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Timber
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Timber I started timber shopping yesterday. I've been looking around for sources of timber for my shop and I found a pile of sawn oak, probably red oak, but it's grey from being in the sun so it's hard to tell. I didn't scrape it for color. There are about twenty or so twelve by twelve inch timbers, ranging from fifteen feet down to six, and some assorted planks, all salvaged from a house project that never got finished. The guy died and the folks who bought the property tore down the project. If this is red oak those long timbers will weigh seven to nine hundred pounds (dry) and if it's white oak they'll easily top eleven hundred pounds. They aren't dry. The stuff is seasoned but it's been out in the weather so it'll be wet. There are some checks (cracks) but it's still very sound timber and there's enough in two piles to frame my entire shop if I build it fifteen by fifteen feet. It will need to be resawn for me to use it. Timber frames were, and are, typically overbuilt. The builders wanted them to last. My own building will be a bit lighter, but still plenty beefy. I'm working alone and twelve by twelve oak is a whole lot more beef than my little shop needs, and they're a bear to move. I don't even know if I can raise a frame of twelve inch oak- I'm thinking I can't. So I paid a visit to a sawyer I know in a little town near the timber pile and he made me a great price on the work. The lumber is clean, not many nails, so I won't have to be buying blades for the sawmill. The mill is about halfway between the source and my house, so that's pretty convenient, but now I need a trailer. I've hauled seventeen foot jack pine logs in my pickup by loading the stump end in first and wedging a four by under the gunwales of the bed to hold the ends down. But dry jack pine is a hell of a lot lighter than wet oak. It would take me a lot of unsafe trips to move this timber without a big trailer. Before I make an offer on the timber or buy the trailer I have to get a plan approved for a building permit. Each part of my plan is dependent on all the other parts coming together.I can't draw a design until I know what timber I have to work with and I can't get a permit without a design. So my next move is a drawing, I reckon, and then I can start haggling on a price for the materials. I hate to jump on the first pile of timber I found, but this one is PERFECT for my needs. I might spend a bit more but the whole frame is right inside this pile, with extra left over. It seems like good luck to me so I guess I oughta take it. I can resaw the stuff to eight by eight and six by six and have two inch planking left over for floor joists and flooring. The short timbers will make excellent braces, when cut to four by fours. So- off to the drawing board. Become a member now and get a free tote bag. |
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Glad to hear you "got wood".  Sounds exciting, I love the beginnings of new projects, all the planning, and shopping. Wish I had my own land to build something on. Knowing me, I wouldn't tell the city and would just play it dumb. Permit? What's a permit? Become a member now and get a free tote bag.
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I've thought about doing just that, but this city is real anal about that shit and they'd make me tear it down. I have assholes for neighbors in the plat just north of me and they bitch about everything. They don't like it that I don't have a manicured lawn- I have woods and wildflowers, known to suburbanites as weeds. Hell, I'M a fucking weed the way they see it. So my plan is to get my nose nice and brown when I visit the building code folks, and have detailed plans drawn up. I'm gonna need all my ducks toeing the line to make this work. What really gets me about these neighbors is that with all my trees they can't even see what happens on my property. You have to sit and peer through the leaves for quite a while to make out anything! Become a member now and get a free tote bag.
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Y'know, most of the time when people think of "nudie cutie" pictures on the site, they're not thinking of unfinished pine, but... will you be posting progress pictures? I reckon plans would be asking for too-open a kimono (or apron)... Stop in, read, and offer comments at my "swinging as seen in the media" blog, "Confessions of a Lifestyle Man" humorlife, which is also the home of the monthly virtual symposium. New post: The Virtual Symposium Returns Lets Pick A Topic
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Whaddya mean cost efficient? I could build this outa two by fours and be done in no time and have an ice shanty on dry land. I could buy a pre fab shack and spend no time at all, just money. Yes, this fucker will be heavy! This is a work of art! I be compiling a running tab on what this costs me as I build, and if I figure my labor at fifty cents an hour I won't have more that twenty thousand dollars in it by the time I finish. But you can't calculate cost in that way. If I can recycle timber, and use the power generated by roast beef and taters, and hone my joining skills which are rusty as all hell, I figure I'm ahead. It will keep me out of the whorehouses! Cost efficient! You cut me to the quick! Become a member now and get a free tote bag.
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Y'know, most of the time when people think of "nudie cutie" pictures on the site, they're not thinking of unfinished pine, but... will you be posting progress pictures? I reckon plans would be asking for too-open a kimono (or apron)... Become a member now and get a free tote bag.
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The trouble with a project like this is now I have to actually do it. There's a lot of precision cutting in this thing. The whole idea is to build with as little iron and as much scrounged material as possible. I estimate that I can do it for less than a stick built structure, and have ten times the building- so far. We will see. Become a member now and get a free tote bag.
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Sounds like your project is coming along. Excellent. Timber here isn't cheap hugsssssssssss V Become a blog watcher sweet_vm
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