Long time no post...things have been sailing on my frame. But....I have a problem.
I have a white oak 8"x8"x15'6" plate that will have at the far end a 2"x5"x4"d mortise, and another one at 12'. There is a single fully housed brace at the far end, and two on either side of the center post mortise at 12'. The near side brace mortise has it's back side, 2" from a 2' long halved and bladed scarf placed near the brace (per Sobon's book pic), which I plan to key.
Here the problem. The plate has a slight warp. As I stretch a line from end to end, the concave side (bottom) is 5/8ths in. I'm not thinking I can draw peg that straight. The beam has only dried about .75" in, but I don't have a space shuttle to park on it to straighten it.
The nice thing is, that at this position, it'll have no real load (literally none). Question still is, should I measure off the string and use it as the reference so my brace mortises are not too deep, or do I just realize there won't be much contact and not draw bore them? Likewise, near the posts, I'd expect it to behave a bit better. Of course since it'll sit for a while before I erect it, it may just be a pain overall.
Incidentally, it's the beam you see in the middle of the pic. Any ideas? Firewood?
Oh, and I hope the was intelligible. I'm still learning.
