We have some we can sell you if you can't find it. We had in the past 50 lb test and 100 lb test.
I've been chasing the supplier all day for your sheaths and he says they will ship soon.
I'll let you know when they are coming in....

Let have our milling done by people that know what is going on.

Thanks.

Fly fishing line and not the floating stuff, nor monofilment (ck spelling) braided Dacron sounds good. It streaches just right and leaves a nice fine line. Also most square rule is based of a reference face and is very precise and from my point of view easy to learn and apply, no need to use mill rule. That is mostly because I use only rough sawn stock. I think even with s4s timber I would still square rule, and that would be a breeze, no wany edges wow!

brad, what do you mean by a full housing? Maybe a 4x6 coming into a 8x8 that is centered and than housed? Tim

Thin lines are good, but it is not difficult to judge the center of a standard chalk line. Remember -- a carpenter's best tool is his eye -- and it is like any other tool. The more you work with it, the better you get with it. Sometimes we use too many crutches in our work and it only slows us down and lowers our skill level. Practice eyeballing things -- you will surprise yourself with the accuracy if you work at it. I'm not saying to put up you tape measure or framing square, but judging the center of 1/16" or 1/8" -- how far off are you really going to be, folks???

Brad -- what do you mean by a lack of precision in snap-line square rule leading to housing joints -- do you mean to hide sloppy work? Sloppy work is sloppy work -- the system is as accurate as the carpenter using it. It is not inherently imprecise.




yes, accurately checking the depth of blind housings on non-reference faces is not easy. There are many ways to do it.
the easiest is to put a straight edge across the timber at the housing and shim it on one side or the other until it measures the same distance from the bottom of the straight edge to the chalk lines on the 2 sides of the timber. Now your straight edge is parallel to the reference axis(or perpendicular depending on which axis you're talking about). Figure out how deep your housing should be from the straightedge and measure it with any tape, ruler, etc.

Will Truax and Glenn Dodge developed a nice tool for this application (the Regent), but the square and wedge work just fine.


For those interested in this subject, stay tuned to the next couple of issues of the Guild journal -- at some point soon, there's a new article on snap-line square rule coming out.


gabel

I forgot to mention that a lot of people are just bad at snapping lines and they end up with really fat, fuzzy lines. Changing the line probably won't help.

If this is your trouble, try 2 things. After you pull the line tight, hold the smart end away from the work and lightly pluck it to remove excess chalk. Now you shouldn't have so much chalk on the surface of the string that it spreads out on contact. Instead, the chalk "in" the string will be all that is laid down.

And number B. When actually snapping the line, most people snap it way too hard and the chalk scatters -- some goes off in the wind and the rest is scattered out making a faint, fat, fuzzy line. A really good carpenter once told me to drop the line. that's a pretty good way to think about it. Pick it up 8 or 10 inches and drop it. Some of the high performance line has a ton of stretch, so I'm not sure if these rules apply to them.

Around here, we have a saying when somebody snaps a bad line.

"It may be faint, but at least it's fat."

Gabel, I was assuming a big fat blurry chalk line. Jim and Marks comments about relining with the Braided Dacron would seem to help that. Your tips for snapping are also quite useful.

Bravo, Gabel! You would be surprised at how many folks snap the line to hard, leaving the chalk behind. Also don't drag the line around on the work surface before snaping, it gets confusing. Tim

If one is using chalklines on an irregular timber to define refence faces and edge, then doesnt that leave a portion of this timber outside of the finished building profile. For instance an exterior post that is layed out with its crown toward its side wall refence face . Or is it that one would plane down the timber that lies outside of the the chalklines in order to apply the enclosure for the frame? Or do you just deal with irregular surface as you apply the sheathing, exterior...? Maybe this is a stupid question? Maybe if you have pretty straight pieces ,this does not amount to much, but then why would you even need to use chalklines then. tb

I have discussed crown in a post before with several timber framers or timber framing instructors, and each can have their own method or placement of a crown in a post.
We mostly, here at my place, put a crown in a post so that the crown is in towards the center of the building. And let the vertical siding span the gap in the crown. Because if you put the crown out and then put on vertical siding the siding would bump out.
If you use horizontal siding and the crown is in you can shim out the boards to make the true.
If you place the crown out and use horizontal siding then you have the bump out again.
So in that case you probably should plane off the crown if you're going to have the crown out.
The chalk line is just a reference line for aligning the joinery to all one plane. It doesn't mean it's the outside of the building.
Some people use the center line of the timber as a reference line.

Jim Rogers

Thanks Jim. I guess I was confused.( on a post for example) I thought you would lay out the chalkline as close to the edge as you can,(the last straight line that you could snap within the timber) , of your timber exterior reference face, and this would become the last straight in the timber and also the building. I thought to place the crown out ,as I thought its natural curvature towards the the interior of the frame would help fight the rafter thrust more , but maybe this is incorrect as well? It definitely makes more sense like you said to place the crown in when considering enclosure. thanks tb