thanks all. to answer a few questions , I was relating the barn more specifically to a basic high posted cape house frame of 24 feet wide and a one and a half story( 3-4 feet post extension), so the second tie beam is not an option. I just would like to have a bit more freedom by not having the support under one of the tie beams on an interior bents. Of course my gable end bents would be built up because they can be. Thomas in Kentucky , my question was what makes the queen post act as a truss as opposed to just transferring the load to the tie beam? It does seem that it is much like the king post , but I have never seen an example of queen posts in these barns of a wedged and pegged through dovetailed tenon as you see in king posts( which seem to be ideal in this type of tension joint)? I wonder if there is any joinery or sizing of member and also tenon accomodations I would make differently if I needed the queen to perform its truss duties. I also wonder if the purlin plate is essential to a queen post truss or might you be able to join the rafters directly to the post tops and run intermediate longitidinal plates between the bents as Steve Chappell does in his sample frame in "timber framers workshop", as you know continuous top plates of such lengths of 36' and more are difficult and expensive to obtain. Since the barn frame I describe seems to always have these continuous purlin plates, I wonder if they are somehow imperitive to allow such clear spans as 30 feet or more. By the way I do like the idea of using longer braces , perhaps from the lower third of the posts and also using a larger size on them. Not such a fan of hammer beam trusses, they are beautiful but, they seem to be suited best to superiorly butressed masonry buildings , other wise they seem to be doomed. Thanks again guys. tb
