Raising Video.

Out of sequence but here's a video.

Jody and I spent the last week or so staining the v-groove pine ceiling boards for the main floor. These have to go on before the second floor system for a seamless ceiling above the frame. Saturday was a beautiful working day and Jody and I and our friend Scott got it all on before dark. A pretty respectable Saturday's work I thought. Now they have to be protected until the roof goes on. That's what the big white hat's for! These photos also show the completed stud framing for the first story along with my faithful herd.

The Day After

The day after the raising was a relatively slow-paced one. Jody and I had some squaring to, some joints to tweak and some pins to set. We also spent quite a bit of time just hanging around inside the frame. After the fast pace (and torrential rain) of raising day it was nice to have some time of relative calm and quiet to look at the work and plan the next steps; and to snap some more pictures. The bough mounted on the finished frame is an old timber framing tradition said to wish good luck to the future inhabitants and to pay hommage to the forest for the gift of trees given to the home.

The Crew

Here's the raising day crew. Big Thanks! Couldn't have done it without you! Left to right: Adrian Wilson, Andrew Lionais, Stewart Shaw, Maynard Morrison, Jody MacLean, Mike Morrison, Scott Brown, and the crane operator whose name I cannot remember.

Raising Day!

Some pics from the frame raising. The rain was bouncing off the deck but we got it done in about 5 hours. Enjoy!

Bent Assembly and Prep for Raising.

Put a few half-bent sections together this week. Had some great help from Scott and Ron. Rebecca even took some time to double check my measurements for me and Anna was sure to take inventory of the mud. Photos by Jody. Raising day tomorrow...

It Goes.

The work is going better than my blog formatting skills. Here's how today went. 9am I headed to the site. It was spilling. I worked for about an hour on a beam I started yesterday and the weather cleared just as I finished so I decided to frame some walls while the sun shone. I decided a while ago to put up three of the stud walls before the frame gets raised. As much as I'd like to see the frame standing on its own I really don't want to hoist a 32 foot wall eight feet in the air on the front of the house. By early afternoon the studs were cut and the plates laid out. After a bunch of screwing around, figgering, jiggering and fixing stupid broken tools we managed to stand the front wall up before dark. After supper I headed back to the shop and cut 5 of the 7 joints in the last beam. After that one's finished there are only two small braces to make before raising day. The pics above are of the progression of the timbers and the process. I've included some pictures of the tools I've been using every day. If you read the earlier post on timber framing tools you might notice that some tools aren't shown here and there are a few newcomers. Let's start with the planes. Originally I planned to use an antique shoulder plane and handmade wooden block plane. I didn't want to use my pricier planes on the wet wood for fear of damage and rust. That went out the window pretty quickly. My little Lie-Nielsen block plane and rabbeting block plane are such amazing performers that I just couldn't leave them on the shelf. I've also been handplaning all the show faces of the timbers before giving a quick sanding to even things out. For this I've been using my grandfather's British made Footprint no. 4 smoother which I restored last year and outfitted with a new blade and chip breaker from Ron Hock. The corner chisel I bought has not even been out of the toolbox. I find that the 1-1/4" framing chisel (circa 1837) is so slick and quick for cleaning up the corners of mortises that it isn't worth reaching for another tool. Speaking of chisels I can't say enough about the three main tools in my arsenal. The two antique chisels I've been using are true champions. It amazes me that two tools that have been around for the better part of two centuries can perform like this. They sharpen easily yet hold an edge for a good long time. I'd love to know their history. Were they true users? How many mortises were chopped out with their edges? How many sets of hands did they pass through before mine? But I digress. The third large chisel is the Barr slick that I bought new for this endeavour. It has more than met my expectations. It is beautifully made and a pleasure to use. Highly recommended for anyone looking for some new swag! I've also added a pair of cheap skew chisels to the mix. I use these for cleaning out the corners of the dovetail mortises. They're not pretty but they do the job. Remember that pretty, smooth, freshly oiled maple mallet? Well it's pretty beat up after over 100 mortises. It gives as good as it gets though and as a result I've developed quite a nasty case of "framer's elbow". It's a lot like tennis elbow but sounds much cooler. One thing I didn't think too much about before I started was marking and layout. this has developed a bit over the course of the work but in a typical post or beam I use a straight edge, engineer's square, two combo squares, two speed squares, a framing square, tape measure, a marking knife, pencils and a sharpie. The power tool list has grown as well. Over the course of cutting these posts and beams I've used 3 different drills (one burnt out in short order), a router, a belt sander, an electric chainsaw and three circular saws. Along with that nasty elbow ailment I've also developed an interest in Franciscanism, the origins and end of the neanderthal and a love for the shuffle feature on my Ipod. I'm a bit longwinded tonight. Thanks for coming along.