2004 Western Conference

Pre-Conference Workshops

Prior to the Main Event that begins on Friday, we will host four Pre-Conference workshops on Thursday, April 15, 2004. This is an opportunity to hone your skills in an all-day intensive session with a small group of participants and expert instructors.

Workshops begin at 8:30 AM. A separate registration fee is required. Lunch, breaks and handouts are included. All workshop fees are quoted in US dollars.

Workshop #1: Compound Roof Practicum
April 15, 8:30 AM - 5:00 PM

The goal of this short workshop is to allow the working carpenter and timber framer comfortable access to the wacky world of compound roof work. Basic roof math and experience will be critical for the student to keep the pace of this exercise. The focus will be on extracting as much information from the working drawings as possible without the aid of stick drawings for the complex pieces. The joinery aspect of this same topic beyond the simple housing is best explored over a longer period of time.

The particular building we are to consider will be built during a one-week workshop in Athens, Texas, April 26 to May 1, 2004. Robert Hinton of Red Suspenders Timber Framing is providing drawings for the frame. Drawings for this workshop are the further manipulations of the frame by Curtis Milton.

Outline

1. Vocabulary (rise, run, pitch, slope, hip, valley, common rafter, height above plate, plumb cut, level cut, and so forth)
2. Basic Mathematics, Pythagoras
3. Trig
4. Ratios and the kernel, make basic drawing and solve for ratios.
5. Plan of attack: protocol and process for roof layout.

• What are we provided in the plan view drawings?
• What else do we need to know to calculate lengths and angles?
• Ratios for the roof, angles for the roof
• Common rafter length, OH and layout?
• Upper plate height given equal HAP (obholz) at both plates?
• Upper rafter length, OH and layout?
• Hip rafter length, OH, fascia cut and layout?
• Jack rafter length, OH and layout?
• Jack mortise locations on hip, dimensions shape and layout
• Dragon tie length and layout
• Dragon post length and layout
• Dragon post mortise and layout
• Upper corner post mortise, hip joint and layout
• Hip foot joint, plate joint
• Practical techniques and error compensations

Workshop fee: $100 Guild members, $125 non-members. NOTE: Those who sign up for this workshop AND the Texas Workshop will receive a $100 rebate. For details on the Texas event, click here.

Workshop #2: Job Costing Start to Finish with QuickBooks Pro

This workshop will very specifically cover the use of QuickBooks in managing the financial side of your construction business. Whatever version of QuickBooks you are using, this information will be applicable. Karen has taught several very highly acclaimed workshops through the Journal of Light Construction. One of our members attended this seminar and reports: "Karen is very construction literate and understands the jargon of the trade. I would have paid twice the money for the value of what I received." If you want to fully understand and utilize your QuickBooks software to its potential, this is a great seminar to attend.

Each participant will receive a detailed class manual and a disk, which includes three items: a pre-formatted QuickBooks Pro 2003 company file, and estimating spreadsheet, and a timesheet.

Karen Mitchell, co-owner of Online Accounting, has 18 years' experience as a business and accounting consultant to contractors. She operates an innovative on-line accounting service for contractors on the use of QuickBooks and Master Builder. She is a leader in developing user-friendly training programs for QuickBooks Pro and is co-author of The Contractors Guide to QuickBooks Pro and Construction Forms and Contracts.

Workshop fee: TFBC Members: $75 (or free as outlined in member benefits); non-members: $150.

Workshop #3: Tuning the Japanese Plane

Starting with a new, off-the-shelf plane, we will demonstrate techniques to flatten and tune blades and fit them to a plane body. We will use the finished tool to plane a variety of materials, and learn a bit about making planes for specialized situations. An informal Kezuro-kai type contest at the end of the class promises to be fun.

Our experience has been that there are already gifted people demonstrating these techniques and inspiring people to go out and buy the tools. But, they are by and large working at a level that most of will never achieve. Our intention is to give people real world knowledge of set-up, maintenance and use of these tools. This workshop promises to show you not how to make a super-expensive Japanese plane perfect, but rather how to make an affordable one work well.

Instructors Ed Shure and Takayuki Kida work together at Timmerhus in Boulder.

Workshop fee: $100 Guild members, $125 non-members.

Workshop #4: Building Sustainability Into Business
Learn more about this workshop!

A daylong workshop to show how to put sustainability into practice on a daily level, both in the environment you work in and the product you are raising. Leaders within the timber frame industry and the sustainability movement will share what they have learned about greening their businesses.

We'll begin with WHY this is an essential next step in the evolution of business and why you will benefit by differentiating your business. The HOW TO section will follow, with advice from successful proponents of sustainable business, including the nuts and bolts of incorporating green materials into your practice.

We will wrap up this full-day workshop with an hour-long "Conversation with the Panelists," which will feature innovators who have already adapted their businesses and now benefit from the changes they have made.

Workshop fee: $100 Guild members, $125 non-members.
Learn more about this workshop!