{"id":160,"date":"2026-01-24T10:15:59","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T10:15:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blinkbonnie.xyz\/?p=160"},"modified":"2026-01-24T10:16:00","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T10:16:00","slug":"adding-the-rail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blinkbonnie.xyz\/?p=160","title":{"rendered":"Adding the Rail"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"The
The railing is installed.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

So I added a rail. Mum wanted a rail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I figured I\u2019d need to make up some posts with flat bases that could be bolted to the floor, with some kind of handrail attached.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019d already had a mosey around the metal section at Bunnings and a poke through the shelves at home. Once the decision was made I bought 3 lengths of 40\u00d740 galvanised square steel and selected some 3mm plate metal that was left over after demolishing the lift. I cut a couple of rectangles of plate steel and drilled them for the mounting bolts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After preparing the posts and the plates, I had a go at welding them together. Well, that was a complete disaster. I\u2019m not saying the job isn\u2019t done, but any 8th grader could do a better job. I don\u2019t want to blame anything other than me so I\u2019ll just say I need more practice. Much more practice. Regardless, I drilled and tapped holes in the top of the posts for the handrail and spray painted the finished(?) posts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
You can\u2019t tell how crappy that welding job is. Truth be told, I should have cut it off and tried again.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Fitting the posts to the garage floor was a little tricky. I already had a collection of dynabolts that I\u2019d borrowed from my aunt, so that was sorted, or so I thought. I marked the location of the holes in the concrete and drilled them out, but the bolts I had were too small and kept pulling out. So I returned to Bunnings and bought some larger bolts. By this stage I\u2019d had a go at making a handrail from pieces of merbau that Chris gave me, but I wasn\u2019t happy with that solution. Looking in the timber section I thought I\u2019d go with 40\u00d740 square pine, but then I caught sight of the 42mm eco friendly timber dowel and knew that\u2019s what I needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back home, I managed to get the dynabolts in place and fitted the posts, though a fair bit of filing was needed because, yeah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I cut off a length of the dowel and fitted it into a holding jig then used a ?? size forstner bit to drill it in half. I ended up with 2 pieces of dowel with a half round recess on one end. The drill wasn\u2019t quite the right size, but close enough that the two drilled pieces mate well enough with the rest of the rail. I drilled the two pieces down the middle and drilled mounting holes in the rail, taking great pains to get the drill through the middle of the timber. Although I created a couple of pockets for the bolt heads in the rail, they were too small to admit a tool for tightening. That meant I needed to use nuts on the inside of the posts instead of the thread. So I drilled out my threads and carefully fitted the rail in place; carefully because if I dropped the nuts down into the posts I\u2019d have had to unbolt them from the floor to retrieve them. The two short pieces I made act as standoffs for the hand rail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then I unscrewed it and gave it a first coat of varnish. After that dried I refitted the handrail to the posts. I gave it a sand down and another coat of varnish. The posts are open at the top but I\u2019ve started designing a couple of plugs in Blender and we\u2019ll see if I can print them. I only have blue PLA so they will have to be blue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I say that but actually no. Instead I fashioned some plugs from pieces of pine. I\u2019m not sure I\u2019m convinced about the styling but they get the job done. Looking at it, I think it would have been best if the post ends had been capped with a piece of steel welded competently onto the end, ground down and the whole lot spray painted. As it is, the square wooden plugs clash stylistically with the roundness of the railing. Had the posts been round, or the railing square, that wouldn\u2019t have been a problem but look at me critiquing my work like a damn interior decorator and pretending the abomination that is my welding doesn\u2019t exist. The point is, I think I\u2019ve finished.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So I added a rail. Mum wanted a rail. I figured I\u2019d need to make up some posts with flat bases that could be bolted to the floor, with some kind of handrail attached. I\u2019d already had a mosey around the metal section at Bunnings and a poke through the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blinkbonnie.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blinkbonnie.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blinkbonnie.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blinkbonnie.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blinkbonnie.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=160"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blinkbonnie.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":163,"href":"https:\/\/blinkbonnie.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160\/revisions\/163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blinkbonnie.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blinkbonnie.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blinkbonnie.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}