Need ideas for a short stair railing

[DocsMachine]

Great, when the 70-year-old man gets his head stuck in the stair railing and decides to sue family, I'll let you say "I told you so".

(Somewhat rude reply removed)

Tell you what- if legal conformity is so important to you, why not suggest a design that conforms to your local laws? I'll bet money they're more restrictive than mine, so that should make it safe, okay?

Doc.

[metalmangeler]

Hi Doc
It might be a good idea to think about the 4 inch rule as the 70 year old man may not live there forever. Even here the banks do expect railings to be to code if they are loaning money to the buyer. This could be done on the elk design with smaller work to fill in the larger openings. Or it could be done in the other design mentioned pretty easily and certainly you could do it in the traditional design you were thinking of maybe doing, that is one of the nice things about scrolls. Ballisters are also pretty easy to put closer than 4 inches to each other, if they are made of small rod it makes the railing less obtrusive than a wood railing would be and it sounds like you have plenty of small stock to work with and since the frame is made you are really in the more enjoyable aspect of the job now.
I hope you have a good time doing this job.

[Frosty]

Doc:

The 4" rule applies anywhere in AK. If he has homeowner's insurance and a visiting grandkid gets hurt the insurance company could well come after you. They sure don't want to pay anything out if they can peg someone else and you appear to have some valuable stuff.

Your call of course.

Frosty

[DocsMachine]

Is it too much to ask just to get a little design help, and let me worry about the legality?

When I built my propane forge, I had people telling me I should skip it and try coal.
When I showed photos of my weld-repaired anvil, I had people tell me I'd ruined the "collectors' value".
When I said I'd extended and repointed my anvil horn, everyone told me I'd better blunt it or I might get hurt.
Every time I post a photo, it gets moved into somebody elses' gallery.

Is it any wonder I don't participate here much? So far I've gotten more help with this project from some guys on a webcomic blog.

Again, can anyone suggest a few simple ideas to get me started? I like the elk idea, but that might be a little complex, especially considering the time frame. I'd had something in mind vaguely along these lines. This isn't bad, but I'm having a tough time filling trapezoidal panels with it. This is a little too frilly. I like the interspersed sharp bends in this style, but it hasn't proved easy to salt those into a new design.

On the other hand, there's the possibility of, as I said before, some Frank Lloyd Wright style geometric patterns. Like this or this. A classic basket weave motif, perhaps. This is classic Wright, but a little too busy, and would be difficult to apply to an angled stair railing. Something like this shows promise, and I tend to wonder if I could pull off replacing the "arrowhead" with perhaps a set of antlers, or a deer or elk profile. Minus the leaves and circular "flowers", this is kind of interesting, but again might be a bit frilly for the location.

Doc.

[Glenn]

Originally Posted by DocsMachine

Every time I post a photo, it gets moved into somebody elses' gallery.

I can answer this (again) as I was the one that resized your oversized photo(s) to fit the IForgeIron forum. It was placed into my account (as administrator) in the gallery to be resized and then transferred back to your post in the forum. When you brought it to my attention, you did not say which photo was involved so I chased down all 75+ (as I recall) of your posts and each photo that was included in each those 75 posts. There were only two (2) of your photos in my gallery, not to claim them as mine, but to resize them easily and then transfer them back to your post in the forum. I spent quite some time trying to figure out which photos were involved and then more time trying to figure out how to return them to your name and your account. That also was done.

I know of no way your photos can appear under any account but yours. To my knowledge only an administrator has the power to transfer an image from one membership account to another name or membership account. It is not done by mistake, but takes several intentional steps to accomplish the task.

People, at your request, have freely offered their skill, expertise, and experience to provide what they feel are good ideas and safe designs, be it with forges, anvil repair, or railings. They may or may not have the answer to your specific problem, but they are willing to discuss the problem. Please do not fault folks for offering suggestions, or trying to keep you and others safe.

[rmcpb]

Without getting into the legalities that don't apply here, it would make sense for any design to confirm to the current legislation. Working within that the deer design looks great and would suit the home of a hunter. Maybe making a smaller version within a "frame" of classic scroll work would work.

My tow bobs worth.

[DocsMachine]

Originally Posted by Glenn

I can answer this (again) as I was the one that resized your oversized photo(s) to fit the IForgeIron forum.

-And in resizing them, you removed them from my control. They started out linked from- and tracked by- my personal hosting, and you took it upon yourself to copy them off of my site and onto this boards' servers without my permission.

I notice they're all still there, despite my asking them to be removed no less than three times.

[...] I spent quite some time trying to figure out which photos were involved and then more time trying to figure out how to return them to your name and your account. That also was done.

-In other words just shifting my photos around, but keeping them on your server.

The proper course would have been to inform me that my linked photos were too large, or in some other way violated the rules or general etiquette. I could have altered and resized them all in minutes, with only a few mouse clicks.

I know of no way your photos can appear under any account but yours.

-Then just how did they get copied off my server and onto yours?

People, at your request, have freely offered their skill, expertise, and experience to provide what they feel are good ideas and safe designs, be it with forges, anvil repair, or railings.

-Yessir, and I appreciate that. But this tangent into the legalities wastes their time and mine. Everyone here plays with fire and yellow-hot steel either for a living or a hobby, and I build guns that are designed to shoot other people as my day job. I have a reasonable grasp of what's safe and legal, and if I don't, I can change it.

Here, however, I'm simply asking for design ideas. Not legal help, not safety instructions, I don't need anyone to tell me that black iron can still be hot (at least, not again, anyway. )

But now we have seventeen posts in this thread, and just three of them have actually been helpful.

Doc.

[Falang]

In german, but I think it's the pics that are interesting...

TT Schmiedeeisen von Triebenbacher Schmiedeeisen, München, Germany
on the left side you can choose the style...

also you might try the google Image search with the the follwoing keywords

for german: "schmiedeeisen" AND "Geländer"
for french: "fer forgé" AND ("garde corps" OR "balustrade)

these give a lot of ideas...

Hope it helps

Chris

[DocsMachine]

Wow, very nice. Lots of good ideas in there, thank you.

I'll have to give it a closer look in the morning, but a couple of those show some promise. It helps a bunch to see some of the designs already in an angled stair-rail setting...

Doc.