Deck Spindle Work

We have been slowly progressing on the front porch spindles and rails. Had to make three jigs the other day to drill the holes for mounting all of the spindles in the correct locations. The first two pictures show the jig that was used on the front to drill a small pilot hole all the way through on the bottom railing piece.

You can see the small hole on the side that I use to line it up with the marks that I made for the spindle spacing.

The rail is then turned over and the holes are countersunk for the heads of the screws. I probably did not have to do this because the cedar is soft enough that the heads of the screws should be able to pull themselves flush.

Here is the second jig. Looks a lot like the first one but it is designed for the top rail piece. You can tell because the top piece does not have any bevel to it.

Here is the third jig for the day. It is used to drill a hole in the center of the spindles.


Here is what the panel looks like once all of the spindles are attached to the top and bottom rails.

Here is what it looks like just resting in place. The new top rails are still being put together so it will still be a little time before I can install them.

This is what it looks like from the outside.