HAZ,
ICF for your walls - sounds like a good idea - I never thought of that. I am not sold on SIPs, and I haven't ordered them yet, but it looks like that's the path I'm going down (although I hate OSB). As for raising the frame vs. cutting it, you surely were involved in the most rewarding part!
RWW,
Without a doubt, the handiest and most reliable piece of heavy equipment that I own is a Caterpillar extenda-hoe backhoe I bought it with 2500 hours on the clock at a foreclosure auction for $28,000. I have spent less than $1000 maintaining it and have put over 1000 hours on it. I hope to sell it for not much loss in a few years. We have joked that it is the most important timberframing tool that I own. I have used it to drag logs out of the woods, to carry logs to the saw mill, to dig my basement, to build 3 ponds, to carry gravel from the creek to my road, to move liquid concrete, to move cinderblocks, to raise a friend's timberframe cabin, and most importantly to move those heavy beams!!! (I also used a bull dozer to help with some of those things, but I could have gotten by with only the backhoe.)
The first thing I bought to go with the back hoe was a set of forks that hook on and off of the bucket. I would recommend a backhoe (or large 4wd tractor with bucket) with a set of forks instead of a forklift. Both are more versatile than the forklift, will go through mud better, and are more easily sold when the job is done. I wouldn't recommend buying a backhoe or tractor with more than 4000 hours on the clock though - you're more likely to get burned on the deal and will spend too much time fixing it. (no part of the timber frame experience should include bathing in hydraulic fluid - sadly that has been part of my dozer/logging experience - don't buy a bull dozer! rent it if you need it!) Best thing would be if you have a neighbor that will rent you his tractor with loader. A much cheaper way out would be to get a run-of-the-mill tractor with a boom pole, or a bale mover on the back (forks normally used for moving large round bales of hay). Good used tractors (without a loader) reach the bottom of the depreciation scale at about $5,000 and hover there. (double that # if it has a nice loader setup on it) Bigger tractors are cheaper than smaller tractors once they get over 20 years old.
As for speciality timberframing tools... you already have the most useful one. The chain mortiser is by far the most useful of the lot. The 16" saw and planer are "nice to haves", not "need to haves". In fact, I was well into the project before I broke down and bought the 16" saw. (and a little further into the project when I bought the left hand worm drive saw). The planer is way overpriced for what it is ($1600!!! plus $30 for every set of so-called "disposable" blades). But my wife wanted smooth beams, and I learned in the timber framing workshop that layout is vastly simplified if you have timbers already the exact size you need. We sawed ours 1/8" over and planed them to size. (started sawing them to 1/4" over though once we realized the timbers were shrinking as they sat there for 6 months waiting to be notched!) Yes, there are proper layout methods (using reference faces - very well described in Sobon's books) that let you use any odd sized timbers you want, but given the transient nature of the help I could enlist (friends, neighbors, and family), I wanted the simplest methods of layout possible. Planing them to the exact size has worked for me.
Hope this helps. I just did a book review - maybe in a few weeks, I can do a tool review and equipment review on my blog.
-Thomas
my timberframe web page
