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Would you like to add information to this article? Interested in writing or submitting an article? Have a question about this article? Fabricating Spiral Stair Handrails 
Question
Forum Responses
From contributor P: It sounds like you are trying to run the blank through your router setup. Is there any way to run the router over the work piece? This works for me most of the time with some ingenuity and some custom router platens. The only other thing I could suggest (and I hate to) is to cut another joint in to make the turns through your setup easier. At least hand carving them would be nice quiet work for a few hours. From contributor D: The handrail you are describing, we have to do a lot. We bend form the piece or use solid stock and then we carve away with a dremmel tool to get the profile. The fitting you are describing takes about 8 hours with the bending and carving. Unless you have a five axis CNC router you have to do a lot of the shape by hand. From contributor J: The finished detail of helical handrail parts used to be scraped-out with a flat ground profiled steel scraper set into a shop-made wood handle. There was a dowel set through a hole to create a fence. Most of the material was first cleared away with a spokeshave and then the beads or contours were scraped to shape. These homemade tools are still nice to have for finishing standard handrails today (especially the top). Some antique tools that you might find interesting are the Stanley #66 Beader or a Windsor Beader. Routing handrails is tricky and dangerous. "Riding the rail" with a handheld router is a recipe for wrecked wood (at the very least). Special built stationary machine shapers and routers make the professional approach now, along with production CNC. I recommend the spokeshave and scraper for anybody who isn't doing this kind of work full time. I am a "full-timer-old timer" at this. I have machines and tons of special tooling to help me and it's still a tough job. (Fun though). Have you reviewed the related Knowledge Base areas below? 
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