Saturday 16/1/21
Today we started by completing the mark-up of the cog joints between the tie beam and wall plate that we started marking up yesterday.
Then we cut the joints. We worked at our own ends of the tie beam – Ben had the wet end! Here’s a time lapse of the whole process.
Here’s a summary in still pictures. Completing the mark-up.
The wall plate part of the joint (the hole in this joint is the mortice for the post that will sit below the tie beam).
The tie beam part.
Both parts of the joint pre-assembly.
The cog joint assembled at my end. Note the gap at the top of the joint – this is to ensure that the tie beam stays resting on the bottom on the joint when the wood shrinks.
And at Ben’s.
The tie beam in place.
At this point, Ben re-established the reference points on the jointed tie beam.
We then disassembled the tie beam and wall plates, turned the tie beam on its side and laid up the posts ‘under’ the tie beam so that we can mark-up and cut the braces that will join the posts to the tie beam. This was tricky as, obviously, it is not possible to put the wall plate in place. In place of the wall plate we used spacers of the right size to hold the post in the right position relative to the tie beam.
With the posts and tie beam laid up correctly, tomorrow we will start by marking up the tie beam braces.
