Recently, Central City Millworks was contracted to fabricate, finish, and install a first and second floor porch railing system for a new home in Old Metairie.  The home was designed to be a replica of an existing St. Charles Avenue residence.  Historic replications are our forte so when the customer toured our New Orleans millwork shop they knew we were capable of the difficult task.

Unfinished Balusters in our New Orleans mill shop

The project requires over one hundred and fifty Spanish cedar balusters.  This would be a daunting task for any shop carpenter to turn by hand, however our recent acquisition of a Diehl TL 42 hydraulic automatic lathe came at a great time.

First, the wood comes to us as rough sawn lumber which is then milled to the required dimensions by several machines including a planer and a joiner.  This project’s spindles were four inches thick so they required the Spanish cedar to be laminated together.

Laminating is the process of joining two or more pieces of wood to achieve a desired thickness or width, and like metal welds this joint is often stronger than the material itself.  This process leaves us with rectangular blocks of solid Spanish cedar.

To cut the spindles the machine loads the blank of wood into a carrier and hydraulically forces it against the machine’s interior arbor.  The arbor has a series of hand cut knives which are loaded on to it and sheer away wood leaving the desired spindle profile.  The challenge was getting the knives ground to the correct profile and set at the proper angle.

The use of computer aided drafting programs allowed us to draw the machine and spindle three dimensionally and extrapolate a knife template. The knives were then grinded to match.  This machine will prove to be very useful to complete large orders in the future, however, due to the complex set up process it is still more efficient to turn small orders by hand.

If it is time to upgrade your interior and exterior railing or stairs, then come see what our craftsman can do for your home’s character.

Hand turned balusters

Our craftsman hard at work turning a baluster by hand