Peter

I am building a new hand rail for my stairs. The railing will go around the stairwell on the upper floor level which will be a big ‘U’ shape about 4′-0″ wide by 9′-0″ long, then wrap around to go down along the slope of the stair, one continous railing connected with miter joints. instead of vertical ballisters it will have horizontal pieces of wood about 3″ on center to serve as the guard (there will be smaller vertical members to support the horzontal members). There will be 11 continous horzontal members. My question is how do I finish it? I would like to finish as much as possible in my shop  because I will be using oil base poly and it will certainly stink up the house and collect some dog hair. I am concerned that if i apply the finish before installing it some of the poly will get on the end grain of the miter joints causing a less then perfect joint. I can probably assemble the big ‘U’ shape portion before finishing and installing it but I will need to connect that to the sloping rail for the stair. So how would I protect the ends to be mitered from getting stain and poly on them?

I am using hard maple and will be dowling and gluing the miter joints.

Thanks

Brad