roundwood framing joints

[fallenoak]

I'm hoping to build a 10by20ft round-wood frame concurrently to building my little band-mill then side it once the mills sorted.

anyone done much work with round timber framing?

are there a lot of specialist joints?


just started using sketch up yesterday so ill try and add a sketch-up drawing ASAP of my general ideas

thanks

Sam

[Heartwood]

Hi Sam,
Yes, we use timber framed joinery with round material quite often. You can use either scribe rule or square rule, but scribing is generally preferred if you have the room for setup.
I suggest three resources:
I wrote an article on scribing joinery for round timbers in issue #78 of Timber Framing, the journal of the Timber Framers Guild. You could get the back issue.
Japanese techniques use a form of square rule with round timbers, and you could research a number of websites and books, such as Japanese Joinery by Yasuo Nakahara.
Take a look at the Log Construction Manual by Rob Chambers.
We do a one week scribing course at the Heartwood School that covers many of these techniques. I would also contact some members of the U.K. Carpenters Fellowship since I know some of them work in round material often, and it appears you're in Britain.

[Chilterns]

Hi Fallenoak,

No matter what technique you intend to employ it is important to ensure that load bearing faces are primarily made in heartwood i.e. sapwood should not form a substantial part of bearing surfaces especially in a damp / wet environment like Manchester. Some timber growing in the UK like Sweet Chestnut would be best for this type of framing as (like catalpa or Black Locust) it has only 2-3 years worth of sapwood.

You might want to review the roundwood work done by Ben Law in this respect.

Chilterns

[fallenoak]

Heartwood thanks I'll try and track down those resources over the next few months. great pics that you provided helps to get things clear in my head.

Chilterns i did not know that in regards to heartwood sapwood ratio, I've got access to about 4 acres of very unruly and dense woodland mainly ash, oak, and hazel and to be fair I'm looking to build a shed/workshop in the garden of a property I rent for as little £££ as possible. more than anything I'm just tryna learn the techniques, with a view to building a timber framed extension on a property I own in the near-ish future.

I know ash is prone to bug damage etc but how would it hold up for internal bits that won't get wet etc?

what about hazel?

had a good look on Ben Laws website at the property he build in prickly nut wood and I've loosely based my shed design on it

I've found a good resource for scribe rule joinery here http://www.traditionaltimberframe.com

there's loads of images that have cleared up a lot of questions I have about scribe rule joinery, more than anything I think I just need to get stuck in and start doing, make the mistakes, learn the lessons and improve.

have I got the basic process about right/
1.design and source materials
2.layout template on floor where I will cut joints
3. support timbers on platforms and use plum-bob to align them with template on floor
4. snap center-lines on the timbers markup to find centers and joint locations (probably before and during point 3)
5.use plum-bob compass etc to plot joints and align from one timber to its adjoining timber.
6. cut joints.test fit
7.raise it

I know this is a pretty simplistic description.....but am i thinking in about the right direction?