SF Bay Area Timber Frame resources?

Hi All,
New house, looking to put in a stand-alone woodshop.

Would love to do a timber frame (thinking a L layout with 17.5' sides (minus a 7.5' square cutout on the corners)

250 sq ft limit.

Thanks for any input,
Josh

Hi Joshua...I'm down here in San Jose. I have never searched for such a thing but it does sound kind of expensive for a rather small shop. You are looking at 16' by 16' if square. Any way, I don't really have anything of value to add...mostly wanted to say howdy to a neighbor. :)

Look into the Timber Framers Guild. http://www.tfguild.org/ The web site has lots of info, timber framing books, and such. They've held demonstrations in the Bay Area in the past, but I haven't noticed them recently.

Hi Guys,
Thanks for the link to tfguild -- definitely a nice site, doesn't look like they have anything coming up though (from some cached web search links, looks like I may have just missed one in Asilomar, but for all I know, it was 3 years ago...)

I agree it is a bit over the top -- part of it is that I don't see ever having the opportunity to do this "for real" (like for a house), so it seemed like a fun way to play. I'm honestly not sure I have time for more than a kit on this -- there are a lot of projects to get done on the new house -- this is just the one that gets all my tools out of SWMBO's garage. Trying to figure out how simple I might be able to make the joinery though, it might be doable. I'll update with a plan if I get there.

As to it being small... it's as big as I can go for an "outbuilding" in HMB, anything else and it would qualify as a secondary residential building and would need a Use Permit exemption.

Good to make both of your virtual acquaintance.

Josh

Another great resource is the timber frame construction board at http://forestryforum.com ...