# Sawn Balusters, many..



## vender (Nov 29, 2014)

Hello, I have a victorian home and am redoing the porches. I am doing sawn balusters and was wondering (as I am new) what is the best method. They are made from cedar I planed down to 5/8". I have tried the bandsaw and scroll saw (takes a while). I made a pattern and a router. Which works well just not as much detail. Is there a trick? I need to make over 50 of them. Also what material? Cedar? Thanks all.


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## Steve Neul (Sep 2, 2011)

You would probably have some blowout routing them but that's what I would do. Once routed the edges would be smooth and ready to finish. You wouldn't have to sand the edges at all. That would be worth a few blowouts.


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## Black540i (Jan 4, 2013)

I have an old Victorian that I'll be redoing the porch on in the spring and plan to do flat sawn balusters as well. I'll be using cedar and mimicking the balusters inside the house. I plan to make a pattern and use a router and flush trim bit. Going to make sure I use a very sharp bit and hopefully I won't have much blowout.


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## bauerbach (Mar 25, 2012)

router is the fastest way, you could clean up the inside edges that you cant get on the router with the band saw.

theres no faster way to make 50 of them. Could maybe double or triple them up for the band/scroll work.


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## vender (Nov 29, 2014)

Lots of blowout around the "acorn" on sb107. Im learning... I was going to try a combo of tools. Drill press for the round details. Bandsaw for the big stuff. Then router for the rest?? 3 or 4 pieces together... 

Is woodworking a lot of trial and error? Like everything else.


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## vender (Nov 29, 2014)

How about material? I have tried planning copper treated SPF to 1/2". It gums up my planner fast. Its dried to 10%. Cedar. Some say popular some say NO! I see guys using mahogany? Why? I cant find any 5/8" or 1/2" by stock.


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## FrankC (Aug 24, 2012)

There is no magic bullet, you use the right tool for the job which will be determined by the pattern you are cutting out. If two lines join in a vee you can't make the cut with a router, so you might as well make the entire cut with the bandsaw rather than trimming it after the router cut.
Stacked three high 50 balusters would be about 18 lifts to cut, at 5 minutes a cut it would take an hour and a half.


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## Steve Neul (Sep 2, 2011)

The pressure treated pine would be the most durable. Sometimes if you go to a little mom and pop lumber company you can get wood that has set on the store shelf for months and is more dry to begin with. If you have a good bandsaw you might consider resawing the wood so it would yield twice the wood and have little to plane off to begin with.


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## kelsochris (Aug 15, 2013)

I would remove the majority of material with a band saw and jig saw ( interior cuts ) then use the router and templates to clean them up. Cut to about a 1/8" or less of the line then use your router with a spiral flush trimming bit to clean it up. You will get tear out with the router if you try and remove to much with too small of a bit.


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## vender (Nov 29, 2014)

An update. I stacked the blanks 7 to a bundle. I screwed them together then band sawed them all at once. Thank you all for your input.


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## NickB (Sep 24, 2013)

Those turned out really nice. The detail on the porch is very attractive. You have a beautiful home.


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## Quo Fan (Feb 15, 2015)

I love old houses, I just don't want to take care of one. I grew up in a Victorian, and saw what my dad did. He was constantly fixing something.


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## Getting better (Dec 3, 2009)

I would draw the profiles I wanted the rough cut them stacked on a band saw then pattern rout the final shape on the router table


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## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

vender said:


> An update. I stacked the blanks 7 to a bundle. I screwed them together then band sawed them all at once. Thank you all for your input.





Fallbrook hoby said:


> I would draw the profiles I wanted the rough cut them stacked on a band saw then pattern rout the final shape on the router table



Apparently the bandsaw was close enough. This is not cabinetmaking, it's an outdoor application. No need for "perfection" .... apparently.


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## Toolman50 (Mar 22, 2015)

vender said:


> Lots of blowout around the "acorn" on sb107. Im learning... I was going to try a combo of tools. Drill press for the round details. Bandsaw for the big stuff. Then router for the rest?? 3 or 4 pieces together...
> 
> Is woodworking a lot of trial and error? Like everything else.


Without a doubt, woodworking is a lot of trial and error. But one of the purposes of this forum is to use the trials and the errors of others to circumvent as many problems as we can and get better results on our projects. 
Let the wood chips fly!


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