Another Barn Raising

[AndyR]

If anybody is interested, there will be a barn raising this Saturday at the Northfield Mount Hermon school in Mass. Details are here. The students at the school have been working on cutting the frame and will be assisted this week by folks from the Timber Framers Guild working to help finish things and raise the frame Saturday. I'll try to snap a few photos.

 

[AndyR]

OK here are a few photos of the raising. This is Saturday morning about 5:30 AM, the bents are assembled and we are getting ready to raise the frame (while others continue to work on the roof rafters). Being inside the whole thing I didn't have much time during the activity but I think you will get the general idea. The barn is 40 x 80 and more pictures can be found at the <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.tfguild.org/rendezvous/nmh502sat_raising1.html>TFG website</A>

 

[AndyR]

OK - I'll try to post these in order.

Friday morning in "plateland" (Plates are those long member joining the vertical assemblies known as bents. A number of folks have been working on the frame since Monday, while the lead instructor has been working with the students all winter (mainly on posts). This shot is at about 6 AM as the big puch is on to complete as much as possible for the next day's raising.

 

[AndyR]

The almost empty foundation on Friday morning.

 

[AndyR]

This is "plateville" about mid-day friday. Some of the plates tie the bents (vertical sections) together and some also accept rafters (many, many mortises)

 

[AndyR]

By the end of the day we were all still working at max speed to get the frame finished. Bear in mind that a lot of this is very sharp tools and really big power tools so safety is foremost at all times. Friday night we worked till near nidnight. The attached shows work on the last bent after the floodlights came out.

 

[AndyR]

Here is Tom Southworth using my chain mortiser (think of a cross between a wide electric chainsaw and a plunge router).

 

[AndyR]

Lunch time! The first four bents are up.

 

[AndyR]

Time to get real familiar with the safety harnesses. The folks on top of the structure are required to wear these full body harnesses with lanyard and shock protection.