After working on a timber frame project at work, I decided I needed one of my own. I played around in sketchup to develop a design, built a free standing deck off my driveway, and spent the summer (well not all of it) making the parts. Some friends (including my boss and his bobcat) helped me erect it this past weekend. We had a good time, it went together pretty well, and all in all a very satisfying experience. You’ll notice one big oops in the pictures, but luckily nobody got hurt. Follow the link below to the pictures on Picasa web. I recommend using the slideshow option – click next to the green triangle near the upper left of the screen.
http://picasaweb.google.com/leesphere56/TimberFramePavilionShort#
Edited 11/21/2008 8:47 pm ET by leegs
Edited 11/21/2008 8:48 pm ET by leegs
Replies
Awesome work man ! Everything looks great . Thanks for sharing.
Oops, I thought YOU tied off the ridge beam!
Bobcat sure makes it go easier. Where in NW Va are you?
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"When asked if you can do something, tell'em "Why certainly I can", then get busy and find a way to do it." T. Roosevelt
Congrats! Timberframing is SO fun. Except when things fall and go bump!
We did a 40x80 sidesplit. There were around 750 pegs! 160 or so braces!
Having a hard time doing reno's again!
Love the photo's!
dave
thanks for sharing
what are those members called coming down from the truss and what breed of wood
beautiful & please show more of evolution
Its all oak, a little bit of white, some red, and also black oak I think. The braces in the front 'truss' are a different color because they were just recently resawn, whereas the other timbers have been out in the weather for 7 months or so. I don't know what you would call them exactly - I don't think they could be called 'knee braces' - I guess just 'diagonal truss members'.Those braces came from one of the trees I cut down - it had a significant curve and 'bell bottom' at its base, and right away I saw the potential for using it as a curved brace. I sawed them in a bookmatch format as you can see. If I were more clever, I would have left the tops (convex surface) unsawn as well, instead of cutting them straight - it would have made them look even more curved. I treated all the wood with Cabots Australian Timber Oil, 3 gallons of it! I really sloshed it on heavy, especially in the deep checks.The oops happened as follows - I had failed to label which end of the ridge went where, so of course we guessed wrong the first time. When we pulled the tenon out of the rear bent, the beam see-sawed pretty drastically and in the process slid out of the strap suspending it from the bobcat. As you can see it obliterated the 2x6 deck board and wedged itself at the angle shown between 2 joists. We should have, and always will henceforth, have the strap cinched tightly around the timber instead of just looped around it. Sort of careless in hindsight.
Very nice! Fun to see it all come together after all that measuring and cutting, eh? Glad to hear no one was hurt. Pretty ambitious DIY project. Nice photo presentation.
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Now you know where to locate the under floor safe!
Looks fun!
Congratulations!
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leegs.... nice work, good show... thanks for the storyMike Hussein Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore