How to get EVENLY SPACED Spindles!

hello and welcome to Vancouver carpenter so we've all seen it when somebody has either way too big or way too small gaps on either end of all the spindles well today I'm gonna teach you guys how to get perfectly even gaps between all the spindles and how to mathematically figure it out so this is how I'm gonna do it and there may be other ways feel free to share it in the comments but anyways the first thing I'm going to do is I'm going to measure the length it is 110 and 3/4 so that's easy and we're gonna have to convert this into fractions so this is an easy one to start with so that's one ten point seven five okay so it's time to do a little bit of math and there is actually a measurement that we're gonna be starting out with and that's four inches and the reason is it has to be four inches or smaller so that babies don't get their heads stuck in the spindles so what I got here is I've got inch and a half wide uprights so what I'm going to do is I'm going to take four inches and inch and a half combine them so five point five inches and then I'm gonna divide one ten my overall length one ten point seven five divided by five point five and that gives me 20 point one three six so twenty so that's what I'm gonna start with here so I've already got twenty spindles laid out right here now you don't want to do the whole thing by math because you know what math will fail you sometimes so the best way to figure out exactly what the space in between is going to be is to line up all of your spindles and now you're going to know exactly what this length is and then next you're gonna measure from your other posts it's just over here and what I have is I have eighty and three quarters so we'll write that down eighty and three quarters is my remainder after 20 posts so the other thing you need to know is there's going to be 21 spaces so there will always be one more space than the number of upgrades so now we're gonna take eighty and 3/4 so eighty point seven five and we're going to divide that by 21 and find out what this space in between is going to be perfect so eighty point seven five divided by twenty one equals three point eight four five inches well that's great I've got a decimal I can't use that yet so let's figure this out all right three point eight four by two so there's a way to figure out what that is and if I remember correctly what it is is we want to get this into sixteenths of an inch something I can work with on a tape measure so what we're gonna do is we're gonna take zero point eight four five two and we're going to times that by sixteen so now what we have is thirteen point five two three two so that thirteen point five two three two what that means is that we have thirteen and a half six teens that was the remainder from that decimal so I now have three and thirteen point five sixteen so what does that mean I mean that's a weird number it just means I'm gonna do three and thirteen sixteenths plus so it's just a smidge in between those two sixteenth lines the next thing I'm gonna do is go and cut myself a block at three and thirteen fifty six copies numbers you guys three and thirteen sixteenths plus and just for you metric folks in everywhere outside of North America I know it would be easier I know that you guys we just don't do it here because we're stubborn but anyways so should I take the leap of faith and just start installing all of these with my spacer clock and I better write down spacer so that I don't lose it well I think for the sake of the video at the very least I'm actually gonna double-check everything this is a bit painstaking and I almost just want to trust my math and go for it but we better double-check there is also a possibility of error of just doing this I could be increasing it by like 1/32 of an inch every pencil line to also the way I'm assembling this I actually need the lines here so it's not going to be total wasted effort what's gonna happen Oh quarter-inch you guys quarter-inch but guess what oh it's close enough to four inches that we could pledge the last ones I actually consider that pretty good and now knowing that I can actually go with this layout and I can start to fudge them in like the last four or five if it looks like it's not gonna make sense so it's not bad in my opinion either way we have under four inches and it's very close to the original measurement so it's not going to be picked up by eye [Music] so instead of getting worked up and going back to the drawing board for my measurements what I did was you know I started with the spacer block one as in going with my lines that I made and then what I eventually did as I got to the very end I knew that I needed to move them over a little bit so by the time I got to this one I just took it off my line just a hair an eighth of an inch eighth of an inch eighth of an inch and then I knew I needed a little bit more so by this one I get to a quarter so it's a little bit bigger than the spacer block but not perceptibly and then by the time I get to the very end so there again it fits and we are you know within 1/16 of an inch so it's looking really good so next I've gotten my top piece to fit and it fits nicely in here so the next thing I'm gonna do is I'm actually gonna take this down here just place it in between these two posts and I can now mark every one of these exactly where they go like a perfect template this way I know that it's gonna go in exactly the right spot and we're not going to get any incremental error over the way especially because I went off my layout a tiny bit so this way I know it's gonna be perfect this wood is so nice you guys clear fur clear hemlock it's actually a shame it's getting painted but oh well it's just what I had to use to be able to make a nice product so at least we know underneath the paint it's gonna be some nice beautiful wood and not all this lame particle board and MDF that everything is these days you know when I disassemble old houses I love it because that's what it always is it's all this beautiful fir and hemlock because that's what we had so much out in Vancouver 100 it's what they built everything out of it just make sure you label it somehow so I can do like a I've got a two right there I'm gonna put a 2 right here where it's gonna go 1 1 that way I'm not gonna flip it around by accident somehow and end up installing this backwards and having everything look ask you now that I've got the underside of this laid out I'm gonna screw them in and I want to know what would you guys do in this case so even though this is paint-grade and I could technically screw straight down from here I kinda don't want to do that on this top surface it's so perfect and beautiful and I'm worried that those screws could show overtime you know like on a door jamb so I'm actually gonna toe screw all of these in and no I'm not gonna use Brad nails or anything like that because you know what I just don't trust that I want this to be able to take like the full impact of a person and not all crumble in so it screws the whole way and now I'm gonna have to toe screw from both sides and I'm gonna have to fill every single side when I could do half as many screws and a direct connection but I just want to keep the top face of this looking as nice and smooth as possible that's gonna be a lot of work but I think it'll be worth it okay I'm not filming this you guys you know what it looks like you saw one the railing is done all the spaces are looking pretty good [Music] this side I did the same math and the space wound up to be three and five-eighths so if I remember correctly it was three and thirteen sixteenths on this side three and five-eighths on this side which is a three sixteenths difference for the spaces so not perceptible to the eye so that's one method for calculating your spindles I don't know any other ones that's why I didn't show you them and if I'm sitting here filming that means I forgot to close out the video when I was on site so here I am and videos over guys that's it I hope you found it useful let me know your methods for doing things thanks for watching Vancouver carpenter that's all I have to say about spindles and you know you can use that method for any upright so anytime you need spaces even I know they were only mostly even but you can't tell nine times out of ten construction is about creating the illusion of perfection as opposed to true perfection which really can't be created by humans it is not for us to do anyways we are wandering I'm wandering thanks for watching making for carpenter till the next video

Channel: Vancouver Carpenter

Views: 129,333

Rating: 4.8802991 out of 5

Keywords: carpentry, spindles, handrail, spacing, uprights, woodworking, how to, DIY, construction, balluster, bannister, door, repair, woodwork, bondo, patch, fix, handle, lock, install, framing, hollow core door, how to install a door, drywall, hole, wall, ceiling, damage, wallboard, sheetrock, gyproc, tape, mud, taping, mudding, good, best, fast, easy, smooth, texture, paint, painting, trim, corner, inside, outside, bead, corner bead, home repair, carpententry, tutorial, plaster, casing

Id: 5iKEckq0Ciw

Length: 12min 16sec (736 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 26 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/Sabnitron]

He's holding up a tape measure to it in the thumbnail.

[u/entropreneur]

2x4,2x6, 2x2, 4x4