Beams for sawmill shed

[beenthere]

And getting more depth to the beam is where additional strength can be gained.
i.e. sandwich three 2x10's with either plywood or steel in the laminations would increase strength considerably.

[barbender]

I would just use the Oak beams with knee braces and be done with it. If you know the loads the calculations are available, maybe in the forum toolbox, to figure the necessary size beam. I sized the ridge beam for our house, to free span 14' with our snow loads called for an 8"x12" with the Red Pine I was using.  It hasn't sagged at all.

[giant splinter]

I am trying to get started on my mill shed and cut an 8" X 14" X 27' header beam out of Douglas Fir for my 22' clear span log deck opening two years ago, it is moved over and resting on blocking right next to the foundation footings. Once I actually get rolling on this project I will add some photos. Mill sheds are very important to us and help a lot in all weather conditions to keep us dry and in the shade while allowing everyone to keep on sawing on the days when we just otherwise may not want to get snow down the back of jacket. Its always neat to see what everyone else is building for a mill shed and the FF has many very nice structures that we can look to for ideas when we plan out our own shack.

[tule peak timber]

What we did today..Expanding the existing shed for the new mill. Cheers Rob

  

 

[m wood]

always love to see your projects Rob.  You obviously don't believe in doing anything small.

[Tom L]

What we did today..Expanding the existing shed for the new mill. Cheers Rob

how did you anchor those posts? looks to be  a gap on the bottom.

[Andy White]

Warren46,
This was the same situation I was in when I framed my house. Needed to span 28' in three places for pony walls for hip roof to gable roof tieins. Engineers said 2x12 with plywood cores, glued and screwed. Figuring cost, I was able to buy factory Glulam beams to span that distance, and have more support than I would ever need. They shipped them to my site, and unloaded them while I was at work. Fabricated my own tie clips and bolted as recommended by mfgr. and all is well for six years now.


 


 


  

 
Most lumber yards can order them any length you need.         Andy

[tule peak timber]

The posts are anchored to a 1/2 yard of steel reinforced concrete with massive steel straps. I got to pick through the construction scraps of the winery we just finished the mill work package for and there was a lot of 1 inch rebar. I made good use of a lot of steel in the new mill slab and shed.  Cheers  Rob

[Mapleman]

There are a couple of things to keep in mind if you want to reduce some of the load on your cross beam by using knee braces.  First might be kind of obvious, but the braces need to be very well connected to both the beam and the post.  I've seen braces installed with just toe nails at each end and they will give under a heavy load.  Glue and screws would probably be best, you want a real rigid joint because if there's any flex in your fasteners you'll get a lot of deflection in the beam before the joints tighten up.

Also the knee braces will take some of the downward force from the beam and turn it into a sideways force on the posts so your posts need to be strong enough to take that sideways load and not bow out. 

In my sawmill shed I have two 24' openings spanned by solid 8X12 hemlock beams.  One snowy winter they started to sag a little (maybe 1" in the center of the span) but there was over 4 feet of snow on the roof above.  I shoveled the roof off and they straightened out.  I don't use the sawmill in the winter so what I do now in the fall as part of the winterizing routine is to put a temporary post under each span that I take out when I get ready to saw the next spring.  Seems to be working well so far.

Good luck with your project!

Dave

[venice]

Knee braces wont help that much in this situation. To prevent sagging you would have to move them far more to the centre of the beam than the desired headspace allows for.

I´d suggest I-Beam or Gluelam. Gluelam provides loadbearing tables for customers to figure out the needed dimensions. But you have to paint them for outside use.

Venice

[Klicker]

I did a  milling job for a 40 x60 barn. They used a double row of 6x8 for the beams to set the rafters on.