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That time I misread a dimension by 1/8 inch on a steel frame
Was working on a stair railing job in Portland last month. I marked the landing post at 42 inches instead of 42 1/8 and cut the handrail to match. When I went to dry fit it, the whole thing sat 1/8 inch low and the top rail didn't line up with the wall bracket. Had to fab a shim plate and weld it on site to fix the gap. Has anyone else had to patch a cut that was just barely off like that?
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angelar571mo ago
Weld on a shim plate and hope nobody checks with a level later.
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piperb931mo ago
Man that sucks, @angelar57 nailed it with the level check thing. I did something similar on a commercial handrail job in Seattle last winter - cut a stringer 1/8 short for a set of steel stairs and spent an hour grinding down a piece of flat bar to wedge in there. The worst part was I had already drilled the bolt holes before I realized the mismatch, so I had to slot them out with a file. Shim plate fix works but it always bugs me knowing it's there.
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hugo_schmidt1mo ago
...and the thing is, once you know it's there you can't unsee it. That shim plate might hold fine for 50 years but you'll stare at it every time you walk past. I did a job once where I had to shim a whole post base because the concrete guy poured the footer an inch high. Ended up using a stack of washers and a grinder to get it perfect. Still bugs me when I drive by that house. But hey, at least you caught it before the inspector showed up, right?
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