I'm looking for some sources to get plans made up for a free standing Pergola. I'm building it myself but design I'd prefer to leave to a professional. I have a picture of exactly what I want and I have the width and depth measurements.
That would be awesome! I'm thinking 12'6" from center to center of each post in width and 14' from center to center in depth. 6" timbers. Does that make sense? Here is my guess at a parts list:
I'll take ANY suggestions on these sizes. The wife really likes the pergola in the picture below but I have no dimensions so I'm making guesses on some of this. I've built a pergola before but it wasn't a Timber Frame. The upper pic is of course the Timber Frame and the lower pic is the one I built. The new Pergola will be at ground level.
If I had to guess, I would say those posts are 8X8 and the and that carrying beam an 8X10, but it does look beefy. but then again it is hard to tell without a human
I like your timber sizes better, maybe 3X5 for braces.
p.s. that pergola could probably survive a direct hit from a meteorite.
p.p.s in my opinion it would look better to have the upper members of the pergola run all the way to the end of the carrying beam to emphasize the top. the one above looks light up there from an aesthetic point of view. my two cents.
Last edited by mo; 03/20/1002:22 AM.
Re: Custom Pergola Plans
[Re: mo]
#2310503/20/1003:58 AM
i like the roofing in the top picture- it looks like suntuf or some kind of polycarbonate. the sandwiched stuff is nice. perhaps the edges should be supported with purlins.
This is what you would be up against with the adze. More work than the hand held band saw, but much less cost. It comes with a learning curve shaped similar to the result you are looking for. A new band saw goes for $5000.00ish. The adze I use cost $35.00, new, the axe was free.
This was the one of the larger rafters, most took half the time this one did. The video was not edited, it is real time.
An adze is a tool that can be used to slowly work up to your layout line. If you go slow and careful on the first one, you will probably get a good result. As you get better, your speed will pick up. You can also stop shy of the line and spokeshave the rest of the way.
I mentioned the spoke shave in the video. I am not a perfectionist, but I did use the spoke shave to clean up a few which were on the rough side, one or two only. I might of used it a bit more but it was dull and I had not taken the time to sharpen, it of late. The rafter used as a demo was one of the poorer examples but it gets the point across.
Try the adze on narrower stock first, say 3" stock and 2" or so deep on 4-6 inch stock. As practice just keep working the same piece as sacrifice. You need to train body mechanics for knowledge. By standing on blocks my feet and ankles are above the danger point, somewhat. The adze will create the curve, no need to lay out a curved line to follow. The line I had to hit was critical but the sweep leading to it varied a little. I measure with the adze on the top surface about the adze head length away from the stop then give it a little more which I work up to as the final, skewing the adze across the beam at that point. This can be seen in the vid.
I thought I remembered that Jack Sobon taught us to first start with an axe, then the adze to remove the axe marks, then a draw knife to remove the adze marks, then the spoke shave to remove the draw knife marks.... but you can adjust as needed....
Or, you can do the whole thing with a chisel bevel down and finish with the spokeshave, like I did on a project in January. But that was because I didn't have an adze handy.
for example- what could you do with a saw? check out the end details in Phleps- "The Craft of Log Building". though he would argue, old school, that design degenerated with the saw, still, i think a diamond is nice end treatment. though again, as per usual, you could do that also with an axe.
I think I'll go the route of an Adze and a Spoke Shave. I see a lot of different types of Adze's, can anyone recommend what to get and where? Same for the Spoke Shave. I'm thinking 2 handed flat head but seems like there's a few of those too.
the depth in that picture comes from the repetition of rafters. keep in mind that the timber rafters are not flat, they're 3-d. you'll feel that width and meat on the timber when you cut it with an edge tool. it may want to form a crown at the heart of the tree, for example. just something to be sensitive to in your ideas for the outcome.
both of those are very pleasant tools to procure. anywhere from a yardsale to lee valley to our friend Jim here.
The adze itself will dictate how sharp the radius is. With the adze I have I could not easily cut the radius shown in the last picture, it would have to be more gradual. I have seen other adzes which are rounder and could probably cut the curve. I would not be set on an exact design until you have tried a few.
Lehman's is where I picked mine up about 10 years ago. The version they have now is different with the pole on the back and it is blue along with a bigger price.
Mark at TimberWolf needs to get up to speed with the terms. The beam above him was hewn with an axe not the adze as he points out in the video. I do agree "a good tool does make work fun"
this is kind of off topic, but that is funny, making a timber less square- and with a power tool! i understand the pleasure of process marks, but it's in their referencing a process. [though i admit, to get a similar scalloped look as in that 3rd video there, and to create an edge tool surface, i've had some success (and a pleasant time) with a curve faced slick, bevel down.]
they should totally rename that tool from whatever number it was, to 'the power adze'.
apologies for the aesthetic diversion from the really helpful drawings that have been done up here by others. we've got a pergola in the works for the deck this summer too- thanks for the expertise.
Question, what size braces should I use for the pergola? I was originally thinking 4x6x4' for each? I've got a couple TF books coming, suggestions from another thread, which might help me with that but thought I'd ask some experts..
