorems and equations and alchemy. I might get A's on tests in thermodynamics, chemistry, physics, stoichiometry, etc. etc., but don't actually expect me to sort out what's really happening at any given moment under that hood.
You could have just drawn it in cad then run it on the plotter at 1 to 1!!
Lots of things to take into account for stairways. There is lift, run, stair height, thickness of the treads and the covering you place on it. With that you can layout the sub grade and if done right the top stair step will be consistent with the rest to reach the upper floor, lots of stairs built with the top lift not the same as the rest. Good luck.
jud
I can't find the one I used a couple of years ago, but this one is similar:
It's got a number of "steps" (no pun intended) and leaves nothing to the imagination.
No get those silly feet and decimals outa your head and start thinking about inches and barleycorns.:snarky:
Grab a framin' square and get to cuttin'.
I look at 1/4" on the tape and think 0.25", 1/16" is zero point zero six two five.
Carpentry in general is a lot more mentally challenging than it looks.
funny memory
I built cabinets in my youth for a while. It was fun and rewarding and I still maintain a tidy joiner's toolbox.
I was working for an old man (like Methusela..) that was always in a hurry and grumpy. He rode me all day long to hurry.
We would build the cabinets in his shop and then hang them on the jobsite. This one job we were mounting the doors before we trucked them to the job. I was being extra picky about lining and squaring the doors up before I screwed the hinges down. One trick was to put a couple of 4d nail in between the doors before you screwed them down to make sure they had a little gap and wouldn't rub.
The old man got tired of waiting on me and grabbed the woodscrews for the some of the hinges and sank everyone of them with one whack each from his finish hammer. I got a little indignant and asked him why the woodscrews were threaded if all he was gonna do was drive them in with a hammer?
"Them threads are just so some fool can back 'em out," he replied. He was funny without even trying.
easy w/ a framing square. Just don't forget to account for the tread thickness and Stick close to 7.5" rise and 10" run.
Yes, the framing square is the tool of choice for marking stringers.
Today I nailed together 9 trusses for a small outbuilding. I designed them using my cogo software and measured out the pattern boards with my 1/10ths Lufkin tape rule. No inches required. 🙂
I use feet, tenths, hundredths and sometimes down to half hundredths for all my steel or wood fabricating today, simplifies finding centers or any other divisions you need, another advantage, few want to use your measuring tape, like magic it stays where you put it.
jud
I drew a plan in Carlson Survey (AutoCAD engine).
The project after three days, I still need to finish the railing...https://sphotos-a-sea.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/p480x480/1175321_10151569780286956_1091045468_n.jp g" alt="" />
> I drew a plan in Carlson Survey (AutoCAD engine).
Guess I'm not the only one who uses survey tools for home projects. This is the playstructure I designed in AutoCAD in 2002:
Here it is under construction in '02, prior to mounting the slide:
And again a month or so ago, with the slide removed and on its way to conversion to a garden shed of sorts:
Wow, your drawing is 3D. I just use AutoCAD like a flat piece of paper doing standard mechanical drawing views.
> Wow, your drawing is 3D. I just use AutoCAD like a flat piece of paper doing standard mechanical drawing views.
I wanted to get a sense of what it looked like from various angles before committing to construction. I don't normally work in 3D.
Invest in a set of stair buttons. They attach to a right angle framing square and allow you to layout the rise and run on a stair stringer.
I use to work as a framing carpenter in a past life. Now I only build for myself and really like the work a whole lot more that way!
