Address & Phone Information

2511 South Holgate Street

Tacoma, WA 98402

(253) 272-9344 Direct

(888) 372-9344 Toll Free

(253) 627-3843 Fax

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American Metal Specialties builds stainless cable railings for use in aluminum, stainless steel, wooden, or steel post railing systems.

We serve the entire U.S. including Alaska and Hawaii and can arrange shipments internationally.

Foothills east of Seattle

This is a very nice cable railing job installed in a new house using our standard aluminum railing package with custom paint and 3/16" cable along with extra fittings (turnbuckles) to enhance the look of the system. The house was unfinished at the time of these photos.

These photos show the way we handle the corners to minimize fittings and keep costs down. With this length of cable a turnbuckle is not needed since threaded studs at each end of the cable do the job nicely even through two 90 degree turns. Special grommets allow the cable to slide easily during the tightening process.

Note on the stairs that we started and stopped the cables at the top post. The cables started at the bottom post with "Deck Toggles" which allowed the cable to angle upward and did not require another grouping of off-set holes. Note how the top of the railing called the "Grip Railing" passes over the mid-post which is a code requirement so the hand can pass smoothly along the entire length of the railing while going up or down the stairs.

The last photo at the bottom shows measuring the cut point on cable. In this case the depth of the cable bored hole in the marine fitting was 1-1/2". Since we needed enough threaded stud showing on the other side to do the adjusting and were using posts that are 2-3/8" square, it was determined that marking the cable with a magic marker on the cable side of the post was the ideal length for this application. We like all the adjustment that we can get and initially only needed enough thread showing to allow one flat washer and the nut to be installed. Keep in mind that you need to add a second nut to cut off the excess stud, remove that (acts as a thread chaser) and then add a cap nut which is locked onto the original nut. By marking all the cables that way we could easily measure and cut all the cables prior to installing the threaded studs.

(Click any thumbnail for a closer look.)