April 22 Events
Saturday will open with our Guild Membership Meeting, when you'll have a chance to air your gripes and tell the Board of Directors what the Guild is doing right and what it should be doing in the future. Everyone is welcome.
Design and Engineering Tracks:
- Andrea Warchaizer: 3D Architectural Visualization þ Photogrammetry.
This is the practice of creating a 3d CAD model from photos of an existing building. You input digital photos into the program and mark key points on a series of photos. The software computes camera angles and distance and figures out the 3d shape. Andrea is using this to model existing conditions for designing additions, but it can also be useful for preservation/documentation.
- Engineering Q&A Session with Ben Brungraber, Jim Destafano, Joe Miller and Grigg Mullen.
You will have a chance to ask questions of some of the experts who deal with issues of timber engineering every day.
Business Track:
- Jonathan Orpin: Veteran Voices, The Making of an Industry.
Jonathan will introduce a new regular feature at our Conferences. From garages, droplights and resurrected antique chisels to computers, health insurance and asset-liability ratios, the timber frame industry has grown and matured. It had to. Where once we were given extraordinary slack because of the new and groundbreaking work of the early timber framers, we are now faced with requirements for fully engineered frames and professionally executed contracts. We have learned that turnover has a cost to quality and bottom line, and indeed we have even learned what a bottom line actually is.
Veteran Voices is a series of seminars given by timber frame company owners or managers with more than 15 and even 20+ years on the job, as a mechanism to share their experiences, tricks, heartbreaks and victories. In recent talks by Tedd Benson and John Abrams, it was clear that many in the audience enjoyed the discussion of their history and their roots. Whether to benchmark our own progress, re-invigorate our efforts or simply re-focus on our successes, it is natural to do so in discussions with our peers and our predecessors.
The seminar will be roughly presented in three parts: a narrative of the speaker's company, a specific management system or skill to share, and a final time of open discussion as a group. Whether your own company is small or larger, growth-oriented or comfortable, this is an opportunity to share a laugh, learn a trick, and ask a question.
Veteran Voices Part 1 will be with Jonathan Orpin, owner and founder of New Energy Works Timberframers and Pioneer Millworks. He has served on the board of the Guild (Treasurer, 1992), the Business Council (President 2000 and 2001) and currently serves on various community boards. New Energy Works was started in the early 1980s, and Pioneer Millworks in the late 1980s, and together employ 85 people. He has chosen to share techniques on building systems integration as a method to control finish job quality and fully "mine the marketing dollar."
Natural Building Track:
- Craig Hillman: Natural Plasters for Straw-Based Enclosure & Infill Systems.
As straw light clay and straw bale enclosure and infill systems become more common in natural buildings, there has been a move away from cement stabilized plasters. Follow one builder's journey from by-the-book cement stucco to a more adaptive approach to using native clay soils and commercial clay as the finish of choice for natural walls.
- Mike Flowers, Moderator: Natural Building Forum:
Join all the experts from the Natural Building track for a Forum on Saturday afternoon when they will answer your questions related to the use of natural materials and techniques.
Shop Practices Track:
- James Mitchell and Kathleen Lasby: Modular Wall Infill.
"I want to see a Timber Frame house when I walk up the driveway"... an alternative to the Envelope System. James and Kathleen will demonstrate the construction of their R20 Styrofoam/Frame wall infill panel with an Acrylic Basecoat/Finish exterior and drywall interior finish. This 5" thick infill wall gives 1.5" relief inside and out on standard 8" timbers. Discussions include overcoming the kneebrace/infill problem; sealing the panel to the frame; window/door details; electrical hot-knifing; splash molding details; modularity and shipability. James and Kathleen own and operate the Island School of Building Arts (ISBA) on Gabriola Island. James Mitchell has been building, designing and teaching log and timber construction for more than 30 years. Author of The Craft of Modular Post & Beam, James is the principal ISBA instructor teaching the methods of log building, timber post & beam, and timber bents construction.
Tool Test Drives
Before the Trade Fair closes up late Saturday, we will give you a chance to try out some of the tools that have been on display during the weekend.
The Timber Frame Business Council (TFBC) will hold its Membership Meeting Saturday afternoon.
There will be an axe throwing event at the Western Conference this year. An individual competition event is planned on Saturday along with some time for instruction and practice. So if you fancy flinging axes, you will need to buy an axe and get practicing. There should be one or two axes available for the curious to try out. For further information, contact Steve Lawrence at steve@macdonaldandlawrence.ca and see the rules here, including information on purchasing an axe. Please indicate your interest in participating on the registration form.
The Slide Show will be at 3:30 PM this year, when everyone gets a chance to show his or her work.
The Children's Discovery Workshop will conclude late in the day.
Saturday will also feature our Benefit Auction in the evening.
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