timberframe.school7

*trivia* Bill Gates has a timber frame home. Half a million board feet of lumber was used. Support beams were salvaged from a Weyerhaeuser mill on the Columbia River, refinished, and sanded to a satin glow. The timbers are joined with stainless*steel fittings, which have been flame*bronzed and anodized, for a rustic look. All connecting bolts (also stainless steel) point in the same direction. Waaay more info posted here...

We were far enough along today on our posts for our building that we also started on the braces. It will be a good start for next week. In the evening we were at the campus and got a brief intro into design software called Dietrich's. It seems easier to use than the Cadworks because it uses a windows like interface. Completed the 2D view of our High Post Cape frame. Added measurements, peg locations and other data. It has been a little easier using this software than the other CAD program thus far. Still a weekend ahead to decide the front runner. Because the head office of Dietrich's is in my homeland of Bavaria, I believe I already made my choice!

Our last day of training in the software. It's been relatively easy to follow along to complete our sample project. Although the drawing is not perfect, it's more of an exercise to get familiar with the program. It will be great to practice drawing some more structures in the weeks to come. Kudos to Jason, our instructor in engaging the class for the last few days.

All posts were completed today. Just need to finish up some of the remaining braces. Test fitted all parts and finished some of the braces with a curve. Along with the posts, they were also beveled with the router and finally sanded.