Informational videos question

Jim_Rogers · May 14, 2009, 08:32:57 AM

If I create some videos about timber framing, what would you like to see?

Brad_bb · May 14, 2009, 09:44:14 AM

Square rule edge and snap line technique. Scriberule layout technique. How you check the sides of the mortice or tennon as you are working it (what the reference is to make sure it is correctly square). Especially when working with a bowed timber and a twisted timber. I haven't come across any good videos on the subjects, much to my surprise.

Jim_Rogers · May 14, 2009, 11:25:06 AM

Quote from: Brad_bb on May 14, 2009, 09:44:14 AM
Square rule edge and snap line technique. Scriberule layout technique. How you check the sides of the mortise or tenon as you are working it (what the reference is to make sure it is correctly square). Especially when working with a bowed timber and a twisted timber. I haven't come across any good videos on the subjects, much to my surprise.

You said: "Square rule edge....."

Do you mean regular square rule layout? I don't know what you mean by adding the word "edge" to the name of the type of layout.......

Brad_bb · May 16, 2009, 02:04:15 AM

Yes.

jdtuttle · May 16, 2009, 07:44:57 AM

How about timber frame roof systems? Different types and some design details. OOPS sounds like I want a movie :D :D

Dave Shepard · May 16, 2009, 09:44:45 AM

Tool selection and sharpening. Chisels are always a debated subject, i.e. should they have a curve, the angle of the cutting edge, the radius, or lack thereof, of the cutting edge. Same for slicks. Types of hand saws, types of drill bits. Perhaps a walk through of cutting a mortise, a tenon.

jamesamd · May 21, 2009, 10:58:52 PM

How to make a 45 Deg. mortise (brace mortise) that is true.
How to keep a DanG Japanese pull saw on it's line, cutting through tight grain, ripping or cross cutting.
How to pare to the line and keep it square, in hard tight grain.
How to get the NYC department of buildings, let Me build A timber frame shed, that has a roof over the 7' limit. ;D

Best of luck with the Vid's Jim. Your knowledge is a godsend, to us rookies.
Thanks a million for Your efforts!

God, I love this place!
Jim

Jim_Rogers · May 22, 2009, 07:24:46 AM

Jim:
First of all, some of these suggestions are easy ones.

QuoteHow to make a 45 Deg. mortise (brace mortise) that is true.

Well the 45° slope of a mortise doesn't have to be true, and usually shouldn't be true. Some people don't make them at all. They just square out the mortise both ends. The reason you don't want it to be true is that you don't want the mortise end to bind up the tenon on that side. Plus, we usually don't make the mortise sloping end that close to the tenon at all.

You see in square rule joinery the brace's reference edge is the long side away from the 90° corner. So that side is the hypotenuse of the right triangle, and it has to be on line, so that the post and tie are truly at 90° to each other. That means if your brace stock is over width, there has to be somewhere that this over width can be compensated for. It is compensated for at the mortise and housings, by making them oversized.

Let me explain it more. Lets say you have a 4x6 brace, and you're doing a 2x2 layout. That means 2" off the layout face and then 2" thick. These are the mortise and tenon locations for the brace ends. When you layout and cut the tenons on the brace you can measure the shoulder line on the tenon and find the housing length. But if the stock you're using is oversized lets say the brace is actually 6 1/8" wide then the housing will be too short, if you layout and cut a housing to match the drawings.

When we layout the brace mortise we always make it longer then the shoulder of the brace by at least 1/8", sometimes as much as 1/4"

Here is a picture to show you want I mean:

In the above picture you can see the profile of the interior mortise drawn on the side of the timber, so that we can visualize what's going to be inside the timber after we offset the mortise 2" in off the reference face.

And you can see that the mortise 45° line and the housing is not against the backside of the brace. This is how we do brace mortises so that they won't bind up and will allow braces that are oversized to be used anywhere in the frame.

Now once that you have done a frame fit up you can mark each brace for it's exact location so that when you re-assemble the frame for final time, it will be in it's correct fitted spot.

QuoteHow to keep a DanG Japanese pull saw on it's line, cutting through tight grain, ripping or cross cutting.

A saw line doesn't have to be on the line, it just has to be very close to the line. So that you can pare to the line. And this line that I'm talking about is a knife line, not a pencil line.

QuoteHow to pare to the line and keep it square, in hard tight grain.

When paring to the line, sometimes it shouldn't be square. You have to compensate the shoulders for future shrinkage, so the shoulders should be under cut a little so that when the surface of the timber shrinks back the shoulder will then be straight.
Don't try to pare off very much at a time, and keep very sharp tools.

QuoteHow to get the NYC department of buildings, let Me build A timber frame shed, that has a roof over the 7' limit.

Don't fight city hall.... ;D

witterbound · May 22, 2009, 10:29:39 AM

QuoteWhen we layout the brace mortise we always make it longer then the shoulder of the brace by at least 1/8", sometimes as much as 1/4"

When we layout a brace mortise we often undersize our mortise and housing dimensions by at least 1/4" because our 4x6 braces are often not a full 4x6. Then, after everything is cut (using the smaller dimensions) we measure the brace to see how long the mortise really needs to be, and scribe the edge of the housing to the actual width of the brace. Then we chisel out the mortise and housing as needed. This means the braces aren't all interchangable; but it gets a little tighter fit.

Jim_Rogers · May 22, 2009, 12:24:08 PM

As always there is more than one way to do it.....

moonhill · May 23, 2009, 07:05:17 AM

I like to take the path of least resistance, less work, a short cut if you will. I follow Jim's method for the most part. I am always looking for a way to make things simpler, I find I can get stuck in a rut and repeat the same process over and over when there could be a step left out or change in a simple way ending with just as fine a result.

Tim

jamesamd · June 06, 2009, 10:14:55 PM

Quote from: Jim_Rogers on May 22, 2009, 07:24:46 AM

QuoteHow to get the NYC department of buildings, let Me build A timber frame shed, that has a roof over the 7' limit.

Don't fight city hall.... ;D

That be the problem Jim,I do not take too well,to rules made for the masses,made to protect Me from Myself. ;D

I understood every point You made,thank You!
I think I misled You a bit.You see,the wood I'm working with is dry,very dry.
In Sept of 08,several large skids were delivered to My plant from Germany loaded with a new robot we had purchased.
I could not see the wood in a land fill,so one of My workers and I broke them down and took them home.
I have no idea where the wood originated from but it is old and beautiful,some kind of conifer.

I lose count,at about 80 growth rings.
I know the skids were dried to extream temps,so they could be allowed into the U.S.A..
Let Me state.My tools are razor sharp but DanG,this stuff is hard.