I have a porch / stair railing project to do and have purchased a couple
books on ornamental iron design. However I still need some instruction on
how to assemble and bend railing components. Has anyone seen any books
describing techniques for building residental iron railings.
My particular questions are related to attaching molded railing parts to
handrail and bending the hand rails where they turnout at the base of the
stairs.
Thanks,
-Tom
There isnt a whole lot about this in print.
First, go to the Nomma site-
formatting link
is the organisation of ornamental iron shops. Their magazine has
a lot about this, and it is about 25 bucks a year. They also have some
brochures and videos they sell - one of these might answer your
questions.
Bending lambs tongues in railing cap, or bending pipe into returns?
In either case, it isnt something you can do with no tools and no
experience. I would recommend just buying premade bends- RBWagner
makes all this stuff,
formatting link
aluminum and steel, and stainless pipe, in all kinds of
sizes and radius.
and their retail arm, JG Braun, at
formatting link
has some of
the trickier, more ornamental components.
also check Julius Blum-
formatting link
Most shops that install this stuff are just that- installers, and they
buy it all premade.
Attaching parts is done in a variety of ways-
Mechanically, with bolts and rivets.
Welding.
Heated and forged tenons, collars, and wedges.
Bending- well I bend stuff like this all the time, but I use a wide
array of equipment, and it all cost money- Some stuff, I heat up in a
gas forge, then bend by hand, hammer and anvil, or with a hossfeld
bender- dies are available for cap rail, pipe, flat bar the hard
way,etc. Some things I do cold with a hossfeld bender, or with a 50
ton hydraulic press, or with a powered angle rolls. Some things we
forge from scratch using a power hammer, and dedicated tooling.
Sometimes I rotohammer holes in the concrete floor, bolt stuff down,
and use a hydraulic ram to bend.
PolyTech Forum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.