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Something a little different. This will be small, just 6'x9' and about 12' tall at the ridge. Port Orford cedar posts, beams, and siding. Probably Douglas fir for the other framing members, Oregon white oak floor. Posts scribed to stone. Traditional Japanese joinery. It will face south and there will be some glazing to take advantage of natural light. No utilities or insulation. We will use it as a potting shed but in the future it could be used as a child's playhouse or maybe a small studio in mild weather.

POC has been ordered. Sawmill tells me it should be dry enough to begin working it in late summer.

Here are some conceptual sketches. I'm working on the roof design and joinery details now.
I'd be happy to hear suggestions since I still have a few months before chips fly.

(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/62406/Garden_shed_01.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1612320693)
 
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Hi GRadice,

I enjoyed looking at your sketches.  It looks as though you are on your way to a nice shed.

My Dad was an architect, here in NY,  who was influenced by; and while stationed in Japan during WW II.  Many of his houses as well as NY State Park System bath houses, etc. have the result of that influence.

One very easy and simple trick for your shed might be to cut the rafter tails slightly to resemble the upturn of their overhangs.  This can be done without changing the top edge of the rafter thereby saving you the trouble of having to shingle a valley near the end of the overhang.

That rafter tail cut works well if not level.  It should still have a slight pitch down towards the tail end allowing rain to drip off the end and not run back towards the building wall.  Starting that cut about 1/4 to 1/3 of the way to the building outside wall will allow the rafter to show the roof pitch and still have that up turned effect.

I have drawn a sketch detail. (Sorry but I use Dads drafting table as I do not have fancy computer programs)  Hope this helps to explain somewhat.



(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/63667/Shed_Overhang20210214_09133293~0.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1613312704)
 





Another item to look at is the pitch of the roof.  If you keep the ridge low and therefore the pitch as low as you can without allowing the roof to leak, you will enforce the overhang feeling.  But, a flat roof would not work as well as one with a slight pitch.  I wonder, with shallow pitch, perhaps the depth of the rafter should be increased slightly.  

In my opinion, the gable ends should also have the same overhang distance from the building wall.  Sometimes it is tricky to support that overhang without ending up with a bulky looking job up under the roof.  Keeping it dainty looking goes towards the overall feeling and looks of the whole project.

There are some other ratios and rules of thumb that should be kept in mind when working with larger overhangs.  Perhaps Don P can chime in here.

Have fun with it!

 

Thanks looking and for taking the time to make the drawing. There are lots of little details to consider like the rafter end that you suggested that to me make a big difference. In one of the books on Japanese carpentry I've been reading, the author said that there several ways to finish a particular dimension and angle and that carpenters can make different choices depending on the situation but that the result should appear "serene." I love that.

I'll add that I'm approaching this from a furniture making background so I might overthink the joinery a bit.

As far as the degree of overhang, I'm working with multiples of 12" centers for the rafters so the gable end will probably be plus or minus 24" and the eave ends will be around that as well.

This is still all silicon, electrons, and neurons at this point so any other advice is welcome.

It has been a year and the shed is still in progress. I bought the POC beams last winter, then gave them their relief kerf to limit surface checking mostly to one surface.


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Then restacked the beams to dry outside under cover.

Over the summer I refined the design and made a joinery model. The joints are proportionally correct but scaled to fit the model into my shop so the posts and beams are much shorter proportionaly than they will be. In other words, this is not a scale model of the shed, but it is a scale model of the joints.


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One fun part was working out the joinery for the barge boards to the eave beams and ridge beam. The joint uses a yatoi hozo, which is a tenon with a dovetail on one end and tapered wedges to pull it tight.

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And here is the joinery for the floor beams to posts.




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I also dug holes for the concrete piers. I embedded stainless threaded rod, and bored holes into river rocks to fit over the rod. The posts for the shed will be scribed to those rocks.


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In January I brought the 6 posts into the garage to dry further. They were cut at 6x6 and after a year outside they were at about 15% MC.  I started milling them square and straight but I'm leaving them oversized while they finish drying in case they move. I'll show how I'm doing that in the next post.

 popcorn_smiley

For real. This is neat! Those joints look nuts!

I have 18 posts and beams to process. 15 of them are 10' or 8', three are 14'. I'm starting with the 10' posts, rough sawn to 6x6.

Japanese framing generally uses much slenderer members than is common in the West. Posts for a one story building are standardized at 120 mm x 120 mm (about 4.75" x 4.75"). That means that makes the timbers easier for one person to manipulate and makes it possible, if barely, to take the beams to the tool for processing.

So my strategy for working the beams down to finish dimension is to first knock off high spots with a power planer, then run the nearly flat beam over my 12" jointer to join two adjacent surfaces. My garage is 20'-8" wide and the jointer cutterhead is right in the middle so I have 10'-4" on each side. Just enough to run the beams, with the help of some shop made infeed and outfeed rollers.


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Then I haul the beam over to my 26' bandsaw running a 1" carbide tipped blade to cut the other two sides. I rigged a long torsion box outfeed table to the bandsaw. I actually have two bandsaws but I'm using the second one here just to support the outboard end of the outfeed table. Small garage shop, ya gotta be efficient with space and tools.


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Low and behold, it works.


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The 14' beams will have to be joined with a circular saw and power planer but I can still bandsaw them.

The posts aren't dry enough to cut joinery yet. As I mentioned they are at about 13-14% MC. My plan is to leave them oversized (they are about 135mm square now) until they get to about 11-12% and then work them to finished dimension. Our rainy season here in Oregon will end in May. I hope to be able cut joinery over the summer and get this thing in the air and covered before the rain starts again in October. Fingers crossed.

A little more progress. The posts are down to about 12% MC and I have worked them to a couple of mm over their finished dimension of 120x120mm. I also decided to fill their relief kerfs using some of the cutoffs from resawing the posts. This was mostly an esthetic choice. If I was insulating the shed the kerfs would be buried in the walls and I would leave them open, but I'm not so these will be exposed and I decided I liked the way they look filled better.



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I also worked down the floor beams and roof tie beams to just over final dimension. You can see them to the right. Those have been outdoors and are at ~14-15% MC so I'll wait a little longer before working them to final sizes.

The posts are just about ready for joinery. My plan is to first cut mortises and drill holes in the feet for the threaded rod and access for the nut to hold them down to the stones. Then erect and plumb the posts and scribe them to their stones and carve them to fit. Then shoot a level line for locating the floor and other joinery.

Very cool! I relief cut...nice. 

Finally after almost two years I get to do some layout and cut my first mortises.

Japanese timber framing is layed out from center lines. Center lines are inked. I'm using a Tajima InkRite and Tajima black ink. All four faces will have their center lines marked.


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Then I layed out, drilled, and chopped mortises that provide access to the threaded rod that will lock the posts onto their stones.

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Then drilled out the hole for the threaded rod. I made a guide bushing first and clamped that to the post.


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That got the hole centered. I left enough room, I think, for the washer, the nut, the threaded rod, and a finger to two to get the nut started.


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I have two posts done. After I do the other four I'll be able to set them on their stones for scribing and carving. The mortises will be plugged and planed flush after the shed is all assembled.

I admire your patience and skill. This is an incredible project!

Quote from: GRadice on May 31, 2022, 08:52:11 PM
Finally after almost two years I get to do some layout and cut my first mortises.

Japanese timber framing is layed out from center lines. Center lines are inked. I'm using a Tajima InkRite and Tajima black ink. All four faces will have their center lines marked.


(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/62406/630DA5FE-48AC-43CE-8A64-6A5E5B0DBE6D_1_105_c.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1654043845)
 


(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/62406/6A7D7881-D4E5-4E57-8F39-CE7DDE74CAB4_1_105_c.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1654043978)
 

Then I layed out, drilled, and chopped mortises that provide access to the threaded rod that will lock the posts onto their stones.

(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/62406/7878EFF1-C460-4FBC-B2B9-324D11406E60_1_105_c.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1654044175)
 


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Then drilled out the hole for the threaded rod. I made a guide bushing first and clamped that to the post.


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That got the hole centered. I left enough room, I think, for the washer, the nut, the threaded rod, and a finger to two to get the nut started.


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I have two posts done. After I do the other four I'll be able to set them on their stones for scribing and carving. The mortises will be plugged and planed flush after the shed is all assembled.

Line rule!  Very nice.
B

Fine work!  How are you going to tighten the nut? It looks pretty snug inside there.

 :P popcorn_smiley

That's a nice looking hand hammered hoop on that nomi. The joinery is ridiculous as well! 

Quote from: rusticretreater on June 06, 2022, 10:38:03 AM
Fine work!  How are you going to tighten the nut? It looks pretty snug inside there.

There is just enough room for the nut and the plate washer, and two fingers. I checked! I do wish I had used 5/8" threaded rod instead of 3/4".
Next up is scribing and carving the post feet to their stones. A friend who does this kind of work told me that figuring how to do this efficiently "is a creative endeavor." He recommended using scaffolding to support the post when it was plumbed rather than try to screw braces to it, because you have to set the post, scribe, dismount it, carve, reset to check your work, and repeat until you have a good fit. Not so easy with a 60 pound post 10 feet long.
I made some shipyard staging horses out of 2x4's and 1x6s. I got the idea from the Bristol Shipwrights on youtube. The scaffold board is a 2x12 x 12'. To that I clamped an L-shaped cradle that would support and register the upper half of the post when I had it sitting on the threaded rod and plumb. To check that the posts were square to each other I made some mini-posts of the same dimension and the real post and ran a dry line around them all. Then I adjusted the post and minis until they were all square to each other (no gaps in the dry line) and tightened the minis down as my reference. I'm sure there are other ways to do this using batter boards and such but I did it this way.

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To check for plumb I used a 4' long shop made version of Japanese plumb line level. Very simple, very effective. I fastened it to the post with a bungie cord. That made it easy to flip to the other face of the post and left my hands free to adjust plumb. I chalked the stone to transfer contact points to the post.

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Then chopped away. Most of the work is done with a Japanese in-cannel gouge (sotomaru nomi). These are great because they can be sharpened on a regular flat stone. For carving I set the post(s) on a couple of low sawhorses. The dowel is there to prevent blowout around the hole for the threaded rod while I'm carving. The towel is for my butt. I also found it more comfortable to sit on two posts.

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And one post done. I'll wash off the chalk later. Five more to go.

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Other notes: I covered the site with 3/4" minus gravel to keep the dust and mud down. It will get covered when the shed is done with more attractive pea gravel. The rugs are to keep gravel off of the posts.

Four posts done. Two to go. For scribing I'm using these simple and cheap washers CYA glued to each other and a small nut. It works as long as the stone has smooth transitions, which mine do. Much easier than scribing with a compass. I made several sizes depending on the gap I needed.



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The site. I just added a pop up canopy so I can work in the shade. Worth it. 
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Incredible scribing work! I'm envious of your patience, skills, and technique! 

Thanks. I don't find the scribing and carving that difficult technically but yes, it does require patience. The first one took me about 8 hours while was figuring out a work flow. The last one I did took about three hours but still much setting and resetting the post.  I have one more to go today and then I'll finally get to shoot a level line. Then I'll be able to lay out the post joinery. Here's the view this morning from our kitchen window.


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Now that's a project!!

Started laying out the mortises on the posts. I'm using a story pole. In Japan called a kensao or shakusao (very roughly a "space stick" or "shaku/foot stick." Same idea as in Western framing. I've never done this before so I'm going slowly. A few layout mistakes here and there but easily corrected.
I've also gone back to the joinery model I made last summer for a refresher. I've changed a few joints and added some since then. I also realized that I had to plug and relocate the mortises for access to the threaded rods. Long story but I had to adjust for the slope of the site and decided to reduce the overall height of the shed as a consideration to not to block my neighbors view from their deck.

I moved these posts into the shop for this part.




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I'm also looking at roofing options. I'm probably going with a metal roof, and possibly terne shingles.

Considerate of you to no block the neighbor's view! 

Not much new to show, yet. I finally have all the main beams dimensioned but when I went back to my drawings to check the layout I discovered I needed to change the floor design, which meant I needed to adjust the floor framing and floor beam joinery layout. Good thing I hadn't started chopping, yet. I also refined the walls and roof which fortunately didn't affect the main framing layout. Here is the latest rendering of the shed. Let's call this V.2.0. There is a lot you don't see: ceiling boards, roof and flooring and wall cladding details. And a bunch of other details not yet decided. It's amazing to me, as a novice, how many decisions have to be made for such a small structure.


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"Novice" Hahahahah!

Quote from: aigheadish on July 27, 2022, 06:19:55 AM
"Novice" Hahahahah!

Well, I've never done a timber frame before but I have made a lot of furniture. Maybe I'll cop to "experienced furniture maker and amateur carpenter."

Not much new to report. As I've been doing the layout I found a few mistakes in my joinery drawings that I've had to go back and correct. One that would have made the king posts about half an inch too short. Not good. And since I milled my ridge beam it bowed about half an inch laterally in the middle. Trying to think through what that means for the rest of the roof layout.
 
I did commit to the roof cladding which will be Quadro panels made of terne by Finemetalrooftech.com.

https://finemetalrooftech.com/products/quadro-panels/

Hopefully you chose the copper panels. Really bring the building together!

Well, the copper was a bit over my budget and I was worried about thieves stealing it. I went with terne (modern terne is tin covered stainless steel) which should last 100 years or more, was about half what copper costs, and shouldn't attract thieves. It patinas to soft gray which should look good with weathered wood.

I've started in on the mortises for the connecting boards that collectively are called nuki. They are similar functionally to girts but are thinner and taller and there are more of them than there are girts in western timber frame. The multiples provide the racking resistance that knee braces provide in Western construction. The nuki are colored tan.


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These are sometimes layed out on the same plane and joined with half height mortise and tenons that overlap at the corner posts. I chose the other option which is to stagger the heights and use wedged half dovetails since I think they are stronger in tension. Although that does remove a little  more wood from the post. Here is one mortise done with a test half dovetail in scrap.






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And assembled, but with the post horizontal since I was working on it.


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There are lots of ways to make mortises. I chose to make a router template that registers with the centerline and use a router with collar to rout to a depth of 16 mm/5/8". That established housing for the nuki and also established a consistent reference for paring the mortise sides square to the surface. Then I augered out much of the waste. Mortises are a nominal 30 mm and the auger is 28 mm which gave me a little room for error in drilling without leaving too much waste to pare. The additional block sitting on top was to gauge the depth. When the drill chuck reached the level of the block I was done.


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I have the mortises all routed and a few left to drill out. Then I'll go on to chopping and paring them square.

I'm a roofing contractor in Eastern Oregon and had a client last summer that wanted copper drip edge and valleys. That bill was 9000 for materials.... So I get not going copper I was more joking about the roofing. 

Then you'll like this: for fun I inquired about getting copper shingles, flashing, and ridge cap from a supplier in Japan. The total cost with shipping would have been close to $10,000 per square. The rep and I had a good laugh about that, too!

Interesting that they are calling the tin coated stainless Terne. 

There was a company here that sold what they called Terne coated metal for roofing.  It was tin and lead covered regular steel, and had to be painted.  All that I ever knew anything about was standing seam. 

The roofs were commonly called Terne tin, which got changed to being called "turned tin" by most people that didn't understand the brand name being called.  A lot of people, including some historical "experts" still call a standing seam roof "Turned Tin".

That company was Follansbee Steel, and I think went out of business in 2012, put under by the snap together standing seam roofing.

This version of terne is made by Roofinox, which I believe is a German manufacturer. This gives some of the history and different combinations of metals used to make tern over the years.

https://www.roofinox.com/us/for-builders-renovators/terne-for-historical-buildings/

Anyone have experience using Japanese framing squares?

I am less than an amateur with Western framing squares so I can't really compare them. But I'm getting the hang of the Japanese square, called a sashigane or 指矩. I have a few of different sizes. These two are sizes that are most comparable to my old Stanley square.


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I also have one that is about 6 inches long and one that is about 4 inches long. Those are great for checking mortise walls for square.


Sashigane come with various rules, including shaku system on both sides, metric on both sides, shaku one side and metric the other side, metric and inch scale. In Japan it seems it is still common to use the shaku system in construction layout but materials come in the metric system so they need both. Just like here we mostly lay out in inches and feet but sheet goods tend to come in metric. You have to learn both. In fact Chris Hall convinced the Shinwa corporation, the leading maker of measurement tools in Japan, to make a sashigane in inches and centimeters to be most useful in the West. The standard rules are used both for layout and to calculate and measure angles for roof framing, as in the West.

In addition to regular rule measure in each system, some sashigane come with an additional scale that is the rule times the square root of 2. That is mostly used to calculate the largest beam than can be sawn from a round log. Youtube has videos of that being done. Some have a third set of gradations that is the rule times pi. That is used to measure a circumference give the diameter of a circle. I guess if you are using round logs that would be helpful.

Here is one video of sashigane in use, including a clever way to use them as winding sticks. But they have other layout uses for timber framing

The Use of Tools ’Ruler’ ／ Takenaka Carpentry Tools Museum Video Library - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3up3Bc-GNc)


I will also say that their slim dimensions lets me use them as drafting tools.

Every fall I spend a fair amount of time on eBay adding to my Japanese tool collection. The sashigane is on the list but haven't purchased one yet. Been buying planes and chisels. Slowly figuring out what's worth my time or not. 

You didn't ask but depending on what you would use it for, I'd suggest starting with the 30 cm/1 ft version and think of it as combination square rather than a framing square. Large enough to use for timber layout and small enough to use for furniture making and drafting. They cost about $11 dollars new so a small investment to see whether you find it useful. You might have to tweak it for square but I don't find that difficult to do.

Incremental progress. I got all the mortises cut on two posts. One of the corner posts here.


(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/62406/081846D0-921C-477F-8BB4-EFD953273048_1_201_a.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1660438322)


I did have one layout glitch that led to a cutting glitch that required patching. However, I can't seem to find a picture of that.....

Each post seems to be taking me a couple of days to get the mortises chopped. I have four more to go then on to the mortises in the beams.

More slow progress. But as I heard a guy say recently, "Sometimes slow is as fast as you can go."

Part of the slow progress is because I dropped my slick on a concrete floor and of course it landed on the cutting edge. Not catastrophic, but chipped enough that it took me about 3 hours to re-sharpen. Penance.

I thought I would show this new-to-me way to peg tenons that I learned recently from an American who just finished a short apprenticeship in Japan with a company that does traditional Japanese carpentry.

Japanese traditionally use square rather than round pegs and also traditionally orient the peg square to the posts and beams. But Japan is also earthquake country and they spend time thinking about timber framing and earthquake resistance. Recently some group in Japan did a test of how resistant to tension were various ways to peg M&T joints and the winner was a new one. The essential features are that the square peg is rotated 45 degrees, and a kerf is cut in the end of the tenon. Here are the two versions:


(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/62406/Screen_Shot_2022-08-17_at_5_58_34_PM.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1660784064)
 

The way it works is that the peg is slightly draw bored as usual. But when the peg is rotated 45 degrees and the tenon is kerfed, the peg slightly expands and wedges the tenon into its mortise. If tension increases on the horizontal beam, the tenon wedges more tightly and resists shear on the relish even more.

I have not seen the engineering data but intuitively this seems like a brilliant twist (ha!) on a centuries old joint. Or, maybe it has been thought of before and I just missed it.

In any case, I decided to jump in with both feet and use this on my shed for the floor beams to corner posts joint. In my case I also have overlapped the  tenons that meet at right angles on the post and have housed stub tenons to further support the beam and resist twist when the floor is loaded. This post is almost done:


(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/62406/F8A6C159-474F-42C5-9457-DA5975A6DA37.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1660784653)
 
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/62406/FDD91265-71CD-45BC-BACC-F02DCD244F88.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1660784710)
 

 

I appreciate any input especially from someone that has experience with the product. It seemed like the last time I looked they were $60 ish and I have plenty of functioning squares. But at $11 ish that makes it much more feasible. 

Right, the full sized sashigane are about $60 but the mid sized versions are much cheaper. I find the 30 cm/1 ft (long arm) version is fine for 95% of what I'm doing with this build. I'm using the metric/metric version without the square root or radius functions. If I was doing hip roof layouts I might go with one with a square root measure as well.

I was making good progress on the joinery but this weekend we brought home a little girl who will be taking up some extra time for awhile. My new bench dog, "Willa".


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Congratulations cut little girl!

She's a real cutie - I bet she'll be a real 'going concern' in a couple of weeks..
Is Willa a Golden or Yellow Lab?
Either way that will be a perfect spot for her - they love to carry sticks of wood around all of the time!

Golden retriever, just over 9 weeks old. Yeah, pretty cute.


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We've had a couple and they are beautiful companions - very intelligent and trainable, but high energy for the next year and a half for you I would bet until she slows down!
The colour of her ears now, will be a pretty accurate indicator of what her colour will be when she matures.
I showed the picture to my wife and it brought tears to her eyes - remembering the ones we had - you get so attached to them that I don't consider that we could fathom ever getting another..
My wife's first comment was "ohho here comes trouble, keep anything wood related out of reach or it will be gone"..  :D

Despite the new puppy I've made some progress. I finished the 28 post mortises and am on to the three way joint between the tenons on the post tops, tie beams on the short axis of the shed, and eave beams on the long axis. This joinery pattern is called oriokigumi 折置組 and is/was used mostly for barns. Here is a picture from a book of joinery models. The tie beam sits on the post.


(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/62406/E2BEF7EB-854E-4C13-9A31-7CB686269EE8_1_105_c~2.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1662085631)
 

A stepped tenon on the post top rises through mortises in the tie beam and eave beam. The joint between the tie and eave beam is a cogged lap, called a watariago joint in Japanese. It is supposed to be as strong as a half lap joint but removes less wood. I can't confirm that but it's what I'm doing.

I started on the tie beam. I did the mortise first using a drill and chisels, checking for square. Then saws, chisels, and a router or router plane. I'm still working out the best method for my skills and tooling and tolerance for noise and mess vs speed. The bevel in the corner is to accommodate a chamfer on the the eave beam.


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I'm really enjoying this thread! Thanks for bringing us along!

Thanks for the feedback. I'm having fun trying to figure it all out. 

I finished the joinery for three tie/cross beams. The mortises in the centers of the beams are for the equivalent of king posts.


(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/62406/hari_beams_-_1.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1662256090)
 


Edit: the beams are the ones shown here in brown.


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Rather than complete the joinery for the post/tie/eave I've moved on to the joinery for the floor beams. Only because I already have them in my shop and moving the posts or eave beams would be a big hassle.

I started with one of the floor beams in the back of the shed since if I screw up my mistakes there will mostly be hidden. First off is one of the beams that will have a three-way joint.


(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/62406/Ashigatame.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1662518501)
 

Here is the right end of that beam. It will receive a long tenon from the floor beam to the right and be tightened down by wedges that insert into those half arrow mortises. I showed the joint model way up thread.


(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/62406/2D7CEE94-CC46-4401-AD14-7F19B6B69DD1.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1662518745)
 

And the other end of the beam has a haunched tenon, some stub tenons, an unusual square peg that is rotated 45 degrees, and a kerf. The haunch and stub tenons resist twist without removing too much wood from the post and also help support load on the beam. The rotated peg and kerf is, I think, genius.

I found this way of pegging tenons in a blog post by Jon Billing, an American who worked for a time with Somakosha, a Japanese construction company that builds using modern versions of old Japanese methods. The link describes using it for furniture but it was born in timber framing.

https://www.bigsandwoodworking.com/maruta-bench-build-3/

Under tension, the tenon will tend to spread and increase resistance since it will be under compression. It will act more like a dovetail. Here is a sketch of the beam in my shed.


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And here I am today. I haven't chopped the peg mortise yet. It needs to be draw bored and I am waiting to get all the other joinery done and test fit first.


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I finished the second of two "rod tenon mortises" (a rough translation). This one is a little better than my first.


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There is a subtle feature that the two little half mortises for the locking keys need to be tapered along their depth. I haven't been able to find a good description of how to layout out and cut these in English but I do have a drawing by a Japanese carpentry master name Shinzo Togashi that gives a clue that the tapers should be about 1/20th the width of the beam. In my case about 5-6 mm.


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Here is one layout and finished half mortise. Chris Hall mentions that because of the taper in one dimension, ideally the key needs to be tapered in the other dimension as well but the second taper is very small.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/62406/6E401CEC-84AD-4869-B5EE-7EB26F78F880_1_105_c.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1662692612)
 

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Man those look like they are a bear to cut!

The tricky part for me is finding a way to cleanly cut the right angled part of the wedge mortise. I tried different ways and think a small, fine saw is the way to go. I don't have a woodworking saw, either English or Japanese, that is fine enough and small enough to fit into the joint. I ended up using a piece of hacksaw blade. Once that cut is done, however you do it, the rest is all paring and pretty simple.

Dorian Bracht has a video showing how to cut a similar joint with just a chisel. I tried that it works but if your wood is at all squirrely it can get ugly.

Random Joint Investigation Ep.2: Yatoi Hozo (雇ほぞ)/ Draw Pinned Spline Tenon (Japanese Joinery) - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbyhV2LoBbM)

This joint and variations of it are very common in Japanese construction. It is much stronger in tension than a pegged tenon and there is virtually no chance of shear failure or compression failure of the wedges. It can also be easily dismantled if you leave the keys long so they can be pulled back out. Or tapped in and tightened more if the wood posts shrink. But a lot of up front work.

Here is the male part of that mortise.


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Since that member is only three feet long I cut the cheeks of the tenon on the band saw. Hand saws and chisels for the stub tenons, wedge mortises, and clean up.

As test assembled. The gap between the beams is where they insert into a post.


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And a detail of the half mortises for the tapered wedges.


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I am making the wedges parallelograms in sections. They can be made rectangular but that tends to spread the joint. Maybe not a big deal on wide beams. Parallelogram wedges are a little harder to make but are a better solution. Here are the two options from Chris Hall's masterful monograph on Japanese splicing joints.


(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/62406/Screen_Shot_2022-09-11_at_5_40_49_PM.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1662945127)
 
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/62406/Screen_Shot_2022-09-11_at_5_40_38_PM.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1662945127)
 

 

What is the purpose of the kerf cut on the male portion of the joint? I see it wraps the knot so it looks specifically placed. 

Ah. It's not a kerf, just a shallow check that happened to run along the tenon.

I have the peripheral floor beams done and am on to the two sleeper beams (obiki 尾引). Shown from below they are the two beams colored tan.


(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/62406/34C0BD34-5AF8-4985-9EA5-F0AFE7B732ED_1_105_c.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1663812809)
 

As you can see one of the sleepers is part of the three-beams-to-post joint and the other connects directly to two peripheral beams. They span 6 feet and are 130 mm x 110 mm, roughly 5" x4". The sleeper that joins in the post has a tenon notched to capture the long tenon of the peripheral beam. The notch is displaced 1 mm toward the sleeper shoulder to give a slight draw bore effect that pulls the sleeper tighter to its post.

The other sleeper is joined to the peripheral beam with a partially housed double tenon. This joint is subtle. It maximizes the strength of the sleeper without removing too much wood from the peripheral beam. It also resists twisting. Often these sleepers are supported in their centers by posts underneath. I don't think I need them in my case but I can add them. The sleepers are also notched for cogged lap joints with the floor joists. The cogged laps eliminate the need for blocking to prevent the joists from rolling over or twisting.

One final design to note is that the sleepers are offset downwards 30 mm from the peripheral beams to accommodate the elevation of the joists in their cogged laps.


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Got the sleepers all cleaned up and moved on to the side floor beams. Those have pockets on their inner faces to support the ends of the floor joists. I chopped the pockets out on both side beams and then laid those beams and the sleepers side by side to admire my work:


(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/62406/63427E08-523B-4D69-924A-F738D40CC014_1_105_c.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1664070704)
 

Oops.

After picking myself and dusting myself off I figured out how I made that layout error (I won't bore you with it, just a dumb mistake) and decided my goof on that one side beam wasn't a catastrophe. I just need to even up the widths of those laps and pockets making them 52 mm instead of 48 mm wide. I haven't milled the joists yet and my stock is 60 mm wide so I have room to play. And nothing wrong with having marginally stiffer joists at slightly more than 2" wide rather than slightly less than 2".

Here they are almost all adjusted.


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If I'm lucky this will be the worst mistake I make.

Really excited to see this get put together!

Quote from: JRWoodchuck on September 27, 2022, 05:15:38 PM
Really excited to see this get put together!

Me too, but man it's still going to be a while. I was hoping to get it raised and roofed before the Willamette Valley rainy season begins again but prospects are looking dim. Plan B is to get the frame cut and store it over the winter while I work on the doors and windows and gable end lattices. Not the best idea to cut joints and let it sit because wood will move. But the wood is also dry now, not green, so maybe it won't move too much.
I see you are in Baker City. My wife and I were there in June on our way back from Yellowstone. Stayed at the very cool Geiser Grand Hotel and took a lovely early morning dog walk around downtown admiring the fascinating architecture. An Oregon small town gem.

Could you fill the joints with scrap over the winter or that wouldn't stop it from moving enough to worry about? Maybe some extremely hard wood to keep things more still? (I have no idea if that possible, I don't really know what I'm talking about, just fascinated with this project)

Quote from: aigheadish on September 28, 2022, 06:52:12 AM
Could you fill the joints with scrap over the winter or that wouldn't stop it from moving enough to worry about?

That's an interesting idea. After thinking about, I guess I'm more concerned with the beams twisting or bowing and throwing the joints out of alignment than I am about the joint components shrinking or swelling. But, not much I can do about that. Perhaps do some partial assemblies?
I finished the joinery for one of the eave beams. For scale it is 13 ft long. The notches are for rafters on 1 ft centers. The ends have a mortise for a floating rod tenon that will join the barge boards to the eave beam.

(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/62406/B62FD009-BEDF-4C4F-B515-890F54F9FB08_1_105_c.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1664498855)
 

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Duh, yeah, the whole beams moving makes more sense than the joints closing up on you...

Glad you had a nice stop over. Pretty fortunate to have grown up here and get to raise my family here! Could you put it together in bents? Just for storage to keep things together? Although I can't imagine being dried to 11-12% they'll move to much...

Yes maybe do some partial assemblies. I have a 10x10 canopy set up outside that would mostly cover the bent equivalents during the winter rains. That would also give me more space in the shop for making the doors and windows and gable lattices over the winter.

I finished the other eave beam. Next up is the ridge beam sitting there on the right.


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I finished squaring the ridge beam and backing it for the rafters.


(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/62406/762E5560-6AF2-46D8-9012-5B84C88770BC_1_105_c.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1665195132)


Then layed out the mortises for the rafter ends. Sato and Nakahara's book has three approaches for framing rafters to ridge beams. I chose the second method since my rafters will be exposed and the pockets/mortises help resist twisting of the rafters.

(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/62406/F9D86971-ABF5-4356-8DAF-F037927A712F_1_105_c~0.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1665280941)



 

Barge boards to ridge beam.


I'm using this joinery to attach the barge boards to each other at their miter. These are test boards to make sure I got the layout right. The tapered key will draw the boards in tight but I didn't tap it all the way in since if you do that, good luck getting it back out.


(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/62406/7B334087-BC6E-4421-9C61-7BB1C64D245C_1_105_c.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1665364625)
 
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/62406/3BC4FB82-4848-4CAC-9C28-7E1FFB6ECD12_1_105_c.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1665364626)
 
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Then worked out the joinery that fixes the barge boards to the end of the ridge beam. It will be a loose tenon with a sliding dovetail in a slot on the barge board, and a horizontal stub tenon.


(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/62406/7E22D609-A486-4D1E-8B3F-CAD8F965996A_1_105_c.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1665364914)
 



 

I took a small break from the shed to make a Japanese style birdhouse for a friend. I've done a couple of these before, he liked them, and I bartered in exchange for some black locust boards he has, that I'd like to use for pegs and wedges in my frame. So this really is part of my shed build.

The bird house has Port Orford cedar frame parts and panels with black locust barge boards and Osage orange ridge cap. Mostly joined with timber framing joints plus a couple of screws and some brass bits for the door.


(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/62406/C031F78E-87EE-4BEB-847E-71B3DA30C4D6_1_105_c.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1666999144)
 


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 Awesome looking birdhouse!

Back to the shed. I have sawn, chiseled, and routered most of the rafter pockets on the ridge beam. I made a rafter template to check the angles and dimensions of the pockets. New shop dog is not impressed. That hurts my feelings but she's cute so I'll let it go.


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Great looking birdhouse!
Willa looks like she would prefer you spending the time going for walks with her though..
She is getting big fast - and yes still cute! 

The three King posts done. All of 18 inches shoulder to shoulder. The other shop dog, Stella, says, "big deal". I thought dogs were supposed to adore us?

I laid out the tools I used to lay out and cut the tenons and square up the shoulders and cheeks. The 330 mm ryouba saw did most of the work. The little rectangular block is also a tool used to check the shoulders and cheeks for square and flat. Basically a gauge/gage block. Very handy.


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Those planes with the angled irons look interesting. Not familiar with angled irons. I use a couple Japanese style planes, but hadn't seen angled irons before. 

Those are skewed rabbet planes, called kiwaganna. They are tricky to set up since the blade angle can't be adjusted except by sharpening. But boy are they handy for adjusting tenons and shoulders.

Got one of the stepped tenons on one post finished. Not my best work but OK I think. It took some trial and error to figure out a method to cut the long rips. I eventually settled on slanting the post on a saw horse for most of the cut, flipping the post occasionally. With a pull saw, holding the sawing line on a rip cut is easier when cutting uphill against the grain because the far end of the saw is guided by the existing kerf. Although the saw does tend to catch more often than cutting downhill.

I have a template of the mortises to check the fit.


(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/62406/6F6F417C-F9AD-4236-8E4A-76FDFEA3D1F0_1_105_c.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1668304189)
 
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I finally finished all of the stepped tenons.


(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/62406/51ACDF1E-D651-4BC0-A429-819136CB102C_1_201_a.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1669589607)
 

I have almost finished the horizontal bracing beams known as nuki. These are generally dimensioned a little thinner and not quite as wide as a 2x6 (30 mm x 130 mm in my case). They are typically joined with a wedged half dovetail at end posts, and with a wedged cogged lap in intermediate posts. The are spaced on about two foot centers. In traditional construction there are no knee braces although in modern construction diagonal bracing is often required by earthquake codes.


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This is how the half dovetail looks after it is wedged in place (in a test sample).


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This joint is common in Japanese carpentry and has advantages over a pegged mortise and tenon.

1. Under tension, the joint becomes stronger because the half dovetail wedges and compresses against the long grain of the post. The greater the tension, the greater the wedging and the greater the resistance to pulling out. It doesn't rely on a relatively skinny peg or a long relish for strength.
2. No part of the tenon is exposed and no peg is exposed to weather.
3. There are no shoulders to cut, simplifying the joinery and fit.
4. If the joint is left exposed the wedge can be tightened if the joint opens up because of shrinkage. Although, usually this would be done with dry timbers and hidden inside a plastered wall.

 

Gary curious who made your Kiwas? I bought one a few years ago and would like to replace it with a pair at some point the blade on mine likes to chip. I've bought most of my stuff off eBay and am getting to the point I'd rather spend more money to get higher quality than hope I'm getting something decent. Also did you study in Japan? Your knowledge seems to be to deep to have learned off YouTube. 

The kiwaganna are made by Hideki Komori and I got them from Stan Covington. I get most of my Japanese tools from Stan since I know I can trust his advice. He also enthusiastically walks you through set-up of whatever you buy. His tools are not cheap, though.


https://covingtonandsons.com/2021/11/13/japanese-handplanes-the-kiwaganna-skewed-rabbet-plane/

https://yoita-uchihamono.com/global/craftsman/komori/

I have a few tools I've bought from auction and saved some money, but the downside is unless you read Japanese it is hard to know the names of the makers, and harder then to know which makers are good. And most used tools need a fair amount of fettling so you have to know how to do that.

No, never studied in Japan. But lots of diligent study here: reading everything I can find, watching videos, and asking questions of folks who know way more than I do. For joinery, the most valuable sources I've found are the blog and monographs by the late Chris Hall (The Carpentry Way), and a couple of books in Japanese that I can't read but the illustrations are superb. For carpentry, there are a handful of books in English, and I'm fortunate to get advice from Dale Brotherton who builds Japanese style structures in Seattle.

Started milling the CVG boards for the door and window jambs. These are jointed two sides before ripping to width. Nice stuff and I really hope I don't screw this up.


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Looking great! 

Been on Stan's website quite a bit. Really enjoy looking and reading on there. I am really impressed with your knowledge. There is something about working with old growth lumber that I really enjoy. It smells different cuts different and is a joy to work with. 

Thanks. In carpentry I'm just somewhere below an apprentice, since I've never done this before. Maybe "enthusiastic amateur?" But I will claim to be a fair furniture maker. If you search Stan's blog you might find my guest post about "Gary's tool cabinet," also made with my amateur's interpretation of Japanese joinery.

Rafters. These will probably look dinky to Western carpenters but realize that they will be on 1 ft centers and their maximum span is only three feet. They are not quite at final dimension since I'm taking them down slowly to correct for any movement and I want to leave extra for final fitting and finish planing. Final dimensions will be 50 mm x 65 mm and roughly 6 ft long.


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Got the rafters down to dimension but no joinery. I'll do that after the frame is up. I also finished dimensioning the floor joists. Joinery after the frame is up as well.

I'm almost done with the joinery for the barge boards. Just like the test boards shown up thread but with much nicer stock. The boards are about 7 ft long and will finish at about 6.5'.

Despite my best efforts I didn't get the angles on the back side of the joints layed out quite right. I spent the day fixing that. The miters on the show face are dead on, though. All hand saw and chisel work with a little routering to level the mating faces of the large tenon surface. I still have to chisel out the trenches for the tapered locking pins.

A few pix.



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And Willa is now 7 months old. Here she is today looking all golden retriever-y.


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.

Got the barge board miter joinery sorted out, with a little cleanup planing to do.

Here is one set. I'll make the wedges when I'm ready to assemble the frame in a few months. I'll also do the joinery for the ridge and eave beams on the back sides then.


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Very nice work Gary! Beautiful looking pup! 

Looking good Gary.  You must be burning the candle at both ends with this project and posting everything online, in at least two places I've stumbled upon.  I was on the other site seeing what you've done and saw this here, when I went to compare, there was no comparision, same pictures :laugh:

Busted!  Yes, I've posted on another forum, too. Mostly different audiences, I suspect, but I guess not entirely!

I think there's probably pretty good overlap between woodworking machinery and forestry machinery.  I joined as a woodworker who's now sourcing logs for my own lumber.

Here is an updated drawing of the shed. Although the dimensions have not changed the walls, roof cladding, wall cladding (now plaster) and windows and doors have.

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I'm working now on lattice filled sashes for the gable end infill. Those will later be backed by bronze screens to keep the bugs out. The idea comes from a house built by East Wind/Higashe Kaze in California.

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>


 

I have all the laps cut. Next up is finishing the mortise and tenon work to join the lattice to its frame. 





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I see your Quality Control Super peeking in - checking up on your work..
Love them Goldens!  

One sash done except for flushing the corner joints. All the parts were hand planed before glue-up.




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Looks awesome! 

Finally got all four gable lattices done. It took a lot longer than I hoped. On the other hand with the hand planed finish there will be no sanding or staining or painting. Painting these would be a real drag. The joinery isn't perfect but they are square and flat and rock solid. I think the light coming through them will be a treat. And this was good training for doing the doors and windows later.




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Mocked up with the center post and sills:


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For a break I took the weekend to make a couple of commanders. Unlike many of you who make them of softwood so as not to mar your timbers, my frame is already softwood (Port Orford Cedar) so I chose to make the commanders of Oregon white oak and face them with leather. The handles are European beech.

The small one that is finished is about 5.5 pounds. The larger one in progress is about 12 pounds.



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Bigger one done. It doesn't look like it but I made the handle a little beefier for this one.


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Moving on to test fitting joints and finish planing and beveling. I started with the two eave beams. I have them both done and here is one including its loose dovetailed tenon and black locust wedges that will secure the barge board. Those wedges aren't tapped home, just loosely inserted.


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Started fitting the roof assembly. Cogged laps between the eave beams and tie beams, M&T between king posts, ridge, and tie beams. So far so good. I'm seating the joinery about half way for the test fit. Everything seems tight but not too tight. I've never done this before so I'm guessing and crossing my fingers.


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Normally when we do test fits we want the timbers to seat completely so that we know it will.

If it is tight, there is a risk of splitting the mortised timber. Correct fitting is the best in my opinion.

Jim Rogers

Jim, thanks for chipping in with your experience. I come from a furniture making background and I wouldn't dream of assembling something without a test fit first.

On the other hand:

I've asked a couple of folks who do Japanese timber framing about test fitting. One said the only joints he test fits are scarf joints so that he is sure about the total length of the scarfed beam. For typical M&T joints he leaves the wide faced side of the mortises a little loose and the narrow faced sides of the mortise a little tight. For example, a 30 mm x 90 mm mortise might have a tenon that is 29 mm by 91 or even 93 mm if it is softwood. That avoids the risk of splitting the sides of the mortise but still give a tight joint on assembly. Another carpenter I asked said something similar. If you watch any Japanese timber frame videos, on assembly those guys are wailing on the M&T joints to get them to seat. Perhaps they did the same thing during a prior test fit, and then also wailed on them to get them apart. I don't know how they are sure that the shoulders will pull in tight all around without test fitting. In my case, most of my M&T joints are housed so I don't have to worry about shoulders fitting flat. Maybe that is a key.

I'd love to have others weigh in on this topic. Maybe it deserves a separate thread.

Got the housed mortising done on the barge boards for their floating dovetailed tenons that will attach the boards to the eave and ridge beams.


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How it all comes together when partially fit.


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I've really enjoyed every step along the way. Super excited to see you put this thing together!

Thanks, I'm getting excited, too. Frame raising is scheduled for July 29th. I think I need to pick up the pace a little to be ready on time. 

When you scribed to the stone, I presume that meant that your posts were all now slightly different lengths.  How do you then reference all the layout on the posts and determine actual lengths so the tops all align properly?

See reply 19. Once he's scribed them all to the rocks, he then set them all up and made a reference line on all of them.

Quote from: ljohnsaw on June 14, 2023, 10:28:42 PM
See reply 19. Once he's scribed them all to the rocks, he then set them all up and made a reference line on all of them.

Thanks!  Post 18 makes reference to shooting a level line.
Any tips on the actual mechanics of doing so?  Just run string around an area near the base and mark off the string?  I'd be concerned about my ability to get the string level enough across such open spaces.

It is simple, actually. I used a water level with tubing long enough to reach all the posts. Marked level on each post and then layed out the joinery from those marks.

Here is my super expensive and highly technical leveling rig. The green is food coloring.

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Quote from: GRadice on June 15, 2023, 01:50:53 PMHere is my super expensive and highly technical leveling rig.

Well, that's why I asked.  I would have never thought of that  :-)

Although now that you reference a water level, I'm reminded that when I was in my very early teens my grandfather had a Volkswagon camper van that he had fixed a clear plastic flexible tube up the exterior side from the water tank so that he could tell at a glance how much water he had left. 

With the water tubing, be sure to get semi-rigid tubing.
Soft rubber tubing (surgical tubing) that will stretch and spring back to original shape can change the observed water levels, if I recall correctly.
Some laboratory tubing that I used was a nightmare when trying to level with it. Some stiffer side-wall tubing as shown will not do that.

But I found a leveling transit for a few bucks on eBay or Craigslist that has a scope on it that could be used to run a level line. Recent developments of laser transits may be another, but more expensive method.

Will depend on how often one wants to shoot a level line, and I'd think building a timber frame might warrant a small investment instead of dragging out the water tubing.

Quote from: beenthere on June 15, 2023, 03:58:40 PM
With the water tubing, be sure to get semi-rigid tubing.


Will depend on how often one wants to shoot a level line, and I'd think building a timber frame might warrant a small investment instead of dragging out the water tubing.

Yes, good tip. You don't want tubing that stretches.
Again, yes for larger scale and repeated work a laser level or transit would be great.
In my case, the frame is only 6 x 9 feet and I won't be doing any timber framing after this project. A water level was just the ticket. A few bucks for tubing, no batteries, accurate to less than a mm, as reliable as gravity, and I don't have to worry about anyone stealing it!

Although I haven't posted for awhile I've been working on the frame every day. I have test fit all the joinery and the last step is making grooves for various panels and trim pieces. Today a friend and I cut all the long grooves for the wall panels. They are 18 mm wide and 9 mm deep.


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For these I used a Makita groover. Here it is on some scrap:

Makita groover - YouTube (https://youtu.be/w3xcinki-YE)

The cutter I used has two wings. Here is one. (4 wing cutters are available, too). The moveable zero clearance inserts did a good job eliminating tear out.


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I'm still on track for a frame raising on the 29th.

I don't think I've seen a groove cutter before, looks pretty dang handy!

Frame raising tomorrow! I'll post pictures when I get a chance. I might have a time-lapse video of the raising, too.

Wish us luck!

Gary

Started at 8:00 am. Got it all assembled, plumbed, pegged, and wedged by 12:30 pm. It was a little nerve wracking but there was plenty of good-natured and competent help. A few joints could have seated a little better but overall I'm happy with how it came together.

There will be a time lapse video of the raising in a few days.


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It's a work of art and craftsmanship, and I'm proud to "know" you!

Thanks, Tom. I appreciate the kudos from someone with your experience.

For giggles, here is the time lapse video of the raising. I started with a little safety spiel and orientation, then it was off to the races. 4 hours compressed to about 6.5 minutes.

https://youtu.be/c7pXw2znRWw (https://youtu.be/c7pXw2znRWw)

Wow! Well done! This is has been a great journey to take with you and it looks really good! 

I'm finishing up the details on the barge boards. I added a stopped rabbet on the lower edge, and have almost finished the pendants. There are many and more elaborate designs for gable pendants but I've chosen a simple one since this is a shed and not a temple or tea house. They will be attached by dovetailed keys. Mostly done except for some beveling and finishing the keys and a wedge. In keeping with the rest of the build this is all wood joinery, no metal fasteners.





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Got the barge boards up today. Since it I cut the joinery for these almost a year ago I was sweating how well it would go together. The first set took a friend and me about two and half hours with some mounting, head scratching, dismounting, discrete joint surgery, and repeat. One eave beam end had curved inward about a fat 16th" and with the tight tolerances of housed joints it brought everything to a halt. We learned a lot from that experience the other end was fine so the second set went up in about 45 minutes, including time to move scaffolding. The joinery is mostly clean and tight and definitely solid. 

Quick note: in simple traditional construction like this the rule is that barge boards are the same width as the rafters but twice as tall. Simple rules like that make what can be otherwise pretty complicated much simpler to lay out.



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Everything looks great from where I'm sitting!

Rafters up now. Trying to get the roof on before the rains begin again.


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A virtue of building a tiny project is that it is relatively easy to cover when it rains. Today we had our first rain in about three months. A welcome all-day drizzle. Got the tarp on last night. 




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Still working on the roof. It is taking awhile since there is a lot more joinery involved than in Western carpentry after the rafters are up.

Here is a schematic of the system I'm using. There are lots of variations of this in Japan, some much more complex.


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Conceptually this is two layers of frame and panel. Sitting on the rafters is a perimeter frame 36 mm (about 1.5 inches) thick that is set back from the rafter ends 15 mm but overlaps the barge boards by 15 mm. On top of that is a second frame also 36 mm thick that overlaps the rafter ends by 15 mm and also the lower frame on the barge end by 15 mm. That creates a secondary drip edge beyond the rafter ends and barge boards. The lower frame is screwed to the rafters to keep them in line and prevent the ends from sagging. The lower frame also hides the end grain of the ceiling boards that will sit on the rafters. The upper frame hides and supports the plank decking above the ceiling boards. Some furring strips also support the roof decking as well as help stiffen the exposed rafters.

Both frames have the same joinery. The corners are mitered to eliminate exposed end grain. There are a bunch of ways to join the miters but I chose to use a haunched and through wedged tenon. In this part of the frame the left arm is Port Orford cedar like the rest of the shed components. But i ran out of dried POC stock of sufficient dimension for the rest of the roof frame. Fortunately I found some yellow cedar (aka Alaskan yellow cedar) locally that was dry and ready to use. Both are light and strong and rot resistant and age to a silver gray so I think it is a good substitute.


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The long arms of the perimeter roof frame are a little over 13 ft. I didn't have stock that long and my shop layout is limited to working 12 ft stock anyway, so I used shorter stock and added a splice joint. This is one of several traditional Japanese splice joints used in this situation. From Chris Hall's monograph on Japanese splice joints. As you can see, the frame will be screwed to the rafters.


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And here is my attempt.


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And then there is the joinery for the two gable frame rake boards where they meet at the ridge. Here is the scheme I'm using, from a Japanese carpentry book. One great thing about this carpentry book series is that the measurements are proportional so you can use them no matter the dimension of your stock. Brilliant! This is the view from the roof side, not the show side:


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And here is my attempt before cleaning it up. It did take a while to visualize the layout but I think I got it right. For me this is the fun stuff. All hand saw, plane, and chisel work.


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Floor joists are done. They sit in pockets on the perimeter floor beams on the short sides and in cogged lap joints on the sleepers. All screwed down.


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One more thing on those cogged lap joints. They are meant to fit tightly. In Japan a common method to ensure a tight fit is to make the width of the long grain member of the lap slightly oversized. Like a fat 1/64th" or thin 1/32", and then compress it with a hammer just before assembly. The technique is called kigoroshi, or "wood killing." After assembly, the wood will swell with increases in humidity or a spritz of water. This works better with softwoods than with hardwoods but can be done with both with experience.

The style of ryoguchi style hammer I'm using has a rounded face on one side designed to use for this technique. It worked great with the Port Orford cedar I'm using. Here is a video of work in progress.

kigoroshi 1 - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQllcq5Tct0)

Ceiling boards. More POC that I've milled down from 10 foot 1x12's to about 5 ft and 3 ft, 5/8" x 5",  then ship lap them. Boy was that a slog.


(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/62406/8010D895-8406-4215-B2E9-CDB9327D2A28_1_105_c.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1699060651)
 

Some of the boards were gorgeous and some weren't so pretty. Knots and such. I realized while working them down to finished dimensions that I could band saw off about 1/8" veneers from the good boards and laminate them to the bad ones. Like this.

Bad board.


(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/62406/5316F627-53F1-4D3C-AA97-A7B093E0501E_1_105_c.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1699061379)
 

Laminated veneer from the edge


(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/62406/E7D02DFF-FBFC-4576-889D-46E9F05B9E4A_1_105_c.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1699061378)
 

New show face:


(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/62406/F68170EC-0C82-4EC1-BCB6-0647DBC8AEE2_1_105_c.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1699061379)
 

That took awhile, and a lot of glue. All just part of my quest to get the least amount of shed for the most amount of effort! Now on to finish planing the show sides.

All the ceiling boards are finish planed on their show sides. It went a little faster than I thought it would: about 12 hours over 5 days to do about 160 square feet of planing, including time to re-sharpen about every 3-4 boards.


(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/62406/FADA8D27-8AE2-41A0-991A-AE33E8543645_1_105_c.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1699927270)
 

I also cut a bunch of furring strips for the roof. These are Douglas fir.


(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/62406/16EA5371-B149-420D-AFFC-98C09DEAA60A_1_105_c.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1699927669)
 

And made a ledger/false ridge beam to support the plank decking, underlayment, and metal shingles. It is a chevron shape, about 13 ft long, 2.5 inches wide, and 3 inches tall. I made it out of 4 pieces of western red cedar. I decided to play with a splice joint. Probably not strictly necessary. The whole piece will be screwed down to the underlying ridge and I could probably just butt join it. But I like joinery and it was fun to come up with something new that worked with a chevron cross section.

I cut the pieces that would make the chevron in half lengthwise, and cross cut two to just over 6 ft and two to just over 7 ft. Then cut this Japanese "crossbill" joint to splice the halves.

(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/62406/7333A089-523B-44C0-B3C7-3FBA93130930_1_105_c.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1699928160)


Then cut the chevron profile on the top and bottom surfaces and glued the lengthwise halves together, back to back, offsetting the crossbill joints on the two halves.


(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/62406/7A9B1EA4-5572-4EF4-9B00-87A353095BF1_1_105_c.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1699928238)
  
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/62406/8BEB2E4C-5174-4AA0-9974-038220B4FA05_1_105_c.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1699928355)
 
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/62406/4F002BF5-B90D-497F-9CEF-CDBE9B32444A_1_105_c.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1699928379)
 

And done:


(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/62406/14E329BE-325C-4559-B610-74CDDFD885F8_1_105_c.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1699928425)
 

And in case it isn't clear how all this is supposed to come together here is a rough section through the rafters near the ridge. From bottom up it is rafter, lapped ceiling boards, furring strip, plank decking. You can also see the ridge beam and the chevron shaped false ridge.


(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/62406/3BBB7E00-4D12-433C-9CF0-72EAAF2284A5_1_105_c.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1699928640)
 

The perimeter roof boards are up, finally. And for fun I temporarily attached one of the gable pendants to celebrate. Today and tomorrow we are putting up the ceiling boards. I hope to get that done before the rains come in again on Saturday.


(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/62406/D46D5908-7759-4435-97B8-22FB0B0CB6BE_1_201_a.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1700147531)
 
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/62406/A04C559D-E81B-4587-B46A-5B761AA08F4C_1_105_c.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1700147569)
 

Really glad you're taking the time to document and share this with us. Really awesome structure!

Quote from: JRWoodchuck on November 17, 2023, 05:49:50 PM
Really glad you're taking the time to document and share this with us. Really awesome structure!

As I tell everyone now: this is the least amount of shed you can get for the most amount of effort! But I'm having fun and so are the friends helping out. At least, they keep coming back for more.
We (mostly they, I'm too old to get up on a roof safely) got the ceiling boards and furring strips up. I ran around trimming and being the go-fer and makeing executive decisions when needed. Then we re-tarped since it is supposed to rain this weekend.

(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/62406/80D6A38A-7033-4FEA-9066-4F9580D5CF08.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1700276169)
 
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/62406/BFF7A098-F91F-4ABC-A7E2-41603B59D22B.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1700276334)
 
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/62406/3AA920BF-E9CE-4853-B59E-BF6795EE0B1F.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1700276208)
 

I've installed the lattices on one gable end. I still need to install some trim pieces on the outside and next year some demountable screens on the inside to keep the bugs out.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/62406/28E4393D-0022-4AED-BD8D-8FF317E99C0B_1_105_c.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1700535531)
 

And now the other gable end lattices are done, except for some small trim pieces.


(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/62406/A9572CAA-4278-42BE-9F8E-B6BA1242E31C_1_201_a.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1700616836)
 

This end faces west. Just before sunset the low angle light makes it through the lattice for this nice effect.


(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/62406/13F7CB85-65C3-46DB-9572-62A888ED8070_1_105_c.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1700616837)
 

This build is brilliant. The light coming through the lattice is a beautiful touch. You're gonna have some envious neighbours and requests for sheds!

Thanks. Yes, it is starting to come together. That is gratifying after so many weeks and months of just making parts and then putting them under a tarp.

We had a week of unusual (for us in November) clear weather so I worked hard to get the roof decked. The last of the POC planks. Here's where I was Tuesday morning:


(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/62406/DF23D176-F732-49D8-8D74-3B721D9FAE93_1_201_a.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1701398173)
 

Got it done just before dark yesterday with some last minute help from my neighbor. Thanks, Dean! For a small roof it sure was a whole lot of screws and many recharges of the drivers. Then got the tarp back up to face another 7-10 days of rain.

While I was doing this I came across this article:

Repair workers turn up 400-yr-old chisel found left under roof of Kyoto temple - The Mainichi (https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20221020/p2a/00m/0na/014000c)

Which included this charming tidbit:

"The Kyoto prefectural education board will hold free tours between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. on Nov. 5 and 6 for the public to introduce the chisel and see the spot where it was found."


That got me thinking. And yes I did.

A friend who was at the frame raising four months ago took some short video clips from the day and I've finally figured out how to assemble them into a rough movie.

I'm the guy at the end whom my crew allowed to make the last few whacks to set the ridge beam and the laurel bough.

We are all amateurs doing this for the first time. We had a blast.

Shed raising 29 July 2023 - YouTube (https://youtu.be/4qd50X1v9k0)

One of my favorite things is the topping out ceremony.

My favorite saying during this event is:

Thank Mother nature for the timber in the structure.
Thank the old masters for creating the craft of timber framing.
And thank the creator for giving us the brains to learn the craft.
Amen.

Jim Rogers

@GRadice (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=52406) just wondering if you're ok over there after the earthquake?

Jim Rogers

Jim, thanks for thinking of me. But despite building a Japanese style shed, I'm actually in Oregon. No earthquake here—yet!

Quote from: GRadice on January 03, 2024, 11:20:35 AM
Jim, thanks for thinking of me. But despite building a Japanese style shed, I'm actually in Oregon. No earthquake here—yet!

Well, I guess this post should be moved to "did something dumb today." :D

Jim Rogers

P.S. as other's would say: "fill out your profile, so we know where you are."

Jim
Had me "buffaloed" as well.

Quote from: Jim_Rogers on January 03, 2024, 11:45:27 AM

P.S. as other's would say: "fill out your profile, so we know where you are."

I'm trying to avoid the paparazzi. You know how annoying they can be.

Do you find it annoying when reading other's posts that you don't know where the poster is located?

Not unless he is inviting me to dinner! 

Some people choose to keep a lower profile on the internet. Like not revealing their location.

Others choose to not use their real name.

Both are fine with me. If I want to know, I figure I can just ask.

Back to the shed build. It is the rainy season here in Oregon, which means it rains 3-6 days per week but usually just a couple of tenths of inches when it does. Not enough to be miserable but enough to prevent getting up on a roof. so back into the shop to work on the exterior jambs for the sliding windows and sliding doors.

From what I have read and from what my Japanese carpenter friend has told me, this is not a common construction and it isn't in my few Japanese carpentry books. But my friend likes it because it helps keeps the weather off of the frame. I also like way it looks.

Here is the sketch of the window jamb and sill. It is made as a separate piece that is attached (somehow) to the surface of the shed frame. I can imagine joinery ways to do this but they are beyond my current skills so I'm using screws that will be hidden by wood plugs.


(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/62406/17DA8B46-AF84-44A2-8B0B-CC98494D43C6_1_105_c.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1704337417)
 

And the window jamb and sill so far. I still have a little fitting and finishing to do. The jamb assembly has shallow tongues let into the back sides that fit into grooves cut into the frame long ago to help register the jambs to the window opening. The trick here is that unlike western framing, which has a jamb set into an opening and plumbed with shims and then caulked and trimmed to hide the gaps and provide weather proofing; there is none of that. The window jamb is just fit tightly to the already assembled frame, and good luck. Tight joinery and a roof overhang provides weather resistance. Maybe? We'll see.


(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/62406/DC0AD073-C28F-4C1C-AC51-2E0221204B72_1_105_c.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1704297919)
 
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/62406/81698DEC-B46C-4F92-985F-6114B083556D_1_105_c.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1704297913)
 

The external jambs for the windows and doors will be screwed onto the shed frame. On the window the lower part of the jamb is also the sill, which overlaps a stool that faces the inside. In Western framing a smaller jamb is fit into a larger rough opening and shimmed square, and then the gaps between the jamb and framing are maybe caulked and flashed and covered with trim. In old school (but not modern) Japanese construction the jamb is scribed to the frame and fit tightly. No shims, caulk or trim.

That means the fitting needs to be right and tight to keep water out of the joinery to prevent rot. Japanese carpenters go through a long apprenticeship to learn how to do this properly. As an amateur in the West trying this for the first time mostly by myself I know I may not get it done properly. But this shed is for the fun and challenge so I'm giving it a go. 

Here is a Japanese carpentry text image for a combined stool/sill/window/door track (called a shikii) and pronounced "shkee-ee." It shows a stub tenon on one end, a two way mortise on the other end, and a mortise for a dovetailed tenon in the middle. The grooves on the upper surface are for the bottom edges of two wooden sliding doors or windows. In modern times those grooves would be replaced by metal tracks for rollers.


(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/62406/79FB260C-5AF6-43C9-A9C6-F86857450775_1_201_a.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1704597413)
 

And here is my attempt at the end joinery for the window stool.


(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/62406/6FCDA616-73B4-455C-B94B-BF9E624FBDFB_1_105_c~0.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1704598135)
 

(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/62406/BEB1FE3D-658C-4C7D-AA92-0F24031CE8A7_1_105_c.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1704598032)
 

And installed. Mostly OK but I didn't get the ends scribed for a perfectly tight fit to the posts. Here is one side. It actually looks pretty good, but the spline I added later is exposed on the inside of the shed. I didn't plan for that. Best practice would be to install the spline so that it would not be visible. I was following a method in which the spline would be covered by flooring. Oh well. 


(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/62406/6AF6CD20-CC60-40B6-BDFE-07CCA93A5D90_1_105_c~0.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1704598603)
 

Next I'll post how I did a similar part for the doors. That came out better.

I installed half of the two-part door threshold. Like the window stool and sill it is fit tightly to the posts it lies between with the ends fixed by splines. Since it is longer, to prevent it bowing up in the middle it has in addition two dovetailed tenons let into its underside that project through mortises in the floor beam and are wedged below. A lot of work to replace what could be done with screws. But also a lot more fun.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/62406/03F1DBF5-9B3E-47B6-AE58-A72CF9B0AD1C_1_105_c.jpeg) (https://forestryforum.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pid=352435)

(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/62406/FFD9E49F-9ED9-4F98-8C98-B43DD66EDCEE_1_105_c.jpeg) (https://forestryforum.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pid=352434)

(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/62406/B2BEA6C7-5CD2-4B5B-B7A4-55A9F058D38F_1_105_c.jpeg) (https://forestryforum.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pid=352424)

(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/62406/E4CFDEB6-6720-41B8-B130-EB1AC6BE6B44_1_105_c.jpeg) (https://forestryforum.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pid=352426)

(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/62406/80FE2C94-CB65-49C5-B63D-73709DB50BDA_1_105_c.jpeg) (https://forestryforum.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pid=352425)

Alternating between installing the metal roof panels on dry days and making windows on rainy days. This time of year in Oregon it is about 50:50.

(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/62406/B88733FE-66E7-412A-98FB-29F844F8613F_1_105_c.jpeg) (https://forestryforum.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pid=352491)

(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/62406/6B086D86-6E3F-4B80-AB3C-D03082599B84_1_105_c.jpeg) (https://forestryforum.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pid=352492)

Roof done except for the ridge caps. I'm one piece short and I'm waiting on the order. Which is fine because it is supposed to be cold and rainy for the next week. The cobbled together roof ladder with yoga mat pads was a life saver (literally) and was great for keeping muddy feet from scratching the panels.

I didn't plan it but the way the roof panels are installed over the rake flashing gives them a little swoop up at the rake ends. A nice Asian touch.

(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/62406/93B6A186-1195-4679-83A0-BAC7684327E3_1_201_a.jpeg) (https://forestryforum.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pid=352662)

(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/62406/FE6B314A-507C-456B-9DCC-6DB70226AA64_1_201_a.jpeg) (https://forestryforum.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pid=352663)

Windows almost done. These are slide-by style. They will get glass panels.


(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/62406/FD5A1290-BFDF-435E-91F3-CBFC23434E43_1_201_a.jpeg) (https://forestryforum.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pid=352760)

Both the windows and doors are slide-by with the interior of each pair fitting between the frame posts and the exterior of each pair fitting within an applied exterior jamb. That requires a lot of careful fitting compared with making a jamb that can be shimmed plumb and square within a rough opening and any remaining gaps covered with trim pieces. As an amateur doing this for the first time I hoped but did not expect to get it perfect. But I think I'm close.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/62406/D2C10BEF-BF85-445F-BDD9-05C687F6CC50.jpeg) (https://forestryforum.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pid=352988)

(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/62406/A971A01C-0DA5-494E-83F6-12F99D45D161.jpeg) (https://forestryforum.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pid=352985)

(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/62406/553705D8-3BED-4959-AAB7-1708AB94CD9F.jpeg) (https://forestryforum.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pid=352986)

Since this external jamb construction is unusual in the West I thought I'd show a picture to show that I didn't make it up. Here is a small outbuilding at a museum site near Tokyo that uses an exterior jamb for the window shutters. I also love the bark siding held in place by split bamboo.

(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/62406/EEF38F18-76A1-4A4C-B3E2-EE32B2410F32_1_105_c.jpeg) (https://forestryforum.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pid=353154)

And a tusk tenon for the jamb. This looks like rough carpentry but it fits the structure.

(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/62406/34491C33-1494-4A57-9FF9-4B99594DFFB4_1_105_c.jpeg) (https://forestryforum.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pid=353155)

And I added a little more sculpting to the gable pendants and mounted them.

(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/62406/958167E9-F6BC-46F8-AC3E-59154FCE5CD3_1_201_a.jpeg) (https://forestryforum.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pid=353157)

(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/62406/13C49086-A4DC-41D9-AC85-B3F9AB9098AB_1_201_a.jpeg) (https://forestryforum.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pid=353158)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/62406/66F22579-5028-4D81-A509-A4707CABB546_1_201_a.jpeg) (https://forestryforum.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pid=353156)

Windows are glued up and test fit. They slide nicely. They'll get glass and some finish work this week, then on to the doors.


(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/62406/6457182F-3A56-468A-AC6A-DACA36A6467E.jpeg) (https://forestryforum.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pid=353284)

(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/62406/D9AB41C7-8E14-41E0-99B2-3E36CDD2415F_1_105_c.jpeg) (https://forestryforum.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pid=353285)

Willa has a friend?!

Yes! Stella. They are pretty good buddies. Stella is 10-1/2 years old and the very best dog.



(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/62406/CDEB8B77-42A0-4BD1-BF65-ED5422C62AC6_1_201_a.jpeg) (https://forestryforum.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pid=353294)

Small update. 

Well, it turned out that one of the windows wasn't square enough and couldn't be fixed. It was fine during test fit but I must have skewed it while clamping during glue up. I sawed it apart and was able to save the kumiko lattice and I'm making a new frame for it.

I also was able to find some new old stock Japanese copper gutters and hanging brackets for a good price. I think I can make the other few gutter accessories such as end caps and a downspout for a rain chain myself. That will be fun.

And I finally, after many weeks and emails with the manufacturer,  have the rest of the roof panels and ridge caps in hand and have maybe one more day to finish the roof, with my wonderful neighbor's help.

Sorry, no pictures this time.

Copper gutters should be pretty!

Finally, finally got everything for the roof and finished installing it today. Just  before it started to rain.

I can't tell you how happy I am to have this done after so many weeks of delays. And no more ladders!

(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/62406/E2B2C06D-2466-4A74-B645-5BEED64AFF30.jpeg) (https://forestryforum.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pid=353515)

(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/62406/8CAFF83F-D2C1-40AF-B772-2885BC356770_1_201_a.jpeg) (https://forestryforum.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pid=353514)

(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/62406/7A6B3AE3-855D-466F-B28E-68E088FF466D.jpeg) (https://forestryforum.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pid=353513)