looks boring in comparison to Garys artsy fartsy cork staircase .



Before and after.





I also hand carved those dolls from a single piece of driftwood!

Maybe, but what you've done is more to my liking. Is that landing sanded and finished in place? Looks like it. Good work. Say, do you get paid as much per hour for stair work as for floor work? I find I make less per hour on stairs but the work is more demanding, quality and skill wise. Somehow, I gotta find a way to get more money. Those cork stairs; $3,750.00 (includes demo and all materials) Took a week. Not bad I guess but could do better.

Carved those dolls you say? And I suppose you also wove the yarn to make their clothes as well and then dyed the cloth yourself? Methinks you are pulling our leg.

I like doing stair work. $120 a step. I took these treads back to my house and stained and put a seal coat and a few coats of finish on them in my garage, then it took me a day and half to install them and the white risers. with 2 coats of finish in place. And yes the landing is sanded in place. Its actually 3 full stair treads roputed and splined together. thats how they wanted it, I've never done it like that before but it looked great.

Yes I did in fact make the cloth for the dolls traditional garb!. And I used only a toothpick and a 9 penny finish nail to carve them with

Sean:

Can you please change your email address in the profile. I've had some bounced messages that come direct to my email. You may be losing referrals from the board

Ken

done. And this staircase was a referral from you!. Thank you very much.

Very good work, Sean

Hey Sean,

That's pretty cool to glue up 3 full treads to make the landing. Have you ever used a plate joiner, sometimes called a bisquit joiner? I use mine all the time. It works great.

Gary,
No I've never used one but have been thinking about it. Fine homebuilding mag just had a write up on which ones are best. I think I'd use it for several applications if I had one. WHat do you use yours for?..is it fast?. easy set up etc"

I bought a cheap Skil model years ago to glue up some solid 3/4" oak planks because I needed to make curved steps that were about 10' long with a wide arc. The neat thing about a bisquit joiner is it really helps keep the face of the material even. I think it is one of the easiest tools to use. It cuts a slot in each side, you glue in the bisquit and apply glue to the other side the clamp it up. The bisquits are made of beech which swells alot when the yellow glue gets to it, further strengthening the joint. For edge joining, I'll use #20 bisquits about 10 to 12" apart and still put glue on all the edges as well. Very strong! I've used mine to build cabinets as well to join tops, bottoms and sides. You can use it in flooring as well. Say you are building a border with flooring that is 3" wide or wider. Those corners look best mitered IMO. You could cut a groove and install a sline OR slot it with the plate joiner and install a bisquit. It's basically the same thing. I've also had to make long, curved nosings. So I'll make then in section and bisquit those together. Since I'm not using mine all the time, I didnt want to spend very much money. I think I paid about $60.00 for mine new about 10 years ago. Mine does what I need it to. I imagine better ones are easier to adjust, have more power and functions but I'm happy with mine so far. Here's the model I got.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... gory=20780

Thanks Gary,
For the cost I think its a worthwhile investment. I'm off to the depot!

I wanted to add to the praises of the biscuit jointer. I do a lot of historic home restoration in the old southern plantations here in Florida and when I do wide plank installs I have to match the ends. Due to them being such long runs they do not t&g the ends of the boards. I use a biscuit jointer as opposed to routing the ends and it is a god sent. For what it is worth I would say that a biscuit jointer is worth its weight in gold especial if you are doing custom borders or wide plank floors.

KLS,
who do you do work for in Orlando?. Or is it all your own work?. You keeping busy during hurricane season?

Sean, I work for myself the companies name is Heritage Crafters Co. and we are based out of St. Cloud and service mainly Celebration and Harmony. We are pretty much a father and soon team, we used to restore plantations in South Florida when we lived there, but then I went into computers for a while so I left the industry; I got sick of that and decided to get back in the business. The hurricanes are defiantly keeping us busy I started up again full swing shortly after they hit because of all the repairs we where doing for friends and family it kind of rekindled an old flame and reminded me that I used to enjoy my job. Anyway, I’ll post up some pics of the current project we are working on when we complete it; it is a small baby’s room in a Victorian era reproduction we did Ipe on the floor, full wainscoting, trim and crown. It is a full historic restoration (the exception being the Ipe) and it shows pretty much what we do. Enough about my stuff, this is your thread and your show; I don’t think I said it before, but great work on the stairs and the dolls . Are you on your own or do your work for /own a local company?

Brand new town built from scratch. Sean and I did the floating pictorial out there almost two years ago. There were probably only 30 homes in there at the time. What's it look like out there now?

http://www.hardwoodinstaller.com/hardwo ... -start.htm