Timber Framing Class @ Heartwood this summer (Pictures added)

PC-Urban-Sawyer · June 11, 2013, 04:54:29 PM

Piston,

Thanks for the continuing saga. Great pictures and writeup. I look forward to reading the concluding portion.

Dave Shepard,

Thanks for your contribution. Very helpful in understanding the process.

Canopy,

Good point about the draw bore arrows.

Thanks again for all the effort necessary to take all the photos, the excellent notes and to put together the narrative.

Herb

Piston · June 12, 2013, 07:34:39 AM

Dave,
Thanks a lot for 'narrating' the rafter seat photos! That is a huge help, and I know I'll come back to this post when it comes time for me to cut that joint. I knew you would come through for me ;D

So Thursday night, as I mentioned before, is pizza night at Heartwood. 8) 8) 8)

There is just something about fire that draws you right in! This is the clay oven that we used to cook the pizza's in.

So here's the deal... It's make your own pizza, your given a piece of dough, and load it up to your liking with some toppings....

Then, bring it to the master chef (Will can only be given credit for the food this one time, Michelle is truly the master chef!)

Give it a few minutes (great opportunity for a sip).....

....and, walah!

They have a really cool setup for something like this. I mean, where else can you get timberframing, relaxing fires.....

...tree climbing....

....tool sales....

....live music.....

.....and juggling...

All in all it was a great night, with a lot of conversation and a few cold drinks.
It was great that I finally got to meet Dave Shepherd and nice of Jim Rogers to stop by with a great selection of restored tools.
Dave brought a binder along with some pictures of work he has done in the past. Dave, I was extremely impressed with some of the work you've done! We chatted about timberframing, tractors, and barns, while Will and the "southerners" jammed away with some old tunes from the past. It was a really fun night and definitely added to the enjoyment of the class. 8)

After waiting for the fire to die down a bit.....

I drove the van down a random dirt road which I believe was part of the October Mountain State Forest. This is a where I woke up in the morning.

.....to be continued....

bill m · June 12, 2013, 08:19:18 PM

Looks like it may be Stanley Rd. How far from the school? About 3 miles maybe?

Dave Shepard · June 12, 2013, 08:22:38 PM

From Heartwood, if you go over Frost road and come out by Bucksteep and take a right, there is a road on the left on the top of the hill that goes into October Mountain and down to the four corners. That looks like it to me. (Maybe that's Stanley Road, I don't know) EDIT: Nope, I'm thinking of West Branch.

Piston · June 13, 2013, 04:22:08 AM

Day 5! Raising day! 8)

We did still have a few timbers to finish up, I think mostly rafters and a some finishing touches on a couple posts.

We worked on joinery up until our first break, and then if I remember correctly, got the timbers staged and ready, then ate lunch (excellent as usual, in fact so good, I think so many people asked about their lunches that they wrote a "Heartwood recipe book" that is for sale on the website.)

After lunch we started the raising.

Here is the floor system with some 2x boards laid over the joists, ready and waiting for timbers to be placed.

Here is the box full of peg's we'll be using....

First bent being assembled on the deck....

Notice the wedge in the wedged half dovetailed joint on the tiebeam connection..

Here are the blocks that the wedges were cut from, using the bandsaw in the shop......

The second bent was raised and tied to the first using girts, and the 3rd bent is almost ready to raise....

....and up she goes....

Now that all the bents are in place and secured, we place all the braces into their brace pockets and loosely secure them with pegs. Now it's time to raise the top plates. We used a few long lengths of rope (it feels strange for me to call it "rope" when I'm so used to mariner terminology :D) and "parbuckled" the top plates into position.

Here is one of the few pics that I'm actually in :D (I'm the one in the yellow shirt)

After getting the top plates on and in place, then coming down off the frame and taking a step back, looking at it, and realizing how far we've all come in the past 5 days, I had a huge wave of satisfaction come over my body. 8) It was amazing to see this really coming together, and even more amazing to see how WELL it all came together.....and we haven't even fitted the rafters yet!

....and up go the rafters...

Will is ready and waiting for the "final step."

The frame owner get's the honors of the "final step."

And there you have it, the frame is complete! 8)

Piston · June 13, 2013, 04:25:16 AM

Quote from: Dave Shepard on June 12, 2013, 08:22:38 PM
From Heartwood, if you go over Frost road and come out by Bucksteep and take a right, there is a road on the left on the top of the hill that goes into October Mountain and down to the four corners. That looks like it to me. (Maybe that's Stanley Road, I don't know) EDIT: Nope, I'm thinking of West Branch.

Quote from: bill m on June 12, 2013, 08:19:18 PM
Looks like it may be Stanley Rd. How far from the school? About 3 miles maybe?

Bill and Dave,
I couldn't tell you what road it was, but I THINK it was near that restaurant we went to one night. Is that the Bucksteep Manor that Dave mentioned? I think it's the only restaraunt around. I'm pretty sure if you took a right out of that parking lot, and kept going, the road eventually turns to dirt, and I just kept driving down that road until I saw a place to park. I didn't even know what it looked like until I woke up as I didn't get there until probably 11 or so, and of course it was pretty dark. I would love to go back there on my bike and explore the dirt roads some more though. Maybe one of these days I'll do a "sawmill and logging tour of western MA" and check out both your operations ;D If either of you have a spot you don't mind me pitching a tent for the night then it could make for a nice 2 day ride. ;D

Do these pics help at all? I remember there were a few signs for ATV trails around.

Piston · June 13, 2013, 04:40:15 AM

A few other notes and random thoughts about the course.

There were 2 things that seemed strange to me that I had a hard time getting used to. One is the way they teach marking the joint, regarding what is waste wood and what stays, it's completely opposite from the way I learned prior to taking the class, so this was hard for me to get used to. Instead of using "X" to mark the wood to keep, I'm used to using "X" to mark the wood to cut away, and "O" to mark the wood to leave, it was the exact opposite for the Heartwood course. However, I was so paranoid about cutting out the wrong piece of wood, that I never let my chisel touch the wood until I said to myself "Are you positive your cutting the right location!".....and I didn't make any stupid mistakes. I was happy about that. ;D

The other thing I wasn't used to, is that they don't mark both the primary face and the secondary face, but rather just the reference edge. It really didn't make that much of a difference, but I found myself always thinking about 'where would the secondary face be?' I like to mark both faces, one with a dark triangle, and one with an open triangle. I suppose this is personal preference.

One last thing I'm not used to, was they didn't teach to score all lines prior to cutting. I like to score all the lines first for that nice clean accurate line. They did teach the saying "Score it, Saw'r it, and Bore it" but most of the time they did not score the lines. I like to score all my lines, it feels more 'exact.' If there is one thing that really stuck out in my mind, over being drilled for the last 5 days about, was the constant reminder that...."Perfect is good enough"

I feel that I "got a lot more" out of the class, having already had a pretty fair understanding of the timber framing process. Certainly the time and effort I put into learning about timberframing prior to the class paid off. I felt I picked up a lot more than many students and was able to lay out and cut the joinery with a very good understanding of what I was doing, and how, after the class put everything together for me. I even found myself walking others through the process and helping them at points, however, I was very careful not to become "over confident" and try to be a 'teacher'.

All in all, I can't say enough positive things about this course. It's by far the best I've taken and I have never gotten so much out of 5 days before! The main point, is that even after almost a year, I still remember a lot of the little tips and tricks they taught. Maybe this has to do with my note and picture taking, but either way, I wouldn't be nearly as knowledgeable now if it hadn't been for this valuable 5 days. I would certainly recommend it to anyone, from beginner to experienced, and I would love to take it a second time if it fits into my future schedule.

I'll always remember, "Perfect Is Good Enough" ;)

bill m · June 13, 2013, 09:49:14 AM

Piston, I'm sure i could find enough space for a tent if you are ever out this way. The restaurant you were at is the Dream Away Lodge on County Rd. Right out of the parking lot brings you into the October Mtn. state forest.

Dave Shepard · June 13, 2013, 10:07:50 AM

The X and O reversal is because of Dave Carlon's French scribe experience. There are a few interesting comparisons between English and French terminology. In English, if you mistakenly cut off your tenon instead of cutting your shoulder, you would have to fit a free tenon. In French, it's called a prisoner tenon. :D

That's the first Heartwood raising I've seen without hardhats.

Piston · June 13, 2013, 10:31:54 AM

Quote from: bill m on June 13, 2013, 09:49:14 AM
Piston, I'm sure i could find enough space for a tent if you are ever out this way. The restaurant you were at is the Dream Away Lodge on County Rd. Right out of the parking lot brings you into the October Mtn. state forest.

That's what it was! How could I forget that :D
Thanks for the tent space offer, I've been wanting to do a 90 mile dirt route out in western MA and if I ever get my act together maybe ill do it this fall.