Raising Day ~ Timber Framing Workshop

Day 3 of our Timber Framing Workshop. This morning we really found our groove. Teams just seemed to form on their own and everyone worked industriously. We improved our techniques and gained confidence with tools.

Here's a pretty swell example of a tenon.

Bobby checks the fit of the tenon with the super high-tech Tenon Checker 5000. Not sure, but I suspect Ira has a patent pending on this. Useful for checking the width of the tenon to see where it may need to be shaved down to fit in the mortise. Better to find that out while the timber is on the trestle.

Brace mortise

There are a lot of different angles and lengths of cuts and lots of tools to choose from for the job. Here, we've used an electric saw as far as we could and then Meesh uses a handsaw to finish off where an electric blade could not go. Many goofy moments throughout this workshop! During a short afternoon rain we all crowded under a tarp and continued to work elbow to elbow. Steveo kept the silliness alive on the worksite - while also guiding us and keeping it safe. A fine combo. Beginning to assemble the frame. Lloyd and Keri fit a post - with tenon - into the mortise on the beam. The whole crew with the frame temporarily raised and secured! Job well done! We were all very excited to see our work go up. This project will continue to be featured in our Natural Building Workshops where we'll incorporate adobe, cob, slipstraw, wattle & daub and many more techniques. Come join us, we've got 5-, 3-, & 2-day natural building workshops in September and October with some of the most talented and inspirational instructors in the field. And speaking of exceptional instructors... mad props to Ira Friedrichs and Steveo Brodmerkel for their most generous tutelage. Thanks to Jason Boyer for his superb teaching assistance! And thanks to all the participants, what a fun crew!