I’ve been helping build a timber framed office this week for a local charity.
The event is organised by the carpenter’s fellowship here in the UK and there are a whole bunch of framers who have come over from the US to help from the timber framers guild.
Square rule framing is totally new to me as it involves loads of math and hardly anything gets fitted together until it goes up.
Anyone else here ever used it?
It’s been great fun It’s been ages since I got lost in the day and didn’t want to pack the tools away.
OH and I’ve got really covered in sawdust too. :o)
Replies
Greetings kos,
This post, in response to your question, will bump the thread through the 'recent discussion' listing again.
Perhaps it will catch someones attention that can help you with advice.
Cheers
It might be worth shooting over to the JLC forum and see what they might say about it. Here's the link...
http://www.jlconline.com/cgi-bin/jlconline.storefront
Hunts with garlic.
kostello,
Sorry I 'm late but I'm working on my own timberframe..
I assume that you are dealing with square rule rules, that is you assume every timber is an odd size and you basically go back to a standard size for every joint..
Here' s a real simple example.. lets assume that your timber is 4 3/8Ths x 6 5/16ths If you assume that all the timbers are supposed to be 4x6 then basically you mentally elininate the 3/8ths and the 5/16ths and just make sure your "extra goes inside when there is space rather than towards the outside where it will hit a panel or something.. You could (depending on where your timber is) move the centerline to accomidate the extra material if the timber is a mid span timber. thus it winds up looking symeterical tather than out of balance..
Sure you could just plane all timbers to a standard size and be done with it but there is a certain hand crafted look to this technique that has it's own appeal..
Edited 8/20/2005 5:18 pm ET by frenchy
Or you could do it the traditional Japanese way and forget about outside dimensions, measuring all joinery from centerlines. This simplifies everything.
Hi welcome to the world of timber framing. Check out the carpenters fellowship web site in the uk then look at the tfguild.org in the us. both these sites have great rrecorces for square rule joinery
OK fellas....I must be short as this subject could take all day.
Yes, I admit it, I'm one of those timber framers. I could not make the England trip, but one of my guys was there (Caleb).
Square rule layout is a system created in about 1860 that allows timber members to be created as parts, separately. In the English method (from the time) all the timbers would be arranged in a "wall section" and scribed together....Square rule allows the parts to be made without the whole wall section at once.
The concept is simple....All measurements originate from known planes (think geometry). So a building that is 10x20 would be measured from "out to out". So now any variance in the timbers size doesn't really matter....the "wild side" is on the inside. Same applies to the vertical measurements....building is 10' tall....measurements go to the top of the timber.
Yep, go to the guild site http://www.tfguild.org and learn more.
It's the best group I know. Keep learning...or you'll be dead.
Thanks all.The event finished about a month or so ago now but was a real blast.I pretty sure it's going to become a regular thing for me. I had a real blast.here some pics of what was going on.oooppps a couple are a bit big for dial up but the othetr 2 are nice and smallPS: i've got the TFguild in my bookmarks now and I'm off to the carpenter's fellowship annual gathering next month!!