It is hard to sum up this TTRAG conference for me because so much happened. Going a day early was well worth it, the extra barns and Blenhem Bridge we toured were quite interesting.
http://www.dutchbarns.org/dbpsnewsfall91pt2.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Blenheim_Bridgehttp://www.tfguild.org/joinery/part1.pdfI am not trying to pick on any region, but all of the anchor beam barns and "H-bent" buildings we looked at were failing the same way. The rafter thrust pushes the walls apart by splitting or bending the posts. If there are any tie beams close to the purlin plate they were tearing out or the rafters were slipping off of the purlin plates. Some of these large anchor beam barns had NO TIES within six to ten feet of the purlin plates! Alex and Alric of the NJ Barn Co comented on how well "Dutch" barns in New Jersey survive without making a comment about rafter thrust problems so maybe the fact that "Dutch" barns in NJ are 99% hardwood and these barns around Schenectady, NY are mostly softwood is the factor that sets them apart in this regard.
I enjoyed all of the presentations. Each speaker has many years of experience and many photos and drawings that took much time to produce, so to just sit there and soak in all of that knowledge such a brief time is quite a benefit. Their was no microphone so some speakers were hard to hear, though.
I did not know there are some larger buildings with sloping walls like a corn crib (see this for an example of a corn crib http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.mnhs.org/places/sites/ohkf/images/corncrib.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.mnhs.org/places/sites/ohkf/corncribmap.html&usg=__LOfE3G2AAQxWS1MmzYjIbn0QDko=&h=361&w=530&sz=32&hl=en&start=1&itbs=1&tbnid=lpzrGStQDhZZwM:&tbnh=90&tbnw=132&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcorn%2Bcrib%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1T4HPIB_enUS306US306%26tbs%3Disch:1 )
It was great to see and speak with friends from many states in one place. I was particularly pleased to meet John Stevens and listen to Don Carpentier.
http://www.hvva.org/hvva-stevens.htmhttp://www.greatamericancraftsmen.org/eastfield/eastfield.htmI hope Will Trueaux lets me know how his NY/CA bridge project works out.
I was very concerned to learn from John MacNamera that he lives in an area in Pennsylvania which has one of the biggest underground reserves of natural gas and that there is a drilling boom in progress which has forever poisoned the ground water in some places. The true costs of energy continue to reveal themselves!
The book store and Guild products are always interesting to me.
http://tfguild.stores.yahoo.net/guildgear.htmlhttp://www.summerbeambooks.com/Ken, one immediate influence it had on me was that I put the new handle I bought from Jim Rogers on one of my my broadaxes and sharpened it! I confess that I did not comprehend the extent of the early history of the Albany area and that the Stockade neighborhood in Schenectady is considered the "oldest residential neighborhood in the US...". Traveling there helps me learn my history lessons.
Their is too much new information in my head to summerize.
The next meetings are a TTRAG members meeting in November 2010 on Eastern Long Island, NY, TTRAG conference in or near Ipswitch, Mass. north of Boston next spring and the eastern Guild Conference in Shepardstown, WV. Watch
www.tfguild.org for more info. See you there!
Jim
