Pingree Park Frame was a great success!

[JoeyLowe]

Hi all!  Just got back from northern Colorado where we stood up a small frame.  Had a lot of fun.  Here is the first of many pics to come. I'm the big guy on the left and for those of you who don't know him, that is Josh Jackson of the Heartwood School on the right.

[JoeyLowe]

I figured that I would start with the completed frame.  This was a 12' x 16' , 3 bent frame.  The pitch is 12/12.  Post sizes were 7" x 7" housed to 6.5".  More photos to come.

[JoeyLowe]

Here we are working on the top plates.  All work was done with traditional handtools. (no electricity  ).  Weather was beeeeoooutifuul.  Days were mostly sunny, breezy with 3% humidity.  We were at an altitude of 9300 feet.

The top plates were 8" x 7" x 16'.  We used stepped mortices for the rafter feet.

[JoeyLowe]

Joinery was very tight!  With little to no humidity and a constant breeze (30+ mph), timbers dried pretty quickly and were very straight with little twist.  The sawyer did a great job of sawing too.  Hearts were boxed and edges were mostly square with a few timbers being out less than a 16th.  We used a combination of species mixing ponderosa pine with lodge pole pine.   

The joinery that you see here is a wedged half-dovetail joint used to tie a post to a tie beam.  Layout was a little difficult, but the cutting was very straightforward.

We had two excellent instructors on sight.  Josh Jackson was both knowledgeable and helpful.  Dave Carlon is a master at timberframing.  If you ever have a chance to work with Dave, you should jump on it without question.  He is both a gentleman and a master craftsman.

[JoeyLowe]

No photos this time.  Too many steps to size and adjust the photo and upload right now.  Here are some helpful lessons that I learned on this frame:

Belly your housings.  In other words, slope the housing about 1/8" towards the mortice.  When the timber dries and begins to swell, the belly will rise and make your joint tighter.

Make sure that you use a square or a flat edge or something to make sure that your mortice walls are as straight as possible.

Taper all sides of your tenons so that they join easy.  Start the taper no more than 1 1/2" from the end.  Leave the shoulders full size to ensure a snug fit.

Be safe and drink plenty of water!  ;D

[JoeyLowe]

Here Dave Carlon is checking a post for square with his framing square.  Dave emphasized the importance of checking all four edges for the square before crowning the post/beam and deciding on an aris.  Your judgement plays an important role in deciding how to lay out the stick if the crown is minimal to non-existent.

[JoeyLowe]

8)

Here is a portion of the motley crew.  Standing before you are me, Josh, Dave, and Tim (A framer/stairbuilder from Wyoming).  The mountains behind us are the Rockie Mountains.  Great to be alive!

Oh by the way, the things hanging from Josh's ears are called tenicals.  He had all of us wearing them by week's end.

[JoeyLowe]

Accomdations were more than adequate.  The cabins are two rooms and sleep 4.  The front room has a pot-bellied stove for heat and a light bulb for light.  Baths are communal and more than adequate.  Chow was served three times a day and it was all you could eat.  The moose, bear, elk, deer and pine martins were very tolerant of our presence too.

[JoeyLowe]

Oh by the way, I forgot to tell yall what this was all about. ( I do this a lot.  ;D)  This was my second time to Pinegree Park.  Last year I attended a class on timber frame design.  Shortly thereafter, I invited Jim Rogers to Texas to host our 1st ever Texas Square Rule Timber Frame Class (Basic).  This year I attended the Pinegree Park "Mastering Square Rule Joinery" class.  It was a blast.  I learned more in a week than I ever thought possible.  Aside from learning square rule nuances (how to adjust/close gaps, etc.) I learned how to layout and cut a couple of underused but great joints.  I wanted to stay for Will Beemer's Compound Roof class, but it was too full already.

[Jim_Rogers]

Great pictures Joey!!!!!!

I'm glad you got home safe and all.

Hopefully Ritta hasn't washed you away.

Let us know if you're alright as soon as you can......

Jim Rogers

[JoeyLowe]

Hi Jim:

All is well here. We got more than our fair share of rain though.  This has been a pretty dry summer and the piney woods was really drooping.  The rain and the wind did a lot of damage.  There are trees down everywhere, but no loss of life.