Timber Framing time again

[AndyR]

Just a few pics from my latest project. The Timber Framer's Guild built this hammer-beam frame during the last 2 weeks at the Russell-Colbath Hoestead on the Kancamangus highway in the White mountain National Forest, NH. We had a 25 KW deisel generator on-site for power (no AC in that section of the forest) that was very quiet. Big frame, lots of work, great time.

 

[AndyR]

Here a shot of the frame 2 days before the raising. Some of the assembled bents (vertical sections) are in the background and the pieces of a few other are in the ofreground. our dyas started with a 6:30 AM breakfast and ended with a 7:30 dinner (plus the "tech support" aka beer time in the evening).

 

[AndyR]

Almost ready for bent 5

 

[AndyR]

Time exposure of the almost complete frame. The blue dot is form someone's LED light. Lighting provided by a hand-held spotlight (soemwhere around 1 million candlepower is you believe the ads). Tough to get the digital to focus in low light situations.

 

[Slamfire]

I complement you on the choice of cranes, an uncle of mine was a plant manager for Link Belt in Birmingham, AL before he retired.

 

[RobS]

Cool pics Andy! Give us more detail on the project. Obviously not your own house, right? What will it be and what will it be used for? Looks like a lot of time involved. How long has it been in the making? Details please /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[Boondox]

A timber frame barn is my dream! We have a custom post and beam outfit just on the other side of the mountain. Unfortunately, all they sell are package deals with stress skin walls and roofs. No ventilation at all. Great for a house, but fatal for sheep!

Does your company do business in Vermont?

Pete

 

[AndyR]

This project was a colaboration of the Timber Framer's Guild and the Forest Service. Most of the timber was from trees felled on the site. We started on 2 September with a grading workshop on the raw timbers and were just about completed on 14 September when I left. The frame is a 6 bent hammer-beam with adjoining shed roofs. Hammer-beam frames are what you see in the pictures of the old European cathedrals - the ones with massive side walls of stone. When such a frame is built with timber only, special care must be taken to assure that the side loads are handled correctly. The crew consisted of a mix of seasoned professionals, amateurs and some rank beginners. Joinery often needed to be accurate to about a 32nd of an inch or so - which can be challenging at times. The influx of additional help that we expected on the weekend of the 7th and 8th never appeared so we had even more work to do. It makes for an interesting sound to walk out of the woods and hear 8 routers, 5 chain mortisers, 3 drills and assorted other mallet whacking and the like! (not to mention the big juice box - the generator). Hard work, good friends, plenty to eat and drink and darn near perfect weather - it doesn't get much better then that.

 

[AndyR]

So far the "company" is just me - and I can't take on any more work until I get our own house finished. As you can see from the attachment I am working on a small village as it is. Behind the trailer is the biggest part - a 40x80 barn that I'll be taking down in order to repair the frame. I'll be sending invites for those work parties far and wide when I get to that section!

I know what you mean about livestock sheds though. I turned down a free barn in Mass. becuase I didn't have the time to get to it this year. An old tobacco barn, it would have made a great couple of machine and livestock sheds.

 

[Boondox]

Count me in! If I have the time when you get ready all that work would be worth it just to see how those beauties went together!!!

Pete