Thanks for the kind words, guys; much appreciated! And yes, it was a brutal winter up here in Montana, and it has been the rainiest damned Spring I have ever seen, and the rivers are flooding and the mountain biking trails are still mostly under snow, and Glacier Park is never going to get some of their high trails open. On a brighter note, the glaciers, themselves, must have gotten a bit bigger this year, which is a refreshing change from the last couple of decades.
Now that the common rafters are all complete, outside, it was time to start putting together the common valley system in the shop.
We will have the 3 common valleys (9x12's), 2 of the 4 ridges (11x11's), and all of the common jack rafters (3.5x8's) set-up in the shop, before we disassemble everything and take the valleys outside for final scribing down into the frame.
This video is showing the 3 common valleys, cut together, and sitting in space on custom cribbing walls, ready for us to bring the 2 ridges up, from underneath, for scribing.
And here are 2 of the 4 ridges cut into the 3 common valleys. The other two ridges and the two bastard valleys are outside and we won't be able to cut the two systems together until we have completed the common valley setup in the shop.
Once we had the ridges in, we could concentrate on the common jack rafters. Since two of the ridges are outside, with the bastard jack raffters, we couldn't cut everything in the shop, but we could cut the Entry and Garage side common jacks, as well as the tails of the Bedroom and Kitchen jacks.
This video shows the Garage and Entry rafters completed and the Bedroom and Kitchen rafters set in space, ready for scribing. We had to make temporary ridges for them, to hold them at the correct pitch/height so we could ensure that the two systems would go together correctly, outside. Lots of transit and calculator work during setup, as you can imagine.
And the completed shop setup of the common valley system. Now we get the unenviable task of taking this system down and integrating into the main frame that is set up outside.
chuck - this thing still being cut? or is it being assembled now in NY?
how many guys and gals working on the frame? anyone from the TFG? or are you doing this all in house?
interesting process. most of the frames i've cut / raised, including both CNC and hand - were cut stick by stick and then taken to the site to pre-assemble and then raise. usually within a week or two.
Hi Mike, sorry to drop off the planet for so long.
Frame was just raised during the last two weeks of November.
Basically, the vasty majority of the work was done by four guys, though there was certainly a support crew of another 6 or 7 guys who all pitched in at some time or another.
All done in house; a couple of the guys are past members but, as far as I know, no one is a current member of the guild.
There were a multitude of reasons why we stood so much of the frame in Montana before we shipped to New York. After having raised her, I am glad we did everything the way we did because the raising went flawlessly and with no hiccups of any kind. Of course the raising was a group effort, with the clients, Kim and Steve, Kim's brother Walter, and Luke and Jason, all providing critical support and assistance to the four of us.
I haven't compiled all the video and pictures yet, but I have completed the editing of a time lapse that we went to the trouble of shooting.
Thought you guys might like to watch it; 12 days distilled down to 4:48 is always fun to watch, I think.
Can you provide some information about the crane you used?
I wish I could tell you more, but I don't really know too much about it.
It had a 72' long boom and could handle 1800 lbs at the end of the 72'. I guess this was the smaller of the two they had available. Best part about it was it ran off a 3 phase generator and was virtually silent; gotta love that. And the operator works from a remote control and can stand anywhere on the site to operate; completely eliminates hand signals and definitely makes things quicker and more efficient. I would use one of these again without hesitation. I guess the crane, generator, and truck can all be had for about $225,000.
