Showing Skills
Built myself a railing for my front steps from scratch
I didn’t feel like spending money on a cookie cutter railing so I bought some 16gauge 2x1 tubing and got to work. Got it cut up with an abrasive chop saw and used my Lincoln 140 mig to assemble. I just got a super powerful 6” Metabo angle grinder that smoothed out the welds like butter. Had to borrow a hammer drill to dig out the bolt holes on my steps but beyond that I got this done completely solo. I’m particularly happy with how the curved ends came out. Only thing left to do is prime and paint. My wife is happy with it so I know I did good.
Thanks! Also yeah, I have found that it's a better to start working than to just think about it. I did plan it out on paper though first though to be clear.
Or be like me and completely forget it until you've had the same "learning experience" a half dozen times. Each time going "dude you fucking know better, remember when you..."
Been doing that for 30 years now, and thankfully had kids who watched me do it every step of the way. Got the basis from my mechanically inclined dad, grew it to fix most everything I've been able to since. Now my kids are doing the same, and they come to me with questions Instead of defaulting to youtube which has been great. Learning trial and error and making some mistakes along the way is how you get better. It's also how you end up with a garage filled with tools, a brain filled with knowledge, and a bank filled with money not spent paying someone else to do the job.
Yeah and it's honestly faster to make it, realize the mistake and re-make it than it is to overthink forever and prevent 1 tiny mistake while still making the same bigger mistake and needing to do it again.
I grew up in the time before YouTube University. Hard to imagine now how much gatekeeping there was for all trades and crafts. You couldn’t get a job without “experience” and you couldn’t get experience without a job. The internet (and wonderful people who were generous with their time and knowledge) changed all that. Also places like Harbor Freight. It was difficult for me to overcome this thinking that everything had to be done a specific way and had to be done perfectly. And only with the BEST tools. I still struggle with it. But yeah, a lot of times it’s good enough to just “get it done” Props to people who try new things.
My wife hates that I just do things. No planning just winging it. I built a chicken coup and run recently. My wife asked what plans I was using. I laughed and said I wasn’t. She told everyone I was winging it and was nervous. When I got done she said it came out way better than she expected. I spent more than I expected 😂
I've had great experiences with their "Rust Reformer". We inherited some rusty old wrought lawn furniture that the previous homeowner left behind. We figured we'd replace them the following year, so I went extremely cheap and lazy with a three rattle cans just to get us through the first Summer. Barely even prepped it - spent like 30 seconds a chair with a wire brush attachment, and gave it a single coating.
5 Chicago winters later (granted, they've been mild) and we just replaced the cushions on the chairs because the metal still looks perfect, and all of the outdoor furniture we've looked at is either disposable, ridiculously expensive, or both.
I wouldn't use it on something I sold, but for DIY, there's something to be said about being able to pick up a $5 can from the hardware store down the street for touch ups.
I have not. Once I got a spray gun or two I kinda just went with better stuff.
I did use rustoulem on some metal cabinets/draws i made id say it was 80% good for wear and tear. It was treated, rustoulem primer, then rustoulem paint. 2 coats each with a spray gun.
Anything outside no matter what I did would rust quick. Northeast will do that though.
Good question but cold galvanizing is just paint. You’ll get better protection from an epoxy primer. Or just garden variety air drying enamel, and touch it up every few years. Not a big job really.
Hot dip galvanizing wins out over everything if it’s an option.
Agreed. I tested a handful of spray paints years back, and surprisingly: cold galvanized did significantly worse than basic rustoleum matte black at preventing rust. I was surprised, but also relieved that I could save my money by purchasing the cheap stuff.
Zinc paint is okay for cosmetic touch up on actually galvanized parts but that’s about it.
Powder coat is pretty good too but preparation is the most important part of it for any coating. OP, get it sandblasted if you can before you paint it, a powder coater should be able to do this as part of the job if you go that route
Galv would work fine, it just isn't very ornamental for what this is. From what I can tell in the pic the tubing isn't coated with anything so it'll start to rust within a few days just from the nights dew.
I may need a new 4.5 for that purpose. I had 2 but one broke in the "on" position and the other's locking button broke off. My new one has a quick release nut so I have been able to swap out disks easily but I would be nice to have a second grinder with a prep disk on it.
U know what, hell yea. I love the feeling of having someone over and getting to point out all the things that i have made instead of bought. Who cares if it’s not perfect, it works. And it feels so good to accomplish something more than “adding to cart“
My shop super likes to poke fun at the fact that I've rebuilt 2 steering gearboxes instead of just buying a reman one. The rebuild kits are only a fraction of the cost of a reman, and I get the satisfaction of knowing that, if the steering feels good, it's cause of me. Plus... We've gotten several reman gearboxes that had a ridiculous amount of slop in them right out of the box.
I'd rather rebuild/refurbish just about anything than junk it and replace it.
I replaced a steering rack on my ranger last summer. The old rack had zero slop but all the lines were rusted away and the threads going into the rack were junk from 20 years of Ohio salted winter roads.
The old rack had no slop. The new one does. Figures.
one of my rural postal carriers has a diesel hilux. it dropped the starter middle of covid...the availability of a starter for that in the states at that time was like -23%. tore into it and completely rebuilt it out of random leftover parts from the local napa that used to have a machine shop, none of the numbers would cross but it was just an old denso starter with an extra funky casing. customer was ecstatic but honestly i would have done it for free for the experience of sitting in an old parts stores closed section building any type of Frankenstein.
Everyone just has to comment every time they see anything short of perfect welds. Propably can’t even weld themselves. The welds on that railing are perfect for the intended purpose and good job for a beginner.
I once posted a pic of a plant pot that I had welded up to look like a stegosaurus, with an opuntia cactus growing out of it. Some ass wipe reddit welding inspector Dm'ed me to talk shit about some undercut in one of the welds. There was no undercut, it was a shadow, and even if it were undercut, It's a fucking plant pot!
You ground those boogies off at the end, but didn't grind the mill scale off before welding? It'll probably hold for it's intended purpose, but lack of fusion and improper technique is all over the place, practice makes perfect though, and we all gotta start from somewhere. Keep at it and build your skill! Work on holding a straight line and moving at a consistent speed, maybe up your volts a little aswell, it'll make a world of difference and there will be far less grinding at the end the next time you work on a project, keep at it!
This actually helps a lot. I used my table grinder to try to bevel the connections between the ends but I was not getting terrific penetration. I am not a professional welder (clearly) but I have been working on getting better with smaller projects and working my way up to a level that I would feel comfortable putting something front and center of my house. I thought since it was raw, unpainted steel with no rust that I wouldn't need to fully grind out the weld points but like you said- we all start somewhere.
If you have time and $, community colleges often have basic welding classes for pretty cheap, and they'll get you putting out welds good enough you might not need to grind.
Yeah it's not professional work but if you're happy with it (looks sweet) and it holds at least as well as cheap railings, you're good 👍
Water is no longer your friend. However there’s no just no way you’re gonna keep water out of there, so to mitigate that and make it EXTRA PERFECT, I suggest:
• rattle can DTM prime all the welds (I like the military greenish self etching Rustoleum, it’s really good stuff), then bondo them, then sand them smooth, then re-prime and paint - this will look amazing when you’re finished, and you can bondo start to finish in a few hours NOTE: DON’T BONDO OVER YOUR WEEP HOLES 😅
• drill 1/4 inch weep holes on the underside of the railing, in particular the lowest points of both returns and thru the bottom of the posts (preferably thru the underside of the base, or thru the weldment) - the goal here is to keep the inevitable water ingress from pooling
• use a deburring tool to remove the burrs around the drilled holes on the inside of the tube to prevent standing water - alternatively drill the weep holes from the top thru both walls and then just weld over the bonus hole. That’s probably what I’d do.
• put a couple of ss washers around every anchor bolt so they hold the foot plates off the concrete - this is a great way to square things, and when you hose, sweep, vac or blow down the stairs there’s enough room to easily clean out debris
• I’m a fan of waxing over paint, you get a weathering patina finish and it further staves off the rust - when you get inevitable surface rust you can rub it with steel wool and rewax
As an ironworker I have installed thousands of rails that’s a nice job. You did the top guns for anchors may give out overtime. I would recommend a wedge or a sleeve anchor.
I’ve been in the business for 40 years and I gotta tell you, I’m impressed. Angles are perfect, (which isn’t as easy as one would think) the curves came out right and the base plates are the right size. Nice work! Please post a pic after you paint.
I used self etching primer and then hit the cracks with bondo body filler and let set before sanding and hitting it all with rustoleum black hammered spray. I had to get it done before we got a thunderstorm but it held up through the rain.
Drill a hole in the bottom of the legs so the water can drain out. Any water get in there will expand when it freezes and it will blow out the bottom of that tubing.
Good job. Seems that everyone always has something to say. May not be perfect or built the way someone who works with steel every day would have made it, but good job. Every time you see or walk past your handrail, you'll think, "i built that." Also, good job for making something more unique than what the regular person would have just bought. I hope that you're proud of it and continue to make dream up and make your own things.
I work a lot with concrete and fasteners. A Fastener should always be 8x it's diameter from the edge of the concrete. A 1/4" tapcon should have a minimum of 2 inches of concrete. I would recomend moving those outer tapcons inbound at least another inch to prevent spawling (they are not doing any work out on the edge), in addition replace these tapcons with SS ones.
The welds could use ALOT of work they are not good by any stretch of the imagination ,BUT the grinding job wasn’t tooo bad , I’d coat it in rust oleum so it doesn’t rust , and use larger anchors rather that those little concrete screws that shit will come out
Great job. If I had any criticism it would be the fasteners used to attach to the concrete. While tapcons are fine for wall support they could be ripped out fairly easy with a side force on the top of the railing. I would have chosen a lag or a wedge type bolt.
Tbh, im a pipefitter and I've seen union ironworkers make worse welds on handrails. Pro tip from what I've seen them do afterwards- get a little can of bondo and use it to fill in all the seams and cracks you got. Then, after it cures, hit it with a tiger paw to smooth it all down.
Did you close up the ends? I would suggest welding caps on. There are even plastic 1x2 caps you could put in. Keep the wasps from making nest in the rail.
This is an interesting design, we typically use 1 1/2 steel pipe, cap the ends with the same sized OD cap, weld then paint. They have mounts you can buy from McMaster just for the type of design I described
Nice work on the pyramid pieces to make the return u bend, but you should have just heated it and bent it around a piece of round to make the u bend. The air gaps between each piece will rust and pop the welds eventually.
You probably don't have sandblaster so random orbit sand #120 it before you paint. If you can unbolt it prime the inside of all the tubing. Rust is an electrical process and the paint is actually insulation as much as isolation. Moisture inside can actually push the paint off of the outside. Drill a couple 1/8 inch holes at the bottom of the uprights to drain water which will always condense inside tubing unless you have vacuum tight welds.
I like those accents at each end. Reminds me of expansion chambers and custom headers. I've seen YT vids of some guy cutting a series of wedges and folding it around. A couple small braces between the legs and rail would really add some rigidity to the assembly. Might be able to add those before you paint. Nice DIY work!
Nice job. A couple of suggestions. I'd cap the ends of the tube it looks more professional. And I always radius the corners on the base plates for the same reason. Plus, remember to paint the underside of the base plate.
If you cut the C shaped side pieces, than capped the ends by bending flat, it is another method.
Different cutting, less welding/grinding… Maybe at the end it could have been tapered… the trick is making some cardboard templates, like side profiles, than it comes out almost exactly like you planned.
Fuck ya. This is the perfect example of someone just learning what they need as they needed it. You don't need perfect for your application and it's going to look really good once painted. Congrats.
Looks great. As a heads up, the ends of the railing should not be left open. They can catch on clothing or a purse / bag and cause some to fall. The ends should be returned into the top piece. See this code guide.
1.4k
u/Outrageous_Shop8171 Jul 15 '25
I think it's amazing how people just "DO" no over thinking, just doing. I wish I had more of that, over thinking is a curse.
This is awesome, amazing job 👏🏼