Epoxy for metal railing in wood stair
Neiman2933
| Posted in Construction Techniques on
I’m building a stair where the railing is made from a series of 1/2″ steel pickets, welded together into a single unit. I’ve left all the pickets several inches long and my plan is to bore out slightly oversize holes for all of the pickets, set them down into the holes and pour in epoxy to fill the gap and secure the pickets. Any suggestions for what kind of epoxy to use?
Replies
If we could clear up a few details...
These holes will be bored in the step treads themselves?
These steps are masonry - or wood?
They are inside or exterior?
There are newel posts or the pickets provide their own support?
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I would try bondo..ruff up the pickets or add a cross tee like a nail in a hole..and bondo the buggers. If its wood, you can use the red hardner and tint with some goop from the botttom of a minwax stain can to almost match the color..or add some contrast.
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Check out West Systems. They have what you need, and the technical support to get you the right formulation, hole size for your ballusters etc. I personally would not use a polyester resin (Bondo, Minwax High Performance Wood Filler, etc.). It won't offer the long term holding power you need for a rail. I assume you're setting your rail in wood, If concrete, use a non-shrinking or hydraulic grout. I would also put plenty of tape around your holes to protect against overflow.
Woody
It's in a wood stair, interior, without a newel post. Needs to be a liquid product to get into the hole. Does West systems have a website?
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=wEST+sYSTEMS+epoxy&spell=1
Thew better hadware stores around here carry it, the accesories, and the books - but we are in a boating area and West is used almost exclusively for Those joints and laminations.
It mixes at low viscosity but you can get various fillers for it top bulk it up and colour it.
I have also used sawdust from the same wood for colorant and filler.
Tape surrrond was mentioned but you can also build up around the hole with putty to dam against overfill/overspill
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We do this kind of installation all the time. And by that I do mean almost all the time. While we install steel balusters and balustrades all the time and this particular style since I first displayed it here several years ago we literally do two to three times a year in different variations and application for different clients since everyone seems to find it so attractive.
Well anyway we epoxy them in with West Systems Epoxy that we'll add sanding dust from the woodwork or 406 Colloidal Silica to make it more "thixotropic" (that's epoxy talk for "thicker and stickier"). We also put a square drive (you don't want a stripped off head) stainless steel (they're stronger and not as brittle) trimhead screw through every once in a while to really "tie down" the balustrade as in the sketch below. The one thing you need to watch for with the glue is that where and if the balusters extend beneath the tread (circled below) and the holes don't fall entirely in the stair's stringer then you need to plug up the hole with a wad of paper towel so that the epoxy stays in the hole. It's better strength-wise to have the epoxy ooze out the top of the hole (mask with blue tape first and go easy on the epoxy) than to have it all pushed out the bottom.
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We'll also use Gorilla brand polyurethane glue too for the snugger fitting assemblies but it's tougher to make it work without it running down the balusters if you use it to glue balusters up into the railing mortises so mask again to make clean up easier and with polyurethane the holes have to be a snug fit or the glue is no good. It'll fill up gaps as just foam which wont hold nuttin'. And to play it safe when we use polyurethane we'll also use more screws too.
Sorry Sphere but I wouldn't use bondo to glue the balusters into the holes not nearly strong enough. Bondo is a great filler but not a glue and it would fracture under use and vibration too. Especially on curved stairs where the railing are often facing racking loads that want to work them side-to-side. The only thing we use bondo for here is to fill the trimhead screw holes or we'll use that gray liquid or paste type metal in a tube stuff you see in the glue section of hardware stores (the exact name escapes me right now).
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Jerrald gave you lots of good information. Just thought I'd add that I use Loctite epoxy. It comes in 50 ml syringes that fit into a hand-held applicator gun, with a 5" or so mixing nozzle at the end. Real handy for precisely placing the epoxy. Sorry I don't know a product number offhand, but a search for Loctite might get you some more information. I get it ordered in through a local lumberyard. Been installing 3-4 rail systems like this a year, for the past few years, and have had good luck with this stuff.
Mike