Back in full swing after a bit of a break

After a long break, due to a dose of man-flue, a Holyday and Joshua's 21st birthday party, I'm finally back to working on the barn. My head is getting better with the measurements again too. Only had to measure tree times to get the lenght of this beam right. 

I love making big joins. This one is connecting the two wall plates of the main roof and will also serve as upper wall plate for the lean to roof over the stage. 

Planing them by hand is a bit of a job but my stationary planer wouldn't handle beams that size. Plenty more to do tomorrow. Good work out thow. 

Cutting the Rafters

plaining the edges

cleaning the bark off

beveling the ends

Cutting The birds-mouth special branch style

And now the fun starts

After all that time getting the barn ready for the renovation it felt soooo good today to get cracking with the actual timber work. I had enough of emptying the place, moving all the stuff out and finding sensible places where to store what. Even all the foundation work didn't feel like getting any closer to what we set out to do. But now we broke the ice. It has seriously started. I am really enjoying the timber work. Especially the finishing touches to each beam with the hand tools, like cleaning off the bark or plaining sawn surfaces nice and clean. I hope we can keep up the standard. 

Some joins needed re tightening after all that lifting

Pulling the join together with a tractor driven hydraulic ram