I designed and milled a pair of bespoke solid brass brackets to put the finishing touch on a custom railing project I made for a client in Minneapolis.
The powder-coated railing set includes four pieces: a straight rail, stair rail, hand rail, and gate. Once we had it all installed and mounted, the handrail was making a tiny squeak noise when it would flex and rub against the paint on the wall where the handrail returns just barely touched the wall. So I pitched these to the client as a solution to tighten up those returns while adding a classy finishing touch. They also match a couple other brass bits on the gate — the washer bushings and grease zerks.
I designed the brackets as a simple rectangular surround with radius edges. The top bracket is vertically-oriented to meet the horizontal return, and the lower bracket matches the angle of the lower return.
Here are some photos from the milling process.
