Tips for welding staircase handrail

[AdrianD]

Hi everyone!

I need to make this handrail for the staircase: vertical and top bars are 25/32" x 1 3/16" (20x30mm for the metric crowd) and the support is on the stairs is 5/32" plate.
Do you have any tips for welding this, like weld sequencing?
I plan to bolt the support plate to the stairs and then tack into place all vertical bars, align them, tack the top bar, take it all off and do the full welds laying flat on the floor.

Sadly I don't have a welding table but I do have a mitre saw and my trusty mig.

 

[PAToyota]

Even if not commercial, I'd want something more "graspable" for the top.

Otherwise, I'd do about what you suggest for welding. Move around like doing sheetmetal so you don't get warpage.

 

[SomeGuyFromOlympia]

Even if not commercial, I'd want something more "graspable" for the top.

maybe he has petite little hands, dont be mean

 

[total newb]

This is a very very bad idea.

It will warp and shift massively with out being very well mounted.

Seriously.

You will be much much better served buying a bais handrail/fence panel and welding on the posts in position.

 

[Dethmachinefab]

This is a very very bad idea.

It will warp and shift massively with out being very well mounted.

Seriously.

You will be much much better served buying a bais handrail/fence panel and welding on the posts in position.

I'd weld the bottom of the picket, and where it meets the top edge of the band.

It will curl, but the plate is thin enough that fastening it to the stair will straighten it right out.

 

[Pook]

Typically simple railings like these I have built them using plywood templates built off the stairs, or drawings, and not do any of the work in the house where sparks may cause a fire.

this is a great excuse to get yourself a welding table. or build something off saw horses with some rectangle tubing you can level and square up to work off.

 

[AdrianD]

Even if not commercial, I'd want something more "graspable" for the top.

Otherwise, I'd do about what you suggest for welding. Move around like doing sheetmetal so you don't get warpage.

I'm thinking that I can add material to the top bar. I'd LOVE handrails like in Casa Batllo, they were designed by Gaudi to feel natural in your hand, absolutely awesme

This is a very very bad idea.

It will warp and shift massively with out being very well mounted.

Seriously.

You will be much much better served buying a bais handrail/fence panel and welding on the posts in position.

I'll be mounting the band to the walls, tack the vertical bars and horizontal bar in place. Or even weld the vertical bars completely as per Dethmachinefab's idea below.

I'd weld the bottom of the picket, and where it meets the top edge of the band.

It will curl, but the plate is thin enough that fastening it to the stair will straighten it right out.

Thanks, this simplifies things and the most stress will be at the top too.

Typically simple railings like these I have built them using plywood templates built off the stairs, or drawings, and not do any of the work in the house where sparks may cause a fire.

this is a great excuse to get yourself a welding table. or build something off saw horses with some rectangle tubing you can level and square up to work off.

Nothing to catch fire now the floors are bare concrete, we just finished painting the walls upstairs and I will focus on the handrails now as the sandblasting guy goes on vacation next Friday.

I wish I could afford the time and money to get/make a welding table. The floors are nice and straight, it's one more excuse to weld in the living room :D
The old gate (12x7ft) was welded on the garage floor, back when I was just starting to weld with the MIG :D


Late reply, sorry, tiling really took a lot of time, getting all details just right is time consuming:

Slowly getting there:

 

[Dethmachinefab]

Slowly getting there:

Nice work. Looks great, i like that tile.

 

[Benny]

My handrail jig.

It is made to do 10' sections of square rail, but I have done angled rails and stair case rails on it. The end tubing is adjustable for length and you just measure from it to get the proper angles for the stair rail

 

[AdrianD]

Nice work. Looks great, i like that tile.

Thanks! That specific tile was very stressful to cut....48"x48" and domed almost 3/16" at the middle. Set the saw too deep and it would fracture.

My handrail jig.

It is made to do 10' sections of square rail, but I have done angled rails and stair case rails on it. The end tubing is adjustable for length and you just measure from it to get the proper angles for the stair rail

I'll wrap my head around this, maybe I can come up with something quick and dirty based on your jig :D

 

[Jeffh555]

paging 2big bronco

 

[2big bronco]

paging 2big bronco

I saw this and didnt really have much posative to add.

Personally id increase the bottom plate to 1/4 and weld it up on the garage floor or wherever you have a flat spot. I don't see any real reason to tack it in place.

I think with your 5/32 plate it will never feel as solid as you had hoped unless you use a stupid amount of lag bolts.

 

[AdrianD]

I saw this and didnt really have much posative to add.

Personally id increase the bottom plate to 1/4 and weld it up on the garage floor or wherever you have a flat spot. I don't see any real reason to tack it in place.

I think with your 5/32 plate it will never feel as solid as you had hoped unless you use a stupid amount of lag bolts.

Negatives could spawn new ideas too

I'm also concerned about the plate thickness, I will see once the first section is up. I can bolt it every step, so that should be interesting. And for the horizontal section I plan on making a plug that fits in the handrail, bolt it to the wall and slide the handrail over it, so that it's hidden.

As far as tacking in place, all I'm thinking is I can take care of any deviation from level of the bottom plate when welding the vertical bars. If I weld them square and f'up when mounting the plate, that's that.

 

[AdrianD]

Things are getting even more hectic, as we are moving in about 2 weeks (the family will stay at my in-laws one more week, until we hook up the boiler and get some stuff done but I'll be happy to no longer pay rent and run between two locations)

I managed to finish welding one section and tack two other sections. Even with 2 bolts, it feels solid and I will add some hidden support between all sections and to the wall, for extra strength.

This is how I spaced them apart when tacking

Welded the bars where they meet the plate on top

And some longer stitches at the bottom:

The bars will be capped, I just did not have time to tackle them before welding. I did cap the others before welding them to the plate.

It doesn't even look half bad (yes, one space is smaller but that's how I wanted it, close to the corner. And there's an ever so slight bow to the top bar but nothing a bit of massaging with a sledge won't fix :)

The foreman running around and screaming at the top of her lungs that she wants to stay there....

 

[AdrianD]

Almost complete:

No pics of the small module yet :)
I ran out of CO2 when I had a few more welds, luckily the CO2 tank for the lockers was almost full :D
Yesterday night I dropped off all the pieces to get sandblasted, they should be done by tomorrow. Then it's time for epoxy primer and flat black paint.

 

[AdrianD]

This is from August 2023:

I think I finished up all connections in November or December, including the install of the small piece resting on the wall. After filling all the gaps between the bottom plate and the stairs with tile adhesive and bolting connecting all modules together, the entire railing is quite stiff.