2001 Texas Workshop

Texas Inland Fisheries Center Pavilion Workshop
March 6, 2001
Athens, Texas

We had another beautiful dawn here this morning. We have a high thin cloud cover today that may be the harbinger of predicted rains on Thursday and Friday. The possibility of inclement weather has caused us to rearrange our schedule a little but we have enough space undercover that even rain should not halt production.

Last evening most of us enjoyed a nice dinner at a local Mexican food restaurant. All present were very please with the progress made on Monday. This morning the pile of finished timbers is steadily growing and the second round of layout is we ll in hand. Everybody seems wide awake and energetic. I’m guessing this is due to the high octane coffee and sugar donuts at hand. If we all crash at 10:00 we’ll know why.

Dave Dauerty observed this morning that teaching new folks timber framing is like a bacterial infection—it just keeps spreading. A testament to the fine teaching done by the instructors is the fact that most of the teaching is being done s tudent to student already. Newly learned techniques are being shared, evaluated and attempted all around. More than one instructor has observed to me that teaching a class such as this reminds us of why we’ve chosen to be timber framers. This is a fascinating and enjoyable avocation.

It’s now early afternoon and the pile of completed timbers continues to rise. The main posts are all completed. The bay connectors are finished as well. The main chords for the four queen post trusses are being laid out as are all the Queen posts. By the end of the day they should be completed.

After much consideration we have decided to drop the idea of raising the entire roof as a unit. Equipment heavy enough to do it is not available. The rains have thrown so many construction projects behind schedule that getting a 50 ton crane for Saturday is not an option. They are all scheduled to be elsewhere as everyone is playing catch up while the weather cooperates. We have located a 35 ton unit but this is just not stout enough to do the lift with acceptable safety margins. So we’ve scaled back to assembling the entire middle bay roof system on the ground and lifting it as a unit. We’ll then raise both end trusses independently and fly the remaining purlins in singly.