New project, OT- new pics daily

[GunnyMack]

Started a new barn today. This is 24x30.
These post & beam pine barns are fun to put together! The kit comes complete from sill plates to coupela, no saws needed just elbow grease and a hammer!

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[Bronco]

That's kewl! How many have you built?

[GunnyMack]

This is the second I have been a part of. The guys I work with have done 7 or 8 in the past.

[jeepnik]

I've looked at those log cabin kits. Not all that different than the one my dad and uncle built in the early 50's. I started as a single room. Well, two if you counted a very small bath. My uncle was a wood worker who could and did everything from framing to very fine furniture. And dad could take instructions from his baby brother. So, they knocked it out pretty fast. It was improved and enlarged over the years.

[.45colt]

Well Gunny , that looks like a tinker toy compared to the last one You posted here. I hope it all works out as well, .

[Bill in Oregon]

Oh, heck. I'll watch. Trouble is I want to live in these structures ...

[GunnyMack]

45colt, yes this is half the size of the last one.

Bill, this one you could easily live in- insulated between the siding layers. Though no plumbing is being run that I know of...

Wait till fall when we start another post & beam house!

[GunnyMack]

I forgot to take a picture yesterday.
We just started setting floor joists.

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[GunnyMack]

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[piller]

That wood did not come from Home Depot. It is straight grained. Even with the former CEO, who had publicly declared she would destroy Home Depot, gone and now running UPS, home Depot is still selling wood that is useless.

[GunnyMack]

All this comes from a couple of mills in CT and ME. Its all white pine( except for the rafters, DF) and cut for each kit.

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Here you can see an 8x8 post, 8x8 tie beam with angle brace that is attached with mortise & tennon and pegs.
These kits are very well engineered.

[jeepnik]

Maybe 'm just old and mis-remembering. But I grew up in a port town where ship loads of lumber from Oregon and Washington would come in. Once unloaded it was stacked on the docks while it awaited trains to haul it to the rest of the country. At night the smell of that "fresh" lumber would drift in my bedroom window. After a good rain, while the lumber dried the smell was that much more intense.

Today, lumber from heaven only knows where arrives in containers to be hauled by trucks to a rail yard for dispersal throughout the country. And the wood, no longer has the smell of wood. It smells like the chemicals they use to treat it. And the quality of the lumber is what would have been scrapped when I was a kid.

The other thing is that every bit of lumber is kiln dried these days. Now kiln drying isn't a terrible thing, if done correctly. Gently kiln drying well separated pieces of lumber does speed the process. Not as good as natural drying, but reasonably acceptable. However, except for wood that is of very good quality and used for things handcrafted wood products, the lumber is dried way too hot and results in faster drying. The problem is that wood often splits and warps when handled in this manner.

Oh, unless the wood is for something not intended to last, buy it from a lumber yard, not Home Depot. Big box stores buy the cheapest of the cheap lumber and price it like it were gold.