I wrote this story last March:
How to construct and use a “Story Pole.”
By Jim Rogers
Recently I was asked by a timber framer: “.......do you have any detailed information on how to use, construct, and layout dimensions on a story pole? I would like to use one instead of a tape measure when I do layouts on timbers. I have found some general info, but nothing really specific or detailed. Thanks for any help you can provide.”
To construct a story pole you’ll need a piece of good lumber. Straight as you can find and without any large knots or defects. I would start with a full inch board maybe two inches wide. Or even three inches wide in order to have enough room for all your notations. This “story pole” should be longer than the timber you intend to lay out.
It should be planed smooth on both sides to make it easy to write on, so it will probably finish around 3/4 of an inch thick.
For the purpose of this story, I have selected to create a story pole for a post used in a simple “garden shed.” It is the one in the picture below, marked with the red “X.”
This shed has six posts, and many of the dimensions on each are the same.
Here is a single timber drawing showing all the important dimensions of all the tenons, mortises, shoulders, housings, and peg holes.
This type of dimension line is called a “base line” dimension. It starts on one point and all locations are measured from that “base” point up the dimension line to the top of the post’s top tenon.
In the above drawing the dotted lines show cuts entering from either side the timber or on the opposite face of the timber, basically cuts that aren’t on this side.
To lay out a “story pole” I would start by laying out a post using the dimension from your single beam drawing. Locate all the locations of the joints, housings and peg holes along the arris of the reference face and the adjacent face, known as the reference edge. And then lay out each joint, housing and peg hole on all sides of the sample post to insure that each is correct. And then transfer these locations onto your “story pole.”
Once you have the joints, housings and peg hole locations marked on the “story pole” you’ll need to identify each line with some type of note as to what that line or location means.
In this drawing you’ll see that he “over all” length of the timber has been labeled as “OA.” And the shoulder has been
labeled “Sh.” Some might be TM for top of mortise, BM for bottom of mortise, and PH for peg hole. If your “story pole” is wide enough you can write out each label in full so that anyone can understand these line locations later on. Also mark your arris edge on your “story pole” and note which is top and bottom of your posts.
After you have transferred the line locations to your story pole and you have labeled them then you can use it to layout more posts of the same frame.
I would inspect each post for crown and arrange your post for the best faces to be showing inside the building and label your reference edge with the standard triangles or whatever markings you use to show these reference face and edge. Then place your “story pole” along this arris and transfer these joint locations onto the post. After you have transferred all the location lines from the “story pole” to the new post, you can layout each joint, housing and peg hole around this post to their proper faces.
A while ago, I discussed this “story pole” layout procedure with another very experienced timber framer and he said he used one to inspect his timbers for defects, such as knots. He lays out his “story pole” with all the joint locations and then holds it up to his timber looking to see if a knot will be in the area of a joint. If the knot is in the area of a joint, housing or peg hole, then he slides the “story pole” down or up the timber until all joints, housing and peg holes are free from knot defects. Then once he has located the correct position of the “story pole” so that the joints, housings and peg holes are free from knot defects he marks one line on the post that matches one line on the story pole, such as the shoulder line. He then lays out all the joints, housings and peg holes with a tape measure from that shoulder line to ensure that they are truly in the correct and accurate location.
I personally layout with a tape measure for the same reason.
It’s one thing if you’re building a storage shed, barn, cabin or outbuilding and another thing when you’re laying out some planed expensive timbers for a house.
I hope you have found this story useful.
Jim Rogers
PS. If anyone would like to see larger photos of the above drawings let me know and I'll either post them here or email them to you directly.
