Cold Steel

If you haven't seen Kill Bill, this post's pop cultural references will be lost on you.

After fruitlessly spinning my wheels on my stair design for a few more weeks, I finally got a sound design on paper.  I'd like to tell you I did it all by myself, but I'd be BS'ing you.  The truth of the matter is that a good friend of mine--who happens to be far smarter than I--took pity on me and designed the stairs for me.  This friend will remain anonymous, but you know who you are....thanks, buddy!

Mono-stringer staircase designed to perfection....compliments of a very intelligent and benevolent friend

With an actual design to work from, I was finally in a position where I could start buying raw materials.  I asked around and the unanimous recommendation was that I buy my materials from the folks at Pacific Steel.

I'd never been in a steel yard before....I found it fascinating.  Walking though the yard, it was hard to avoid distraction...everywhere I looked there seemed to be pieces of steel just begging to be made into something special.

If you are ever feeling less than manly, just go walk around this place for 15 minutes wearing a hard hat...you'll instantly experience a testosterone surge (this goes for you also, ladies).

After wiping the drool from my bottom lip, I made my way to the special order desk.  It was time to get what I had come for:  cold steel.
 

"I need Japanese Steel"

Unlike the bride, however, I didn't have to travel to Japan nor did I have to guilt a Japanese Sushi chef into making it for me...I just had to hand over my spec sheets and Visa card.  A week later, a very large truck driven by a very large man arrived at my home with my very large beam.

 Of course, the first thing I asked when he arrived was "how do we get the beam off the truck?"  The answer was multiple choice:

1.  A fork lift...if you have one
2.  Gravity

Sadly, I don't own a fork lift.  Needless to say, I opted for gravity.  At a rate of 9.8 m/s^2, the beam was "relocated" to my front yard:

4' x 8' wide-flange i-beam

With the help of 3 very good friends, we man-handled the beam into my shop before it killed any grass and perhaps more importantly, before my wife killed me.  The following week, I picked up the remainder of my order:

3/8" thick mild steel riser wedges, tread supports, and both the header and footer plate

The custom pieces you see above were actually cut up in Pocatello...each piece will be welded in place to support the staircase's wooden treads.  With all my materials on hand, the only thing left was to get busy making this cold steel hot...but that's another post for another day.