More Pieces

With another load of beams in hand, things are rolling now. I picked up the beams last weekend, and immediately put anchorseal on all the ends to hopefully minimize cracking. The plan is to build the rest of the first floor, less the floor joists by the end of June. I think if I really bust my ass, I can get it done, but we will see.














I'm fairly well prepared- all of the knee braces are built, and should be exactly the same to make installation easier.














My plan this time around is to mass produce all of the same parts at once, and then assemble it. This should make things go faster, and will probably lead to fewer mistakes. As of this weekend, I am working on posts, and have almost 4 of the remaining 6 done.














We also got the final rafter up on the completed bent. It will need some adjustment for the final installation, but all in all, I think it looks pretty good.

It Stands

Had a very productive weekend. Most of bent number one is standing in the shop. Eventually, three of the four bents can stand up inside. It's pretty exciting to see it standing. Alan, thanks for the help, I couldn't have done it without you.














Above is the first piece of the second floor. Everything is ratchet-strapped to the green I-beams for support.














Above is the finished first floor. That was the easy part. There are two overhead cranes that run on three phase power that came in handy for the rest of the pieces. Too bad there's currently no three phase power to operate them. But that's OK; come-alongs worked well.














That's me using a come-along to get the first piece of the second floor into position.














The rafter above was a lot of work to get into position. We had a few come-alongs on the beam to make it tilt. I have no idea how much it weighs- but it's a lot.














With the rafter finally in place; there's me again for perspective as to how big the frame is. I was a little worried that the knee braces would be too low, and that tall people would hit their heads. I'm about 6'1", and have room to spare, so that was a relief. If by chance someone does whack their head, they're too tall anyway, so it'll serve them right.

Bent is finished

Finally finished bent #1. Only three to go, plus all the joists and purlins. I think with the warmer temperatures and little bit of experience I now have, the rest will go quicker.














Above are the final pieces of bent #1. The joints where the two beams join are called scarf joints, and are a lot of work to make. There is no simple way to do it, and much of the work is done by hand. If you zoom in on the picture, you can see how it works- you drive a wedge in from each side at the middle of the joint, and they're almost impossible to get apart. (Especially when you only have access to one side. Don't ask how I know this.)

The reason I had to do scarf joints in the first place was because logs ~18 feet long are hard to come by, but 16 feet are fairly common. For the next three bents I'm going to find logs 18 feet long if I have to cut them down myself. It will be much quicker.














So here's a shot of the completed bent. Not too bad hey? Unfortunately, I am now out of beams. My sawyer doesn't have my next order complete yet, and is actually trying to find logs big enough. So, I picked up a bunch of wood to make all the knee braces I will need, so I will have them in inventory as I go. I will probably grab some lumber this weekend and try to make a bunch of pegs for when I get to that point. Gotta stay busy.

Faux Pas

So I finally got one of the rafters built. I started off on the wrong foot by putting a mortise an inch off from where it should be, so I glued in a block, and it won't show.














One end of the rafter has a "birds mouth" joint which is a bit of a pain to cut, but finally I got it done. Since the rafter is a bit shorter than what is needed, the other end of this piece has a scarf joint- which is a big pain in the ass to cut.














Above is the Birds mouth joint; and here's the scarf joint:














Below is the rafter installed. I made a router jig to cut in the joints where the purlins will be.














A few more pieces, and this bent will be complete. My next order of timbers is almost done. I'm planning to build the whole first floor, and stand it up inside. When that's done, I'll do the same with the rest of the raters.

On the Money

It's been a slow couple of weeks. Fortunately, this weekend turned out to be sunny and nice, and I got a lot accomplished.














The first thing I did was test fit the queen posts and collar tie. I ran strings where the rafters will sit according to my drawings. Everything lined up perfectly. In fact, I measured from the base of the center post to where the top of the peak will be, and it was only off 1/8 of an inch. Not too bad if you ask me.



















Then I took the whole thing apart, and made the final cuts on the queen posts. Now it reassembled waiting for the rafters. This first bent is almost done. I've also almost worked myself out of beams. I need to place an order so I can continue.

Assembly

Busy weekend- I put together the first floor of bent 1. Since this was the first and I wanted to be extra careful I started by assembling the whole thing without knee braces. When I got everything square, I dry fit the knee braces, and marked where each would fit.














Then I took the whole thing apart, and cut the mortises for the knee braces. Below is a couple pictures of the final assembly with the knee braces installed. Kind of cool to have all the pieces start to look like something.

































Next up will be queen posts, thankfully built from smaller beams. Ten by ten timbers are very heavy to muscle around by hand.

Back to work

This weekend I got quite a bit done. I'm hoping to have the first floor of the bent I'm building ready to assemble soon. I hadn't made any knee braces yet, so it was time. I made a few jigs to make things easier in the future, and whipped out four. There's a farmer down the street who has a small sawmill, and sells some lumber. I picked up some hemlock pieces for next to nothing, and they came out fine. The plan will be to mass produce all I will need for the whole house the next time.














I also have almost completed the girts for the first bent. I had to break down and buy a timber framing chisel from barrtools.com which according to the books I've read are among the best. I bid on a few old ones on Ebay, but they were going for half the price of a new one, plus I'd have to go through turning a new handle. Simpler and probably better to order a new one. I think it will make life much easier for me, as I had been using standard chisels up to this point.

I have a slick to use as well, but you can't hammer on that handle. One of the tenons I made this weekend was on a beam that has a big knot going about lengthwise, and I had a tough time getting the tenon shaped correctly with small chisels and a slick.














This is one of two completed girts. Almost completed anyway, just a few steps left to go. I am a little concerned about the tenons that will mount on the center post. They are only five inches long each; should be OK but I'm still worried. I may rout in a hidden channel between the girts where I could mount a metal plate and lag the two girts together. Probably unnecessary, but will make me feel much better when I can't sleep some night, and am staring at the ceiling.