Timber Framed Staircase Build

Hi, I'm Cam with Blackdale Studio in this video. I have 4 days to complete the biggest project I have ever attempted and that is

build

ing a giant wood frame

staircase

out of a tree. This

build

technically started about four or five years ago when I asked my friend. Aaron at Goby Walnut, if you would be willing to customize me a giant beam and a ton of stair treads from a single tree so I could try building a wood frame

staircase

and he said none of that is a problem, but the beam will take a while. little to dry and the rule of thumb is about 1 year of drying for every inch of thickness and this beam is 10 x 12 inches thick so technically it will probably never be dry in the center but as I understand it this is how it happens with wood framing projects, you cut it, you mill it, you let it dry for a couple of years and then it's fine to use, so it's been about four or five years and I'm finally ready.

To start this project, some of you may be wondering when I'll finally break down and buy a trailer, but I'll give you a pro tip: you don't need a trailer as long as you have a standard truck and plenty of it. of red flags because everyone knows that once you put a red flag on it, your cargo is legal. A couple of months ago, a friend of mine from Oklahoma called me and said, Hey, I recently retired. I would love to go to Oregon. Hang out, we can. just relax, drink some beer, it doesn't have to be a big deal and I said how about instead of anything other than drinking beer, you help me build a ladder?

And I think his exact words were yes, so in walks Johnny Lamber, also known as Johnny. It's not dangerous, we, right, yes, it's adorable, how to turn it on, I think so, you're doing fine. I'm joking, but it'll probably take me as long to start this as it will to cut it if you don't recognize it. Johnny's face. I bet you'll recognize some of the thumbnails of him. Johnny has one of the biggest woodworking channels on YouTube and he agreed to work for me for free, but today is Monday and his flight leaves on Friday morning, so we basically have Monday through Thursday to complete this ladder and I guess that's not enough.

It means I can't continue working on it, but I don't have an extra pair of hands after he leaves, so I really have pressure to do everything possible in these 4 days. possible and it's going to be tough for me because sometimes I can be a little lazy when I'm just working for myself, but having Johnny here is that motivation I need to see how much I can get done in those 4 days and I bet we can. finished it and I don't have much experience building stairs so far. That whole experience is building a step leading up to my shed, but that one turned out pretty good, so I think I'll be fine and Actually, I'm not completely blind now, my video guy Scott recently said he wanted to learn how to render and I told him I wanted to pay you to learn how to render, so he's been doing all kinds of projects for me on the digital front and I asked him.

I said, "Hey, can you build me a digital staircase? Here are the specs, here's what it needs to fit and he said maybe I think those were his exact words and sure enough he did, so I'm not completely blind. Here we go Based on some plans that Scott has drawn up for me we decided to process all the stair treads first and I asked Scott to make plans for 3 and 1/2 inch thick stair treads, which is super thick, but the Government of India actually multiplied them to over 4 inches, which is amazing that they weren't too short, but it left a lot of material that needed to be removed and that's why Ed, the band saw, actually leaked a piece before putting it all on the agenda and here they are sitting at approximately 3 and 1/2.

Inés or I should say exactly 3 and a half because we are professionals, but it is still too big for my table saw and I had to be very creative. when cutting it and also remember that this is the first step. This is not a build, this is taking a long time and I'm already getting a little nervous about the Thursday deadline to complete this because we've been at this point for over an hour on this one step and I think we've got 12 or it was 13 steps. of ladder anyway we have a lot more ladder rungs than this, how long did it last, it's probably like an hour and a half, it's going to take a little bit, yeah, I mean, this is your project, but no, don't you have an industrial workshop?

Where could we take all this and process it? Yes, I thought about that. I think it's more realistic in these videos to just show the whole process and I feel like it's almost cheating to just take it. everything to an industrial workshop and ask them to do the work for me. I'd say I waited probably another 10 minutes or so to process the next rung of the ladder before looking at Johnny and saying I have a great idea. industrial workshop that can process all this wood much faster, let's go there and that's where we are now doing wood creatively in northwest Portland, Oregon.

I mentioned that Johnny has a great YouTube channel, but also that he recently retired and, to clarify, he didn't. I'm not retiring from YouTube because I don't think anyone has retired from YouTube at this point and Johnny was a police officer for over 20 years. He retired last year, but for the last five or six years he's been growing his and I's YouTube channel. I don't know if this was his intention all along, but Johnny was preparing for the most incredible retirement possible because when you work for someone else for 20 years it can be a little exhausting and I can't imagine a better life like that. what I'm doing now and what Johnny is doing now working for yourself just doing something you love so about a year ago I started working with other YouTubers on creating a course to help people find the same success that Johnny and I have found. on YouTube and while subscribers are great, they are super fun and won't pay your way into retirement, so this course is much more than just creating it and gaining subscribers.

Our goal is that anyone who takes this course and takes it seriously should be. able to make a minimum of $11,000 a month as part of their YouTube side hustle or maybe they want to go full time like Johnny. This is the course that will help you skip that learning curve and should pay for itself many times over. I'm not sure OSHA would be the biggest fan of a customer using a shim to keep the table saw from jamming, but at least I'm not making flip flops this time and that stair tread we process in my little shop or maybe I'll call it a medium-sized store or a smaller store than the one here, which took us about an hour and a half.

Everything you see here we accomplished in about 2 and a half hours, so I was really glad we had the idea to We headed to this industrial workshop and yeah, we didn't forget about the red immunity flag. This is where I feel like things got really fun because it was a little boring just squaring everything up, but right now we have a 15t long, about 10 in make them look like a ladder and make everything fit together like a puzzle and one of the tools that I bought about 6 months ago but have never used is this hand saw here. and this is not sponsored and you'll hear why it only comes in second place, but I was very excited to use this cousin.

Look at it, it looks incredibly awesome, you can cut up to 16 inches with it, but it works like a circular. I saw it, so I let Johnny have the honors on this one first and it was cut very quickly, but then I realized it's complete garbage. Who could use this? The quality of the cut is deplorable. I wouldn't cut a 2x4 with that, so basically I have a $700 saw that I'll never use again, so if you want one let me know and I'll probably give it to you, but I don't like shipping so you'll have to find me in person, But I bought the saw again anyway. and this is where we're going to have to get a little creative because I'm going to have to make four cuts and then finish it off with a Handa cat, oh, I didn't know how close that was. the rendering process Scott became something of a ladder expert, which was a good thing one of us was because apparently there's a lot that goes into keeping a ladder structurally sound and easy to go up and down, and we came up with this little template that should help lay out all the cut lines and keep everything nice and organized, however we had a little problem here so we were all pretty sure everything was lined up perfect until we got to the last step and it was short and we couldn't understand how and it turns out I had marked the wrong side because I didn't think it mattered, so our template is solid and the math is solid, but knowing which side to use wasn't solid, so Johnny and I'm going to compete with everything we just do and F did it the right way, so this should line up on the point, yeah, it should be pretty close.

Well, Scott's rendering showed us that a cut should be made right at about 46°. It was actually like 46 points, but we don't have a tool capable of getting precision better than about 1°, so we're going to make one cut at 46° and the other cut at 44°; they both add up to 90 so it should make sense, but again, we're all flying blind hoping we're reading and following those rendering instructions correctly, but it looks like it should make sense, we did all our 46° cuts at the same time, now I set the saw to 44° and now we're going to make all these cuts in the opposite direction and we'll probably start to notice that this saw is not big enough to complete this cut and even that giant 18 inch saw that GOI was using at the beginning of the video I wouldn't have been able to complete this cut, so I'm really using them as a sort of guide so I can start with my saw and then finish them with a hand saw and I'm going to have to get a little creative.

I bought a couple of different hand saws, but I think it's also an interesting opportunity to see who is better with the hand saw. Me or Johnny East versus the best at West Home Depot versus someone else. Come on, okay, Scott. Let's start right, ready, ready, damn, ready, Johnny, keep taking it. We had barely started the day when we started this sawing, so I may have been a little naive, but I felt like we were way ahead of schedule and we weren't going to have any problems meeting the Thursday deadline, however, after As I started cutting some of these, I realized that they were a little more physically demanding than I had originally anticipated, the only thing that kept me going was how fun they were to play.

When you got there and Johnny can attest to this because yes, that part was so much fun and I got so desperate that I pulled out an old saw and I'm going to see how it goes. Do you think it works? Do not come. before the YouTube hand tool police start frantically typing on their keyboards, yes I know this whale saw is only designed to be used as a chop saw, which means it's supposed to cut along the length of the saw. fiber and yes I was using it to cut along the grain but occasionally we use a tool in a way other than its assisted use and occasionally it actually works so in this case I found that the best tool for the job is the tool that does the job you need and it's like people tell me You're never supposed to use a screwdriver to open a can of paint, but in some ways I'm kind of a Paint Can Savant because I can open a can of paint. paint with the screwdrivers, so save yourself the judgment.

I am using it and it really works. Well, I work with my hands basically every day, but there aren't many days like this where I have like 6 hours straight of pretty grueling physical work and I'm not complaining, this day just gave me a whole new appreciation for real workers because there's a big difference between someone like me or an electrician and the guy who actually works with a shovel for 8, 10, 12 hours a day and believe me, you get a whole new appreciation for them when you actually do it even half as much. . From one of your normal work days, I would say that most of the time I want to put a bow tie on a piece of furniture.

I just cut the bow tie on my band saw and then hand-stitched it and there are a couple of times. when I prefer to use a jig like this and one of those is when I'm working with soft wood and this is fur so this is a very soft wood and believe it or not, soft wood is actually harder to do in the interior than hardwood because when you put a chisel on softwood it tends to crush or bend it whereas hardwood stays very very sharp so using a router eliminates that problem and the other time I like to use a jig when I have a lot.

There are a lot of things to do and yes, I have a lot of bow ties to put on this big staircase, so I'm grouping them here using the template and then cutting them with my saw.tape if you have never used them. a bow tie template before or a lighting kit, they are actually a lot of fun and very satisfying to use because you can fool your friends and family into thinking that you are a better carpenter than you, but the only thing you need is a real good inlay kit for your router and the one I'm using there is from Whiteside.

I highly recommend it because it will give you a perfect fit and as for the insole, I would love to say that you have to use this one. because I offer it for sale, but you really don't, because the only reason I made this template is because I thought that all the other bow tie templates that were out there made kind of an ugly bow tie, they just left some kind of bone lumpy dog. bow tie I wanted something a little more modern, a little more elegant, that's why I made that one, but in no way will it be stronger than any other template you can get, so if you like it, check one out at your local Rock C on Amazon, of course, pick the one that's like a giant chisel, this is a Timber slick, which means yes, big chisel is how it loosely translates.

I figured since I'm building with Timbers, that I needed a Timber uh, I guess it's a chisel that you don't use a hammer on, it looks cool, it's cool, I don't know how to use it though, so let's see how it works, okay oo oh oh no, you didn't see it. I'll be honest, I follow someone called, I think it's Shelter Institute, who does this for a living and makes the best chips, where it's like at the roots and with perfect curls, that's what I imagined it would be and this is more like. Scraping it off with a butter knife, I finally remembered what I'm good at and that's throwing power tools at problems, so I got out the belt sander and cleaned up all those horrible slippery wood marks and made it look like I really know what I am.

I did it and it was pretty quick, but the next step, unfortunately, will be a good mix of power tools and yes, hand tools when it comes to attaching the ladder rung to the Stringer. I probably could have fixed it as it is now and it would have been perfectly fine, however, I really wanted to notch the Stringer and first, it will look super cool and second, it will probably be a lot safer since the ladder rung will be blocked by Stringer himself, not alone. however, we placed it from the top so this was a lot more work and I was very happy to have Johnny there because he guided me through it.

Scott came up with the idea of ​​using the oscillating tool to cut fence. Because we had a hard time with that initially and again, this takes a little bit of time, but this part was very satisfying, yeah, just by chance, if you're like me and you love woodworking, it sounds like medium to strong sarcasm and projects that go from woolly. mammoth tusk Restorations to extend dining tables to small and strange side tables then you might like more of my content and I would really appreciate it if you want to see more of that content if you hit the subscribe button we are already halfway through the day.

Three of the four days I have Johnny help me with this ladder and we are finally at the point of no return which means we are ripping out the old ladder so the next day and a half we will determine if I have a mono wood frame ladder Super cool stringer or an aluminum ladder to access my upstairs and hopefully Johnny will be there to see the end, but at this point he's probably about to flip the coin. You tried all the measures and you are 100% sure that this is going to work. fit there the only thing left that maybe could be messed up at this point is Scott's calculations, so Scott, according to your calculations, will fit according to the calculations.

How are you, good? You're good at math? No, but the computer is pretty good at that, okay, no, if this goes that far and is a foot short, it would be fun for someone, not me I guess, but yeah, I'm a little nervous because this is the latest that could disappear. bad, okay, that's the best, yeah, that's what we, um, the Scots aren't bad, we've done it SC when he was younger. I had a friend who would give us the most wildly false statements and present them as fact and if you question those statements his response was always the same, he would always respond, think of it like the time he told us that karate fighters weren't allowed in the UFC and when I asked him, he went to think about it and I said, "I'm thinking about it and I think it sounds like this." and he doesn't think about it, they hit too hard, they would kill the guys in the UFC and I was like, "I don't think there's anything to support that statement, but he would always do this and eventually it became kind of a joke between everyone." our friends, when someone said something that sounded maybe too much like someone else in the group said yes, yes, think about it, so the reason I tell you this story is that all the structural engineering of this project is done with it.

The logic, if you ask me, is that the beam is strong enough, think about it, look how thick it is, are those stairs thick enough, think about it, they're three and two inches thick, you can't break one of those, it's the home inspector or the o. The county is going to come and bother you, think about it, why would they bother me? So the point is not to copy anything I've done, none of this was designed, it could be tremendously dangerous, but it's for a ladder in my shop, and think about it. should be fine, some of the carpenters watching are probably thinking that you haven't even put the first coat of finish on and you only have Johnny for another 24 hours, there's no way you can do this or if you do.

You fake it like those reality shows do but I have an ace up my sleeve and if you've seen some of my more recent videos you know what it is but this is a new finish that I'm using and this one is not sponsored I've never been Sponsored by any wood finishing company. I know there are some rumors that Rubio or someone has sponsored me, but no wood finishing company has sponsored me, unfortunately I would love to get some free money, but more than what I love. money I love using a really good product that is the best product for my project or my client and here's why this is so special: It's an LED cured finish so I know it looks like black paint but it's just an oil black hard wax. they make all kinds of colors, I actually love their pure color, just their natural color and I wish I had used it on the Treads, but I'll show you later, but this black is super cool, it will be a really cool contrast. with the Treads, it's really just wipe it, wipe it, hit it with a light and it cures and I don't mean ready to wear in a week, I mean it cures completely, basically instantly, you're like a second place, the LED light illuminates it.

It is an incredible product. They make all kinds of different colors. I really prefer just the cigar for the most part, although I love the way this black one looks. I drove a bunch of 5 inch screws into it. the fixing bracket, think about it, which should be strong enough if you think about it, then I added this moisture barrier, think about it, at the bottom of this to prevent moisture from absorbing from the concrete and now we're getting pretty close to the time Fixing. So this is what I really need Johnny for, as far as I'm concerned he might leave after we attach this, but I do need him for this part.

The good thing about not knowing anything about engineering is that this is more than likely very overbuilt and my dream is that one day an engineer will come and see this and laugh at me and maybe tease me a little about how overbuilt it is. this. It is, and my nightmare is that that same engineer comes up and sees a little fatal flaw I'd never considered and tells me that the next time the humidity changes, this thing is going to fall apart like one of those Chinese bridges, so I hope be more of that. first and not so much the second, I was extremely confident that I had the perfect finish color for these stair treads.

This is the invisible coating oil and it's not supposed to imitate any finish and I thought it would look really cool on this and Johnny was helping me polish it and I was looking at him a little funny and finally he said he probably would have gone with the natural oil and I said : no, no, this is perfect, it will look amazing and the more of these I made, the more I started to doubt, so Johnny probably made his way into my head, but I think it looks good, but I have one next to each other that I'll show you at the end of the natural oil versus this invisible one. oil and you can tell me what you think, but initially I was really excited about it and then when the project was finished I was really doubting myself.

I have some redundancies to lock these ladder rungs in place. the notch that we cut to mechanically attach it there two is that construction adhesive that will remain permanently flexible so it doesn't crack as the wood expands and contracts and the final attachment point is four huge wood screws so I think between all three of these should be strong enough think about it take a second to thank the narcissistic psychopaths at deckmate for making sure every screw has a label because you don't put a screw in unless it has a label so thank you deckmate for leave me I know that each screw needs to have a label torn off.

If anyone watching this video sees my last video where I built the two side tables for charity, the results are available and if you didn't see the video, I didn't. I blame you, but it was a really cool video, I basically built a walnut table and a maple table, but I took out the maple, a bright vibrant blue, long story short, basically because someone in the comments challenged me and I can't back down. . from a comment challenge anyway the walnut one sold for more but not much more it sold for 4,300 the maple one sold for 3,700 so we raised $8,000 again all of that is going to make a wish and a fun little twist for maple. one the blue one that I said in the video I guarantee that someone from one of the coasts is going to buy it someone from New York or California would buy it no one from the Midwest would buy this blue and I swear just to annoy me someone from In the exact center of the United States, someone from Illinois bought the blue one, so I'm very happy it sold.

I think it's a very generous amount. I'm actually thrilled with how much they sold for, but thanks to everyone who watched that shared video. put it in and put some in if you're a little bit upset that I drilled those four holes in each of those beautiful stair treads, that's okay. I'm a little upset with myself. I just didn't trust my carpenter to rely on adhesive alone. and that notch alone, so put the four screws in and now I'm going to have to plug each and every hole and these will look pretty good from eyeball height, but there will be some noticeable plugs if you look down. level with it, especially with those grains that run through it and I really did my best to line up the grain lines, but sometimes you can see that the grain goes like an angle, so even if it's perfect on the top or inferior, it will not necessarily be like that.

Be perfect where you cut it, so I did my best and in the end I think it was a workable solution, but again not perfect as these plugs are not finished, they will obviously be a different color than the finished stair tread. So after matching them up, I gave the entire top of each step a quick sanding with the orbital sander and then added one more coat of that invisible oil and I'll save you from having to watch that whole process because that's it. I was just adding another layer and this is what they look like in the end and you might be thinking I'm just showing you the good ones and if you think that, look at this one, what about this one or this one here?

I think they all look incredibly good, check out these four so there you have it, it's been almost 2 years since I released this N3 Nano finish and when I first released it the only people who would buy it would be maybe someone who saw one of my videos. and I said yes, I trust this guy. I'll give it a try, but since then it's really found its own footing and found its own home where people buy it regardless of my videos or not, and I highly recommend you get on YouTube. look for some reviews because there are a lot of independent reviews now and I think those are the best tests because I can show you what I want you to see.

I'm not going to show you anything bad, but to another person who is completely independent of me. They will give you honest feedback because this really is not a cheap product and therefore it is not a decision that I think anyone should make lightly if they are going to put it in their home project, so it is something that I am excited, but do your own research again. N3 Nano, okay, here is the finished staircase, but here is the color. I think maybe I should have used, it looks great, I think Johnny might have been right, but let me know what you think and speaking of Johnny, some of You're probably wondering where Johnny Builds is, why isn't Johnny Builds Was he putting N3?Did you even finish the staircase like you said you would while he was still here?

Actually, no we didn't, we got right to my point. filling the caps before he had to get on his plane, so he got almost there and talking about Johnny every week. I like to give a little credit to people who make it to the end of the video, so start your question. or comment this week with Johnny builds because I didn't pay him anything so hopefully I could at least get him a couple new viewers. Thank you so much, have a great week, he should be bouncing like this, he's bouncing, yes, stairs, I think they're supposed to. they have a little bit of GIB so they don't break so they actually have a little bit of spring to them, oh I don't think I noticed that before, think about that.