I just stumbled upon this website, http://www.timberlinx.com/cat_can.html
Does anyone know anything about these connectors and how they perform next to traditional joinery? What about cost, would it help to keep costs down for a customer, while still giving the look of a mber frame?

Thanks,

Tim

I used to think that timberlinx where cheaper, now I know they are more expensive. I've been cheered up lately by the steady rise in steel prices, by the time I'm ready to hang up my tools, timberframing may actually pay a good buck.
I think the performance of the timberlinx is good, and they have the benefit of being buried in the timbers, so the fire resistance is more or less the same as with traditional joinery.

this looks great - thanks for posting

I had a discussion a month or two ago with the architect on our project. He said that at one time he did a cost comparison, I believe for a client, of metal brackets vs. m&t joinery. You had more money invested in just the brackets than the m&t joinery. Then, you had to buy proper bolts, fit-up and drill all the timbers, and bolt everything together. I've got a fair bit of metalworking experience, and even with automated punches and cutting equipment, there would be a lot of time just making the brackets for a given joint, never mind all the rest.

How did he make the comparison? For me, not knowing the first thing about joinery, I think joinery would be more expensive as I would have to hire someone to do it. Anyway, not sure about this product, but looking for "timberframing for the rest of us" ideas (per Rob Roy's book).

Maybe it's just me but... without Mortise & Tenon joinery it's not Timber Framing. Call it "Post & Beam" if you like.
Cutting joinery is easier to learn than you may think. With all the time and energy spent so far on researching metal fasteners, you could be a novice Joiner by now. Also, it's a very rewarding skill.
My $0.02

Hi Thane,

I hope that you might also include lap joinery within your realm of timber framing as these are extensively employed in cruck, brace, rafter and floor construction.

Regards

Ken Hume

Yeah, right on. It doesn't get much easier than sawing across the grain and chopping the waste out. You don't even need math, just lay them where you want then and trace the lines on 'em. I am being a bit facetious.

I have worked with both metal and wood in different forms. Wood by far is more friendly than metal, much less technology is needed. Either way it doesn't just happen. Let's see someone just go out back of the house and bring back a flat bar of 1/2" x 6" x 10', just the material alone is tied up in hidden labor, now try to cut and bore holes in it. Maybe we should all just pay some machine to do thing for us, then we could use our creative juices elsewhere, wherever that may be?

Tim

Hi Tim and Thane,

Metal does play an important part in building construction. For example nails have been around for a very long time and at this time of year we are reminded that the Romans had developed this technology to a fine art and had put it to a whole number of uses.

Richard Harris likes to pose the general essay topic - "Metal has no place in timber building construction - discuss" at least once in The Bournemouth University / Weald and Downland Masters degree course in Timber Building Conservation.

Many repairs are made using metal to preserve as much original timber fabric as possible in old buildings but there is a thin line between its usefulness and its intrusion into the wooden art form.

Regards

Ken Hume

Metal can be an important component in timber frame construction especially when tension loading, connection to foundations, etc. come into play.

I think on the scale of a small house / barn the use of steel can be minimized to almost nill based on the design (nails, some bolts to the FND, etc) - and Tim's point about embodied energy and technology is valid.


I really like where that discussion could go - we could have its own thread for it (we have, sort of) - and something I've oft debated with 'traditional' woodworkers (ones who can sometimes border on luddites (in a good way) - is the question of is the Japanese plane a 'truer' simple man's tool over the western style plane?

In the Japanese model - one need only contract for the blade, from a local smith - the balance of the plane can be made by the carpenter - and adjustment and even rebuilding can happen by the hands of the woman or man who uses the tool. (this assumes one has all the prerequisite chisels and even other planes...)


In the western style (were talking iconic metal hand plane with wooden handle here) - one needs to invest in casting equipment, molds, metal finishing equipment, hardware, dies, taps, etc. etc. And should the plane be damaged or need adjustment - common tools used to work wood can not help you... the embodied technology and energy and infrastructure needed to support and create the tool is far greater...


Which leads one down the path of discussing embodied energy, technology, etc. from the ax to the pit saw to the water mill to the electric table saw to the chain mortiser to the Hundegger to the laser cutting timber assembly machine on the international space station to the particle collider.




I like the image of a carpenter walking out the back door and plucking a steel section from the misty and pastoral landscape, dragging it into the shop with oxen, then using a modified hand powered boring machine to mill, drill, and shape the steel for connecting timber together.




That all said, steel plate joinery or hidden steel joinery is IME more expensive than traditional wood to wood joinery when the loading and use of the structure do not require the properties steel brings to the equation.

But, when you are a hammer, everything starts looking like a nail... and I'm sure a dedicated truss shop with plate cutting / drilling capability could prove me wrong.