2010 Western Conference

Pre-Conference Workshops:
April 22, 2010

These workshops are an opportunity to hone your skills in an all-day intensive session with a small group of participants and expert instructors. Participants will receive 7 Continuing Education Credits for successful completion of Workshops 1, 2, 3 and 4.

A separate registration fee is required and does not include the main conference registration. The fee for Workshops #1, 2, 3, and 4 includes lunch and breaks. Tuition fees vary for all pre-conference workshops.

Workshops begin at 8:30 AM, except for the Business Boot Camp, which begins at 9:00 AM, on the day prior to the opening of the main conference. The new Plaster Clay Workshop begins at 8:00 AM and will be held in nearby Rathdrum, Idaho .

While there are many valuable books on barns, few are written by carpenters, or much less present the invaluable perspective of the traditional builder. This workshop provides the carpenter's point of view using examples from twenty-two barn restorations in the Upper Midwest.

Rick will address many common concerns, including the following:

• How much damage is too much damage? (Short answer: 30%)
• Which types of barns are least/most challenging to restore?
• What can I do to restore a barn? Topics include:
• free tenon repairs to replace rotted tenons
• shear plate and strap installation to restore tension to spreading tie beams in situ
• using deadmen and rigging to straighten racked buildings
• modular or panelization dismantling methods
• moving barns intact on dollies
• traditional scarf joints

In addition to these technical aspects of restoration, Rick will discuss the importance of understanding traditional building geometry and methods when restoring barns. All in all, this two-part presentation will be a whirlwind tour of some of the many historic barns Trillium Dell Timberworks has had the honor to preserve in its 14-year history.

The presentation will provide specific "how-to" information to help builders and homeowners approach their own barn restoration, and leave many with a new appreciation for the historic and technical aspects of traditional barn building. It will allow audience members of all backgrounds to walk in the footsteps of the traditional carpenter from the comfort of their own chair.

About the Instructor

Rick Collins is past Guild President and co-owner and founder of Trillium Dell Timberworks in Knoxville, Illinois. He has led a number of recent Guild projects involving historic structures.

We will make a five-step intermediate set of Dou Gong brackets with a single "Ang" and a single "Qiao." This bracket set will be composed of more than 40 parts. The process will have four steps:

1. Teach the basic structure of a bracket set, and the measurements, proportion and joinery for the individual components.
2. Measure and layout the individual components
3. Separate into three groups and produce the components.
4. Assemble the whole bracket set.

About the Instructor

Mr. Ma is currently Director of the Beijing Traditional Chinese Architectural Design and Research Institute and Vice Editor-in-Chief of the editorial committee of the journal Traditional Chinese Architecture and Gardens. Mr. Ma is concurrently professor of the Beijing Institute of Civil Engineering and Architecture, and a renowned expert on traditional Chinese architecture.

Are you IN?

• INvestigate your business model.
• INnovate and master how to stand out from the crowd.
• INvigorate yourself and your team, to reach your goals.

The Timber Frame Business Council is producing this event as an INteractive full day program. Participants will roll up their sleeves and learn how to use hard-hitting planning tools and how to increase your bottom line. Boot Camp instructors: Dr. Duke Kuehn, Pacific Northwest Consulting and Greg Stine, Polaris, Inc. along with a financial expert who will discuss succession plans, investment plans and answer your financial questions. Participants will:

• Review where their company currently stands
• Determine where you want your company to be in the near future
• Learn the steps to take to reach your goals

About the Instructors

Since 1983, Dr. Duke Koehn has worked with hundreds of businesses, associations, governmental and non-governmental organizations, mostly using strategic planning to focus their vision and strengthen their leadership. With more than 20 years of experience and expertise in marketing and business management, Greg Stine has focused his energy on helping organizations within the construction industry, in "green industries" and with companies working in B2B environments.

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, Minnesota. 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.

Click on the graphic to view a larger version.

American Clay Enterprises is offering a hands-on clay plaster pre-Conference workshop at GTS Interior Supply in nearby Rathdrum, Idaho, on Thursday, April 22nd. Attendees will have an opportunity to learn and practice techniques to achieve beautiful wall finishes. No previous plastering experience is necessary. This workshop requires a minimum of six participants (maximum of 12).

We will cover the basic application techniques from wall preparation through applying all the American Clay Earth Plasters, including the Venetian finishes associated with the American Clay Porcelina, various application techniques, and ways for achieving different finishes.

The workshop is 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM with a break for lunch. A map of nearby restaurants will be available, or bring your lunch. Directions to the workshop will be sent upon receipt of registration.

The cost of this workshop is $100 (a special rate for Conference attendees). Included in the tuition is an instruction manual. Participants completing this workshop will receive a certificate from American Clay Enterprises. Visit American Clay and get a preview at www.americanclay.com.