VT,
Some of us on this Board have walked in your shoes. All dressed up (because we attended a workshop), but no were to go when we’re done. What I learned a couple of years ago, is that there’s a whole lot more to it than what you learn in a workshop.
Folks like us take a workshop and it all seems doable. Then we go home and reality sets in. Design, plans, joinery details, timbers, tools, engineering and code approvals, storing timbers, raising your frame, working alone, enclosing your frame, etc., etc. At the workshop, all that is needed is provided and it looks almost easy because the organizers have done all of this behind the scenes for us. They provide they tools, the design, the leadership, etc.
I’d urge you to go the workshop and think about all of these things. Then when you get home think about next steps. Think about design, joinery, and plans. Learn to use Sketchup and Bremmer’s dandy rubies, which have made timber frame design software available to folks like you and me. Practice by drawing some of the frames you find in your timber frame books, or the Guild’s plan book. By doing the design, you’ll learn a lot about joinery and joinery decisions that you won’t learn in the workshop.
Then I’d urge you to design something simple you can use now. It will be far more satisfying to cut and raise something small, than to cut something big and store it away.
Dale
