Raising a Timber Frame in 88 Seconds

[Natty Bumppo]

Hey guys...some of you know that, besides AP Bio, I teach an Intro to Timber Framing class at my high school. My spring class just finished raising our 10x10 shed and I took a time-lapse video of the raising. Thought I'd post the link as I know a lot of you guys appreciate this kind of stuff. Or maybe you just have have 1:28 to kill. Great kids. Nice to see them put their phones down each day for 48 minutes and work on something with their hands and minds and then work together to finish the job. All white pine....7x7 posts, beams, sill, and top plates. 4x6 braces and rafters. 12/12 pitch roof. Traditional 2" joinery with oak pegs holding it together. Enjoy.

 

[Catscratch]

Love it! That is really cool and something to be proud of. Make sure you keep posting stuff like this, it's good to see.

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[Bowsnbucks]

Natty - Great shots of the students at work. They should take pride in what they've accomplished. That shed will last longer than any cell phone or other gadget !! Great work all around.

Although we have no timber frame construction in our home, my wife and I both love the look of frames. I think it's the coolest method of building any structure. I've always been a huge fan of big, heavy, slab-y wood. If I were to build an addition or another home, it would have timber framing at least in part of it - if not all.

Question : Is it better to work with "green" wood as opposed to dry ?? I'm just thinking the frame would dry all together (assembled) and that fact may help with stresses and warping ?? I'm one who has a boat-load of questions for anything I'm interested in. I'd love to document a frame project start to finish, but I'd drive framers nuts with all my questions. Always anxious to learn !!

 

[Natty Bumppo]

Love it! That is really cool and something to be proud of. Make sure you keep posting stuff like this, it's good to see.

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Thanks Catscratch!

Natty - Great shots of the students at work. They should take pride in what they've accomplished. That shed will last longer than any cell phone or other gadget !! Great work all around.

Although we have no timber frame construction in our home, my wife and I both love the look of frames. I think it's the coolest method of building any structure. I've always been a huge fan of big, heavy, slab-y wood. If I were to build an addition or another home, it would have timber framing at least in part of it - if not all.

Question : Is it better to work with "green" wood as opposed to dry ?? I'm just thinking the frame would dry all together (assembled) and that fact may help with stresses and warping ?? I'm one who has a boat-load of questions for anything I'm interested in. I'd love to document a frame project start to finish, but I'd drive framers nuts with all my questions. Always anxious to learn !!

Thanks Bowsnbucks!

Green wood is better to work with for a few reasons. One, green wood is easier to work with than dry wood, especially for students. It takes a chisel nicely and pairing down a tenon is nice and smooth. Dry wood tends to fracture and shatter more. It's heavier. But that's a small tradeoff. Secondly, green wood has also not had a chance to dry and "relax"....no checking or twisting or crowning. The timbers are nice and straight and true, which makes laying out the timbers and making measurements way more accurate than if you were working with timbers that were warped or crowned. Lastly, once assembled, the mortises and tenons all being green wood will start to dry and shrink and form a really tight joint...kind of like shrink wrap. If that joint is held together with a kiln dried oak peg, the peg will actually gain some moisture and swell up a bit as the joint shrinks and that joint will last a LONNNGGGG time!

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Thanks, Natty, for the info on the science behind the green wood preference for framing. I knew I read something about green vs. dry in framing articles - but couldn't remember the details. How do you test-fit the joints with big, heavy timbers ?? Do you measure both mortise and tenon and then allow a little "cheat" room ??

What kind of sealant / preservative / finish do you use on the timbers ??

 

[jwill1776]

Education at its finest! Nice work

 

[Bill]

Very nice and I agree it’s great to see kids with their hands on wood over an electronic device. I wish more schools had programs like this. I bet a large number of those kids will remember your class as one their favorites.

 

[Natty Bumppo]

Thanks, Natty, for the info on the science behind the green wood preference for framing. I knew I read something about green vs. dry in framing articles - but couldn't remember the details. How do you test-fit the joints with big, heavy timbers ?? Do you measure both mortise and tenon and then allow a little "cheat" room ??

What kind of sealant / preservative / finish do you use on the timbers ??

No cheat room at all. My kids learn that a 2" mortise MUST BE 2" precisely. And a 2" tenon needs to be exactly 2". We test fit every joint in my shop before we raise the building. A 7x7x10' white pine beam isn't too heavy. I generally have a nice group of athletic and motivated students who can man-handle these beams around fairly easily. We also make what we call "Commanders." Picture a mallet on steroids....it's a big chunk of 7x7 pine on a handle. We use this to force the joints together and then again to separate them.

No preservative on the building itself. The new owner or buyer may choose to do something like that. But we don't. And the building itself doesn't really need it. The only thing I recommend to the new buyer is treating the sill pieces with something...some kind of a commercial store bought preservative. In the old days I've heard that builders did a 50/50 mixture of BLO and kerosene or diesel or something like that. These white pine sills should not be in ground contact anyway...a cement pad, piers, or even on dry laid stone foundation.

 

[Natty Bumppo]

Education at its finest! Nice work

Very nice and I agree it’s great to see kids with their hands on wood over an electronic device. I wish more schools had programs like this. I bet a large number of those kids will remember your class as one their favorites.

Thanks for the kind words.

 

[Tree Spud]

Great stuff Natty ... teaching kids to use their head & their hands for problem solving rather than pushing an app!

 

[KDdid]

I’m jealous that I couldn’t have you as my shop teacher 30 years ago! Nicely done.


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[Diesel5610]

That is awesome! The schools around here have all but eliminated anything like that class. The kids get way more out of those type classes than some of the other nonsense being taught. Great job with that class.

 

[Natty Bumppo]

That is awesome! The schools around here have all but eliminated anything like that class. The kids get way more out of those type classes than some of the other nonsense being taught. Great job with that class.

Thanks diesel. It's funny...8 years ago my high school underwent a $40 million renovation, and in the process we eliminated our wood shop, metal shop, auto-cad, auto shop, and our home economics program. In the years to follow we began losing 30 to 40 incoming 9th graders a year to nearby tech schools that had those programs. And where the students go, so goes the money. I saw an opportunity to pitch the idea for a timber frame class to my superintendent and principal and they loved it. I found a grant for $3000 to buy everything required for 10 students to have a complete set of timber framing tools. And the rest is history. My class is actually making money too. I buy the timbers for around $800 or so, and then sell the frame for about $1500 or so. The money goes back into my class to buy new tools.

 

[swat1018]

Somewhere along the way education in America has lost its way. All kids aren't cut out for higher education, and many of those that are get guided into a degree that won't get you a career that pays the bills. More kids should be guided toward a trade such as electrician or plumber, you don't see many young plumbers, etc.