My timber frame build

samandothers · July 19, 2021, 07:05:19 AM

Good to see the first bents go up! Congratulations.

Magicman · July 19, 2021, 03:27:34 PM

Yay, it's good to see stuff standing up!!! 8)

Ljohnsaw · July 30, 2021, 02:31:09 AM

Update 7/24-29/2021:

Worked at getting the 3rd bent ready to go up. Brought up my "Roust-a-bout" to help where the SkyTrak cannot reach. We test fit every post with it's braces before assembling the bent on 7/24:

It can lift a load up to 1,500 pounds 15' up. The side posts were green and probably several hundred pounds.

Checking the center post last. Only to find out I cut the brace pocket in the wrong place. Done for the day!

On 7/28, I trimmed and fit the 6 remaining 5x9 joists for the loft above the two bedrooms. Sorry, new phone and trying to get the exposure right (Auto is not the correct choice!):

This morning, I cleaned up the cutoffs from the beam and made fourteen 4x6x8' brace stock. Then I spent an hour horsing this log onto the mill and re-leveling the mill...

(still the wrong exposure...) I made a few starting cuts and this will become a 10x16x26' beam and two 8x10x15' posts with some side wood (likely brace/girt stock), all FOH. To be finished this weekend.

Ljohnsaw · August 16, 2021, 02:34:59 PM

Update 8/14-15/2021:

So, got the new center post cut and pocketed last week for bent #3 as well as the beam and 3 posts for bent #4. Had enough side wood to make four of the five 5x9x12' floor joist for the second bay (only half of the width for the loft).

Saturday morning, got going at 9 and had the bent up pretty quick. Made the decision to install the loft floor joist and do bent #4 after. Got done about 6 putting the joists up so called it a day. No real issues, just takes so much longer than it does in my head ;)

Sunday, re-positioned plywood for our work area and started with the usual: Test fit posts and their braces prior to assembling the bent. Roust-a-bout makes this quite a bit easier. West post first:

Note bent 3 in the background that the center post only has one brace on the left side. The staircase will be on the right side of the post so no brace to smack your head on ;) After it plugs all the way in the sill mortise, pull it up and put the braces in.

Did the east side then the middle post.

No final picture (quit after 6pm again) but had issues getting it all to set in place. Its up with the east side down snug. The center is up about 1/2" and the west side an inch and plan to go up Tuesday to get it down and strapped in with the Simpson straps.

No, it was not overcast. That is smoke from the fires in the area. Winds are supposed to pick up today and blow it out to you guys back east.

Magicman · August 17, 2021, 09:40:08 PM

This is exciting !! 8)

Ljohnsaw · August 20, 2021, 02:21:29 AM

Update 8/17-19/2021:
No pictures again. There was a large splinter of wood that got stuck under the center post preventing it from setting down. I was able to cut it out with a sawsall and push the slivers out. Put a two ratchet straps on the west post to pull it back up plumb and the center post settled down into its pocket. Then I yanked alternately on the two straps to rock the west post until it, too, settled into its mortise. Added all the Simpson straps and done. Took about an hour or so. Finished up the 2-½ days up there by finishing the last beam cuts and one of the three posts. Waiting on a couple loads of logs to be delivered. Hopefully hear tomorrow when.

firefighter ontheside · August 21, 2021, 01:16:04 PM

This is awsome progress, John. Looking good.

btulloh · August 21, 2021, 03:12:18 PM

Really looking good and a lot of progress.

Are you going to be able to get closed in to some degree before winter shuts you down?

Really enjoying watching your build. Thanks for the updates.

Ljohnsaw · August 21, 2021, 10:09:14 PM

Waiting on a couple loads of logs. The plan is to get all the beams and rafters up and then tarp the whole thing with a section of a horse riding arena tarp. Super heavy duty. I'll put grommets in every 3 feet or so and tie or screw it down as needed.

samandothers · August 22, 2021, 09:42:46 AM

Great progress! Things are really coming together and looking good. I am enjoying your build thread.

Erik A · August 22, 2021, 01:28:29 PM

Quote from: ljohnsaw on August 21, 2021, 10:09:14 PM
The plan is to get all the beams and rafters up and then tarp the whole thing with a section of a horse riding arena tarp. Super heavy duty. I'll put grommets in every 3 feet or so and tie or screw it down as needed.

If you are still looking into tarp options, here is a possibility -
https://www.repurposedmaterialsinc.com/billboard-vinyls/

Ljohnsaw · August 22, 2021, 04:51:19 PM

I tried several of those guys but they either never called back or didn't have any on hand at the moment. I picked up a covered riding arena "tarp" free off of CL. They cut it into 3 pieces to remove and I took two of them. They about bottomed out my truck springs with the helper springs - well over 1,500 pounds. The "small" one made a 40' 5th wheel camper cover (front/back & sides, too), a 22' boat cover, several LARGE lumber stack covers and a bunch of small equipment covers. I saved the largest just for this. IIRC, it is something like 60' x 90' - it filled up the cul-de-sac that I live on. When rolled up, it takes two to drag it and a truck crane to lift it!

Erik A · August 22, 2021, 05:00:58 PM

CL is definitely your friend!!

Malfestus · September 05, 2021, 01:34:23 PM

Im excited to see your progress! Your land is beautiful and this is inspirational for me. Thanks!

Ljohnsaw · October 20, 2021, 12:45:25 AM

10/19/2021 update:

Been awhile. I was waiting on logs to finish up the last bent and start making beams. With the fires now and the last couple of years, the loggers have filled up the mills so no work for them. But no loggers for me, either. They went off to fight fires. Back the end of September, I pulled my camper trailer home and started to winterize. One thing I do is drain my water system - 330 gallon tank & 400' of water line. Down at the bottom of the hill is my septic field and a water spigot. When I went down to open the spigot on October 6th, I found this:

This is the distribution box - effluent comes in by the board and goes out to two leach lines on the left. I think a bear sniffed it out and decided to take a peek.

I had to take up all the working plywood since the snow would destroy my floor joist if I didn't.

I covered the tops of my beams to seal up the brace pockets and post mortises that are cut in them.

I was too tired to finish up the winterizing. Then I got side tracked and bought an industrial tractor which delayed me doing what I was supposed to be doing. I went up today to finish. There was a small storm that passed by on Sunday night. A neighbor up there took some pictures on Monday but I think a little more snow fell last night. This is what I found this morning:

About 6" total.

That would be a show stopper for the SkyTrak and it's bald tires. But, I have a new toy and was able to scrape the snow away.

The tractor earned a place under cover!

No more milling/building until spring. Still hoping to get some logs in this fall if the snow melts enough for my logger to make a delivery. Unfortunately, there is a series of storms coming through this week. :(

Magicman · October 20, 2021, 08:01:45 AM

Thank You for the Fall shutdown update and I am already ready for your Spring thaw edition. 8)

firefighter ontheside · October 20, 2021, 08:33:22 AM

A friend who lives in Truckee posted pics of early season snow, so I assumed when I saw your post that it would have some snow too. Some significant progress made this year. I'm looking forward to next year.

samandothers · October 20, 2021, 10:15:43 AM

Good summer season with progress made. Your stable of tools increased which will aid with future production!

We used a 1" pipe to run water down the hill from a spring. I'd fill a tank I carried on the grapple and then gravity feed it into the camper. Well a bear decided it would be fun to chew on the end of the 1" pipe. He made several new holes where there should not have been any.

Ljohnsaw · October 20, 2021, 10:43:27 AM

Quote from: samandothers on October 20, 2021, 10:15:43 AMWell a bear decided it would be fun to chew on the end of the 1" pipe.

I have chipmunks that think its fun to chew up my PVC. Stupid tree rats.

Back on 10/10, I hauled my tractor 100 miles from Vacaville to my property. I parked in the big paved lot of the campground to unload. I went in the office to let them know what I was doing. When I came out, a worker was "talking sternly" to what I thought was a dog in the housekeeping shed (that she was in). Turned out to be a bear cub. I yelled over to her to do it with meaning - yell as loud as you can and just repeat "bad bear, git bear," etc. It wandered out and another popped out of the laundromat adjoining that room. They were pretty young and I was looking for mama bear - never saw her. They proceeded over to the office and knocked over the trashcan and rummaged through it. Finally wandered off. Very bad bears - not afraid of humans. When I started my diesel tractor up, then they finally left.

Stephen1 · November 22, 2021, 09:47:23 PM

Been a great read for a topic I just found. Thanks for recording it all.
See you in the spring!

Ljohnsaw · December 14, 2021, 07:15:21 PM

12/14/21 update:

Well, we had our big "atmospheric river" event over the last few days. Its been a LONG while since we had one of those. In the last 3 days or so over 3.5" of rain at my house. Was supposed to get 48" of snow up at the cabin. This is on the road home 500' elevation below:

So, done till the big melt somewhere between late April and early July. The next traffic camera up the hill is about 10 miles past my place and happens to be at nearly the same elevation. But that one is "temporarily off line", as are the next 5 cameras going over the summit. They were supposed to get over 6 feet of snow up there. More coming Wednesday night through Thursday evening and another round starting on Monday. This might make a dent in our drought.

Ljohnsaw · December 29, 2021, 03:30:22 PM

Update 12/29/21

Lots of wet, heavy snow in lower elevation took down lots of big trees not used to that kind of loading. Lots of power outages on the west slope of the Sierras. Latest traffic cam shows a pretty high snow bank on the downhill side of I80.

The lit trucks you see are snow plows #2 & #3 that went by when I pulled up this camera. That snowbank is nearly as high as a semi. Its still coming down hard and will be for the night. Next storm starts on Monday.

Ljohnsaw · December 30, 2021, 01:49:53 AM

This is October 19th for reference. Note the silver water tower/tank, the height of the deck (10'). Below is from this morning that my neighbor took for me. the left blue arrow is the tank. The right arrow I think is the stump of a dead tree that I'm hoping the winds blew towards the camera and not towards the cabin :( The snow looks to be within 2 feet of reaching the deck so a good 8 foot there. On top of the deck, it looks like it is pretty close to being the same height as the tie beams (10' up) but I did leave a couple beams up there covered with tin so maybe only 8 feet up there as well.

To the left of the left arrow is a dark small shed and to the left of that is my work shed/storage. It has a single slope roof that you can see the open end of here. The horizontal dark line looks to be the top of the box truck - a little over 8 feet tall.

subarctic_moose · January 03, 2022, 12:45:24 PM

John, just found this thread yesterday and it's incredible to read though 7-8 years of steadfast work like this. I'm over the summit from you in the Sierra Valley area and will hopefully be getting a barn built this Summer. Like you, I mostly have have Doug Fir, Ponderosa Pine and Incense Cedar to pull from on my property. You mentioned some struggles with milling Doug Fir, are you using mostly Pine for the posts and beams? My initial thought was to use Doug Fir for everything structural and pine for everything else. Did you have to jump through any hoops with getting your lumber graded for the inspection?

My engineering requirements are a bit more lax than yours and I only have to design for 110PSF on the snow load (I'll probably shoot for 150, because why not). We got 3-4' with the December storms, looks like your property got quite a bit more. It's amazing how fast snow and rain can pile up when you're West of the Crest! Some of are friends are just down the road from you at Forebay, and they reminded me that Blue Canyon can actually be one of the wettest spots in the state. Anyway, you have property in an amazing part of the Sierras and I'm really looking forward to see this build come together.

Cheers, Hunter

Ljohnsaw · January 03, 2022, 07:39:49 PM

Hunter,
I see you only have 6 posts - welcome to the Forum. Actually, I do NOT have Doug Fir at my elevation - too high. I have White and Red Fir and that is what gave me problems. Now that I have a real tractor, I'll probably harvest some more of my (Ponderosa) Pine from further down on my property. I have a friend (through the Forum) that lives in "Crystal Springs" and water companies buy water from him. He is down the hill from Drum Forebay. He took down a big pine that was in the wrong place and I'll have that hauled up to my place once the snow melts. We missed the chance to get it up before the snow by a couple days. Anyhow, he has got some big DF on his property (both sides of 80) in the 5-6' DBH range.