Timber frame barn.

Harvey Ramer

I'm working in a new timber frame barn today. It is built just like the 100 year old barn we had back on the farm. This was built by a local Amish crew. That's all they do and they stay busy. No wonder looking at the exemplorary craftsmanship.

flat_twin

Where are you to have "local" amish crews? I live near several small amish communities in central Ohio.
It would be fun to see them cut the joints and put it together. We found post and beam with wooden pins type construction in our 1840's home under the plaster and lathe while remodeling. The old beams are so hard you can't drive a nail without a pilot hole.

Harvey Ramer

I live in South central pa. About an hour from Lancaster, which is basically the Amish capital of the world.

It would be fun to watch!

hot_rod

Harvey Ramer said:

I live in South central pa. About an hour from Lancaster, which is basically the Amish capital of the world.



It would be fun to watch!

I visited an Amish timber frame shop near me. They build log and timber buildings.

Two work horses spun an old truck rear axle that was 1/2 buried in the ground. Where the drive shaft formerly connected was a truck transmission and flat pulley with a leather belt that spun a long shaft the length of their shop. Various tools could be driven by the shaft with leather belts, drills, saws planers, etc. Shifting gears would change the speed of the long shaft for different tools.

They did hire a welder to build a large over head positioner that could handle the logs or timbers and move them from station to station.

The youngest son had a BB gun to keep the horses spinning the rear axle.

Gordy

^was the young sons name Ishmael

Solid_Fuel_Man

We have a fairly large Amish settlement around here as well. One of the things they make is metal roofing. They have a crane in their shop with a Honda GX engine. They pull the cord to start it which is about 10' long and have several clutches which move it fore and aft and also run the winch for up amd dowm. The rolls of metal which get turned into roofing are 3,200 lbs if i remember correcrly. They also have a small diesel engine which runs a live shaft under the floor in a long trench to run all the various tools via leather belts or cogged rubber belts.

My favorite is their table saws..... Go find yourself a nice old belt driven table saw, remove electric motor and replace with small Honda engine. Now you have an off grid finger slicer! These guys have more Honda small engines than the dealer!

Paul48

When I was a teenager I worked as a roofer. We had a job on a 1700's farmhouse that required ripping the old roof. We were told there was 2 roofs, there was 7. It had never been ripped, from the day it was built. Once the boss re-negotiated the price, we ripped it down to the oak half-log rafters. You absolutely could not drive a nail into them. It became a competition for about an hour. We had some guys on the crew, with hooks that would rival Arnold, in his prime. We all had good laughs watching them "set it", "bend it". We finally conceded and pre-drilled every nail. The next guy that has to rip it, in 250 years, will have it easy.

hot_rod

Saw a bumper sticker yesterday,
Honk if you are Amish

Harvey Ramer

hot rod said:

The youngest son had a BB gun to keep the horses spinning the rear axle.

I'm guessing he liked his job. Lol Probably bagged a few squirrels and birds if they ventured to close.

Paul48

My dream home......Timber frame....S.I.P. wall and roof......Radiant.

Gordy

Paul48 said:

When I was a teenager I worked as a roofer. We had a job on a 1700's farmhouse that required ripping the old roof. We were told there was 2 roofs, there was 7. It had never been ripped, from the day it was built. Once the boss re-negotiated the price, we ripped it down to the oak half-log rafters. You absolutely could not drive a nail into them. It became a competition for about an hour. We had some guys on the crew, with hooks that would rival Arnold, in his prime. We all had good laughs watching them "set it", "bend it". We finally conceded and pre-drilled every nail. The next guy that has to rip it, in 250 years,


That's what old growth timber will give you.

BobC

My house is just about 100 years old, it was built by a neighbors dad back in the day. The framing is old growth hemlock that is about as malleable as cast iron, you are not going to drive a screw unless you predrill. I can remember going down to Duanes salvage yard to buy wood from old housed that were raised, you could buy old growth timbers for pennies on the dollar.

I had some work done last year and one thing I had done was the replacement of the back door. When they replaced the hinge screws to catch the old studs they were using 3" #8 hardened torx head screws and they were snapping off. I told them to predrill them first.

When the hurricane of '38 went up the Connecticut river valley it wiped out millions of board feet of old growth timber. The government came in and took all that wood and stockpiled it, they used it through most of WWII.

Bob