Timber Framers Guild Forums General General Forum Questions Beam spans

does anyone know of a resource that provides beam dimensions and their possible stable spans (considering their are no knots larger than 1/3)?

For instance if you have a 10X12 of southern yellow pine that can span X, if you went to 10X14 what would the possible span be?

Secondly, does the possible span equal the dimension in between posts or braces?

thanks, mo

Although I have lost it, Ted Benson's first book(building the timberframe house) had good tables to use for beam spans. Steve Chappell's book(The Timberframer's Workshop) has formulae that would help you.
spans are from post to post, the braces are generally left out of the equation...

try here, lots of free stuff.

Free Engineering Software


pete

Pete,

any advise on which program works best? Ease of use versatility?
Or just have to try and see which works best for me?

EH
I've used only a few of the programs included in the link I posted and it would be tough for me to provide detailed advice. The only real advice I have is to be careful using those types of programs especially if you have limited engineering background.

thanks,
pete

You could check out Don P's online calculators ...

http://www.forestryforum.com/members/donp/Calculator%20Index.htm