Brad's Timberframe Progress

2010-09-17T00:11:00.002-05:00

Where have I been?...Well I kind of got involved in the political season. I'd been volunteering with the local tea party. In doing so I got to know one of the candidates that we supported, and her campaign manager. About a month ago he tapped me to join their team as campaign/volunteer coordinator. Being unemployed I had time, and being passionate I have the drive. It has been quite an experience so far. I never knew how much went on behind the scenes. I have been barely treading water for the last 4 weeks, but am finally getting a handle on things and am using other volunteers for more and more. I went from getting up when I naturally woke up to early rises and long days. They haven't seemed long though, they fly by. It's so busy which is nice. I've been putting in 10-13 hour days. So I'm in a routine again. It's all good, and we are going to win!

Sheetmetal

2010-07-29T21:51:00.003-05:00

I finally got the sheet metal up. I did it all myself. The ceiling pieces were quite difficult alone, especially the ones with cut outs where multiple things had to be lined up at once, then I had to hold the sheet in place with one hand while grabbing the screw gun with the other and trying to get a screw in the right place. There were some choice four letter words while doing the ceiling, which no child or lady should hear! But I got it done. I put in enough screws to hold them up, but I need to go back and finish adding screws. You can see on the left side some small pieces that need to be screwed up to fill the final open spot. Next will be to finish assembling the overhead door in the foreground, Installing and plumbing the heater, and then lights and electrical.

2010-06-14T20:42:00.002-05:00

I finally finished my shaving horse. This is basically a portable vise to hold a piece of wood while you shave it down with a draw knife. You sit on the rear portion, and activate the vise with your foot on the pedal, pushing it forward, which rotates the dumbhead down, trapping your wood blank. It's used to shave pegs or legs, or whatever you want. The main plank is heart pine, and the rest of the pieces are made from white oak and hickory. It's not totally finished as I still need to sand it and apply some oil and urethane finish, but it's close enough to call done.

2010-05-15T18:59:00.003-05:00

Well, I've continued to work on my barn renovation project. Wall insulation and vapor barriers installed as well as rim boards and ceiling joists. Steel fire rated extra wide walk in door installed(freebie). Over head door tracks are now in. Had to redo both doors due to insufficient clearances. Next: Wall sheetmetal, ceiling vapor barrier, sheetmetal and insulation, heater, lights and a couple outlets, maybe garage door openers.
Here's the forklift I just picked up. It's a '75 Warner&Swasey, 8000lb lift, 24ft lift height. It runs very well, but I need to pull the tilt and side shift hydraulic cylinders for rebuilt, rebuild the seat bracket to reposition the seat. It feels like a very short person was driving it. And I need a new seat or recover the existing one. I also need to make a bar to tie the left and right brake pedals together. We used to have one of these when I was a kid, and I think that one had the brake pedals tied together. This machine is more lift capacity than I need, but I am familiar with this machine. I also don't immediately need such high lift height, but it will likely come in handy later for a timberframe erection.

I modified my engine stand legs to be removable and store on the stand. This makes it store more compactly and take up less space. I also had the stand blasted and powder coated white.
Finally I spent 3 days last week helping install a backyard fence and lay brick pavers along the driveway. Hard work, but we got er done. All for now...

Short blurb.

2009-12-09T17:17:00.003-06:00

Not much to report for now. One overhead door finished in barn, Started putting insulation in. Decided I need to get that in before the ceiling framing. Today temps dropped big time and high winds, below zero with windchill tonight. Been dealing with heating issues all day at other locations. Next few days will be dicey. I did start back to work on my peg shaving horse. Will post a pic when finished. All for now. B.

2009-11-02T19:06:00.003-06:00

Here are some updated pics from this past week of my barn renovation. I had a bad cold that kept me at 50 percent power for a week and a half, but finally got back to work on it this last week. As you can see since last time I had finished housewrapping, and applying the nailer boards and infilling with 3/4 inch foam to fill the voids between. Now I have the original sheetmetal back on(my friend Ryan helped me get that up), and I reused some old used sheetmetal that was from one of the other pole barns. Luckily I had just enough to fill in what I needed. New sheet metal would have cost about $900. They charge a premium, I think because they know you can't get the same interlocking pattern anywhere else. That's why I opted to reuse old stuff that was left over from a repair long ago. I didn't want to spend $900! It's orange and one piece is beige. I plan to paint the sheet metal maroon next spring when it's warm enough, to match the rest of the building.

2009-09-29T15:53:00.003-05:00

It's been pretty busy since my last post, but not a ton to show for it. I have made more progress on my barn renovation. You can see in the photo above that working by yourself, you have to be resourceful. I rigged up an A-frame and a rope to pull up the door framed wall section. It was quite tricky as the bottom had to be slid outside past the door way to clear the inside rafter truss. The bottom was kept from sliding out with anchored chains. Then I had to slide the bottom back inside a bit at a time. Since then I finished the outside sheathing in OSB, housewrapped the whole thing, and installed treated nailers for the sheetmetal. Lastly I filled betwenen the nailers with rigid foam to fill the spaces. I'll add a new post with that pic shortly after this one. I've started to put some of the sheetmetal on, but I'm stuck right now waiting for the door trim to be fabricated, which has to go on before the remaining sheetmetal.
Also, On Aug.22nd I helped with a barn raising in Wisconsin. Craig Roost was in charge of this project(big guy in the bottom photo). It was a hardworking, but enjoying and satisfying day. I was one of the few there with timber experience, but there were a lot of guys working hard and the comradery was a good time.

Pole Barn Rennovation

2009-08-15T21:24:00.002-05:00

For the last month, my cousin and I have been rennovating the end of my shop polebarn. The end of this barn used to be used for cows, but we haven't had cows in probably 10 years now. It was open and I am enclosing it and insulating and heating it for heated storage. This will free up a bunch of my crowded shop space and give me room to be able to timberframe in the winter in my heated shop. You may notice that the new storage area has an epoxy floor. I have wanted to try out Rustoleum's garage floor epoxy system and this was a good opportunity. The concrete was in excellent condition and didn't have any oil due to it's past use. We've had a pretty cool summer here on the farm, except for the last week which has been quite warm. I lose my cousin as he goes back to school this week, so I'm going to have to install the overhead doors, ceiling joists and sheetmetal, insulation, lights and heater myself :(. Here are some before and during pics.

Timberframe Workshop #2

2009-06-13T23:38:00.003-05:00

Last week I went out to Idaho for a weeklong timberframing workshop. This was my second timberframe workshop. This one taught square rule layout (my last class taught mill rule). Snap line square rule was also demonstrated, as well as French scribe, which I now understand. This will allow me to work with bowed timber, or twisted timber and make all the joints meet up nice and tight. The weather was in the 70's during the day, and down to lower 50's at night. The landscape could not have been more beautiful. Such huge trees there as well, nothing like Illinois. The instructor, Collin Beggs Timber Frames, was awesome. He is a good teacher and really knows his stuff. In 6 days, the 8 students of the class, most first timers, built this 12'x18' 2 story Doug Fir frame, which was actually bought by one of the students. It could be a cabin, a master bedroom addition, or part of a larger frame. I am now confident I have the knowledge and enough experience to build my house and workshop frame. Now to get a design finished so I can start...

Been busy

2009-05-10T20:55:00.006-05:00

Well I'm long overdue for an update. I was laid off in mid February. I've been off work for 2.5 months now, and it's amazing how time flies. I will say that having the time off has had a positive effect on my projects. I had also started a workout routine about a month before being layed off and as of now I've lost a total of 40 pounds, which has also been conducive to my projects. So what have I been doing with my time? Well the highlights are:

1. I finished the restoration of my 55 Ford tractor finally and got the mower deck hooked up and mowed for the first time this week. A few minor bugs had to be worked out, but it was a pleasure driving a restored show condition tractor.

2. I fixed my truck finally. After two trips and two $400 bills from what was supposed to be a reputable shop, I still had the same problem with the truck that I took it in for. Not trusting the shop anymore (and they really didn't seem to care about their failures), I had parked the truck until I would have time. Well having time, I ordered a Haynes repair manual, checked the codes on the truck and diagnosed a failing fuel pump. Being a difficult job any way you put it, I chose to pull the bed off to get at the fuel pump which is in the tank. After a number of hours with a torch and an impact wrench, I got the bed off and replace the pump. Problem solved. Still considering pulling truck apart for a chassis restoration.

3. Built my mom a garden toolbox from white oak.

4. Completed Oak door jam reinforcements on the farmhouse where I live and reproduced new trim to match the original along with the shellac finish.

5. Pruned my vineyard and trimmed all trees on the farm and burnt all cuttings.

6. Made a timber wrench/lever to rotate heavy timbers when working on them, and made a commander(big timber hammer for bumping timbers into place).

7. Finally I bought 94 reclaimed Beech wood timbers that are 10"X10", 12 footers, and 16 footers. With transport, I got them for about $.95 a board foot. They came from a 100 year old wearhouse, 40 miles East of Indianapolis. No mortices or defects, virtually no nails, and most pretty straight with only slight crown. Only a handful have some twist. I cherry picked from what the guy had. I bought one semi-load compared to 4 other loads he sold. I am planning to sand them with a floor drum sander after the joinery is cut. The 16 footers weigh about 500 lbs each, and the 12 footers are about 375 lbs, hence the need for the timber strap wrench. With the exception of the sil timbers, and possibly some principal rafter timbers, I now have the majority of what I will need(famous last words) for my house and workshop frames.

Though I still have a handful of projects and chores on my personal tasklist that must be completed, I am anxious to get a design on paper for the workshop so that I can start that frame. Good news is that my cousin is out of school for the summer now and will start to help me next week. Our first task is to enclose the end of my present shop, previously used as the barn for animals, to create needed storage to free up workspace in my workshop.

A Little Organizing

2009-01-12T23:40:00.019-06:00

After a little clean up after Christmas, I was able to take some days to work in the shop. My cousin was even home from school and was bored at home so he came out and worked with me. We did some maintenance tasks and some shop cleanup. We waited for a good day that wasn't windy and put up 30 feet of gutter on one shed that had some down from ice and a windstorm. After that though, we started doing some projects. We built two roll around cabinets, one which the mini fridge would sit on, and one that would be a tool cart. The goal is always to minimize taking up floor space. The fridge cartdoes that by only occupying floorspace that the fridge once did. I used the bottom of the tool card to store my Dewalt planer, which was occupying floor space before, hence a net zero gain. The fridge cart needs drawers made and I'll use it to store hardware. The tool cart will have one drawer at the top, still giving clearance to get the planer in and out. The top of the tool card has 3 sided white oak rails, carpet cover, and you can see the framing square storage on the side. Two stainless japanese framing squares fit nicely in slots and are easy to get in and out, yet do not rattle. I'll definitly hang some items on the pegboard recessed sides soon.

The bit holder on top of the cart is meant for another cabinet or to go in the drawer.

Last winter I had made a sandpaper sharpening station. This station uses a piece of plate glass about 6"X36". Strips of pressure adhesive backed sandpaper are applied to the glass, and chisels are sharpened, starting with coarse grits and working to progressivley finer grits - 80, 150, 220, 400, 800, 1000, 1500 grit. With chisels that have been damaged, are not flat, or have now edge, most time is spent on the 80 grit, and less time is needed with each successive grit. After working with each grit, the tool is wiped off to preven contamination to the next grit. The paper used is also wisked with a brush or wisk broom to remove any metal or sandpaper dust and prevent clogging of the paper. My blue brush is one that was in the brick/mortar section of my local home center. Just have one that is stiff enough to brush out the paper. Once the first three grits have been worked through, finer paper is laid on top of those grits. These finer grits are NOT adhesively backed. they are held in place by the friction of the sanpaper base. These finer grits are automotive wet/dry paper that can be found in autobody stores or sometimes autoparts stores, and come in sheets that can be cut into 3 pieces. A razor blade holder(on the right of the station) is used to cut the adhesive backed paper to length and the fine grit paper if scissors are not handy. I use a red marker to color chisels and after lapping, I can easily see what has and has not been lapped flat by what marker has been removed. All of my framing chisels are antiques and are all TH. Witherby purchased off of ebay. Some were badly bent and were straightened by Jim Rogers partner in a forge. All of my chisel sheaths were purchased from Jim Rogers as well. My chisels are currently still being prepped with 80 grit but most are almost ready to move to the next grit. This sharpening station can be used for more than just chisels. I've used it to sharpen a hatchet, pruners, loppers, tune ships auger bits, and even sharpen the counter sink on countersing drill bits. Some of the small wood dowels and pieces of wood are used with the various grits of sandpaper to sharpen small or curved tool edges. This is a very effective sharpening method.

Chisels that are in good shape, you usually do not need to go back to 80 grit unless you damage or chip the tip or corner. a tuned chisel that is starting to dull just needs to be gone over from 400 to 1500. Exactly how coarse you start on depends on how it looks and your judgement.

If you've used your chisels when they are sharp and when they are not, you know the difference. You can shave and plane with a sharp chisel. You fight and cuss with one that is not., and you end up gouging when you don't want to.

Uuughh!

2008-12-01T14:00:00.003-06:00

For the last 3 months I've been bogged down with many small maintenance and repair jobs so I haven't had anything really noteworthy for the blog. I've repainted and finished caulking the basement windows on the house, cleaned the glass and getting some new ones made. I've completed some jobs for my mom - new brackets for canopy bed to lower the matress height, new brakets for a picture window shade, Net frames to keep leaves out of her koi pond. I've installed the white oak trim which also reinforces the door jam (security measure) at my place but have to make plugs for the screw holes and stain and finish the pieces. Most immediately I need to do 3 repairs to my car, and get the mower off the tractor and get the snow blade on. I also need to start fixing my truck which is totally down now with a fuel, timing, or vacuum issue that I haven't trouble shot yet. When oh when will I get started on timberframing?!

Lift finished!

2008-08-21T09:45:00.005-05:00

We finished the lift last night and I'm really glad I painted it white! It's much brighter and reflects light better. I'll paint the other one someday when I move shops and dissassemble it. As you can see we finished it outside and lowered it on the caster wheels and then wheeled it in the shop, made some adjustments and pulled my 62 Impala on it. The one GTO body shell went on the bottom for now, but when winter comes, I'll put my 55 chevy under there and the shell out in the barn, which I plan to close in, insulate and heat next.

Update on summer projects...

2008-08-18T09:27:00.013-05:00

Ok, I was way overdue for an update. I have been working on projects all summer. In the last two months my cousin Mike K. has been working with me. What a great help he has been! I would be so far bogged down if it weren' t his help. He picks up things quickly and thinks about what he's doing. We've managed to rebuild the farmhouse stormdoor and it's frame, paint it all, he's painted all the window ledges. We've caulked all the house windows (remoing the old caulk was the hard part, but finally found the best method was heating a putty knife with a propane torch). We then caulked all the soffit trim, and now are caulking the basement windows. We also installed a new water heater last weekend. I've also got the tractor ready to start, but am not getting spark at the plugs so I'm going to trouble shoot that.

This last weekend I received the second car storage lift. We unpacked it on Saturday morning and dissassembled everything in preparation to repaint it. It came powder coated black, but I want things like this bright white in my shop to help with lighting. We had to sand every face of the lift parts, prime them and paint them. In two days we will start reassembling the lift. That should be enough drying time. Here are some pics of the process:

My next post will show the assembled lift.

Second system installed

2008-05-16T22:11:00.007-05:00

Well last weekend (actually by Tuesday night) , I finally finished the installation of the iron filter and water softener at my place in the farmhouse. I replaced all the incoming piping which was PVC, which exits to various spigots or shop buildings on the farm, as well as to the well tank and now to the iron filter. Again I upped the pipe size to 1 inch all the way up to where it runs to the rest of the house. Several threaded and union connections gave me a hard time leaking and I worked on them until they were leak free. I had to replace one union(that I got from Ace hardware) with another Menards one like the rest are. I found that the best way to prevent a threaded connection leak was to wrap it three times with 3/4" PTFE tape and maybe add a little PTFE paste to the first few threads. Here are some pics:

In the morning I will prep the mower and mow. (I've been sick the last couple days and unable to think about doing it). It really needs it as it's starting to look like a hillbilly joint with all the dandelions. The rest of the weekend I can dedicate to more small cleanup projects like the addition to my welder cart to make more floor space etc.

Getting my head above water finally!

2008-04-29T14:35:00.004-05:00

I'm no longer feeling so mired. Two weeks ago I installed the new softener and iron filter as well as a new well pressure switch, at my mom's place. I also upped the pipe size through all this equipment to 1 inch to reduce any flow restriction. It transitions to 3/4 inch as it exits to all the runs above. I spent a lot of time researching softeners and understanding how to size them and what equipment to buy, and looking for a good price. 4 of my co-workers and I did all of ours at the same time to get a savings on equipment and support eachother.

I've also finished up a bunch of small tasks like pruning of trees, burning the waste, woodworking some brackets and a hanger rod for a closet in my mom's house, Urethaning a bunch of plywood pieces that sit on furnature moving dollies, also some tool handles and making wood saw covers for all of my and my mom's hand saws. Yesterday I did a bunch of clean up in the shop and I feel like I am making good progress. I think by about the beginning of June I will buy the second auto storage lift I need. Next major tasks - install water softener and iron filter in the farmhouse I'm living in, prep the mower deck and mowing tractor for mowing, build a framework on my welder cart to accomodate my small mig welder on top of the TIG to save more floorspace.

Still mired...

2008-03-31T09:16:00.003-05:00

Sorry, no new pics. Still mired in plumbing issues. Got my mom's pluming rearranged, but didn't get the softener and iron filter installed yet. I haven't even started installing the softener and iron filter at my place yet. I did experiment last weekend with removing old pegs from a timber. I drilled the center of the peg and instalalled a 1/4 inch timberloc screw. I then tried a slide hammer on the screw to bang it out. It works, but not all that well. I then tried with a curved pry bar and block of oak to rest it one. It give a big lever arm and works well, however you have to keep raising the blocking to gain additional travel on the pry bar. I also sketched up a puller tool to use with an impact wrench. I wonder if I will ever find time to make it? I need to get the softeners installed at the two places before I can get back on projects.

House maintenance

2008-03-03T11:26:00.002-06:00

The last two weeks I've been mired down in non timberframe related activities. I locked myself out of the house last weekend and had to kick the back door in. It broke the door and didn't hurt the jam that I had reinforced from a previous break in before I lived here. I spent last weekend repairing the door and installing a deadbolt and metal lock covers as well. If I get locked out again I will not be able to kick the door in. I'd have to break a window or something. I also did a few other maintenance activities as well like burning brush, and cleaning in the shop. Then this past wekeend my well pressure tank sprung a few leaks so I had to order a new one and install it this last weekend. It wouldn't have been bad had I not had a leak in the bottom of the tank at the new fitting. I had to redo it 4 times before I got is sealed right. I also had to do a hydrogen peroxide treatment on my water heater. At work I got a group of guys together and we all wanted new water softeners. Together we've learned to test water, research and understand water softeners, rust filters, chlorine injectors etc. I am becoming knowlegeable in water treatment in the home. I still haven't finished enough in the shop to make room for the new auto lift. This week I will be working on project after work to try to catch up. I need to finish assembling the 55 Ford tractor, prune trees and grape vines, and try to get more done on my power tool cabinets and build two more smaller ones that I've started. I promise pics with next update.

Power tool storage cabinets

2008-02-13T08:09:00.003-06:00

The last three weekends have not been as productive as I would have liked. I have been building power tool storage cabinets. The plans are from a magazine article and use 2X4's, pegboard and MDF. The frames are nicely done by rabbiting all the joints and glueing and screwing. The sides are Pegboard dado'd into the frame. The shelves are MDF. I'm makeing a specific place for every tool, and that is what's taking time and why I am not done yet. As you can see in the pic below, my circ saws sit on shelves with slots for the blade and guard. This allows them to rest on their bases nicely. The real casters should arrive this week. They temporarily sit on furnature dollies. My Delta Unisaw was the major tool used to make all the pieces, including ripping, rabbiting, and dado-ing.

I also visited Indy this last weekend to look at another auto lift I will buy. I wanted to see if it was built well enough and they had a showroom at their Indy dealer. It also gave me a day to hang out with my neices and their parent and grand parents. I decided that the lift is up to par and the price is right. I was going to order it this week, but realized that I need to make space in my shop to assemble the lift. This means I have to finish a couple projects, namely the power tool cabinets, the assembly of my tractor, and get the John deer tractor fixed as it suddenly has decided to have an electrical problem and not start.

Cribbing Ponies

2008-01-14T12:58:00.000-06:00

This weekend I managed to build my cribbing ponies. Cribbing ponies are little stool like saw horses used to support each end of a cribbing timber. With a parallel pair of cribbing timbers set up on the ponies, a multiple number of timbers are laid across the cribbing timbers to work on them, adding mortises and tennons. I didn't have time to build my two power tool cabinets, so look for those in an upcoming post next week or so.

Beech beams

2008-01-06T23:37:00.000-06:00

Here's a quick pic of the Beech beams I got from Amish John in Southeast Indiana a few weeks ago. They are pretty beefy. Top two are 16 footers, the rest (14) are 12 footers.

This weekend I cut the parts for Timber Cribbing ponies(on my new 1953 Delta unisaw), which I plan to assemble during the next week. I also went and looked at a barn that I could potentially help dismantle in exchange for the beams, but the largest are only 6X6 and it's all pine. I don't think it's worth doing, given all I need to focus on, though I thought it was a really neat barn. Besides the Cribbing ponies, this week I am going to buy the materials and begin cutting the parts to build my power tool storage cabinet. Right now I have power tools laying all over my bench and on the floor. I can't stand it. All the new tools need a proper, organized home.

Got through the holidays..

2008-01-01T23:11:00.001-06:00

Well the holidays were stressful with all that needed to be done. We prepared the family party for 41 people and it all went well. I ate too much! I got a cold right after Christmas day, probably from stress and physical fatigue. So I lost a few of my vacation days to laying on the couch. It was not cool as I already felt like crap from not being able to work in my shop for almost 2 months. It was just one thing after another... I changed jobs and visited relatives for a few days while between jobs. I had to start preparing for Thanksgiving a few weekends prior. I did go get the Indiana timbers one weekend. Then it was time to prepare to Christmas.

So, I'm finally recovered. I fixed the plumbing problems in the farm house finally- got rid of the odor in the hot water with a bleach treatment to the water heater and a good flush. I somehow got the water softener working again. I got the new(used) dishwasher installed, and took care of some other cleaning and putting away of things in the house, plus all the holiday reciept paperwork is done now.

The last two days I have worked in my shop. I jockeyed all the cars around and used the forklift to move my new(used) car storage lift into the shop and I mounted the caster kit I bought on ebay. It took half a day to install plus finish reassembling and prepping the lift. One pulley needed to be removed and cleaned/blasted/lubed and reassembled. Well here's my lift with the cars stored. Now I need a second lift.

My next plans are:

1. Close in end of the barn/shop that used to be used for animals. Install overhead doors, and extend alarm system. This way I can store more in there.

2. Buy a second lift to make more shop space.

3. Finish assembling 1955 ford tractor restoration (4 days work?). and move it into the paint booth or into the end of barn.

4. Draw up timberframe plans for the shop and start to solidify dimensions. Find Illinois liscened Engineer that can stamp plans. Produce final prints and get stamped off.

What has happened so far?

2007-12-07T22:55:00.000-06:00

Back in November or December of 2006 I became interested in timberframing. I don't know exactly how I came upon it, other than I was thinking about the new workshop I'd eventually build when I bought a property. Steve Chappell's "Timberframer's Workshop" was the first I bought. I ended up signing up for his intro timberframing workshop in June 2007 in Brownsfield, Maine. Being new to woodoodworking and beams/timbers, I tried to learn what I could online before the workshop. Being an avid ebayer I came across a bunch of beams for auction from a barn taken down near Rockford, IL. I won the auction and paid $0.26 a board foot(BD FT), which is how most wood is measured except for dimenisonal lumber. A board foot is the volume of 12X12X1 inch= 144cubic inches. My research had told me that red oak and pine were going for about $1.80 per BD FT rough sawn. So at the price I paid plus $440 to haul them to my place, it was still still under $0.40 per board foot. The beams are 8X8 and 8X10 pine. Three of them are 38ft long, and one is 24 feet long.

In early winter I came across some miscellaneous beams on ebay from a guy who owns an antique circular sawmill in Hebron, Indiana. Though I wasn't sure what I would do with them, they were a good price and I was learning. I bought a beautiful 12x12x 12 foot long knotty pine, some Hickory pieces and misc maple. I now knew someone with a saw mill that regularly sawed logs, including oak. The mill looked like a sawmill out of the turn of the century- it was!

At the same time I came across two doug fir beams 5.5X16 by 16 foot in Whiting, IN (ebay again). They had come out of an old bar, so I was told. I ended up paying $1.17/BD FT. That's not the greatest price, but doug fir is uncommon around here and by the time I de-nail and sand them, I'll still be under $1.80, the standard I'm using.

By February I came across 3 white oak beams 12 feet long near Indianapolis. Two are 10X10 and one is 12X12 . Since I was going there to visit relatives there anyway, it wasn't too much trouble to bring them back with me. Unloading was difficult though, with the beams weighing 750 lbs! I can't remember what I paid, but I'm sure it was under $0.60/BD FT. He also had a bunch of the slabs that were cut off the logs when cutting the beams. There were about 8 slabs, all 10" to 14" wide, 1.25 to 1.5 thick and some wane. I paid an extra $50 for the slabs. I didn't know what I was going to do with them. Later in the summer I ripped some of them to make bunk beds for a friends hunting cabin. I used the band saw chatter marks they had on them as character and highlighted them with stain.

I will definitly be able to use the oak timbers, though now sure where yet. I may have to have them resawn to a different cross section depending on the use. You can see what is called "checking" in the oak timbers above. Checking is a normal feature of large timbers. As a log or timber is cut green, as it dries, checks develop due to uneven drying. As the moisture escapes the timber, internal stresses develop which relieve themselves through checking. All timbers check, but hardwoods more than softwoods like pine. Oak, hickory, and hemlock seem to check the most. Checking is usually not considered a defect and does not compromise the integrity of a timber unless it is very severe - like greater than 3/4 inch and a check that runs completely thorugh a timber. Checking can be reduced by sealing the end grain of the green wood. The end grain are basically the capillaries of the tree and moisture will run out of the ends faster than the rest of the timber. If you seal the endgrain, it forces water to dry out the sides of the timber, which takes longer and is slower, thus allowing for more even drying and less checking.

My next venture was my timberframe class in Brownsfield, Maine. It was a wonderful class and even though I spent $1500 or so for the whole trip, the timber framing skills and general woodworking techniques I learned were well worth it. The class covered basic timberframe info, design styles, design of frames for loading and joint stress calculation, and had plenty of hands on experience. By the end of day 6, we erected our class project, a 2500 SQ FT home timberframe.

After the class I contracted with the sawmill guy to mill oak brace stock for me. Of the 66 pieces, most was red oak, but 15 were white oak. It was ok at $1/BD FT, but there were about 20 I had to return to him because they were even below grade 2. After having so many bad pieces in the lot and his giving me a hard time about replacing the bad ones, I no longer have much confidence in him to give me the grade I need. I've discovered that there are many hobby sawers in nearby Michigan who'd be happy to supply my brace stock in the future. I've been learning a lot about wood, sawing, drying, and controlling pests in wood from http://www.forestryforum.com/ The freshly sawn oak acually had some wood borer beetle larvae which eat holes in green wood. I sprayed with Sevin and it seemed to stop them cold. A few worm holes were made, but nothing to worry about structurally. Once the wood is dry, it's too hard for them to eat and then the wood is safe. The bad ones sticks the sawyer gave me are actually shown on top in the following picture. I did get these returned and replaced with proper grade stock.

In July, we had 4 straight days of heavy rains which softened the soil, and then a big windstorm came and blew over two 80 or so year old Spruce trees we had in the front yard at the farm. So I cut the branches and peeled the bark and put the trees in the barn for possible use in a timberframe later. The fresh sap caused mold to form on the logs in the barn after about 2 weeks. Following a suggestion from the forestryforum, I mixed a 10 percent bleach and water solution and sprayed down the logs. That took care of the mold! I learned that more than ten percent bleach will not be any more effective than 10 percent. A good tip to know.

In October I was going to visit relatives in Indy again, and I found some Beech beams to look at while down there. It was actually from an Amish gentleman near the Ohio border. I purchased 14 hardwood Beach beams 9X12 by 12 feet long and two that were 7X12 by 16 feet long. These are old growth beams from an old grainery barn. I got a good price of $700, plust it cost me $560 to move them. I will have these resawn probably to 7X12 or 8X12 which will cost another $500. In the end I figured these will cost $1.36/BD FT after sawing. It seems that if I can buy for about $0.60/BD FT, I can transport and resaw if needed and still keep costs well under $1.80 for substantial cost savings. I don't plan to use reclaim exclusively. When my design is finished, I will determine what of my existing reclaim can be used and now much new I'll have to order. I just got them hauled with Jason, the hauler from Woodstock, IL who I'd used to haul my on my first beam purchase. I accompanied him down to Indiana to get them and he was good company. He also hauled a used car lift I bought earlier in the week and delived it when he picked me up for the beam haul. Pics of that and the Beech beams in my next update.