Milling Experiment #2

[Jim_Rogers]

My next milling experiment was to see if I could get my mill to make a "Gunstock" post. Another name for this post is a "Jowl" post, sometimes pronounced "jowled" post.

Well here is a shot of the post:



The post is 8"x 8" on the bottom and 8"x 12" on the top. The other post is a 6"x 6".

It was fun trying and will make more again sometime.

Have any of you made any different shaped timbers before?


Jim

[Minnesota_boy]

Not quite the same, but one of my customers asked if I could make a 12 foot oak 4x4.  "Sure" I replied quickly.

  Can you make it taper to 2 1/2 x 2 1/2 at one end.  "I think so", I said more cautiously.  

Then the kicker, can you make it 4x4 for 3 feet and then taper it to 2 1/2 x 2 1/2 at the other end.  

I've made 4 of them so far and I suspect that there will be a small demand for them in the future as tongues for horse drawn sleds.

Now, how did you make the blade turn to get that jowl? :P

[Jim_Rogers]

Sawed all the lines straight, just blocked up the cant to the right level to make the bevel cut last.
The order in which I do the cuts wasn't done correctly this time but it's a learning experiment. I'll do it better next time.
Jim

[Jim_Rogers]

I've cut tapered post before where the customer wanted 4x4 at the top and 5x5 at the bottom, over an eight foot post. That's not that hard once you figure out the correct height of the block.

I had another customer who was putting on a porch railing and didn't want to cut the ends of the rails to 45° angles to meet the octagon shaped porch so he had me cut the posts in half at 22 1/2° so he could mate them back up together and get faces that the rails could met at 90°.

Here are some shots of this job:



Here are the post mated up in his truck:



That was fun and different to do.

Jim

[UNCLEBUCK]

That is neat ! fascinating what bandsaws can do. I am still sawing square stuff and have had the chance to make railing posts and railing but only have read of the jowled posts, Is it with a jowled post then one can have longer top plates and also scarf many top plate pieces so as to have a long length, I have to check that out again in my 2 books ! love the pics, youre good ! ;)

[Jim_Rogers]

Uncle Buck:
Here is a drawing of a jowled post, where the tie beam is above the plate:




Basically you'd use a joweled post where you have two timber meeting at two different levels to the same post. As shown above.
The drawing shows a tie beam connecting to the plate using a half dovetail joint at a gable end of the frame. This joint is called an "English Tying Joint" and this is a common joint for connecting the tie beam at the plate.
There are three ways to connect tie beams: 1) at the plate, 2) below the plate, 3) above the plate.
(Drawing from Jack Sobon's book: "Historic American Timber Joinery, A Graphic Guide" sold by the guild. $10.) :P

I hope this has explained to you where you'd use a jowled post.
Jim

[UNCLEBUCK]

thanks Jim, I dont get very far without my books . I feel like a fish out of water looking at a squared up log instead of a round one, hard to explain but there is no room for error timberframing , thanks for the pics and the explanations

[isawlogs]

   I once sawed a 14" eastern white cedar log into a 21 sided post . It was put at the end of a deck and they put in 21 steps to the second floor deck. Made a very nice spiral staircase,the treds where 2x10 cedar which where set into a 4" cedar log flatened on one side and a 3' tennon was cut into the end and this set into the post on one of the 21 sides...

[Jim_Rogers]

Wow! what kind of a jig setup did you do for that?

[isawlogs]

  Didn't have a jig...
   Started by cutting the ends of log square then we centered the log off of the bunks of the mill with the taper compensaters and then geometrie came into play....We had to keep the log centered each time we rolled it....Allan (whoe I was sawing for ) did a great job of laying out the cut lines and centering of the log and making sure that the center was always centered before each cut.The face of which were if my memory serves me wright where 1 5/16". Had the log been off centered by only a fraction of an inch the faces would not have not come out true,
    We put a 2' level on the line and turned the log to matcht up whith the blade minus 1/16" on the ouside to be sure that the blade was entering the log at the wright place,
     I have pictueres of this and many more but have no means of posting them .... maybe I'll send them to someone out there that has the means to post them...I do want to get a scanner but it's a tuff call wright now ( my finance minister, read my loving half, has douts on the actual need of this)
 I did put it on my santa's list, ya just never know.....