2008 Western Conference

Pre-Conference Workshops:
April 16-17, 2008

These workshops are an opportunity to hone your skills in an all-day intensive session with a small group of participants and expert instructors.

A separate registration fee is required. Tuition for the one-day pre-Conference workshops on April 17 is $165 US for members and $195 for non-members, and includes lunch and breaks; the tuition for the two-day Log Grading workshop is $385 US and includes lunches both days. Note that the Main Conference fee is not included with pre-Conference tuitions. Workshops begin at 8:30 AM unless otherwise stated.

The objective of this course is to train and certify graders and third-party inspectors for the log home industry. While the focus will be on stress-grading timbers with a non-rectangular cross-section, the material will also be useful for timber framers who want to be able to grade their own timbers in the yard or at the sawmill. Upon successful completion of the course, the student will be trained and certified as a structural log and timber grader or Quality Supervisory Agency of the Log Homes Council Grading program.

Based on standards already used by lumber grading organizations, the Log Homes Council wrote uniform grade rules defining and quantifying the limiting characteristics of structural members, as required by the building codes. As a result of these standards, each Grading Program member could assign a visually assessed structural grade for each log and timber in their package.

The first day of this two-day workshop will be in the classroom and will use a 100-page manual that every workshop participant will receive. The second day will move to a local log yard, where participants will actually practice grading logs and timbers. A test at the end of the course will lead to certification. Students are required to have some employment connection to a log home or timber frame builder or to have QSA aspirations. To be able to issue valid grading certificates on timbers or logs, graduates of this course or their employers must be members of the Log Homes Council of the National Association of Home Builders. For more information on this program, download the Frequently Asked Questions in PDF format.

About the Instructors

Edwin Burke received his undergraduate and graduate education in Wood Science and Technology, completing his Ph.D. at Colorado State University in 1978. He began his teaching and research career as an Assistant Professor at the University of Montana in Missoula in 1979, gaining full professor rank in 1992. Dr. Burke teaches several courses in Wood Science and Technology, including Timber Harvesting, Forest Products Manufacturing, Wood Anatomy, Properties and Identification, Wood Engineering and Wood Microbiology, as well as Dendrology and Tree Biology.

He has been active in the utilization of small-diameter timber since the early 1980s, when he worked with the late Dr. Peter Koch of the USFS, and Chuck Keegan of UM's Bureau of Business and Economic Research on projects determining both the fundamental characteristics and properties of lodgepole pine and the development of products and processes.

Dr. Burke has been active with the National Association of Homebuilders' Log Homes Council Grading Program since 1985. He has spoken at numerous conferences and meetings of log home manufacturers, engineers, architects and building officials groups and conducted more than 30 log grading courses for the industry, when he has trained more than 200 certified structural log graders and third-party inspectors.

Experienced in hand-crafted log construction since 1977, including the operation of a substantial manufacturing operation, and delivering training programs and fiber-related management advice for several years, Robert "Log Bob" Savignac is the foundation of the Arbor Vitae organization. Log Bob brings a comprehensive and practical approach to the art and science of log building complimented by his double major in Biology and Outdoor/Experiential Education. An advanced graduate of the Mackie School, Savignac has dedicated himself to honing his log building skills and offering his accumulated knowledge to others committed to the pursuit of this incredible craft. As the ILBA past executive Director from 2000 - 2005, he currently maintains his position as vice-chair of the ICC Log Standards consensus committee, and is Chair of the equivalent CSA committee in Canada. Robert is still doing research and teaching log building around the world, and is Forintek Canada's Log and Timber construction specialist.

Course cost: $385 including lunch both days.

Google Sketchup™ is a CAD program available free from Google, and is very well suited for modeling timber frame designs in 3D. It is also flexible and accurate enough to use for joinery design and creating shop drawings directly from your whole-frame models! Using custom extensions designed specifically for timber framers (by the presenter), you can create timber frame models that can be used to automatically generate precise shop drawings. In this workshop, you will learn the basics of using Sketchup to create simple models of timber frame designs. You will also learn how to use existing timber and joinery component libraries to create detailed timber frame models that include joinery, and how to generate shop drawings from them. Additionally, you will learn how to create you own joinery models to use in this system, and build your own joinery component library. This is a hands-on workshop, where the participants will follow along on their own computers.

Participants should come with a laptop computer with the latest free version of Sketchup loaded, and a mouse with a wheel. Details will be sent upon receipt of your registration.

The target audience consists of timber framing professionals who are responsible for timber frame design, joinery design, and creating shop drawings. The presentation will be of particular interest to those who currently draw shop drawings by hand, or use a drawing program that is not integrated with their whole-frame design program.

Presentation Outcomes:

• Participants will learn how to customize Sketchup for timber framing.
• Participants will learn how to use existing timber and joinery component libraries to create timber frame models that can be used to create precise shop drawings.
• Participants will learn how to create their own joinery models to use in this system, and how to build their own timber and joinery component libraries.

Presentation Overview:

• Teaser Example. I will open the presentation by demonstrating the creation of a set complex shop drawings from an existing model, to show how easy it is if you've laid the proper groundwork beforehand.
• After a brief description of Sketchup, I will explain how to customize it for timber framing using Ruby plugins (which I developed). These plug-ins will be provided to participants and we will install them and learn how to use them.
• I will then go through a detailed example of how to create a timber frame model that can be used for creating shop drawings. The following broad points will be covered::
• Timber Component Libraries. Discuss and demonstrate the use of component libraries to quickly assemble a frame from pre-defined timber components.
• Joinery Creation. I will discuss and demonstrate how to create new joinery components for expanding the joinery library.
• Joinery Libraries. Discuss and demonstrate how to create new timber components using pre-defined joinery components, which are used to expand the timber component library.
• Joinery Creation. Discuss and demonstrate how to create new joinery components for expanding the joinery library.
• Shop Drawings. Discuss and demonstrate how to create precise, four-sided shop drawings automatically. We will then polish them off with dimensions, and shop notes.
• Participants will leave the seminar with a list of resources, including:
• Where to find general tutorials for using Sketchup
• Where to get more timber frame ruby scripts
• Where to get joinery and timber libraries
• Where to share their timber and joinery components with the rest of us

To view the workshop outline, click here.

About the Instructor

Clark Bremer is the owner of Northern Lights Timber Framing in Minneapolis. He also teaches timber framing at North House Folk School, in Grand Marais, MN. His former career was as a computer designer and researcher for Bell Labs. He enjoys inventing new tools for timber framing, both hardware and software.

This workshop will include:

1. Chainsaw safety - 20 to 30 min
2. Tech talk concerning makes, models, bars and chains, etc. - 45 min
3. Chainsaw sharpening - 20 to 30 min
4. Demo and hands-on participation of cutting techniques and applications - rest of the day

The focus of this workshop will be on the actual cutting, most importantly, by the participants. The idea is that participants see, through demonstration, but then experience first hand how tremendously versatile the chainsaw (gas and electric) can be when used free-hand. Projects could include roughing out a tenon, cutting a mortise, ripping a curve, making long compound angle cuts, roughing out a decorative pendant … all of these on square material. These are all operations that we in our yard and perform routinely with the chainsaw, whether on round or square stock. Yes, we do flip to the dark side and build square timber frames on occasion!

Participants will get a good look at possible applications where this noisy tool excels (granted, with a little practice). With any extra time at the end of the workshop, we could even give timber framers a chance to scribe and cut out a round log notch and experience what it is to be a real dude!

Martin St-Jacques, along with his partner Martin Slager, are the co-owners of John DeVries Log & Timber Homes Ltd, a company dedicated to the design and crafting of timber structures since 1976. Their operation, one with deep family roots, is based near the village of Tweed, in the rolling countryside of Hastings County, Ontario. The two craftsmen, with more than 40 years' combined experience in the log home industry, lead a team of veteran log fitters and timber framers in the construction of Scandinavian Full Scribe, hewn dovetail, round-log post-and-beam, piece-en-piece, and traditional timber frame buildings.

During this one day pre-conference workshop, we will give an overview of the scribing process and discuss different scribing techniques, the pros and cons of scribing, and why scribing is relevant today.

Stacking the lay up will then be discussed and demonstrated, with focus on lofting. Participants will learn to position timbers for scribing, including reference lines, leveling, plumb and level marks, and two foot marks.

The participants will then be divided into small groups and given the task of scribing a lay up. Instructors will give direction and instruction where needed. Additional instructors may be on hand to assist during the hands-on session. The intended audience is carpenters and enthusiasts who are interested in joining timbers together by scribing.

It is our aim for participants to learn the basics of how scribing works and then have the opportunity to try the techniques and see them first-hand.

About the Instructors

Whit Holder is co-owner and production manager of Holder Bros. Timber Frames in Monroe, Georgia. The oldest of the Holder brothers, Whit graduated from the University of Georgia in 1998 with a degree in journalism and promptly discovered timber framing, leaving TV news producers around the nation wondering what might have been. When not working with wood, Whit plays bass guitar, grows hot peppers, and lives in a timber-framed house with his wife, Ansley, and their two black labs, Emma and Lily. Speaking experience: presented on scribing at American College of the building Arts in April 2007 and at the TFG Eastern Conference in Montebello in October 2007.

Steve Lawrence has spent much of his 17-year timber framing career teaching and training; He has been an instructor on the TFG Salem Pavilion Project in Oregon (200) and the Pavilion Project in Suriname, South America. He has also served as an Instructor at the Carpenters Fellowship Boathouse project. Steve has presented workshops and talks (including at least six TFG conferences) on topics from scribing, harnesses and lanyards, methods for safe work at height, cranes and rigging.

Before timber framing, Steve apprenticed as a mechanical engineer and machinist. After completing his apprenticeship, he moved into forestry and arborist work. While working on a log building project for a friend, he discovered that building with big timbers was much more interesting than falling big timbers. When he met UK timber framer Bill Keir in a pub and saw Bill's photos of timber frames, his new career path was set. The next day Steve went begging for work with Bill's former company, Carpenter, Oak and Woodland, one of the UK's leading timber frame companies. Now Steve now runs his own company, Macdonald and Lawrence Timber Framing, with his partner Gordon Macdonald on Vancouver Island, BC.

For most carpenters the geometry of building is based on straight lines, right triangles and various polygons - generally planes that are readily seen. The history of solving complicated roof problems using knowledge of these basic elements and simple but accurate drafting is well documented. The modern carpenter in the US has become separated from this past as modern building practice placed less and less importance on a traditional training regimen.

In this one-day seminar we will demonstrate basic drafting techniques to develop specific building information into solutions for the unknown intersections contained in a complex roof structure. Couple this skill with very basic math and you will have another method to derive all the proportions, lengths and angles needed to layout most roof systems. For our course we will consider the regular plan and irregular pitch roof. The roof pitches differ, the hip run is not 45 degrees but the eave intersection is 90 degrees. An example of this would be a hip roof with a ridge.

Attendees should have plenty of roof-cutting experience, some experience with compound roof problems, basic calculator skills and an open mind. The pace will be brisk. For the good of the many, a few may fall behind in this exercise; but all will take away something of value. Any study of the topic before attending this seminar would be a good idea (see Will Beemer's articles in Timber Framing, Ed Levin's publications in the TFG Joinery & Design Workbook, Vol. 1) to name just a few sources). We will not limit this program to any skill level but because this is an advanced offering, results and satisfaction may vary. A short online quiz is available to allow attendees to assess his/her skills before investing in this class.

Take the short online quiz to assess your skills before investing in this class.

About the Instructor

Curtis Milton is the owner of Monolithic Building Services in Jackson, New Hampshire. He is a member of the Guild's Board of Directors as well as the Treasurer, and has taught numerous compound joinery workshops, and has led many Guild projects.