Friday – 8/1/21
As I mentioned yesterday, the braces that go through the middle of the building are larger than those in the front and rear walls. This is because four of them have to link posts to the tie beams which are higher than the wall plate. For reasons of symmetry, we are using the same larger braces in both end walls as well, even though these are going into the wall plate.
We are using the same brace jointing technique that we developed earlier. We make the lower joint and pin it before offering the post and brace up to the wall plate and marking the mortice.
Because of my desire to expose posts and braces to maximum aesthetic effect and to get some insulation in the walls, the placing of the braces is quite complicated. On the front wall the braces are towards the the outside of the frame and the wall will built behind the braces towards the inside of the building. On the rear wall they are towards the inside of the building so that they can be seen from the inside and the wall will be built towards the outside.
For this reason, and to minimise the extent to which the lower braces come into the building, we decided to put these larger braces at a steeper angle. Despite this, there are places where the brace mortices cross each other. One of these places is on the rear left of the building. We will need to cut away this tenon a bit so that the front wall brace can be put in place without hindrance.
Here you can see the steeper angle of the longer braces. Note that the shoulder of the upper joint is initially left ‘long’. The brace and post are then offered up, squared up and the precise location of the shoulder marked.
We will complete these brace joints tomorrow.