2007 Eastern Conference

Pre-Conference Workshops:
October 18, 2007

These workshops are an opportunity to hone your skills in an all-day intensive session with a small group of participants and expert instructors.

A separate registration fee is required. Tuition for all pre-Conference workshops is $145 US for members and $175 for non-members, and includes lunch and breaks. Note that the Main Conference fee is not included with pre-Conference tuitions. Workshops begin at 8:30 AM

Stacking and fitting logs together appears to be pretty straightforward when you know all of the tricks. There have got to be tricks, right? Building with logs has been left for us guys who resist working with straight edges, or simply have deference to milling off perfectly sound wood on a log to make a timber.

Treen Joinery makes fitted logs appear to grow out of each other in a seamless joint. It is a combination of old world lofting techniques, coupled with some "straight"-forward scribing and slicing of natural log forms, respecting and preserving those cheeky round bits that tend to get shaved off while working with timbers. Mitered log joinery, along with demonstrations of other nifty jigs and logbuilding tricks, will be presented by Pat Clark, a log building veteran who is always seeking sneaky ways of making logwork look so darn easy. The mirror, in fact, is used to confirm the surprise on your face when timber framers see just how simple working with logs can be! As the saying goes: "Be there or . . ."

The first part of this course is a math and geometric refresher on the property of a cone. We will spend a couple hours demonstrating how to lay out the real roof surface of a cone, and how to find different intersections between a cone and a straight roof. This will get us familiar with how to lay out any curved structure.

The basic goal of any curved compound layout is to draw plumb and level lines intersecting each other. However, sometimes it is tough to see which plumb line or level line should be used. Once the basics are understood, then the fun can start. On the roof shown below, we will study how to lay out and cut the hip and valley rafters. The common rafters are all arcs of a circle with a given center point.

In order to realize such a hip or valley, we can either start from a rectangular piece of wood and cut out the shape we need or glue-laminate the wood so we already have the curve in the plan view direction. We will work with the first option.

We then have two different stages in our work. The first is to lay out and cut the plumb side of our hip and valley rafters. The second will be to lay out and cut the backing cut. Those two operations have to be done before cutting any wood.

In addition to that, we will also see how to back cut the bottom of the hip and valley rafter so they are in the same plan as the common rafters. That will allow you to put ceiling boards in place if needed.

We will not spend any time on cutting the actual hip and valley. I will bring some uncut but laid-out hip and valley pieces as well as a finish model of the project.

The jack rafters will be housed in the hip or valley rafters and this will be the last part of the class.

This course will help people understand any curved compound roof system applying the basics of plumb and level lines and planes. In order to succeed in such a layout, each step needs to be rigorously analyzed and executed.

About the Instructor

Bruno Sutter is currently at the American College of the Building Arts in Charleston, SC as Professor of Timber Framing; he also teaches in the College Continuing Education program. For the last two years of his ten-year tour with the Association Ouvrière des Compagnons du Devoir du Tour de France, he taught timber framing to journeymen timber framers and worked extensively on diverse and unique residential and commercial projects in France, Belgium, Luxembourg and throughout the United States.

He spent one year working with the prestigious Bensonwood in Walpole, New Hampshire. Throughout his career, Bruno has focused on laying out, cutting, framing and raising numerous projects, both residential and industrial, including several roof systems in Le Mans, France that incorporated over 75,000 board feet of lumber each. He is experienced in all aspects of timber frame planning, design and construction including glue laminated structures, staircases, renovation and conservation. Bruno is an active member of the Timber Framers Guild and currently owns a consulting, design and engineering business in France where he utilizes a Timber Frame CAD program (Cadwork) to design wooden structures.

During the first half of the workshop, gain hands-on experience and the knowledge needed to create walls, floors and ceilings using chipped hemp stalks, or other suitable aggregate, and lime binder. Learn from Gabriel Gauthier how to build the forms used to hold the mix that creates this natural, energy efficient, enclosure system.

Lime finishes for both interior and exterior use will be the focus of the second half of the workshop. Students will be able to keep their samples and, with recipes in hand, they can return home to build their own projects.

About the Instructor

During the past nine years, Gabriel Gauthier, has built many hemp homes. While working for Canosmose in France between 1998-2000, he learned the technique Artcan uses today to build and renovate using hemp and lime insulation. Soon, hemp panels will be available for quick, natural projects. Currently, he is also the president of Archibio, an organization that promotes ecological design for construction.

The Symposium brings together the latest research and the brightest minds in the timber frame design world. It is directed to structural engineers who design and engineer timber frame structures. Registrants should note that this is an advanced workshop designed for those actively involved in and knowledgeable about the design and engineering of timber framed structures.

The Symposium will include talks on diverse topics:

• Introduction & TFEC Update — Jim DeStefano
• Gambrel Roofs — Tom Nehil
• SIP Engineering — Jim DeStefano
• Business Practices & Professional Issues — Jim DeStefano
• Log Structures — Jennifer Anthony
• Non-Traditional Lateral Load Systems — Paul Laudenschlager
• Timberlinx™ Research — Dick Schmidt
• Eccentric Truss Connections — Ben Brungraber

About the Instructors

Jim DeStefano is the Senior Partner in the structural engineering firm DeStefano Associates in Fairfield, CT.

Tom Nehil is principal of Nihil-Sivak Consulting Structural Engineers in Kalamazoo, MI, a general practice engineering firm with a special interest in timber framing and barn preservation.

Jennifer Anthony is the founder of Fearless Engineers PLLC, a Missoula, Montana firm specializing in log and timber frame engineering.

Paul Laudenschlager, P.E., is owner of Alpen Engineering in Truckee, CA, a civil and structural engineering firm specializing in traditional timber framing, straw bale buildings, log structures and green building.

Dick Schmidt is the Associate Dean in the College of Engineering at the University of Wyoming.

Ben Brungraber was senior engineer at Bensonwood for 20 years and is now partner in Firetower Engineered Timber in Keene, NH.

Google Sketchup™ is a CAD program available free from Google, and is very well suited for modeling timber frame designs in 3D. It is also flexible and accurate enough to use for joinery design and creating shop drawings directly from your whole-frame models! Using custom extensions designed specifically for timber framers (by the presenter), you can create timber frame models that can be used to automatically generate precise shop drawings. In this workshop, you will learn the basics of using Sketchup to create simple models of timber frame designs. You will also learn how to use existing timber and joinery component libraries to create detailed timber frame models that include joinery, and how to generate shop drawings from them. Additionally, you will learn how to create you own joinery models to use in this system, and build your own joinery component library. This is a hands-on workshop, where the participants will follow along on their own computers. Participants should come with a laptop computer with the latest free version of Sketchup loaded, and a mouse with a wheel. Details will be sent upon receipt of your registration.

The target audience consists of timber framing professionals who are responsible for timber frame design, joinery design, and creating shop drawings. The presentation will be of particular interest to those who currently draw shop drawings by hand, or use a drawing program that is not integrated with their whole-frame design program.

Presentation Outcomes:

• Participants will learn how to customize Sketchup for timber framing.
• Participants will learn how to use existing timber and joinery component libraries to create timber frame models that can be used to create precise shop drawings.
• Participants will learn how to create their own joinery models to use in this system, and how to build their own timber and joinery component libraries.

Presentation Overview:

• Teaser Example. The presentation will open with a demonstration: the creation of a set complex shop drawings from an existing model, to show how easy it is if you've laid the proper groundwork beforehand.
• We will then learn the basics of Sketchup while building a simple timber frame model from scratch. This model will not include joinery, but will be suitable for getting feedback on the design from the client.
• We will then discuss how to customize Sketchup for timber framing using Ruby plugins (developed by the instructor). Each student will install them on his/her computer.
• Finally, we will go through a detailed example of how to create a timber frame model that can be used for creating shop drawings. The following broad points will be covered:
• Timber Component Libraries. Discuss and demonstrate the use of component libraries to quickly assemble a frame from pre-defined timber components.
• Joinery Creation. I will discuss and demonstrate how to create new joinery components for expanding the joinery library.
• Joinery Libraries. Discuss and demonstrate how to create new timber components using pre-defined joinery components, which are used to expand the timber component library.
• Joinery Creation. Discuss and demonstrate how to create new joinery components for expanding the joinery library.
• Shop Drawings. Discuss and demonstrate how to create precise, four-sided shop drawings automatically. We will then polish them off with dimensions, and shop notes.
• Participants will leave the seminar with a list of resources, including:
• Where to find general tutorials for using Sketchup
• Where to get more timber frame ruby scripts
• Where to get joinery and timber libraries
• Where to share their timber and joinery components with the rest of us

To view the workshop outline, click here.

About the Instructor

Clark Bremer is the owner of Northern Lights Timber Framing in Minneapolis. He also teaches timber framing at North House Folk School, in Grand Marais, MN. His former career was as a computer designer and researcher for Bell Labs. He enjoys inventing new tools for timber framing, both hardware and software.