Intro & Question

[Scratch]

Hello Everyone,
New user here and I wanted to take a minute to say hello and introduce myself. My name's Paul and I'm a complete newby at this whole timberframe thing. I have a day job, but as the wife says, "it's only to support the woodworking habit". My woodworking endeavors up to now have been along the lines of boatbuilding and the typical hobbyist stuff. I'm currently in the process of completely restoring a 1954 28ft Chris Craft cruiser - a major project, but one that I'm enjoying very much.

We recently bought a 20 acre tract of land here in Alabama and I finally get to have some space to spread out on with my projects. Of course, spreading out isn't worth much unless you can keep stuff dry and secure, right? Anyway, I've always wanted to build a post and beam barn and now that i have the place, etc., I ain't gettin' any younger, know what I mean?

I've spent quite a bit of time reading everything I can get my hands on. I'm to the point where I've got a handle on the theory (for my first, simple project) but need to bounce questions and ideas off folks with experience. In my mind, practical experience in an area such as this beats theory on most days.

My first project is going to be a small barn/large shed based upon the design in Timberframe Construction by Jack Sobon & Roger Shroeder. I'll post my specific questions in a separate post so as to not turn this one into a book.

Anyway, glad I found this forum and I look forward to contributing what I can and learning from the more experienced hands.

Take Care, Paul

[OneWithWood]

Welcome aboard, Scratch.
You have found your port in the storm  8)

[Dan]

Paul,  I`m in the process of building that shed right now, although I stretched it to 20 feet. It is my first attempt at timber framing, although I have been doing woodworking as a hobby for years. I have the sills on the foundation (concrete piers) and have cut almost all the posts so far, hope to get the job done before it gets cold here in Connecticut.

-Dan

[Ron Scott]

Scratch,

Where did your 1954 Chris Craft come from? Do you know which plant it was built at??

[Scratch]

Thanks for the replies fellas! I'm amazed at the amount of knowledge to be found here on the FF!

Dan - I'm glad to hear that someone's actually building that plan. My first question (when I get around to writing it up in an understandable form) will deal mostly with expanding some of the dimensions. Have you found the guidance in the book to be pretty accurate and complete so far?

Ron - Are you a fellow CC and/or wooden boat fan? My boat came from TX. It was one of three that came of the production  line together and shipped to the same lake/area in central TX. Not sure which plant it was made in - I haven't received the historical records yet. Definitely one of the best buys I've ever made. Great boat, great seller, etc.

[Jim_Rogers]

Paul:
Welcome.
We are currently cutting the frame from Jack Sobon's book, here at my sawmill yard, in our bi-monthly timber framing workshops.
I have recently been to a raising at a customer's site where the students and I helped him raise his frame of the exact same size, (he got the timbers from me.)
I've got lots of experience with this frame and design.
So start a new thread or ask here.
I'll be glad to help any way I can.

Jim Rogers

[Ron Scott]

Chris Kraft had a major plant here in Cadillac, Michigan and built some great wooden boats. They closed when "fiber glass" came on line.

[Dan]

Jim, I am cutting the timbers for the Sobon frame, and it seems like a lot of wood will be removed from the center posts in the area of the mortices for the girts and brace, making me hesitant about the location of the girt mortices, any opinion? ???
Thanks,Dan

[Jim_Rogers]

Dan:
When Jack wrote this book and created this design it was made to have one inch housings as it could be expanded to larger sizes which would require these one inch housings.
If you are creating a shed that is truly 12' x 16' then the housing can be 1/2" instead of the standard 1".
We have modified these housings on our designs to this smaller size housing.
This reduces the amount of wood removed and makes it easier and faster to cut the joints and housings.
It will also change some of the timbers' shoulder to shoulder lengths.
It is possible that you can change all your non cut joints to this new housing size, if you want to, depending on whether or not you're making it the standard 12' x16' size.
And or your snow load for your area isn't real high. If you're in a high snow load area then you might want to discuss this further.
Where are you located and what's your snow load, per square foot?

Jim Rogers

[Dan]

Jim, thanks for the reply. My shed is 12 x 20. Not sure what my snow load is, I`m in Coventry Ct. ( About 20 miles east of Hartford). I will eliminate the need for one sidewall girt  by framing one side for a door, and on the other side I can move the location of the girt to get  the mortice away from the brace mortice. 

[floyd]

Local building dept can tell you what snow load you need to build for

[Don P]

We've bumped into snow load questions a few times recently, I googled snow load and found this county by county list;
http://www.asicoverbuildings.com/pdf/specifications/MBMA2002.pdf
It was right for my county. Like Floyd said (welcome Floyd) the local inspector is THE source.

(edit) I take that back, the snow load is correct, our wind load has been bumped up 40 mph from what that says, slowed down my last job 6 weeks, the supplier ate a buncha windows while I got to install windows twice for the fun of it...it does pay to check! We never have clocked a wind the old numbers show  :.