Putting up the Smithy, fire up the forge

[ofafeather]

Hi, All. My wife and I decided to put up a smallish lean-to to house the smithy for the moment. The footprint is about 11' x 7' with a 12' x 8' roof. It will start with just being the roof and posts and eventually will close in on at least 2 sides, maybe three; the back and left side, which faces the wind. The front is 11" wide by 8' tall, sloping down to about 6' high in the back. We have the posts up and set and need to put the rafters up. We'll have a metal roof which well get sometime this week or the beginning of next. Today is a beautiful day in the north east US and I'm hoping to get the rafters up when I get home from work. Light goes fast though this time of year. The building is designed to be able to be either expanded or abandoned to become a wood shed should a better smithy building be warranted.

Now comes the dilemma. Our forge is supposed to arrive today! If I work on the building I probably wont' have time to test fire it. If I take the time to test fire it I may not get to work on the building while the good weather lasts. :confused:

Oh well, having the forge will be good motivation to get the shelter done! Everyone should have such problems. :)

Edited November 9, 2009 by ofafeather

[Wolf's Den Armoury]

Congrats!

Your smithy sounds like the one I'm planning. Almost exactly the same size, same height and dimensions roof, etc. We're using two existing stockade fence as one side wall and the back wall. Adding a small section of stockade for a third wall and a couple of small sections in front.

Be sure to post pics when it's finished (or progress pics would be better)!

Good Luck!

David

[ofafeather]

Thanks, David. Will certainly post some pics. We took a bunch. Got one rafter laid out, notched and cut and laid out the other 6. Hope to cut them today after work. Our forge (Chile Tabasco propane forge) arrived last night. We took it out of the box and started getting it ready to go. Lots of packing material. Can't wait to fire it up. Maybe Friday. Sigh.

[ThomasPowers]

Roof FIRST you can always string a flood light out there and forge after dark...

[Rob Browne]

Get that cover up. I haven't fired up for nearly a month now as I have been trying to get my lean to built before the heat of summer forces me indoors.

[ofafeather]

Getting there. Got all of the rafters notched. Hopefully can get at least some of them up tomorrow.

[ofafeather]

Here are some pics. Picasa Web Albums - Scootinov - Smithy Sorry I took so long getting them up. Basically we used the rafters and headers to lay out our shed on the ground. My wife (wonderful wife that she is) dug the 5 post holes while I cut the notches on the posts for the headers. We used 4 x 4 pt posts. 2 10' in the front and 3 8' in the back. That brings us to about 8' height in the front and 6' in the back. We line the holes with gravel, about 6" on the bottom and tamped it down. We leveled the posts and set them with gravel, not wanting to use cement. We installed the cross pieces which are 2" x 6" x 12'. Then we installed corner braces in the front. These I made from 4 x 4 material and did a mitered lap where it meets the header. Then I laid out and notched the rafters. I decided to add a small over hang so I used metal ties to attach the overhang rafters to the main rafters. I also used rafter ties to attach the rafters to the headers, 24" on center. I used 2" x 6" x 8' for the rafters. Tonight I just finished laying the furring strips on the main section of roof. I need to get more for the over hang. We're waiting for our red metal roof to come in, too, so we're on hold for a bit.

[chyancarrek]

Great start! Nice setting too - Can't wait to see it with the glow of the forge lighting it up.

It's about the same size as what I started with - I kept adding "Franken-rooms" as I needed more space.

Keep us posted as to how it's going!

[ofafeather]

Some of our roofing material (the main panels) came in yesterday. Hope to get it installed tomorrow