PROBLEM IN HAND RAILING.
The student, not having had wood turning as yet, will not consider the making of the turned balusters, such work being introduced in the course in wood turning.
In commencing work on the hand railing, notice the several parts that have to be made; first, the newel post; second, the easing at the bottom of the stairs; third, the straight piece of railing; fourth, the return or twist at the top.
Fig. 126.
[Fig. 126] shows the working drawing for the newel post, the explanation of which will be unnecessary. The easing is the bend in the rail before it strikes the newel post. The method of laying out a graceful easing is shown in [Fig. 127]. The straight piece of rail is worked out with the hollow and the round planes which are to be found in the tool room.
The return or twist requires to be developed by descriptive geometry, and to do this we will refer to drawing [Fig. 121] in order to find the diameter of the well. It will be noticed that one half of the twist is parallel with the landing and that the curve for that half would be a true quarter circle, while the other half of the twist, that part which follows the incline of the stairs, would be part of an ellipse.
To demonstrate this, take a cylinder and cut it at an angle to its axis; the section through which the cylinder was cut would be an ellipse, an illustration of which is shown by [Fig. 128]. To develop this part of the ellipse lay out, on a board, by the following method, a full sized drawing of the rail required.
Fig. 127.