This sounds reasonable Ralph, but you are an Archeeeeetect.  Can we get 
a Carpenter to confirm?

-jc

On Apr 9, 2004, at 6:01 PM, [log in to unmask] wrote:

> In a message dated 4/9/2004 5:53:29 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
> [log in to unmask] writes:
> So?  How difficult is it to disassemble a newel post, stair rail and
>  the spindles?  What are the challenges?
> Spindles shouldn't be too bad; you pry the nosings off the stringers, 
> and then have to worry about whether the tops of the balusters are 
> nailed in, in addition to being set into holes on the underside of the 
> handrail.  The dovetails in the bottom of the balusters will probably 
> have been nailed in place.  I don't know that there's any avoiding 
> splitting some of the tops of the nailed balusters, so you'll have to 
> do it carefully and then reglue them.  Then you gotta take the 
> handrail off the newels, and that joint may be nailed or bolted 
> together, so be real careful.  Once you get the handrails off (they 
> can be held with some sort of weird bolt with nuts at both ends, so 
> you may want to do some strategic paint stripping at joint lines 
> before hand), then you gotta figure out how to get the newel off 
> whatever floor joists it's attached to (probably bolted), without 
> (preferably) destroying the finish and subfloors.  
>   
> Then all you gotta do is put it back together.  There must be an Old 
> House Journal article on this somewhere--- and OLD one, not from the 
> current advertiser.
>  
> Ralph