I originally had money in my bid to buy the HEMA Chain Mortiser/Slot Cutter or Mafell Chain Mortiser/Slot Cutter for this timber framed barn in Portola Valley California. However, I had to lower may bid to get the job and I still needed a way of cutting the hidden 52 -- 3/8" x 8" deep steel knife plate slots in the timbers. I designed a slotter/mortise jig that I called the California Knife Plate Slotter - Mortiser for the 6x6 post and another jig that I called the Okie Knife Plate Slotter - Mortiser for the 5 1/2" x 9" GluLam Beams.


California Knife Plate Slotter - Mortiser for 6x6 post.

Okie Knife Plate Slotter - Mortiser for the 5 1/2" x 9" GluLam Beams.
(AKA Chainsaw on a Stick)

Stick Framer Knife Plate Slotter

Sim

Nice Sim. Great idea.

You might want to say 'timber framed barn' around here with all that steel. If the budget fits for more authentic frame in the future, I can hook you up with a less jumpy specialty engineer.

You coming to the conference?

Billy and I just went and saw this yesterday.







It's hard to shoot because it's so big. 80' diameter barn in Hudson, NY.

Recognize that Mike?

Brad,

No, I'm not coming to the TFG conference this year, but I wish I was. Are those pictures of a barn or church? It's definitely neat looking.

I wasn't going to use the words timber framing in my post, but after looking at the pictures of the TFG Pemberton Barn project in BC with all their steel I wanted people to be able to search on knife plater slotters and see the California Knife Plate Slotter or Okie Knife Plate Slotter for timber framing or steel plate framing.

authentic frame in the future.... not in California.
If it doesn't have a couple tons of steel in the structural engineering then it wouldn't be built in California today. On one of our fire insurance jobs, 485 sqft, where we'll do a UBC 2013 code upgrade on the fire damaged area of the house built in the 1950's we will add 22 Simpson holdowns.

What's on top of Billy's truck? A helicopter or drone landing pad?

Sim

Nice. I haven't been down there yet. Lovely building. And yes, it looks really familiar. Lots of lines on my screen now standing in the real world. Love it.

Sims slotter is pretty creative. Been following the videos on G+.

I was just giving you some s**t Sim. It looked good and the slotter idea is genius. I'll lend you my Mafell if you need one in the future. Although it looks like your slotter worked just fine.

I think most traditional timber work in earthquake country just relies on the stuff outside of the frame to do all of the work. Of course, Japan has the oldest and largest wood framed buildings in the world (that I believe are about 900-1000 years old), so Simpson must not have not figured it all out. I've showed your TiC steel article to a few others.

That's a dairy barn/wedding space. It sounds like a bad combination to me, but I've been told it's all the rage in the Hudson Valley with the uber elite. They'll have a dirt floor with cows in it in the winter and a raised wood floor in sections during the warm season. The next building is where they're milked and cheese is made, the next is the store. (They're looking for a cheese meister, David...)

The plates are field laminated 1x8 SYP (actually it's all SYP), just screwed together. Engineering by Fire Tower. I offered to consult on it, but they didn't need me. The builder is another young guy, and obviously really talented. Mike drew it up: http://mikebeganyi.com/2012/08/02/a-mention/ (although all those steel brackets got nixed).

That's Billy's camper. He's camping about 8 minutes up the road from me right now, but he must be feeling antisocial. We'll miss you at the conference.

By consult, I meant to the GC, certainly not to Fire Tower.