Building a railing

[gwmotorsports]

Hey guys,

I'm a first year welding student and my dads a general contractor who mostly works on renovations. He has a customer who needs a "wrought" iron railing built and he said that I could build it. For the front of the house the customer wants the railing to come down (30 degree slope, go straight and as soon as it does so it wraps around a 4" diameter bend). The problem is I dont know if this would even work with such a sharp bend. Even if I got it red hot, the railing has a certain profile which I think would get messed up. Please see the first atached picture and tell me what you think.

For the rest of the railings the customer wants a design like the second picture. The only way I could come up with to make the pickets would be to bend each one seperatly into a cane shape and cut the ends so each one flows into the next, and the just weld them togethor. You can see what I mean at the bottom of the 2nd picture. What do you guys think of this idea, or do you have any better ones?

I could use a pretty quick answer on this one (especially the first question), because I got till wednesday to know if I'm going to be able to build this thing or not. There is another guy who plans on going to the jobsite to take measurements on wednesday so I need to know before then so we can tell him not to come out. Any help would be greatly appreciated .

[Zrexxer]

What you're looking for is called a "lateral" rail end, and you buy them pre-made. See http://www.kingmetals.com/Pages/Page8-7.html for some examples. The issue you will have is that they don't spiral down to horizontal on the return like your drawing shows, they'd be in the same plane as the cover rail. I think a better solution there might be to use a volute or lambs-tongue end, and not worry about the return. Either that, or you're going to have to make your cover rail out of something that you can bend, and even then it's going to be tough with such a tight radius.

[asad]

You could always bend the rail so it's horizontal before welding on one of those pre-made returns Zrexxer mentions so the bend ends up in the correct plane.

Asad

[gwmotorsports]

Thanks guys,

If I can find a place that makes those lateral rail ends, I'm sure I could either bend the handrail at the end, or cut the pieces to an angle. What do you guys think of my idea for the pickets?

[LeonS]

An alternate method is to create the curl manually. While working at a fab shop yrs.ago, the owner requested a fence and gate built. One of the pipe welders had worked at a fence co. previously. The fence/gate was created from 1 1/2"x 3/8" rails and styles w/1 1/2"x 1/4" curlycue ornaments. This hand made his own tools for making the curls. As seen in the attachment, the two tools are walked around the flat bar, one holding and one
bending, checking his progress from the layout he made on the layout table, took quiet a while as I remember, of course at my age to remember yesterday is a chore, LOL
In your case if you are going to use heavy material for the top rail and styles, you will have to use heat to accomplish this method, and another hand.

[49degreesnorth]

Go for it, man, you'll figure it out!

I like your railing except that it will not be to code. Code (around here and most places -- check w/your Pop) requries that you not be able to pass a 4 inch ball between the rails.

This is a shame, as it excludes a lot of the minimalist, historical ironwork. That would be a hard pattern to do on four inch centers -- wouldn't look right.

If your client doesn't care, then full speed ahead.

Chris

[asad]

I like your railing except that it will not be to code. Code (around here and most places -- check w/your Pop) requries that you not be able to pass a 4 inch ball between the rails.

Is that so kids can't squeeze through or something? Or get their heads stuck between the rails?

Asad

[gwmotorsports]

I like your railing except that it will not be to code. Code (around here and most places -- check w/your Pop) requries that you not be able to pass a 4 inch ball between the rails.

Ya same here, the railings are gonna have those pickets in the 2nd picture about every 4 iches. We got it worked out so theres less then a 4" gap and all of the pickets are spaced evenly. I think we might try and order those pre-made ends that Zrexxer posted, or come up with a different design.

Thanks for all the help guys.

[myplace46]

Is that so kids can't squeeze through or something? Or get their heads stuck between the rails?

Asad

Exactly.

[welder28]

So, that's how kids learn NOT to stick their body parts into places they shouldn't be! Let's teach our kids (or let them learn the hard way) so more stupid building code regulations aren't passed!

[Snidley]

It's funny, they have regulations on how wide the gap is so kids won't do something stupid. They don't say anything about all the sharp decorative and pointy ends you can stick anywhere, including between the railings/pickets.