Drying in place 12x12 RCDF, ideas?

[Sedgehammer]

Building a house this year. Going to want to use 12x12 RCDF fir the porch posts and archways/entries inside the house.

They will be green. Might have 3 to 8 weeks air drying before we set them. Either going to set them in crete or can set a metal plate in crete and weld either a u shaped or a angle bracket in place with 1" bolts to hold. Cheaper to set them in crete though direct. Would not set in ground or on ground though. I know Don dosen't like setting them in crete really and I'm not a fan either, but limited choices. I know there'll be shrink, but I can trim out fir that down the road or caulk. 

Was planning on using ready seal on these. It allows the wood to breath still. Posts will be on all sides of the house. Would coat prior to setting and then again as needed. 

Any better suggestions or reinforcement of thoughts already  ;D

Thanks

[AZ_builder]

Will there be a slab around them, like a porch? Or just a roof over dirt? If slab then I'd put your anchors in the concrete and use post brackets with side supports and lag them to the posts.

[Sedgehammer]

Be 1' of crete around them.

If I do the side angle, will drill through and bolt. Lags over time in my experience dry out and become loose.

[AZ_builder]

I did my round pole the way I described with lags and washers. 12 years later they're still tight. Low humidity climate here.

[Sedgehammer]

You have any pictures?

Was your posts dry or green?

Thanks!

[AZ_builder]

I'll take some tomorrow. They were green, cut 2 months prior to setting in place.

[Sedgehammer]

I thought of a couple of ways of doing this since i couldn't sleep due to my back pain, so if it's whacked, that's why...... here it goes.

Pour the concrete porches with 5/8" embed plates set into the concrete welded to the "1 re-bar that'll be going in. Set these flush with the top of the concrete where posts are suppose to go. This is somewhat what an embed plate looks like that I'll make. But it will have 6 re-bar 5/8 legs & bent out corners to hook more crete and can weld to.





Then 1 of the 2 following ways;

1. Take a 1/2" 10x10 plate of steel with a minimum of 5, 5/8 holes in it. Screw this to the bottom of the 12x12 post with 5, 5/8 x 6" long lag bolts. Once fastened, weld a 7" ring of thick wall pipe that is 1.5" tall to the bottom of the plate. set post with plate on top of the embed plate and weld. Then trim around the post to hide everything after post dries or re-do as post dries.

2. Make a 1/2" 11x11 angle with 3, 1" holes drilled into the upper leg of the angle. Weld 7" heavy walled pipe to bottom of the angle with no holes. Drill the 3, 1" holes through the 12x12 post and bolt with the 3 square headed bolts using 3 homemade square 1/4 x 2.5" washers that are bent at the 4 corners to catch the wood and hold, then tighten with metal square lock nuts. Set post and weld to embed plate. Then trim around with 2x4 as wood dries.

Of the 2, I think #2 would be the strongest, but #1 would look the best. I have to keep in mind that we are in tornado country, so we get high winds occasionally, so I need to build as strong as possible to a point.

Thoughts, suggestions, recommendations or violent reactions are always welcome..... ;D

[Don P]

 


This was used with one project I was on. I've made up similar with an extended undrilled knife plate and drilled it all in place. I didn't like being so close to the end and having to find the hole here. The engineer on a later job specced 10" knife plates and 2@ 3/4 steel pins offset up the grain of the post. I made some wood plugs to cover the slightly shorter than thickness pins. The plate and hooks are embedded in the pour. The post base and standoff are attached to the post, stood up, find exact position and field welded.

This is an older pic I had in the gallery, just noticed that is either a 3/4 or 1" plug cutter in the drill.

[Sedgehammer]

Hmm, interesting. So one has to make a mortise joint on the end of the post. With out a mortise saw, what's a pretty good next way of doing the mortise? I have about 23 of them. A plunge router would get one in some of the way, but not sure how far one could get a bit and if it would become unwieldy due to length.

A 3/8 eye plate 5"x10" would be ideal with 3/4" steel pins like you have there Don is a great idea, just don't know if I can pull that off.

What did you use to drill the posts? I'd need something that sil travel 12"+. I'm not good enough to hand drill that and stay plumb. 

If not doing it that way, what would be your second choice?

[Don P]

 Well, I've done it with a chainsaw but you are doing a nose plunge into end grain, fast but very risky for you and the timber. I switched to a 12" long drill bit, many holes and then angled holes wasting out as much as possible then a 12" Milwaukee Ax sawzall blade, a very thick stiff blade, to connect the dots and clean it up. Those blades are the bomb BTW just don't run them in a Makita sawzall they tick the housing and break the blade holder on the plunger.

[Sedgehammer]

I can see the drill bit and sawz all blade working and yup, those blades are awesome!

What did you use to drill the 3/4 pins in through the post and the knife plate?

Did you just under drill the 3/4 so the steel pin would fit tight and then pulled out the the knife plate and then slightly over drilled the knife plate so the 3/4 pin would slide through? 

[Don P]

I just drilled, stepping up through a couple of sizes of bits, chamfered the end of the pin and drove them home, then used a smaller pin to sink them a little and glued in wood cover plugs.