Haven’t been able to post discussions for a while since my computor got sick,  ( nasty o’l virus, worm etc.) long sagga to get computer clean enough to evan log on….  Eventually changed servers back to AOL and let them solve this stuff,  and when I tried to come back to Breaktime they said I was already there!    Thanks to all of you who sent me christmas cards and urged me to rejoin…  

   The news so far on my timberframe, Area wize there isn’t much to report.  The summer was spent doing exterior finish stuff and trying to get a round tower to fit into the roof and valley without leaking.. I wound up putting a membrane on all of the valleys, and then sodering together all of the copper flashing involved.  I did get a roof on the tower and  it has a rolled edge that should prove really a challege to shingle, A couple of attempts to put a smooth deck on a round and radiused roof with plywood convinced me that wasn’t possible evan with black walnut timbers every 8 inches.  

  I finally cut walnut into 1 inch wide by 1/4 thick strips and was able to get those to bend around.  four layers got me up to the required (MY requirements) one inch thick.  In the future I’ll only run the bottom layer thru the planner and and joint the edeges of the bottom layer.. I know I spent too much time making sure all four layers had 4 coats of varnish on.,…  Yes you can call me nuts now!

  Building the windows for the tower turned out to be a piece of cake.  I took the 2×12 black walnut and carved a 13 foot radius in it.  then I put a dado groove into each piece, dropped the glass in and srewed and glued  the whole assembly together. Once in place I put the vintage stained glass in place and  I had 4 nice, secure thermally effiecent stained glass windows in the tower and boy does that brighten up the place!   In the evening as the sun sets the the colors have to be seen to be appreciated!     

  The coppula is another story! while it looks great from the outside it’s turned out to be a thermal thief!  since it’s the highest place in the tower (indeed the house)  warm air naturally rises and while the windows were double paned they frosted over and the coppula wound up being a really cold place,  causing a lot of heat loss,  insulating everything with foam didn’t materially reduce the loss so I wound up making an octigon double paned window under it  that’s helped some but It’s still the coldest place in the house.  In retrospect cutting thru the R 50 roof panels to gain a little light was a bad decision.

   The rest of this winter I’ll be doing nice inside work, I’m putting fiddle back maple raised panels for the guest bathroom,  combined with the French cistern sink and the old fashioned pull chain toilet and crystal chandaler  plus  coffered ceilings should take up a few weeks of my time..  I make everything myself starting from green rough sawn boards.

  This fall I got a wonderfull deal on fiddle back maple!  Sure, some of it was stained from improper drying and some isn’t really fiddle back but a a dime a board foot who cares?

   I’m proud of myself I’ve managed to restrain my self from buyng my usual 10,000 board feet of hardwood and only gained three stacks of wood in the driveway!   Those of you who’ve been by will be astonished to discover that the driveway is no longer filled completely! and since  my daughter and I spent some time stacking everything nice and neatly, it longer looks like a drunken lumberyard!    I’m still a woodaholic but with minor lapses I’m into recovery!