I am just about to start construction of a small (100 square metres) single storey timber frame house.The posts will be freestanding on stones,and the timber frame will be 105mm x 105mm throughout.
I have never built this sort of structure before,and I have a few specific questions related to the mortise and tenon joints.
1.I intend to pin all joints.With the through tenons I have no query,but there will also be stub tenons,where two tenons butt each other through the post.These stub tenons will therefore be half the width of the post,so 52mm.My query here is: I understand there should be 3 times the width or diameter of the pin left in the tenon,after the pin.I calculate that this would allow me a pin of not more than 10mm diameter,with a length of 105mm (so as to leave 30mm of tenon after the pin,and 12mm of tenon between the pin and the shoulder).The proportions of the pin seem fairly thin,for the size of the timber?
2.Further to that - any views on the relative merits of square versus round pins?
3.In my plans I have vertical through tenons extending from the top of some posts,onto which would be fixed a beam,with the other end of that beam being fixed into a post by means of a regular one third width rectangular horizontal stub tenon.The query in this case is: in the case of a vertical tenon,it seems logical to me to use a square centred tenon of 50mm x 50mm dimensions (105mm length)...........?
Last edited by tomatonion; 05/20/12 02:54 AM.
