Hello,

I took the 5 day Timber Framing course at the North House Folk School last May and have started my first timber frame! So far it has gone quite well, but I have a timber that has a crown in it, and am looking for advice how to best deal with it. The timber is ~14' long (final length to be 12')and there is about a 1/4" crown near the middle. The timber is intended to be a post in my frame. Should I not use this timber? If I do, how do I lay it out so that my joinery matches up? In which direction should I put the crown, crown pointing to the outside of the frame, pointing in . . .? Thanks for any help that you can offer.

Sincerely,
Craig

PS I have learned a lot from all of you by reading this forum, Thanks!

I would point the crown out, then hew or saw it off straight(for square rule) or leave the crown on and use a snapline for layout. 1/4" is not too bad....

Craig:

I agree with Mark that 1/4" isn't outrageous. Will you be housing the joinery? How do you plan to skin it? CB.

PS: Hope Tom and Peter treated you well!

We had a great time up at the North House, Tom and Peter treated us very well! The plans I have are from Peter and the joints are not housed. So I wasn't planning on that. This being my first attempt, I'm sticking to the plans as close as possible. As for the skinning, I'm actually going to be using this as a screen house since I live in "mosquito heaven".
CB, I was looking at your website the other day and noticed that you have pictures from a class that you taght up at North House. In the background of your pictures is a Timber Frame next to the blue house which is the one that we built during our class. Which is also the one I have the plans for so that's the one I'm building.
Thanks a lot for the advice. I think I'll snap a line and go from there.

Craig

Craig:

Glad you got a lot out of the class. It's a great thing they have going up there.

Since it will only be screened, the bow won't affect how the skins fit. The other thing to keep an eye on is how the bow might affect the fit of a knee brace off the bowed face. Since you're not doing a housing, the bearing face will be a little off, and the brace may need to be trimmed. Good luck with your project, and post pictures! CB.

Thanks for the advice on the knee brace. I'm pretty sure that I'll be able to account for that when I dry fit the pieces. I'll hopefully be raising this fall and I will definitely post pictures!

I guess I don't understand. A 1/4" "crown" on a regular store-bought 2x4 is nothing on an 8-foot stud. Can someone tell me what am I missing? Thanks.

I know there's a good joke to be made here involving the phrase "rough framing" :rolleyes: , but I can't come up with the right wording.

You guys must be meaning something different by "crown". I'm new here. Help me out!

a crown is just another word for a bent stick.
bsjones... the difference is that rough framing with 2x's is usually unseen in the finished project, but a timberframe is a focal point of the finished project.
So, a 1/4 joinery gap is something to avoid...