Peeling and Staining Spindles. June 13, 2012

    Between yesterday and today I peeled and stained 168 spindles. (There are 92 completed spindles lined up on the logs in the picture) With the 45 I completed earlier, I'll need at least another 41 to complete the deck railing. The 2 X 4's mounted on a piece of OSB you see in front of the spindles is a rack I built to hold the spindles while I peeled them. The ground underneath the rack looks like a big bird's nest with all the wood shavings spread around my work area.

    I had to go into Butte today to get weed spray. The weeds are in bloom around the building site and on the side of the driveway. If I don't spray them soon, I will have a bumper crop next year!

    Tomorrow I plan to spray the weeds first thing in the morning if the wind is not to strong, then I will begin building more railing sections and mounting them to the deck.

First Deck Rail Section Installed. June 11th, 2012

Today I started building the first section of deck rail. I built a template out of a 2X4 so the spindle holes would all be drilled on the same plane and evenly spaced. I hand peeled and stained about 45 spindles today. (Only 220 to go!) The first section took 16. I stained the bottom and about a foot up on all 30 posts.

Here is the first completed rail section. I drilled two 3/8" holes on each post, and using an electric impact wrench installed 4 - 3/8" X 8" lag bolts with fender washers. They are installed towards the outside of the rail. Tomorrow I will hand peel and stain the rest of the spindles. I had planned to build the sections on the garage slab. The first one was completed on the deck and it seems to be the best way to do it. I will finish staining the rest of the posts and the rails once all the sections are in place.