I departed Boston Logon on Friday morning and landed at Taoyuan International Airport on Saturday night and took the high speed rail to Kaohsiung City. I arrived at my hotel after 10pm hoping that I would be able to get a long night sleep. However, the 12-hour time shift had me up early, so I took a walk around the city before it got too hot. Today will be an easy day before starting work first thing on Monday. Hopefully I can head home by Friday.

I’m trying to make sure the front porch renovation doesn’t take forever, but I’m sure it seems that way. I finished the stair railing and balusters a week ago, and this weekend, Susanna finished painting them. There are a few pieces remaining to finish (e.g. the riser under the bottom stair), but the hard part is done.

I made the template for the balusters on the CNC. I cut the hole out on the CNC on each individual baluster using a 1/8″ bit, and used the CNC to cut a shallow outline of the rest of the baluster. I then used a jig saw to trim the bulk of the waste away and finished the pieces using a pattern bit and my router.

Of course, the real win is in the details, which Susanna did. She sanded, caulked, and painted the railings to match the trim on the house. What a difference new stairs make to the look of the house.

I’m working on replacing the front porch stairs. When I purchased the house, there were no railings on the stairs. As part of a VA loan refinance a few years ago I had very simple railings installed. This time I want to make the stairs match the house style. We have a Victorian farmhouse, so I didn’t want to go too fancy, but wanted something more than spindles from the box store.

I initially cut the balusters on the CNC, but it was a 2-hour cut for each baluster on the machine. I’ve improved the process to 15-minutes on the CNC (cut the inside shape and a shallow outline of the outside) followed up by a jig saw and pattern bit on the router, for a total build time of 30-minutes per baluster, thought I can do the shop work while the CNC is cutting the next baluster.

Today I started fitting the balusters to the top subrail to check my spacing. I’m using the porch guide from Vintage Woodworks as a start. The balusters are a mix of poplar and birch (I had a birch board laying around), but will be painted. The birch was a lot harder to to work with than the poplar (as expected).

After testing the fit, I started working out how to attach the bottom rail to the balusters. Once the balustrade is assembled and passes the test fit, I will disassemble the pieces, sand, prime, and paint prior to reassembling and installing the balustrade on the porch.

Even though I plan on painting the balusters, I want to minimize the water on the underside of the part. I am adding a v-groove on the bottom of the balusters that will ride in a corresponding sloped top of the bottom rail. I tried to cut the v-groove with the tablesaw, but couldn’t get it to make an even groove. This week I ordered a 120-degree bit for the router and built a jig to cut the bottom of each baluster.

I initially tried to setup something in the router table, but the balusters are 31″ long, and would be awkward to stand up on end on the table. I decided to bring the router to the work instead, and built a jig from scrap lumber. I have a few more balusters to cut out this weekend, but then I’ll be ready to start installing the parts on the railing.

The next big challenge will be to figure out how to pre-drill the top and bottom rails as well as the balusters so that they don’t split when screwed together.

I have been working on repairing the front porch for a while. It has been one of those projects that I didn’t have a problem starting, but I’ve been very slow finishing. One of the repairs I have been working on has been the front stairs. If the existing stairs weren’t original to the house, they were certainly past their useful life. I have the stairs installed, and am now working on the railing.

I didn’t really like the look of the simple balusters that one can get at the hardware store, so decided to use sawn balusters. However, they are very pricey to order online, and only come in limited styles. I purchased a collection of digital patterns on Etsy, and decided to try to make them myself.

The balusters are made from Poplar that I milled to 5/8″ thick. I think I need to make a total of 14 balusters for the project, and each currently takes about 2-hours to cut out. I’m currently cutting out the entire shape on the CNC. However I may switch to using a pattern bit and router for the outside if the CNC takes too long. The nice thing about the CNC is that I can work on other projects in the shop while it is running.

Lesson’s learned so far:
1. The balusters need to be a little over 31″ long to fit between the top and bottom rail. The boards I have are a little over 7′ long, so I can only get two balusters per board. I need boards a touch over 8′ long to get 3 balusters/board. I’ll have to look through the stack at the lumber yard to get longer pieces when I go back.
2. It takes lots of trial and error to get the cut right. I used MDF as a cheap practice material, however the MDF is tough on the CNC bits.
3. This is a pretty hefty project for this hobby machine, so shallow cuts and long cut times are what seem to work.

My CNC is only 14″ x 14″, so I have to tile the cut and do the project in two steps:

Today we started the long legs of our trip, the first of two 7-ish hour days in the car from the Poconos to Webster Groves. We took a half-way break at Doolittle Station in DuBois, PA. We explored the dinosaurs and train cars, picking up a small snack at the cafe before continuing on. Pictures from today:

Today was our Poconos visit. After a mediocre breakfast at our hotel and some swimming time at the hotel pool, we headed to Columcille Megalith Park to get out a bit. It wasn’t a long hike, but Izzy ran around, eventually getting lost and needing me to go find her. Luckily it wasn’t a big park. We had lunch at a small park and playground in the city and headed out a little bit to do mini-golf and drive go-karts. Izzy spotted a crystal store on our drive and insisted on stopping. Tomorrow is our fist long of two days of longer drives to get to St. Louis on Wednesday.

We stopped for ice cream on the drive back to the hotel, again returned to the pool and hot tub for a swim. This evening will be take-out pizza and TV.

Susanna, Izzy and I started our big summer vacation today. Instead of Sweden this year, we are heading to St. Louis. We left early and stopped by New Britain to take Ben and his girlfriend, Nu, out to breakfast before heading to the Pocono’s for two nights. We decided to make this a relaxing trip and forgo camping for hotels and dining out.

Izzy has her last rehearsal of Seussical Jr. at the Granite Theater in Westerly. Opening night is tomorrow, and all week is evening dress rehearsals. Susanna and I have been taking turns dropping her off. In reality, it is only 30 minute from home, and the rehearsal is 3 hours, so I could make it home for 2-hours, but that adds an hour in the car, so we have both mostly been staying in Westerly while Izzy rehearses.

I had been taking Hoagie to the Westerly dog park for the rehearsals that started earlier in the evening. However, the park empties out at 6pm, so I would have two hours with the dog to wander around until it is time to pick up Izzy. Plus, Hoagie has learned how to jump in the kiddie pools at the dog park and pee in them. So, tonight I left Hoagie at home and took a walk around Wilcox park to take some pictures before landing in the library to kill a few hours.