Small Green Oak Frame

this is a small oak frame I've been commissioned to build for a porch on a new house. 

All traditional mortise and tenon joinery. A mixture of hand and power tools have been used. 

The oak was quite twisted so I have to pick through the pieces to find the best ones for the truss.

Hopefully I should get this one pegged fairly soon and fitted! I could do with getting it away from my yard. It'll be sanded up before it's assembled.

Always heavy with oak but at least these pieces aren't too big!

10m Green Oak Conservatory

A larger than normal conservatory I'm sure you'll agree! 10m long using planned green oak, the majority of the frame was built in the workshop by the joiner and then we've erected it on site and cut the roof on.

 Trusses to support the purlins in the roof

 The hexagonal part of the frame - tricky to install!

 All the roof beams are exposed so we had to be accurate with our cuts otherwise they'd always show up. The valley wasn't even on a 45 degree angle so all the usual books and workings were no good to us!

 Another tricky detail dealing with the termination of the purlin into the valley. No detail provided by the architect so we had to make it up on site, we were quite pleased with the result

 The hips on the hexagonal section of roof proved to be tricky due to the angles.

But they look really good from underneath.

A really interesting project and not of a type we get to do very often. 

3 Simple Green Oak Frames

I had the job of making three oak frames this week. They were quite simple, two were simple sides and a top and the other frame had a middle upright in it. The timber I used was large though and the one was 6.250m long and 250mmx250mm, some quite heavy stuff!

 As the timber was so heavy this meant that I couldn't test any of the mortise and tenons so I had to make sure I knew they'd fit before we lifted them into place.

My stack to timber to work with

Cutting the tenons

Mortising the largest timber. The mortises were through mortises so I had to bore down from both sides.

My slightly damp work area

Adding the pins to the bottom of the oak to make sure it located properly on the concrete slab.

The first, smallest frame in.

Second frame

The third and largest frame. We lifted this in with straps and the 360 digger.

Considering I couldn't test the joints I was happy with the results.

Good tight joints are what I like to see.

Once we'd lifted all the frames into place I was quite relieved at how well they'd fitted! There is nothing worse when there is a group of you fitting your work if it doesn't go together well!

These beams will get sanded up and oiled before we're finished

Oak Frame Repair

A good few days work on this old oak frame repair, not very easy going as a lot of hand work to get it back to somewhere I could work from.

A large crack that had started to rot due to it being filled with concrete and the wood not being able to breath

Taking the bad wood back to good. I decided that as the upright would need two splices as well it was best to replace it at the same time.

Splicing in the top piece

Some of the bottom section chiselled out - this took a lot of work!

The completed repair

The bottom joint.
 I made the pegs on site as well.

A picture showing how heavily scribed the bottom piece is - I made a template first and then it fitted pretty easily (well for oak anyway)

The repair fits in nicely as the rest of the frame has had work done to it in the past. Once this greys with age you won't be able to tell when this repair was done.

Picture showing the whole frame

The customer seemed really please with the job and I've another repair to do on the frame lower down once the scaffold is dropped.

Large Oak Frame

In what must have been a moment of weakness I agreed to make a green oak frame this week for someone that needed it asap. The frame was to measure 5m by 4.3m in a H frame with mullions on the top section.

Some big bits of wood. 5 of these were over 5m long and and so heavy that I couldn't even roll them over on my own

Looking at the plan it didn't seem too bad, just lots of mortise and tenons to cut, but the job was made much harder by the size of the timber. Some of it was 200mmx300mm section and I couldn't even roll it over.
Luckily I had a large work area as by father had cleaned out the grain shed ready for harvest but hadn't started combining yet. Also I had a forklift to help move the timbers around, but it was still tricky to move them round on my own and it turned out to be a really hard weeks work with some late nights chucked in to get it finished on time.

The A4 plan I had to work off

A homemade hook to roll the beams on my own

The chain mortiser didn't come with a clamp big enough so I had to improvise

Lifting one of the smaller timbers

Checking a mortice and tenon fit

The only way to move these beams

Chiseling up a tenon

Chain mortiser makes it a little faster but they still need a lot of cleaning out

My only worry with this frame was the fact that there are 4 mortise and tenons I couldn't check to see if they fitted. This was because they were far to big for me to handle with the forklift to get them to line up (you'd need a crane). I checked them load so times so there should be no problems.
I also drilled out for the pegs in the mortise side of the timbers only, leaving the hole in the tenons to be drilled on site. This means that if there is any discrepancy with the building it's being fitted to then it can be altered slightly before they are drilled (as the building it's for is a couple of hundred miles away there is no way I can check it myself).

I'm sure carpenters have sat like this for hundreds of years whilst cleaning out mortises

This was a hard week, back breaking week, and I can really feel it this morning. But the frames finished and ready to be shipped to it's new home. Hopefully they'll send me a picture once its been erected. Lighter work next week please!

Green Oak Frame - Part 2

The frame is in and up.

Oak frame in position

I had quite a bit of work up in the loft space and ceiling first as I had to fix a metal bracket joining two purlins that used to touch each other, somewhere along the line they didn't and for the last few years a piece of 4x2 has been holding them together with about 4 nails in. With the removal of the wall it was essential to add something to make sure they were both going to be supported by the new oak frame. 

The view from the other side

The diagonal on the frame sits directly below the centre of the purlins and the whole frame is sitting on a steel beam in the floor. The frame itself is also fixed into the stone wall using a resin fixing and threaded bar. 

Kiln dried dowels are used

The frame was assembled using motice and tenons with dowels that were draw bored together. This means that the holes for the dowels are slightly off set so the joints are pulled together tightly when they are knocked in.

The pegs that we got were kiln dried, the idea being that they won't shrink when the rest of the green oak frame does and it holds it all tightly together. In reality the pegs were a little too dry and would split as soon as I started to knock them in, one peg had to come back out as the second knock with a hammer sent a split right down the centre of it, that doesn't make for a very fun assembly!

I think stopped chamfers really soften the look of the oak and make it look more finished

All the joints went together well, a couple I would have liked a little tighter but I know with green oak they are all liable to move anyway and I'm probably being far too fussy.

Since I took these photos I have removed the props and filled all the holes in the walls and ceiling that I needed for access, with a final sanding and a coat of oil I think the frame will make an interesting strutual feature in this bedroom and will be there for many years to come.

Green Oak Frame - Part 1

The last couple of days I've got to do some green oak framing. It's been quite a while since I've done any but I always enjoy it. Working with big chunky timbers cutting mortice and tenons just puts a smile on my face!

First mortice and tenon - good fit

The frame I'm making is to support two purlins that used to be supported by a dividing wall, with the wall gone the architect has decided that this oak frame would make a nice feature. To start with I made a full size template out of 10mm ply as none of the angles are square and it means I can cut everything ready and make sure it all fits before I have to lug the heavy timbers upstairs.

Chain morticer for me to play with!

The job was made easier by the loan of a chain morticer which made cutting the mortices a fairly quick process - just a bit of a tidy up with a mallet and chisel.

The start of the frame on top of the full size ply template I made

The angles on the frame made me glad I made a template as everything had to be checked quite a few times as with oak you don't want to be making any mistakes.

Tannic acid has made my tools blue my 778 has earnt it's money over the last couple of days

The frame so far - Just one piece left but thats too big to lay out on the template

By the end of today the frame is pretty much finished. I've still got to cut the top piece and mortice it out then sand all the beams down, add stop chamfers where they're wanted and drill out the pegs (draw-bore).



As well as this I need to add a steel to connect up the two purlins in the roof but this will involve the removal of quite a bit of ceiling and altering a few joists, quite a big job on its own.

All good fun though and I love when I go home and my tools are dark blue from working with green oak all day!