Just When You Think Your Getting the Hang Of It!

                     

I decided to use my SYP 4x6's because they were stronger than the cypress plus they were kiln dried so maybe they would be stronger but since they aren't square and the dimensions weren't 4x6, they gave me fits. Also after doing the 3,4, 5 rule to get the beams square with the tie beam and marking the braces,  I measured the distance between the post at the base and realized I was 1/2 of an inch off. I still havn't figured this one out but believe I got it close enough to make it work.

Apparantly I didn't measure and mark it enough!

Back to the Bents

The Bents are the vertical post and the horizontal tie beam. When completed they kinda look like football goalpost. This is my second set of handles, Looks like time for a new one.

My Drawings, Again.

                                                                     
    It is so much easier to cut the Cypress than the Southern Yellow Pine, and so much straighter and stable. I know I keep going on about it but my joints usually fit or are pretty close the first time around. Expecially when two pieces come together as in the Wedged Half  Dovetail Mortise and Tenon used to connect the Tie Beam to the Post. Don't get me wrong, I love Southern Yellow Pine, it smells great and strong but I'll leave the SYP for those who are more talented than me.

Pics of Me cutting a Dovetail Mortise. Not necessarily the best way but it works!

One slip and it's all over!

All my 6x6 floor joist stacked on the right and on just beside them on the left will be the sills.

Dreaming of retirement!

Finishing up the Floor, Almost!

Wedged 8x8 Scarf Joint Rafter with 4x6 Purlins Demo

Couple of Pics after I worked on fitting the joint tighter, wedging it and cutting out for the purlins.

Wedge Scarf Joint mystery explained!

Really no mystery but sounded good. As I stated this joint will not be supporting a live load and only Purlins (4x6) every 2ft. o.c., plywood and metal roof. Next time I'll turn the music in the background down a bit.

Wedged Scarf Joint

Since I had a little success with the English Tying Joint I decided to give the Wedged Scarf Joint a try. I Had to use the beam that I had cut up to use as sleepers. Here is the first attempt.

As you  can see in the picture below I will be cutting a 3x4 inch knotch to put a 4x6 inch purlin.

On the lower side of this beam will be a mortise for a brace. The drawing for this joint is pictured below and will be located on the tractor shed side.

Pajama man demonstrates English Tying Joint

Before I started cutting this joint on expensive beams, I decided to give it a try with some spare wood. Glad I did because I didn't realize how hard it was going to be to cut out. This one is a little sloppy but I only have three to do on the barn and I think this helped me to figure it out. Next I'll try the Wedged Scarf Joint which I'll use on the tractor shed side described earlier.

The Tractor Shed Delima.

I call it a delima but I actually enjoy trying to figure out the best way to assemble the joints and their locations for structural purposes. This is the barn rafter and I wanted to use this joint somewhere. I felt since I had already cut the Edge Halved Scarf  with Bridled Butts four times for my sills and would also use this joint for my top plates, I decided to use the Stop splayed scarf with wedges for my rafters over the tractor shed portion of the barn. As I stated earlier I am limited to 12' beams due to the fact that I have to carry them in the back of my pick up. On one hand I it has caused me to have to cut many more joints than normal but has given me more experience also. Since the tractor shed rafter will be approximately 14' long  to cover the tractor and to extend out in order to have protection for wood storage on the north side of the barn,  I plan to use two 8x8 beams and connect them with the stop splayed scarf joint with wedges. I will use 4x6 purlins and 3/4 in. tong and grooved plywood with a metal roof which should be a light load for this joint to carry. As you can see the upper half of the rafter will be supported by the brace and this will also support the connecting end of the other portion of the rafter. The rest of the weight of the second half will be supported by the post. Although this is not the most preferred way, I believe it will work for my purposes and give me more headroom. I believe this is known as the Colonial version. The reason I used the Edge Halved Scarf with Bridled Butts, especially on the top plates is that this joint resist twisting. I was afraid that any outward thrust of the rafters resting on the top plate would cause it to rotate and the splayed scarf would not resist the twisting as much. Since there is no live load and a light roof then the tractor shed rafter might be a great place to practice using this joint. I love the way driving a wedge in the square in the middle causes the joint to tighten. My biggest decision is the exact placement of the brace and mortise for the purlins so that I would not weaken the joint. The mortise for the purlins will be a lap joint and only cut into the rafter 3" which will enable the purlins to extend out a minimum of 2' past the rafter.

Questioning My Sanity, Again!

Since no one is reading this blog I guess maybe it is therapeutic for me to write about this. I am constantly asking myself why? I guess because when I tell people what I  am doing they ask me, Why? As I look at the floor system I am currently working on I still have to cut out the dovetail mortise for my current sill which shouldn't take too long. Then I have three more sills to cut and make fit and then there will be all the dovetail tenons for the 6x6 floor joist. Then when I get everything to fit and all squared up on my test fitting I will have them all numbered and then stacked. I figure I will have a stack of wood which will weigh about 3500 lbs. cost somewhere in the ballpark of $1300, not to mention all the $$$ I laid out for the tools. Can't forget about the new truck to carry and pull this stuff. I will then have to get a tag for my dual axle trailer and drive it down from Georgia, about 8 hrs. I will then load it up, drive back to Ga. and stack it neatly (somewhere), and out of the weather until I can assemble it at some later date. That is if it hasn't warped to the shape of a pretzel. All of this for a basically small building of about 11' x 20' inside with an 8' porch which will have a loft accessible from the inside via a ladder. To complete the barn look there will be a wing on each side. On the north side will be a shed for my tractor and wood storage, and on the south will be the future greenhouse for my wife. Boy is this going to be alot of work.
    Here are some of my latest pics. In the first pic you are looking down the full length of the sill on one side. It is 28' total in length. I am almost finished with the whole floor and will assemble it and hopefully have photo's. I am planning on video taping the assembly.

Testing, testing and more testing. I believe that the only way these beams won't fit together after all this testing (on assembly day) is I end up with some unexpected shrinkage and warpage. My fear is when it comes time to put it together and it doesn't fit. I'm almost tempted to assemble it myself to save myself some embarrassment. I've actually read about guys who have done this with old fashioned gin poles. I intend to make one anyway to help with the lifting of the bents whether I do it myself or not. 

I made a testing tenon for the post out of scrap wood. This turned out to be a great idea. I ended up having to do quite a bit of work on the mortise of the upper and lower portion of this joint. I just love the way the post tenon goes through the top and then the bottom and locks it all together. Once fully assembled and pegged this will be an incredibly strong joint.

Chloe our mini Australian Shepard is ready for a trip to Pine Mountain Ga. It was a very quick trip due to we had to deliver a bike to our daughter at college in Gainsville Fl. She left her old bike unlocked for about an hr. and it just rode away!

Back in the Saddle

     Well it's still warm outside but I've been fortunate to have some overcast days to hide the blazing sun so I mozied out to the garage to see if I could get anything accomplished. After butchering the last beam I was a little gun shy about cutting up another one at $105 bucks a pop. Needless to say I was very very careful. Since part of my problem is the awkwardness of the 16" Makita and the way it easily wanders, I decided to begin by making a first cut with my 7 1/4" Dewalt and follow up with the Makita to cut the 4" depth I needed to get half way through the beam and do the same on the other side. This seemed to work pretty well  but I still needed some plaining after the cut. Here are the results. As you can see I have about an eight of an inch gap and am working on getting it to a 1/16. The top half has a mortise for the post and the bottom half will have a 2" mortise for the 6" post tenon to extend into. This will help hold the two sills together along with the pegs.
   

Cornucopia of Joints

Salvaging my Beam.

Lately the heat has been so bad that I haven't got out to work on the Barn project and my schedule at work hasn't helped. This morning I decided since the sky was overcast and the temperature was in the upper 80's (not the 90's), that now was a good time to take the 8x8 beam that I had made a couple of bad cuts which made it no longer suitable for the sill and cut out a couple of sleepers. As I said earlier the sleepers I believe will look good, help support the joint at the pier and also reduce the height of the concrete pier.

The sleepers will sit on the pier like this with the longer end supporting the joint. I had to plane the ends down after cutting with the 16" makita. I have a love hate relationship with this saw. I have decided since my last sill mess up to always set the depth of the saw to cut approx. 4.5". This would create a slight overlap and allow me to get through with 2 cuts since the 6.25" cut  would still require 2 cuts. Since there was no joint to worry about I didn't have to be accurate and the opposing cuts didn't necessarily have to line up perfectly, although it would have been nice. I'm now thinking about purchasing a slightly smaller saw that will cut a minimum of 4" or purchasing a base for this one which is supposed to be much sturdier than the one from the manufacturer. I believe the Timberframers Guild has one for sale for about $350.

My first Disaster

I knew I wasn't good enough to avoid this from happening sooner or later. I spent alot of time marking these timbers out and trying to understand mentally where they go and how they fit before I begin cutting. It had been approximatly 2 weeks since I had finished the opposing sill and was looking forward to get this one done so I could start cutting the dovetail mortise and tenons for the floor joist and get the second bay completed. After being out of town for a tough five days I was ready to start cutting and begin decompressing from my job. Instead of waiting for a cooler day I decided to make the major cuts to get started. Well due to either being tired, out of the zone since it had been two weeks since working or the extreme heat, I got sloppy and basically ruined my 8x8x12. Instead of cutting outside the line, I cut the line out on one side and on the other side I forgot to set the depth of the blade and this beam basically became scrap. I did decide to use the remains for sleepers under these joints for support.  Hopefully the sleepers will also reduce the height of the sono tube piers for a more asthetically pleasing foundation.
     I think I may have to wait untill it gets a little cooler until I can ramp back up again. I don't mind sweating but the heat and humidity here in Florida is pretty bad. Hopefully it will start getting cooler around September.

Getting Crowded!

As I showed earlier I have the rear bay floor system completed. I am currently working on the sills of the middle bay. As you can see in the pic I have one beam laid out and the dovetail mortise and the edge halved scarf joint with bridled butts cut. Next to it is the opposing sill which will have the dovetail mortise for the other end of the dovetailed floor joist. This will be the second bay inside floor system but there will be another short 8ft. bay for a porch that will have a loft accessible from the inside.  I hope this doesn't look too awkward when finished. I'm thinking of using floor joist hangers on the porch area because I keep picturing water filling up and causing all kinds of problems in my dovetail joints. Not sure how the Amish did this. Beside the floor system is one pine bent with braces (pictured earlier) and 3 more 8x8 sills. I still need to purchase about eight more 6x6's to complete the floor system. As you can see it is getting crowded in the garage! Once this is completed, squared and all joint are test fitted I plan to load them up and haul them to Georgia where they will sit stacked and covered in a makeshift tarp quansenhut sort of structure made out of pvc and sil nylon. Boy do I hope this all works out and the joints fit after the wood cures! Here are Pics below.

July Visit.

My wife usually doesn't make the trip with me when I go to work on clearing the land or planting grass. I take my camping equipment and pretty much work the whole time I'm there. The solitude is nice since usually I am pretty tired after working all day and since there is no TV, I find myself thinking or planning or just staying busy fixing my meals, cleaning up or going down to the stream to clean up. It usually gets pretty lonely and after a few days I can't wait to get back home. On this last trip I took my wife, daughter and dog Chloe since the bermuda grass we had planted coming up las time I was there in June and this would have kept the dirt and mud off of everyone, especially the dog. I also wanted my wife to see the wildflowers I had mixed in with the bermuda grass seed. Some areas did better than others so here are some Pics.

Finally some straight wood!

     As I stated earlier I had decided to try the cypress that I could get from a sawmill that was much closer which made it easier to go and pick it up in my truck. This also made it easier to manage while moving the timbers around in my garage. The largest beams I order are 12 ft and the 8x8's weigh approximately 300 lbs. a piece.
     My next step was to begin the floor system. Originally as you can probably see in the drawings I had planned to put a barn on a slab. This would have been my preferred method but since I don't have any good level spot on my land and also since I intend it to be a shop while building and then a studio later I decided to have a pier foundation. I would have preferred to put the building on a stone foundation but this was something I just don't feel I can take on at this time. I envisioned the rock giving way and the building sliding off the foundation. I decided to go with sleepers on top of sonotubes.  Building the floor system would cause quite a bit of extra work for myself since I would have to cut the floor joist mortise and tenons but if I ever did decide to build a small home this would be good experience, so here goes.  The original plans called for 4x6 floor joist that just dropped into a square mortise but I decided to use 6x6 joist with dovetail joints. Pictured below is a pic of the rear bay. One thing that I have found very helpful are what has been called ponies. I now nave about eight of them and the floor system is sitting on four. The corner joints are called blind mortise and tenon joints.

Ponies made from plans in book are pictured above. I now have eight of these. I'm using them to support my floor system while I assemble it in my garage. I also use them to support beams while cutting. I like the height.

Decisions, Decisions

     Being of little experience like myself I have found there are many decisions to make. These range from the kind of Chisels, saws, type of pegs and maybe the most important is the type of wood to use. Due to the fact that I live in Florida I have found that Cypress is the most available. I started out wanting to use southern yellow pine because I thought it would be stronger and I liked the smell. The SYP timbers I got for the sawhorse were mostly fatwood which really smelled good but made it extremely heavy and hard to work with. The saws gummed up with resin and it was hard to chisel. It also checked and shaked so badly that I believe it would basically be unusable. Since the saw horses I have found a sawmill less than an hour away but they only sell cypress. This stuff is green and very heavy  due to the water content. When sawing through the wood or chiseling I have noticed water seeping from the wood. It also smells like pickles, not the way I wanted my wood to smell. The positives are the wood is extremely square and sizes are accurate, no parallelograms like the southern yellow pine I had previously purchased which needed to be planed down to square. The cypress also seems to have little grain run out and very few knots so it seems to be a very good choice for my situation.

  

     Above are my first beams I cut were (2) 8x8 post with an 8x10 time beam with Wedged half dovetail joints into the post. Here I used the last of the southern yellow pine I ordered. This stuff drove me nuts because of the uneven sides. The rest of the bents will be cut from cypress.

    As you can see in the pic above I would leave my chisels in the sawdust box. I found this practice to be a bad idea. Apparently moisture from the wood will cause the chisels to corrode. I now take them out and rub them down with a light oil.

Above is a picture of my chisels, a purple heart mallet (good for driving pegs),  ironwood mallet framers square, forstner bit, plane, and a Belgium whet stone for sharpening chisels. Not shown are a 16" Makita timber saw and  a 6" Makita planer. Pictured below is the Makita 1/2" drill. I also have several hand saws which the only one that I can't do without is a 12" Japanese saw which is extremely sharp and cuts on the pull stroke. I need a 24" japanes saw but havn't found one. The square is called "Big Al" which can be purchased on the Timber Framers Guild website. It is great for laying out beams. It's best characteristic for me is it lays flat on the beam while marking.

Above is The Makita drill, ironwood mallet and chisels which I purchased from Barr Specialty Tools. 

  I have to mention my Ironwood mallet which I use when chiseling. This thing is incredibly hard and I like the way it feels in my hand. It is in the pic above by the makita drill with a 2" forstner bit.