Sunshine and Braces

A week of glorious weather and - although I was not able to spend as much time as I would have liked working on the shed I do feel progress has been made. Both wall braces are now fitted to one corner of the front frame leaving me having to cut one more brace to shape and then the joints for the final two braces.

The Front Frame

It has rained most days this week and so I was only able to work on  Friday and Saturday when I managed to cut the mortices in both the wall and sole plates. The joints have been cleaned up and  all of the wall posts fit. The next job will be to make four "tie beam supports" that will enable the principle rafters to be fitted to the wall plates. See diagram. The design was simplified to have just one long, rather than two short, tenons as this makes it easier to get a good fit with the mortice.

Tie beam support

Sole plate corner square and pegged

Fortunately it was possible to make these in the garage as the weather continued to be wet, cold and miserable through a second week. However, by 21.05.12 I was ready to temporarily assemble the front frame. 


The first job was to square the base and peg all four corners, as once the front braces are fitted it will be very difficult to alter the position of the sole plates. 




All the wall posts were located in the sole plate and and the wall plate hoisted on to the tenons on  top of the wall posts.

Locating a wall post in the sole plate

Hoisting the wall plate

Using pulleys to lift the wall plate into position

Front frame in position

Slow progress

Progress has been frustratingly slow this week. Really bad weather at the weekend with heavy rain and very strong winds left the "site" looking very sorry for itself - the tarpaulin waving like a flag and everything wet. Still I got that sorted and moved the timber around to make it easier to work on the front frame.  

By Friday I had only managed to cut the tenons on the four wall posts for the front frame - this was mostly due to the weather and time spent making a solar wax extractor for Barbara. (This is a large box with a perspex sloping roof with two tin trays inside. The extractor uses heat from the sun to melt the wax from used hive frames so the frames can be re-used with new foundation).

Solar wax extractor

The extractor is painted black to absorb the heat and the interior is covered in tin foil to reflect the heat. The top tray slopes to allow the melted wax drip through on to the lower tray which is removed through the door at the front.

Fitting braces to the first frame

The first two braces fitted

I started to fit the braces to the rear frame 2 weeks ago (on 15.04.12). Although I expected this to be quite a difficult task I was relieved to find that once started this was not as complex as I had imagined. To mark the joints I clamped each brace in position and used a plumb bob and spirit level to mark out, working on the principle that if I cut the end of the timber square I could use this as the datum edge to mark the tenons. Any irregularity in squareness of the sole plates and wall posts could then be adjusted for. Once the tenons were cut I marked the position of the mortices. 

The biggest disappointment over this period was the weather. I was able to fit three braces in the first week but heavy showers during the second week meant that most of the week was spent with the frame covered with the tarpaulin. 

I was able to cut the fourth brace to shape at the beginning of the week - mostly working under the tarpaulin - but unfortunately I had to wait until 27.04.12 to fit the final brace. 

The fourth brace cut 

All four braces fitted

The process of fitting the braces meant that I had to assemble, dismantle and reassemble the frame and whilst doing this I marked and drilled the holes for the pegs. When assembled for the last time I temporarily pegged a few joints although the frame was very stable without any pegs. Most of this frame should now be able to stay in place but I will have to remove the wall plate when I start to fit the principle rafters - however this is a little way off at the moment.

Temporary pegs in place

A significant milestone has been reached and the next task will be to start to mark and cut the joints for the front frame. (I am pleased that I have already cut the wall posts to length).      

Sole plates

Sole plate tenons 
offset to allow space to fit the vertical wall posts

One of the challenges of building my shed was the space available to work in. Having to store some of the timber on the concrete base leaves little space to work. In the first few weeks I spent a lot of time just moving timber around. To give me more space I decided that erecting as much as of the frame as I could as work progresses would be a way to give me more space to work. The downside of this strategy is I have to take the frame down at certain times but it does mean I can layout for cross braces, etc. more easily than trying to do this in the usual way (in the horizontal plane).


I therefore decided that I needed to layout the sole plates and cut the joints in these timbers. Cutting the joints was relatively easy but I was rather concerned about the assembly of these simply due to the weight of the timbers. I can just lift one end of the 150mm square 4 metre long beams.


I put the sole plates together in the week of 9th April 2012 and, much to my surprise the assembly of these was very easy with the joints fitting just right first time. It was interesting that once in position it felt like the shed was beginning to take shape.

The sole plates assembled 

Braces

A key attraction of traditional timber frame buildings are the wall braces that ensure the frame remains fixed and prevent lateral movement of the frame. The curved timber was supplied but a lot of work was required to shape to a suitable size.  At first I thought about asking a local saw mill to cut to shape on a band saw.  However when I thought about this I realised this was taking an easy option and I really had to do these by hand. 


I purchased an adze and draw knife and set to work. I had eight large braces to cut and I had cut 7 by 23.04.12. I usually worked on these when the weather was less good and I could work in the garage or - more recently - under the tarpaulin.

Brace ready for using the adze

Brace partially cut with the adze

Finishing the curve with the draw knife
(with help from Miranda)

Brace finished

Retirement and mortice and tenon joints

Cutting a tenon

Part of my plan with the shed was to have started working on the shed so I had a major task to work on when I retired, without having to think too much about what I would do.  When I finished work on 22.02.12. I had just begun to cut the mortice and tenon joints for the first four wall posts. After a 3 day break in Cornwall I was ready to press on and get the first frame finished as soon as possible. The weather was good at first and by the end of March I had cut the joints for the first frame and was ready to see how it went together. 


The pulleys were essential to enable me to get the wall plate onto the four wall posts - much to my surprise everything looked OK.

Wall post tenons

Wall post in position in the sole plate

The rear frame in position