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Gonna go up!

Started by Engineer, April 24, 2005, 09:45:27 PM

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Engineer

Boyz n' gurlz -

Any of you that want to help out, get in the way or just watch - my house frame is gonna go up on the 9th of May.  That's a Monday, and hopefully we can get it up and done (with some minor pre-assembly) in one long day.

So for those of you in the Northeast/New England, and you feel like showing up, e-mail me for directions.  FF Members are most welcome.   

I don't remember if I posted any thing about it, but it's a 1-1/2 story, raised post cape, four-bent splined frame with a separate wing that we will hand-raise.  Eastern white pine timbers, octagonal hickory pegs, white ash splines and black birch and cherry braces.  No metal in this one.  Should be fun.   ;D  :)

Jon

TN_man

I would love to come and help but the drive is prohibitive. But I will offer my congradulations for getting to this point. I know your excited. Good luck on the raising. 8)
WM LT-20 solar-kiln Case 885 4x4 w/ front end loader  80 acre farm  little time or money

rcolmansr60

4 weeks I am off Mon, Tue, Wed, the next 4 I am working. I wish this fell the weeks I was off, but it doesn't, I would be there sun up to sun set.
        Keep us posted. Hope you have some pic's.

Hope all goes well. Dick

asy

I have one word for you Jon...

PHOTOS!!!


Please.

I'd be happy to come help ya...  Please forward plane tickets...   :o :D :o

asy :D
Never interrupt your opponent while he's making a mistake.
There cannot be a crisis next week. ~My schedule is already full..

Zeke

I wish you were a couple of states closer. I would love to come and help. Make sure you post plenty of pictures.

Zeke

wiam

I will see what I can do

Will

Jim_Rogers

Jon:
Send me the directions and I'll forward them to my students. Some may take the time to come up and help out.
I'll try and make it also.
Jim Rogers
Whatever you do, have fun doing it!
Woodmizer 1994 LT30HDG24 with 6' Bed Extension

Engineer

Update - we got pushed back a day on the crane, but managed to get two bents pre-assembled on the deck this afternoon.  Took us longer to move the pieces than it did to put 'em together and drive a few pegs.   Crane is gonna be here in the A.M., and then we put it in the air.....  Should be all done by late afternoon. 

8) 8) 8)

TN_man

 8) 8) 8) We are excited for ya  8) 8) 8)
WM LT-20 solar-kiln Case 885 4x4 w/ front end loader  80 acre farm  little time or money

Jim_Rogers

I went up to Jon's raising yesterday, 4 hour ride each way......
Learned a lot from watching others do it using their methods of raising, and assembly.
I took some 60 photos.
I don't have time to upload any today.
But maybe tomorrow.......
Jim Rogers
Whatever you do, have fun doing it!
Woodmizer 1994 LT30HDG24 with 6' Bed Extension

Jim_Rogers

To All:
I've created an album and posted some 15 photos of Jon "Engineer" and his framers assembling his frame from Tuesday, May 10th, 2005.

Here is a link to my album: Click here for Link to album showing raising day photos.

These are some of the best and most informative photos.

I left before they got to the roof section as it was a 4 hour ride home and I had to get home to pick up my daughter from scouts, on time......

Jim Rogers
Whatever you do, have fun doing it!
Woodmizer 1994 LT30HDG24 with 6' Bed Extension

Ernie

Great pics Jim.

Jon I can't wait for the finished pics, it looks great so far
A very wise man once told me . Grand children are great, we should have had them first

Engineer

I've got piles of photos, but reducing them to 15k to fit in the photo gallery ain't workin'.  The image quality goes right in the crapper.   :(

So I'm working on a house web page that will document the whole thing from land clearing to present.  Couple days, I'll post a link.

Jon

EDIT: Here's the link, somebody tell me if it doesn't work.


Furby

Works/looks good!
Great job! 8) 8) 8)

UNCLEBUCK

 smiley_smash ! Congrats Engineer !  I bet that felt good standing up on your home . It looks great .
UNCLEBUCK    bridge burner/bridge mender

sprucebunny

A handsome frame, Jon  8)

Looks like everything went smoothly ;D

Congratulations  :)
MS193, MS192 and an 026  Weeding and Thinning. Gilbert Champion sawmill

Zeke

Great frame. I'm jealous!

Zeke

woodsteach

Wow!

It looks great.

I don't want to hi-jack a thread, bu t .... How long have you been working on your frame?  What kind of wood(s) did you use?

Once again great job.

Paul
Brand X Swing Mill, JD 317 Skidloader, MS460 & 290, the best family a guy could ever dream of...all provided by God up above.  (with help from our banker ; ) )

Norm

Wow! Looks great Jon. :)

Doc

For no larger a crew (numbers not size of fellas), that thing went up fast! I would have thought you would need more guys than that for a raising.

Very sharp looking frame! Looks like everything fit up very nice.

How much extra did those bent pegs cost you....hahaha?

post pics as prgress gets made! I wanna see that as it gets completed.

Doc

Engineer

To answer a couple of questions:

The photo of my mill and a pile of logs labeled "humble beginnings" was taken in February 2004.  At that time, the only things that had been done on the property were the driveway, some tree clearing, and my well.  I had been sawing for about two weeks when that photo was taken, and had about 10% of the frame cut, maybe less. 

The rest of the timbers were cut fairly regularly between then and March of this year, so - a year to cut.  My hired help consisted of two guys with a couple decades of experience each and one part-time framer with joinery experience, plus me.  They started in March on the planing, layout and cutting.  They finished the day before we put it up.  I put in about 80-100 hours of my own time, mostly planing, some cutting of joints, and grunt labor.  They put in 40-hour weeks. 

The frame went up, from the first bent to the last purlin, in about 12 hours total, and a lot of that was tedious flying of single purlins.  The ground crew was the three framers, me, my father, my father-in-law, my younger brother, and the crane operator.  A decent amount of visitors, probably 30-40 over three days.  A LOT of rubberneckers on the road.

Let's see - the bent pegs.  Funny story.  I was cutting peg stock to length on my chopsaw (the lumber company sold me octagon stock in 6-14' lengths) when I noticed that a piece was unusually light and had a strange odor.  Come to find out, they sent me 400 lf of BUTTERNUT peg stock.   ::) Going to use that for decorative pegs...   ;)   There's a good reason, as you can see, to use hickory pegs, especially with a strong drawbore.  The pine just squished, but the oak ain't movin...  :o

Wood.  The principal species is white pine.  Braces on the second floor are also pine.  Braces on the main floor are black birch, with two exceptions which are cherry.  The splines are red oak.  The pegs (including the bent ones) are hickory, and there are some larger 1-1/4" pegs which are cherry and black walnut.

Doc

Fantasticus! I wish I could be there to look that one over in person!

I am sure I am not alon in saying this, but I want to see more pics as you get things going on that one! That is gonna be a keeper.

Doc

MSU_Keith

Engineer - the frame looks great.   :) :) :)

I am considering the same process and have a couple questions for you.  Was the framing help you hired friends or did you seek them out somehow?  It sounds like they did all the cutting on site.  Have not yet found a framer around here willing to work with my timber - everyone wants to  quote the frame cut in their shop out of timbers purchased through their suppliers  ::).

Another question - did you design around the length capabilities of your mill and tree stock or did you have to order some timbers?

Thanks,
Keith

Engineer

Keith, long story on both.

The framers were a surprise, literally.  I am friends with a guy who had a decent rep as a one-off frame builder, and for a few years, he kept asking me when I was ready to build.  When I finally called him, he was having legitimate health problems and bailed on me.  Bummer.  So, later in the week, I was in a meeting with another framer who was going to build a pavilion for the local Rotary club.  I asked him if he would consider building my frame, and he said he would love to.  The discussion was pretty short, I said I had the timbers already and had one condition, that I was to supervise the job and participate as much or as little as I wanted to.   He was fine with that and said he had "a couple guys he works with" who would help.  I was a little leery of the "couple guys" thing but had my hands tied.

Well, the "couple guys" wound up being expert framers who happened to have about 30 years of combined experience, and this was their first job on their own and were anxious to do good and develop a good rep.  They had a local designer who gave me a hand as well.  The guy I hired, never showed up except for a brief visit at the raising. 

I cut about 40% of the timbers myself with my WM LT30, and hired another local sawyer with an LT40 to saw the longer and larger pieces.  I was going to try to cut everything on my mill, but time and the limitations of the mill won out.   Nothing's over 20' long in the whole frame.  All the timbers came from my own trees, or logs I got from construction sites, and were milled, planed and joinery done on site.

I never looked for a "framing company", as I thought I was all set up.  Things worked out really well anyway.  There are a lot of itinerant timber framers out there, but you just have to find them.  The Guild is a good place to start.

20/20 hindsight - I would have probably bought a new sawmill from Day One, milled everything myself, and shipped the timbers to a mill with a four-sided planer.  Other than some minor design changes, everything else went really well, and I have nothing but the absolute highest recommendations for the guys who stepped up to the job.

Doc

Judging from the pics it really came out gorgeous! You had good hands for sure.

Doc

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