Cypress timber frame cabin build part 1

I like to use traditional joinery methods in the construction of the small timber frames that I build. Utilising the English tying joint, which has been in use since at least the 17th century, to allow the connection of the top plates and tie beams all to happen in one corner. It relies on 2 mortise and tenons on a Jowl post along with a dovetailed lap joint. Its a shame such a beautiful piece of joinery can’t be seen once its all put together!

Timber framing has always been a fascination of mine since I was a child. It shows off the intricacy of furniture making, in regards to cutting tight joinery, but on a much larger scale. I am constantly inspired by the work I see other more advanced timber framers doing and I try and push myself further into it every time I get the chance to build something like this. Its really one of the most enjoyable types of work I do.

In part 2 there will be a large decking structure heading out into the woods and also verandas coming of each side of the roof.

An opportunity came up to salvage a trailer load of good quality cypress logs from a woodland renaturalisation project happening in Heathfield and undertaken by my colleague and good friend Harry Aspinall (www.arvoresarb.com) . All the trees had grown up in a forest setting so were clear of large knots low down in the stems and had at least 6m of straight timber. We saved the best of the logs from the biomass pile.

At the same time I was organising a timber framing job in Plaistow for a client with a very environmentally orientated design specification. Most types of cypress are durable outdoors, strong and also quite attractive looking timbers. Its a shame that we have such an obsession with oak framing in the UK when there are many more options available to us that don’t have to be sent across from questionable sources in European countries. Of course Oak is a wonderful timber and this building will be laid out on a mixture of oak and sweet chestnut framework but all sourced within a 40 mile radius of the project.

The joints are held together with oak pegs. The holes in the tenons are slightly off set away from the shoulders of the tenons to allow the peg to pull it tighter into the joint. This means as the wood dries out the joint will remain tight.

6 concrete pads were put into the ground to allow the oak and sweet chestnut framework to be elevated slightly off the ground. I milled the oak from a tree removal job in forest row. The sweet chestnut came from some coppice in Lamberhurst. Both of these timbers are really durable due to their high tannin content and also very strong which is why I opted to use them for the base.

A lapped dovetail joint in the central truss/rafter tie.

London Plane Dining table

A couple of years ago I had the pleasure of getting to mill up a London plane tree in Roehampton. Its the only Plane I have ever milled and it was a real joy to uncover the grain inside of it, especially the ‘lacewood’ which can be seen most prominently on the quarter sawn faces of the wood. The Arb company I was milling the tree for were kind enough to let me keep a few of the boards and I have stacked and dried them for a couple of years.

I wanted to use them for a project of my own as they were such special looking planks. I needed a dining table and decided I wanted to use these boards for it. I only had about half of what I needed but fortunately I was contacted by the same company to mill an Oak tree for them and we worked out an agreement so I could get enough for my table.

I tested the moisture content in the middle of summer and they read around 15 percent which isn’t quite dry enough for interior use. I stored them in the roof of my garage for a month (a very dry and warm space) or so which got them down low enough to start on the project. Its important not to try and dry timber out too fast and even at 15% I had concerns about storing them somewhere so warm.

The first step was to plane and thickness the boards down to equal dimensions for the top. I tried a few different layouts before I was happy with the orientations and grain patterns. With such irregular grain patterns its pretty difficult to get them matched up.

I didn’t have any thick enough Plane to make the legs out of single pieces so I glued two boards together to make legs thick enough. In hindsight I should have spent more time on the legs and made them out of 4 pieces rather than 2 so the grain doesn’t contrast too much. I could have also bought thicker stock but I wanted to make it all out of the same wood. I chose to give them a 4 way taper to reduce the chunkiness of the table. To cut these I made a simple jig which is adjusted purely by how far the screw at the bottom is wound out. With a clean sharp blade and a slow feed it left very slight kerf marks which only took one pass over the planer to remove.

On The short rails/aprons I decided to use the domino connectors which allow for the frame to be taken apart and stored/ transported easier. Using these along side a normal domino gives a very strong joint.

I cut a bead into the bottom of the aprons to give it a subtle detail. The grain is quite striking on these and shows the importance of quartersawing . Not only is it usually the prettiest grain it also dries flatter and is more stable when dealing with seasonal movement. There are downsides to quartersawn timber for certain projects. It does have the tendency to split slightly easier if you nail/screw straight through it with no pilot hole.

For the longer aprons I used a haunched mortise and tenon joint which was then glued and pegged. The dowels where then cut with a flush cut saw and then pared down with a sharp chisel.

Using a haunch on this kind of joint is pretty important as it allows a full width tenon to prevent the rail cupping but reduces the amount of short grain at the top of the mortise.

The corners have a brace held in with pocket hole screws for extra strength.

To hold the frame to the top I made some table buttons. these are slightly offset so when the screw is tightened into the top it clamps the top down. It also has space to move in and out and side to side which allows for the top to expand and contract with the changing seasons whilst still retaining a tight connection. Because the top is made of quarter sawn timber the type of shrinkage you have to worry about is radial which can be up to 4%. Using flat sawn you have to worry about tangential which can be up to 8% expansion/shrinkage seasonally.. The overall length or longitudinal movement is very minimal at 0.01%.

I glued the boards together using Titebond II and Festool dominos. Once cured I started sanding with a belt sander with 120 grit before moving onto a random orbital sander with 120,180,240,320 grits before a gentle block sand with 400 grit paper

I usually use Osmo Polyx oil for finishing as its pretty reliable and i’ve mostly got good results with it. The top half is matt and the bottom half is satin. Personally i’m not hugely into really shiny wood but the matt finish was a bit too flat for the plane and I went for satin. I quite like the look of a matt finish on smaller wooden objects and on darker species of wood. I applied the oil very thinly with a foam brush, after 10 minutes I used my orbital sander with a fine cloth attached to the bottom of it to polish out any brush marks. I’ve not tried this before and it worked surprisingly well. After drying for another day I rubbed the top down lightly with 400 grit mirka sandpaper to remove any dust lumps and then applied a second coat in the same way.

Finished.

Large Deodar Cedar milling

Milled up a large Deodar Cedar in Tunbridge Wells. its really beautiful timber and can be used outdoors or indoors. Traditionally it was used to line boxes, drawers and cupboards because it has a lovely fragrant aroma that lasts a long time compared to other timber fragrances . I cut some wide boards for furniture as well as narrow planks for some fencing.

Stable renovation with Western Red Cedar

Earlier this year I worked on a tree job with my friend Alex from http://www.forestryandfencing.com

He was asked to removed a huge Western Red Cedar from a clients garden and we discussed the idea of milling the stems to provide some timber that could be used around the house and garden. WRC is a naturally durable timber which means it doesn’t need any chemical treatments in order to be used outside. It is also a very beautiful looking timber and is the most stable softwood which lends itself to construction use as seasonally it moves very little. It smells great which is another perk!

Between us we decided that the best use for the timber was to renovate an old horse stable that they had been using to store various things in. the old stud work and cladding were pretty far gone in terms of rot so we carefully dismantled the sides of the barn and used props to keep the roof held up.

WRC is one of my favourite timbers to use for external building work. it cuts and takes fixings very well without the need to do a pilot hole for the screws - even close to the ends of the boards where you would usually get split out. I opted for the use of stainless steel screws and black coated fixings to maximise weather durability.

All the timber used to build this was milled with my portable Lucas mill which was perfect for cutting the dimensions needed for a job like this.