New Place

[Chuck Adze]

Hi,
I am new to this site (great place).
I have presently been getting my third owner built home together.
Even though it is not one of the plans here (just found out about this site), I thought it might be good to post some photos.
This place will be mostly 1 floor, timber and possibly log construction.
Small timber king-post trusses in the great room.
I have been scrounging and collecting stuff for about 3+ years (get deals when I can), and started assembling the timbers about 2 years ago.

The timbers are hewn / adzed and I made steel pipe type connectors to use 3/4" Grade 8 bolts (Ogee washers, transistional iron and timber etc.) to assembly and dissasemble the timbers easily.

[Redoverfarm]

I am not getting the pictures to show up.

[diyfrank]

 
Would like to see some pictures also.
Heres a how to for posting here.
http://countryplans.com/smf/index.php?topic=3512.0

[Chuck Adze]

Yeah...I am trying.....I am not the "sharpest tool" when it comes to computer stuff.
Okay.....how about this?

[Chuck Adze]

The above was early stages of trusses (I now have several of these), assembled and stacked to dry.
They will be posted, and have "ships knees" for braces (hopefully).

Here is another one;




I then use a flap disc to get off the heavy fur, will sand / stain them out, and mixed my own oil / varnish finish;



Hand hewn/adzed timber, that I adzed.
Lightly sanded, and now in process of determing what finish will be applied.
This finish is an oil based stain, followed by two coats of hand rubbed finish consisting of;

50% pure gum turpentine and 50% Poly varnish.

This finish was applied with a rag, and left to soak into the wood.

It has been in the weather for approximately two months with no ill effect, however I am concerned with flexiility of the finish and future cracking etc..

Next finish will be;

50% gum turpentine
40% spar varnish
10 % raw linseed oil

[John Raabe]

Nice work and a very interesting project. Classic timber work!

I think those are "King post" trusses you are building.

[Chuck Adze]

Nice work and a very interesting project. Classic timber work!

I think those are "King post" trusses you are building.

Yes they are, not traditional joinery (but a steel pipe connector / strap iron etc.).
The timbers were green (red pine which can be prone to twist).
I wanted to be able to bolt them together in shape, and later finish them out and transport them to my site, then reassemble them.

[glenn kangiser]

Cool.  I bet that was a lot of adz work.  Do you start from round, make a flat, then a line to chop to?

Still have all of your toes?

[Chuck Adze]

Cool.  I bet that was a lot of adz work.  Do you start from round, make a flat, then a line to chop to?

Still have all of your toes?

No...I cheated (hewn for the look) ...those were rough sawn beams (although I do have some stuff from round I might use for bracing ).
Sorry if I mislead you guys.
I am not old...but I am not as young as I used to be (although a person can beam out from a round log fairly qiuick with the right tool and practice).
These were done with a shipbuilders flat / lipped adze, then the edges are drawknifed.

My wife liked the hand planed look using antique wooden transitional smoothing plane (very time consuming), but when she saw the adzing,  finished work, she really like it.
They are both time consuming, but hand planning timbers is harder on the shoulders.
I am also working on slabing out some old white cedar, that I might use as part of the project (log part).

You do get the hang of it after awhile...I still have legs and toes.

[Chuck Adze]

I also really learned to appreciate "tie hackers".
It can be exhausting work.
It probably would have been easier with a foot adze (heavier).
Its all about rhythm.

[glenn kangiser]

I don't blame you - I'd have started with rough sawn too.