Second Frame

I'm sad today, but trying to put on a brave face. Leaving the mountains and the activity I enjoyed was difficult to say the least. Anyway, I wanted to show everyone the second building my class completed. This structure went up as a bent meaning it has three sections connected together by secondary members. There are three views of it and as big as the pieces look as a photograph, they are much larger in real life. Most of the bigger members were 8x12 inch members and were upwards of 20 feet long. This was a beautiful building and I was proud to be part of the team that constructed it.

Well, that is my last timber framing blog. I hope everyone enjoyed this. Thank you to all who supported me throughout my adventure.

THE CHAINSAW MASCARADE

This is definitely an operation I wanted no part of . On this highly disturbing video is a man who is using a chainsaw at 10 feet up standing on nothing but a 4x10 rafter. Although his work is incredibly precise, his method parallels insanity. DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME!

Raising the Chalet

Finally, the day came to raise the chalet. As can be seen above, all of the finished timbers were placed on the high lift truck and moved to the site where the building was to be raised. We began by using a transit level to make equal and level stones to place the main posts of the building on. Finally we began to raise each of the main walls, tie beams and finally the ridge plate. All that work and the actual building only takes about a day to raise. It was a great feeling! Best of all, despite being high up around pieces that weigh 350 pounds, no one was injured.

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I have not posted a blog, regarding timber framing, in some time as we have been busy working on our class project. We are building two structures, a chalet and a bent. The milling for the bent started two and a half weeks ago (see 1). I spent so much time working on the sawmill I actually became very proficient at it.

Then came what seemed like days of planing and joinery as in 2 and 3 above. My chisel and I became well acquainted and it had to be sharpened twice. We finally got all the pieces finished and were ready to start raising our first building, the chalet!

The Chisel

Here is the most important tool a timber framer needs, the chisel. This is one of the finest The Barr chisel. It is hand hammered and tempered and should outlast its owner. Upon receiving it and spending the whole night by its side, I made it a nice case using denim as a material. Total cost 70 cents and some money for the chisel.

Plans Realized

You may have been wondering if I was ever going to build anything. Here it is,

a sawhorse was my first project. the top picture shows all the pieces hand cut by yours truly and the two bottom pictures are of me next to the finished work. I changed my hairstyle a bit and remodelled my face for the second shot. It's a terminator 2 thing. It was great to complete this project and have all the pieces I designed fit together like a puzzle. Notice the beauty of the wooden pegs. No Nails or metal fasteners of any type hold this sawhorse together.

Turning Plans into Reality

Remember those nice plans I posted, this is the beginning of making those plans reality. Here, I have made the tenon for my sawhorse. You will notice it is the same joint as in the house above. Bigger projects are to come involving these basic skills. Who knows where this will lead in the future. With a growing population and people wanting to build bigger and bigger houses there will likely be no wood left for me to work with but what I am building in my head is outstanding.

STARTING SMALL

It is amazing how complicated the most simple looking things are when we try to fully describe them on a piece of paper. We all know what a sawhorse looks like, and what really do they do other than hold up objects to build even better objects? Moofut and I had a long night trying to layout a sawhorse graphically. I only hope building it will be a snap. Moofut is very good at holding rulers and he doesn't need any sleep or food of any kind. He really makes me jealous. I think of all the great things I could do if I was like him!

Timber Frame Example

This answers the question, "What is Dustin doing again?". This is the structure that the spring session built. It was auctioned off and we were surprized that it was still on the campus. When Dustin gets home from school today, we will be able to tell you a little more about what to expect from his course.