More progress on the South wall.

We've continued working on the labor-intensive southern wall of the Artist Studio. It is slow going, due to the scribing and repetitive test-fitting. We are trying to get the joinery very, very tight.

Here is Peter finishing up a tenon on the second strut:



And here is Peter using the Makita chain mortiser to cut the strut mortise in the bottom of the southeast Western Larch post. Its an 18" long, 2" wide mortise!



Here, we test fit the strut tenon into the newly cut mortise. A very, very nice fit.





We cut the mortise in the elm beam as well and test-assembled this whole corner. In general, it turned out quite nice. With some fine-tuning and some high-tension straps, we can bring the joinery together almost perfectly.



One more mortise on the elm beam, and we can test-fit the western strut. We're getting closer to completion with this South wall, but there still remains many hours of detail work before its done.

Cutting the large southern struts.

We test fitted the joinery between the large curved elm beam and the two southern Larch posts. Peter mainly worked on this joinery, and got it pretty tight! You can see that the elm tenon extends completely through the Larch post on either side.

We will most likely round that tenon and leave it exposed. It should be a nice effect.








I always get a kick out of seeing wood of mixed species come together like this to form a strong joint. Mixed species frames can be aesthetically beautiful, since you get a sharp contrast of coloration and grain. But you also are mixing woods with completely different mechanical properties. In many cases, one can take advantage of both aesthetics and engineering when choosing which wood to use and where.



After these timbers were successfully test fitted, we started in on two large, curved, Douglas fir struts that will act as massive braces on the south wall. We had to layout the curves carefully and cut the curves using a combination of chainsaws, circular saws, chisels, mallets, power planes, hand-planes, and belt sanders.

We cut the outside curve using both the little 7 1/4" and the larger 16" circular saws:











The inside curve involved kerfing with the electric chainsaw and then cleaning up with a chisel and plane:







After the curves were cut, we laid out the mortices and tenons via scribing. We carefully positioned the timbers on the floor and then placed the curved strut blank on top. By using framing squares and our eyeballs, we laid out the tenons and mortices carefully. Scribing was necessary in order to get good joinery with such curved and wany wood.





Once laid out, cutting the tenons on the strut was pretty simple.



The finished struts turned out looking very beautiful. They will be amazing once placed inside the corresponding mortices on the elm beam and the larch posts.



We have joinery on the other strut to do, and then its on to the knee braces and rafters!

Cutting the joinery for the curved elm beam.

We finished cutting all of the tenons at the tops of the six posts. We also finished cutting the corresponding mortises into the three top plates!

With the help of Linnea, we moved on to cutting the tenons on the curved American elm beam. :-)



Since the elm beam is curved and not at all rectilinear, we needed to layout the joinery the old-fashioned way: by scribing. In order to do this, we cleared a large space on the cement workshop floor and marked a perfect rectangle in permanent marker. We then placed the south-facing Western Larch posts on the lines and moved the curved elm beam on top of them. Peter was able to then mark exactly where the curved elm beam will intersect both Larch posts.



We cut 2" thick tenons on the curved elm beam which will fully penetrate the Larch posts via a through-mortise. The bottoms of the elm tenons will be shouldered 3/4" into the posts. The elm tenon will pass a full 2" past the side of the post, which will look really, really nice.



Here is Peter planing the tenon with a small hand plane:



We stacked the beam atop the posts to double-check the cut. Looks good!



After the elm tenons have been fully cut, we can cut the corresponding through-mortices on the Larch posts. After that, its on to the struts and braces!

The first tenons are cut!

I cleaned up the five posts by planing and sanding them on all 4 surfaces.



After this, I laid out and cut the five 2x2x2 stub tenons at the base of each post. This short tenon will connect the post to the sill plates during the frame raising. I think the tenons turned out pretty well.

Our five posts are comprised of four local softwood specie: Englemann Spruce, Douglas Fir, Pine (Ponderosa or Lodgepole), and two Western Larch (Tamarack) posts.




Peter cleaned up the three humongous top plates, visible on the framing ponies in the back of the photo below:



The next step is to carefully layout and cut the tenons on the tops of the posts, taking into account variations in thickness of the top plates such that the top plates will be perfectly level and at the correct height.

We completed some joinery and started in on the posts.

I cut the joinery for a couple of the sill plates yesterday. Today, Peter and I both worked on finishing up some other sill plates. Below is Peter cleaning up a half-lap joint with his chisel and his cool hornbeam mallet.



Last summer, I salvaged some timbers from a 75-year old local barn that fell down. Somebody else had salvaged most of the best timbers, but I managed to find a few usable ones. This old Douglas Fir beam was not quite an 8x8. It may have been milled undersized or perhaps it had shrunk down to 7.5" on a side as it dried. In any event, we decided to use it as a 10' long sill plate on the PCEI Artist Studio. I like salvaged timbers, and this one has a lot of local history.

Here you can see how we cut away the curved portion of the older sill plate at the joint. It turned out reasonably well, and certainly looks cool:



Its great to see old wood meeting new wood.



We are lacking one 8x8 sill plate timber, since we decided not to use a warped Douglas Fir timber that had been sitting around the shop for a couple years. We'll need to mill a new one soon. We finished three of the sill plates and moved onto posts.

We cut them to length and determined exactly which timbers would be which posts in the studio. We also determined which surfaces of each post would face which directions and labeled everything.

We started cleaning up the timbers using a beam planer and a large belt sander.

Here is Peter cleaning up an Englemann Spruce post, which will be the taller center post on the North side of the studio.



Here is Peter with a belt sander, cleaning up a Larch post.



Here is the Western Larch post after it has been planed and lightly sanded. These timbers clean up very nicely.



We were excited to see what the posts would look like on the sill plates, so we played around with that. It gave a better sense of how large this structure will be and how it will look from the inside.








Next, we will start cutting tenons on the posts. We'll need 2"x2"x2" stub tenons on the bottoms of the posts and larger tenons on the tops. This work is going well!

Building a PCEI foot bridge, Part II

I've finished all of the fun wood-centric portions of the PCEI bridge.

I laid 5' wide 2x6 Western Red Cedar decking across the stringers and attached 2x4 cedar boards on either side:



I applied two quarts of AFM Naturals Clear Penetrating Oil to the entire deck. I purchased this all-natural penetrating oil at The Natural Abode here in Moscow. This penetrating oil is made almost exclusively from organic plant oils and contains no heavy metals or other hazardous driers.

This penetrating oil will help keep the wood supple and healthy. It will retard absorption of water into the wood and keep the wood more dimensionally stable.

Here, you can see the deck is still wet with oil:



A side view of the completed bridge:



And some miscellaneous pictures of the bridge shown below. Overall, I think the bridge turned out nicely!



















The next step involves mainly rock, gravel and dirt. The plan is to build compacted, natural earthen ramps up to the bridge from either side such that the grade is continuous up and over the bridge.

This will be useful for walkers and crucial for bicycles, wheelbarrows, and wheelchairs that will use this nice wooden bridge.