Tuesday 2/3/21
Today we bit the bullet and cut two of the most complicated joints of the project – the top green oak hip to ridge joints. We also cut the bottom birdsmouth and got the first two hip rafters in place.
We worked along side each other on the pair of green oak hip rafters on the left of the building. We used the template I built as a visual guide for this…
… but went back to first principles with the angles – measuring them rather than taking them directly off the template. We then reversed the markings for the matching hip.
We cut the multiple-angled joints by hand…
… and finished them with a rebate plane and chisels.
Once they where cut, we measured the diagonal distance from the lower corner of the template ridge to the lower platform edge where the hip’s lower joint would engage. This allowed us to mark the position of the lower joints which we marked out and cut. These were simple birdsmouths.
The upper joints went into place very nicely.
And so did the lower birdsmouth joint.
We then put the softwood hip rafter back in place and that accommodated the green oak hip rafter really well.
This image gives an idea of what the hip rafter will look like from the inside of the building. Very pleasing.
So this is how things looked at the end of the day.
Tomorrow we will construct the rest of the softwood roof.
