Monday 21/12/20
It was a lousy day today – overcast and wet – so I didn’t get to those brace tenons as predicted yesterday. There were also other demands on my time. But I did get two small things done.
1. Replacement brace
A few days ago I noticed that one of the brace pieces I had was badly split.
I contacted Jamie at The Green Oak Carpentry Company to see if I could get a replacement and this was arranged this afternoon. I took one of the braces I had over to their yard near Liss and when I got there they had two pieces of curved stock lined up. I chose the one with the nicest curved grain.
This was marked up, cut and loaded into the Land Rover and I was on my way back.
2. Tie Beam Cog Template
Now that the completion of the front wall is in sight we’re starting to think about the elements that will go across the building – the cross frames. Two of these cross frames are trusses. Ben and I have discussed how to lay these out. We won’t be able to layout all the elements that define the position of the braces that link the trusses to the four middle posts.
We will be able to layout out the post and the tie beam horizontal, straight and level but we won’t be able to layout the wall plate (obviously). So it would be handy to have something that represents the wall plate and this afternoon I made that thing – a tie beam cog template:
This was made from an off-cut from the wall plate of the rear wall and it represents this joint:
So when we layout the post, the mortice in this tie beam cog template will be placed on the tenon of the post and represent the wall plate. The tie beam will then be hooked on to the cog and we will be able to lay the brace in place and mark it up accurately.
At least that’s the theory.