Found it on the curb, and I liked the design. Looks like solid wood, but the joints are all coming apart and look tricky to reinforce. Would you bother?
this post was submitted on 15 Nov 2024
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If you have the time there's no harm, but you're probably going to want to disassemble the steps to repair it halfway well.
Depending on the weight of the person/people who will be be using it, you might want to rethink the design or make the steps out of something thicker/beefier. Since the two treads are essentially cantilevers, the riser and torque is all that's prevent the far end of either step from collapsing. I don't think a butt joint is good enough here, even if it has a backer (as the pictures show). A finger joint between the treads and the riser, with many smaller fingers, is probably your best bet. You'll probably want a table saw and a jig/slead to cut them, unless you're familiar with a good alternative and/or have the skill and time to do it with hand tools.
I think this is made from an exceptionally hard wood. It looks a lot like walnut or pecan. I would be concerned about cutting across the grain with a powered saw causing chipping and ruining the piece. I think I would repair the current joint and add a center leg or probably a leg on both sides to support that joint.
I just made a table saw box joint jig, I like the idea of using that to redo the joints on this.
And thanks for the word of caution about chipping on very hard wood, maybe I can test on a small area.
If so else fails, some nice scrap wood for making splines.