F.F. pavilion build.

[Jeff]

This morning  I am sizing my beams. The one log was full of wire and nails so I only roughed out the beams as the saw was playing old glory. Im ready for the top plate beams, so first I removed any wire in my new cut zones, put on a new blade and sawed the beam heights flat and true. The width will remain wavy, I can work with that.  Ive got one beam, the first, notched and ready to ride the elevator. I'll get the other 3 notched, and hopefully later this afternoon we will raise the plates, square everything up and put our temp bracing on.



 

[Jeff]

Jeremy Tammy and I were able to accomplish quite a bit yesterday. We resawed all our top beams to size, got the cut and jointed, then lifted into place. Totally squared plumb, and braced for further construction and rock solid.  My beam lift idea worked flawlessly.  Making it easy to lift and place.Sort of. Nothing wrong with the lift, other than I'm paying for a lack of attention to a potentual gazard and I knew better. Ive dealt with these winches on boats and feeders before. Tammy caught it happen in the end of the video lifting the last beam.


 


 

 
First beam lift - YouTube

Beam lift. Ouch. - YouTube

[Old Greenhorn]

Ah man, that could leave a mark! How is your face today?
 You are making great progress on this build and it is looking good! Just be careful (said the pot to the kettle).

[Jeff]

Im lucky I didn't break my eye socket. It hit me hard enough to bust me open and start pouring blood into my eye. Im swollen and very sore but fine. I guess i can still take a punch. :D    l clung to the ladder for a few seconds until the fog cleared. In the video Tammy asks if Im alright I wasn't sure for a moment. It was a pretty good smack. Hard enough I thought my name was Lynn. Bahaha!

[Don P]

One saying we use "A good carpenter bleeds every day, a bad carpenter bleeds all day". Looks like you were using your head and only one bloodletting, you're good  .

[thecfarm]

I had a feeling something bad was going to happen when I saw the dog running off.  :(

[doc henderson]

glad you are ok.  if there is blood inside the front of the eye, called a hyphema, need to see you eye doc.  the blood can clog the holes in your eye and cause glaucoma.  beams look nice.  did the joint match up inside the corners?  curious if you can get a close up of the joint...when you feel better.

[Old Greenhorn]

I did not want to speculate, but from what I know of sudden and unprotected impact wounds both from the receiving side and the initial treatment side, is that your incident did not look good to me. I missed it on the first viewing, but the second time I caught it and it made me flinch. I couldn't watch it a third time. You might have to get that looked at. As Doc mentioned, clogging the ducts and drainage passages in the eye area can cause some issues. We don't want to be calling you 'blinky'.
 Get some rest.

[Jeff]

When it comes to working with timbers this size, I found my 7 1/4 dewalt and a semi-sharp hand saw is woefully in adequate for extreme accuracy, but, hey, it was good enough for who it was for!  I take that back. It's actually for Tammy. This is all for her, and she is happy so It will do.



 

 

 


A bit of a knot today.
 

 

[btulloh]

Looks good, Jeff.  I'm glad you didn't do any serious damage.

[thecfarm]

Bruise and all that is a mighty fine picture of you!!!!
I don't have the right tools either. But for what I, we build it works just fine. Not like we are doing this every week.

[Jeff]

Found my sheeting answer. Long as they are still sound. Cut 2 years. Bark is falling off. I just looked at them. Nice sized whitepine and redpine. 14ft.  Minimum diameter small end 12" most around 15".Young guy that wants them gone, but wants some putzin lumber too.  Im not sawing all of them, there are 3 piles, at least I dont want to or money will have to change hands in my direction.

[Old Greenhorn]

Now I see the cut is above your eye and that is great (well, you know what I mean). Glad to see it hasn't slowed you down much. Your joints look just fine. an eith inch overlap nevr killed anyone. Nice work. I always had trouble with these too, two or more flips per cut, finish with a handsaw. Over the winter I borrowed a buddy's Makita timber saw (16" blade) and man, that made life a LOT easier! zip, zip, zip, 1,2,3, and it was done with nice square cuts. But we can't all get lucky every time. 

[Don P]

Jeff pm'ed asking about knot grading, figured someone else might want to save a copy of this pocket grading card as well. All though the card is for 2x it is pretty close for all dimensions. Not being in the commodity business I don't mess around the edges of grade, if in doubt drop a grade.









The quick and dirty version is to remember "quarter, third, half,#1,#2,#3" Now look at most things on the card and it isn't too far off ;).

[Magicman]

Thank you Don P.  I was able to print your chart on 4X6 photo paper.  8)

[Ljohnsaw]

Don, that is pretty neat and interesting.  So in another thread I said I spec'd out my cabin for 'No. 2 or better' and felt I was cutting "better".  I'd say my "better" is better than the requirements for No. 1!

[Jeff]

Did a little more,  but I'm waiting for a hand to get the ridge beam to the top. I've got it to where it is by myself.  

 

[Jeff]

Getting there. I think my joints are fair for a 7 1/4 saw and a handsaw. Thats all I have. So far everything is fitting together ok.


 

 

[btulloh]

Lookin' good, Jeff. You've got the the hard part behind you. Except for the other hard part. Then comes the easy part where you sit under the pavilion and enjoy a cold beverage.  :D

[doc henderson]

looks fantastic!

[Don P]

Looking good 8)

All depending on whether you want to embark on a new career, there are little tricks you can do all depending on how fussy you want to be. I mentioned it briefly when we were doing the little log building tutorial back when. I passed the chainsaw through the roughed out joint to bring it into a snug fit. Kerfing here works better with a thin kerf Japanese pull saw but a handsaw will work. By running the saw thru the joint it will remove the high spots that are touching and with each kerfing pass with the saw through the joint it will fit tighter. If the overall joint is already short it will make the problem worse but if it is or begins a little proud it improves the final fit and dimension. As the fit gets tighter you might need a very thin tapered wedge to space the joint enough to allow the body of the saw to pass while letting just the set do the work. With stiff long sawzall blades and faster work I've slipped flashing against the main piece so it will just saw the offending one.

A block plane is another way to tune a joint, scribe the offending high spot by sliding a flat carpenters pencil along the stationary member marking the offending one and use that line as a guide, very lightly hollowing the center of the joint is another trick. Where a plane won't go its down to sharp chisels. You can sneak up on places that required a really tight fit. It all depends on the degree of finish desired. In green work that plays into it as well.

[Jeff]

I have the gable
End fans to put on yet, but am waiting until I get my sheeting sawn out. Don, this would not be standing without your guidance and inspiration. Thank you!

Its pretty amazing how fast those spruce beams are drying out. I like the looks of the checking in this application.


 

 

 

 

 

[Nebraska]

That looks really good.

[doc henderson]

that will be magical to eat dinner or chat by firelight under cover.  and then turn it off go to bed, and not worry about embers causing a fire.  looks great.

[Old Greenhorn]

Looks fantastic Jeff! 10 days ago there was nothing there and now it is all framed up, nice and neat. Sitting under here will be just lovely through many parts of the year. I am envious, but you earned this one the hard way. I can't wait to see it when the corner braces arrive!