Rail top prep

Now that we have done this a few times (the 15-degree angled rails and bench supports), we sort of have the routine down--and maybe we can count on having the rail heights exactly what we want as we build them, and not have to cut their tops down.  As you might imagine, cutting consistent angles is very tricky, so...

that's where these babies come in handy.  They don't look like much, but they save a lot of time and hassle.  I invested probably a couple of hours back in 2010, and these two jigs create sawing guides for my circular saw--all the angles are pretty darned accurate, the short one for the bench supports and the longer one for the bench-less rails.

I just clamp the jig onto the assembly (praying that I have got the angle of the darned thing right, as it is bolted in with a mongo bolt below the deck surface), and then run the saw zip, zop to peel off a couple of small parallelogram-shaped pieces of 2 x 4.

And here's the jig for the bench support, with one of the blocks on the deck next to the other unit (unfortunately the blocks have a tendency to fly off into the rose bush...).

This shot shows the non-bench part of the deck (though bench supports could be added pretty easily to these uprights).  The far corner is one of those brain-teaser math problems: for the heights and the slats to match up as they come together with a 15 degree rake on each, the apex has to be angled at 22.5 degrees--and I make it a little shorter, so I can support the mitered corner more completely.  Farther to the left, I had to figure out how to make the rail meet the stairway post, and I think this will work out fine.

For some reason this detail tickled me.  Tom and I weren't sure how best to connect the angled rail to the vertical corner of the house, and I am not 100% sure this is the final answer.  I ended up lashing a 15 degree support to the corner, but it looked weird all alone.  Then I thought, why not add a block at the top?  And then, maybe a bit too whimsically, I whipped out the Skil saw and cut a super steep wedge to fit along the edge, parallel to the other support, so that it almost looks as if the support disappears into the siding.