Saturday 6/3/21
After a lot of discussion and toing and froing we’ve decided to reorientate the end wall plate on the right of the barn so that its widest dimension is vertical and not horizontal like the other wall plates. This is going to complicate things considerably. However, we’ve done this because of the length of the span. The wall plate at the other end (which is the same length – obviously) has a middle support but this one doesn’t. We think this is the right decision and worth the extra work that it will create.
Once we’d decided this, we marked out the dovetails at each end…
…and started cutting them – Ben at one end…
…and me at the other (I hadn’t realised I’d gone quite so thin on top!).
Having cut the dovetails we marked out their corresponding mortices by measurement.
We used multiple cross cuts to quickly crack out the waste on this part of the joint.
Tomorrow we will start by seeing how these joints go together.
Onwards and upwards.