2004 Eastern Conference

Pre-Conference Workshops

Prior to Main Event that begins on Friday, we will host three pre-Conference workshops on Thursday, October 28th. This is an opportunity to hone your skills in an all-day intensive session with a small group of participants and expert instructors.

Separate registration fee required. Workshops begin at 8:30 AM. Note that the Main Conference fee is not included with Pre-Conference tuitions.

Workshop #1: How Buildings Work with Mark Abraham

The How Buildings Work Training series was developed in response to construction consumers' demands for greater durability, efficiency and performance security in new and existing buildings.

The environment, along with health and safety, is rapidly assuming critical importance as a factor in construction related industries. Building architects, engineers, contractors, renovators, laborers, owners and occupants must become more attuned to emerging technologies. The interactions between all of the building's systems and subsystems must be understood to provide durable, safe and efficient structures.

Building Science, Energy efficient Housing, Healthy Homes and Building Assessments are the four courses available in the How Buildings Work Training Series. During this Pre-Conference Workshop, Mark Abraham will focus on Building Science.

Building Science is the study of how our buildings comply with the Laws of Physics. Builders need to know the principles that allow us to build safe, efficient, sustainable structures. Workshop participants will have the opportunity to learn that a home is an interrelated system and understand the effects of external environments, mechanical systems, building envelopes, and occupants on heat, air and moisture flows. Understanding the factors which govern relative humidity will provide the means to control the surface related moisture problems of mold, mildew and condensation. The mechanisms governing the movement of moisture must be understood to control moisture levels and moisture movement in buildings.

The Workshop Booklet will provide detailed information on the House as a System, Mold, Mildew and Condensation, Moisture Movement and Wetting/Drying of Building Assemblies.

Workshop fee: $100 Guild members, $125 non-members.

Workshop #2: International Timber Framing Workshop

In recent years we have been fortunate to have fellow timber framers from overseas visit us at our Conferences and share their traditions and knowledge. At Seven Springs international crews will work together for the first time alongside North American timber framers in the inaugural International Timber Frame Workshop. We are inviting timber framers from Germany, France and Japan to lead a special event where they will design, plan and execute small timber framing projects. Crew leaders representing France include Boris Noël and Emmanuel Jego, Ryosei Kaneko and James Wiester will demonstrate Japanese techniques, and Filippo Campagna and Chris Koehn will represent Germany.

Those attending the pre-Conference portion of the workshop on Thursday (separate registration fee required) will hear the international crews share the methods they use to approach and lay out projects; this will include techniques such as the use of the sashigane (Japanese framing square), how French carpenters create hip rafters and how German carpenters develop compound joinery solutions. Each crew will have 2-3 hours to present and this will become a unique opportunity for our international guests to learn from and collaborate with each other as well demonstrating for those in the workshop.

Workshop participants will then have the opportunity (though not required) to work alongside the crews as they demonstrate their techniques during the main body of the Conference. The International Timber Frame Workshop will combine with the Children's Discovery Workshop in various ways on Friday and Saturday to both produce children's structures and give the kids a chance as well to work alongside the timber frame craftsmen from other countries and North America. Thus it will become a cross-cultural as well as an inter-generational event, and should prove to be quite inspiring. Gary Norton of the Timber Shop has signed on as a sponsor by providing timber for the events at no charge. Projects will have a children's theme (timber framed playhouse, swing set, puzzles) but will include some subtly complex carpentry layout and cutting problems, such as compound joinery and under-squinted dovetails.

Only those who have attended the Thursday pre-Conference Workshop will be able to assist the demonstrators on Friday and Saturday.

Workshop fee: $150 Guild members, $175 non-members.

Workshop #3: Compound Roof Practicum with Curtis Milton

It is the goal of this short workshop to allow the working carpenter and timber framer comfortable access to the wacky world of compound roof work. Basic roof math and experience will be critical for the student to keep the pace of this exercise. The focus will be on extracting as much information as possible from the working drawings without the aid of stick drawings for the complex pieces. The joinery aspect of this topic beyond the simple housing is best explored over a longer period of time.

Outline

1. Vocabulary (rise, run, pitch, slope, hip, valley, common rafter, height above plate, plumb cut, level cut, and so forth)
2. Basic Mathematics, Pythagoras
3. Trig
4. Ratios and the kernel, make basic drawing and solve for ratios.
5. Plan of attack: protocol and process for roof layout.

• What are we provided in the plan view drawings?
• What else do we need to know to calculate lengths and angles?
• Ratios for the roof, angles for the roof
• Common rafter length, OH and layout?
• Upper plate height given equal HAP (obholz) at both plates?
• Upper rafter length, OH and layout?
• Hip rafter length, OH, fascia cut and layout?
• Jack rafter length, OH and layout?
• Jack mortise locations on hip, dimensions shape and layout
• Dragon tie length and layout
• Dragon post length and layout
• Dragon post mortise and layout
• Upper corner post mortise, hip joint and layout
• Hip foot joint, plate joint
• Practical techniques and error compensations

Workshop fee: $125 Guild members, $150 non-members.