This week we had a break from the sun and spent our days on the Aprovecho campus in the workshop, building the timber frame for our shed. Our instructor for the week was Bill Sturm from Oregon Timberworks. We got acquainted with a new set of tools, reviewed some trigonometry, and got to work with layout, cutting, and chiseling.
Workshop in the woods
The two main beams for the building
Checking our tools before we get started
We reviewed the math skills needed to layout the knee braces of the frame
John leading the review: Soh cah toa
Drawing out the layout on the knee braces
Tenon marked out
First cuts to begin forming the tenon of the knee brace
Slices made with circular saw in order to clear away material to create the tenon
Completed knee brace
Drilling out mortises
The mortises can be created by hand with a chisel, using a drill (hand or power drill) or a chain mortiser. The chain mortiser is the quickest, but the tool costs something like $2000, so if you’re just building one or two structures, it probably won’t be the tool you invest in.
Chain mortiser
Cleaning out the mortise
Mortise inside
Mortise with peg hole
Test fit-up at the workshop
Notching holes in tenon
Tenon in mortise.
Note: The peg holes are predrilled into the mortise prior to the fit-up. Then, during the fit-up, a drill bit is inserted through the mortise hole and notches a mark in the tenon. Then the tenon is removed and the hole is drilled about 1/16″ proximal to the notch mark, so that during final assembly when the pegs are driven through the holes they will draw the joint tightly together.
Detail of slings used to tighten the frame
Squaring the frame
After disassembling the fit-up frame, we loaded all the pieces onto the truck and headed over to the site to raise the frame.
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