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New Smithy Plan


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  • 1 month later...

Guess it's time for a little update.  The shop construction is slowly moving along, I expect to make some decent progress next month.  I've got everything but the windows, metal roofing, and strap hinges now.

 

Two weeks ago I had a friend come out with his portable saw mill to cut up my logs.  We ended up getting all the required wood to build the shop, plus alot more, out of the single Poplar tree that had fallen behind our house.  I originally thought it was white Oak, so I was happy when I found out that it was actually Poplar.  We decided to make beams & slabs out of the Red Oak for future projects.

 

We squared up two Red Cedar trees for the front porch posts.  I am following the advice in this thread from others and pouring concrete footers for those two, since they are not pressure treated.  I have two 6"x6" Titan post anchors on the way for fastening the posts to the concrete footers, the anchor plates will raise the Cedar up an inch off the concrete.  I'm still coating the bottom of the two timbers with Copper Green just to be double safe.

 

I changed up the design a little, I am using 2"x6" Poplar to build scissor trusses now for the roof.  I will be building them with 3/16" thich steel sandwich plates & 3/8" bolts.  I'm also using Cedar shakes left over from our house construction to cover the upper gabled ends of the shop.

 

 

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CandleFab8-28-12-Model_zpsb13eac1a.jpg

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I like the new front design, but I think you'll rip your hair out with the cedar shakes, trying to fit them in between the timbers.

 

I'm not quite sure how you plan to build that front wall. 2x6 might not be the way to go on the end walls. Without really thinking on it much, my 1st thought would be that thicker members might have been a better choice. That way the beams take up the entire wall thickness plus still extend on the front. The way it's drawn, I see the truss sort of stuck on the outside with a frame wall behind it to hold the shingles. Certainly serviceable, but you sort of loose the charm of a timber building with a "cheat" like that. I'm reading that front view as the front wall itself. If the truss is forward of the front wall and there is no truss showing, that's a bit different, and it would radically change the look I'm seeing.

 

 

I'm also guessing the iron work shown is simplified for the drawing. I'd be doing a nice branch type forged plate for each connection to again display your skill.

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The end gables will have plywood covering them, then the cedar shake panels will be nailed to the plywood.  The exposed scissor truss on the front will be supporting the 6' roof overhang on the front. 

 

There's four scissor trusses inside the building, one on each end and then two inbetween equally spaced.  Then there's going to be one exterior of the building that supports the front roof overhang.

 

It's kind of misleading, but what I'm showing is the exposed exterior truss out front and the cedar shakes and door plane is 6' behind that, if that makes any sense.  The two vertical posts shown in front will be my squared up Cedar timbers.

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Managed to find some time yesterday afternoon to get the bark stripped off the Cedar front porch posts and also poured the footers for them. 

 

Used 5,000 psi concrete w/ rebar for the footers.  I will be attaching the Titan post supports to the Cedar posts and also to the concrete.

 

 

footers_zpscc0abb80.jpg

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  • 4 weeks later...

Made a little progress on Saturday. 

 

Got the mounting plates installed on the Cedar posts for the front porch overhang and also got the top band installed.

 

I've cleaned up all the metal truss tie plates so the next step is to build the scissor trusses.

 

 

FrontPorchPosts_zps5b577c17.jpg

 

 

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Looks nice, but I have a few questions. Joints look weak with only one fastener in each piece of wood. Top plate looks like the top fastener even falls right in the joint. Are you using glue as well as the bolts, or did you mortice and tenon the joints and then add the reinforcing plates?

 

 

When I build butted trusses ( trusses where the members just but up against one another) I always go over kill and use plywood gussets with plenty of construction adhesive and nails/screws to hold the gussets in place until the glue sets. If I use steel truss plates, they almost always have multiple fasteners in each member. I know factory trusses with the truss plates rely on multiple points of the truss plates to transfer loads. ( personally I don't really like them. the trusses don't take much abuse to knock the plates loose) Mortised trusses are different when used in timber framing. There the joints take almost all the loads. In theory a "hinged" truss design works. However there's a lot of other factors that have to be accounted for to make them work in real life.

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Nope, just 3/16" plates on each side and Grade 5, 3/8" dia. bolts.  I was also planning on toenailing 3" ring shank nails in at the joints for some additional fasteners.

 

And yes, the top bolt was a screw up on my behalf while designing.

 

Remember, we get basically zero snow/ice and this is a 12'x14' pole barn with 4-1/2 ft. truss spacing. 

 

The trusses on each end will be entirely covered with 1/2" plywood on the outside to accept the Cedar shake shingles, so they will be much stronger than they are now.

 

They are extremely rigid as they are, with no flex at all.  For a larger building I would definitely agree that they would need to be pegged, but for this particular application I feel as though they are way overkill.  If the two middle trusses do not feel sturdy enough I will go back and add stiffeners as you have suggested.

 

This building will have no attic and if I add an overhead metal rack it will be supported from the 2"x12" top band.

 

The trusses are a true 2"x6" and will be nailed and thru-bolted to the 6"x6" vertical poles and then have true 2"x4" purlins every two ft. spaced up the trusses, so when everything is tied together is should be very solid?

 

 

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You do gain some clamping strength from using the two plates with the bolts tightened up. In your application it's probably fine with no real heavy snow loads. That plus the rigid end walls will probably take care of you no problem since it's not that big of a building. Toe nails don't add a ton of strength as usually they pull out of the wood pretty easy, but every little bit helps.

 

 

I think visually they look great.

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You do gain some clamping strength from using the two plates with the bolts tightened up. In your application it's probably fine with no real heavy snow loads. That plus the rigid end walls will probably take care of you no problem since it's not that big of a building. Toe nails don't add a ton of strength as usually they pull out of the wood pretty easy, but every little bit helps.

 

 

I think visually they look great.

I could always drill some additional holes through the plates and hammer in ring shanked nails or add lag bolts if the single bolts are a real concern?  Maybe add some 1/4" x 2" lag bolts to each plate?

 

Oh yeah, and thanks for the input, I really do appreciate it - I'm out of my area of expertise when it comes to building things with wood.......I'd feel much better welding a bunch of metal together :D .
 

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I don't think you'll have any problems with the truss design as is.  While that would be super substandard for a larger building where the spans are longer, dealing with wind and snow, etc.... it's overkill for a building as small as yours.  In order for the truss to fail, there has to be movement between the parts that allows for the cells of the wood to become crushed.  Because you've locked the wood in place, basically building a big vise to pin it down, the wood's supported all around the bolt's through-hole.  No movement, no crushing of the wood fibers, no loss of strength.  Once tied all together with the top plates and plywood sheathing, it's going to be a very solid building.  

 

In my neck of the woods, we call that hellforstout construction on what's basically a garden shed.  If it does go somewhere, you've likely got bigger problems to worry about.

 

The one thing I would recommend.....  You really need to come up with a good story to cover that top-most bolt running through the seam.  Folks are going to notice that oops and ask about it, so be sure to come up with something good.  Maybe a chinese fung schwey expert recommended it to "secure good fortune in the building".  :D

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  • 2 weeks later...

Got 4 of the five trusses set this weekend.

 

Next step is to set the cedar front porch posts and then the final truss.

 

There were two 225+ lb guys climbing all over the trusses and it didn't even phase them, they are extremely rigid.  And that was with only one side of purlins installed and the through bolts also haven't been installed yet. 

 

 

shop20trusses_zpsa3bb7aa1.jpg

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Got the final truss set yesterday for the front porch.

 

Can't really see it in this picture, but since the porch truss will be the least supported I welded up the center bolt holes in the top plate (that were in the joint) and added two back, one on each framing member at the top.

 

 

porch20truss_zps09b2b540.jpg

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Thanks guys.

 

The roof trusses are about 9-1/2' clear at the posts and right at 11-1/2' clear in the center.  The peak of the roof is a little over 15' high.

 

Got started on the siding today, it's starting to look like something now :).

 

 

 

siding_zps5b3a6423.jpg

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