The first dovetail on the ultimate dovetail project!

[Alan DuBoff]

i used slicks, planes as well as a worm drive and right angle drill. the building was 10x12 built with traditional joinery methods without the use of any metal fasteners. although the county permit office required 8 lag bolts at the wall to roof connections to comply with hurricane sheer ratings.

I don't have my final plans just yet, but will soon. I have a structural engineer that is waiting for them, he's agreed to let me use stainless cable with a spring plate. Many folks use allthread rod, but stainless is better, IMO. The other option is powder coated pipes, but that's a lot more work.

the project took me about 3 months to build with myself and a part time helper to lift the trusses. unfortunately there is not much call for traditional post and beam construction here in sw florida and i havent had a call for one since than.

I haven't completely figured out how I'll finish it, a couple friends offered to do some help, and I might try to get my son to help me, but he'll be going off to college in Sept. I may hire a local kid to help. I will lift the timbers with a forklift.

Your timberframe looks nice! I previously had a design that used round log timberframe and structural insulated panels as the skin, but decided to scale it down and do the dovetails. This style of joinery really creates a solid home.

It is so cool to dial in the joint with a small block plane and a framing chisel...watching them finally fit together after you've shaved and planed down to a flat surface is magic!

Tony, yeah...this is a HUGE commitment!

Thanks for the kind words all.

[Alan DuBoff]

Nice Alan! Quite a commitment too!

Hope you keep us posted with pictures.

T.Z.

Tony,

I must say I don't update this thread on SMC too often, as I don't post here much at all anymore.

I am making some progress, but all of it not galootish.

1) I found a yard to build the home at, but haven't finalized it just yet. I am to take possession of it on July 1st.

(linky pic to blog entry)



I also figured out a major piece of the puzzle, what I will use to lift/move the logs. As you saw, these are HUGE timbers.

(linky pic to blog entry)



I update my blog pretty regularly, so if you want to follow this project, that's the place to get the most recent info.