Days 2, 3 & 4

The distractions of Life and Construction plague me.  For the last three days the roofers have invaded my house and my time, along with a rainstorm that they watched from their truck.  They finished today, but still have to cleanup.    Though the interruptions, I have continued to test equipment and sort my workshop.  I also think have exceeded a dozen visits to the hardware in the past three days, getting fasteners for tripods and support systems, extension cords and other items.   I also finally got a chance to go visit the lumber mill.  It is finally coming into focus.

Wood Sheds at Saunders Supply in Suffolk Virginia

I had been given a point of contact by by builder, Rick Stageberg of Lakewood Builders for the folks at Saunders Supply Company in Suffolk http://www.saunderssupplycosuffolk.net/ , where they actually mill some or their own wood.  I was excited to find out they had rough cut 6x6s in stock, but needed to go look at them to see if I could handle the natural camber and twists of rough cut wood.  Unfortunately this design is not very tolerant of dimension problems and I do not have the ability to plane timbers to deal with irregularities.  After discussions with Sam and Hayden and looking at the materials, I decided to go with grade 1 6x6s which they had in stock.  The 16 foot timbers they sell are Grade 1, and initially untreated which was my preference so that I don't have to breath in chemicals as I notch the timbers.  I'll post treat the timbers with a sealer after the preparation, and since none of the main frame touches the ground I will only use treated timbers for the foundation supports.  The great news is that I finalized the first order while there and they will be delivered Monday or Tuesday along with the first draw of other lumber and plywood that is used to make the prototype panels, floor joists, shoring, and the lifting tripods. I've made the commitment and stroked the check. No turning back now. 

By the way, the design is resolving itself in interesting ways.  I had an "ah ha" moment yesterday as I finally realized that I could solve the panel design issues having to fit in different size height and width modules by utilizing an asymmetric design.  One that rotates the panel 90 degrees to fit alternate layout modules.  I realize that this makes no sense to you the reader, but trust me, it has been driving me crazy.  All will be revealed as I show the final design in later blogs.

Day 1

Today, May 7th was day one in my book.  Although I had the day off on Friday, it started at the dentist's office, and continued with the unpacking and sorting of tools and materials.  The night before we actually moved the boat out of the garage to a storage location so I could claim the garage for the next 6 weeks.  Frankly moving workbenches and toolboxes and preparing continued through the weekend.  Today seemed to be much of the same.  I also started a new version of the virtual model on AutoCAD for Mac, which I will show as it gets finalized.   Replacing a broken Jigsaw from the weekend, this project also seems like a an opportunity to replace my "starter" tools with some that will be more robust for the task at hand.  Besides a new 1/2 drill and a better jigsaw, there are actually a few tools that are quite special for this project.

After Fed-Ex Day, I had envisioned a large radial arm saw, with a dado blade as the best way to cut the notches in the timbers.  I never could fully resolve if the radial arm saws could accept a dado, but during me research I discovered some new friends at TimberWolf Tools.  I had imagined that moving the timbers to make the multiple cuts on a radial arm would be difficult, and when I discovered the Hema Notcher, it became obvious that moving the saw was the better solution, especially one made for timber construction rather than the "rig" I was contimplating putting together.  

So top on the list of special tools is the HEMA ZF215W Tenon Cutter / Notcher.  It uses what I would describe as a flywheel with chipper blades to notch the timbers.  I purchased the two blades, one that would cut the deeper notch and one that is 40 mm to cut a notch for 2x6s to set into.  The beast came from Germany, and had to be special ordered.  It actually arrived last Thursday., after about a 4week lead time.  I still have to cut off the european plug and replace it with a US standard 230v 20 amp plug so I can power it up.   Special thanks to Marc Boutan and David Powell of Timberwolf Tools for helping me with all the variables.  http://www.timberwolftools.com/tools/hema/H-ZF215W.html  There will be lots of shots of this saw as i move forward.  It is the key tool for making the notches, instead of the traditional chisel and mallet, which when you see the extent of the work would take me a year. 

Next up is a Makita 5402NA 16-5/16" Beam Saw.  This puts all circular saws to shame.  It is huge, but makes simple time of the 6x6s that make up the timbers for the project.  I could have possible gotten away with a chainsaw beam saw. or cutting the beam and flipping it for another cut, but those that know me know I would prefer to to it right and this is the saw for the purpose.  Anyone cutting 6x6s on a regular basis seems to use this saw.   You can source the saw from a number of  places, and even find free shipping.

Barr Tools Framing Chisel

Whiteside Upcut Spiral R

Makita 16 inch Beam Saw

There will always be some chisel work on a project like this, so the next key tools are a new 1-1/2" barr framing chisel and weighted mallet.  My research indicates that these are the best chisels made in the US, and many swear by them.  http://barrtools.com   I admit there are others, including quality ones from England, but my shot out goes the the excellent service I received directly from the source at Barr Tools.  Equally interesting was the Garland Weighted Rawhide Mallet  (40oz.) I also received.  It is a spiral of rawhide with a lead core.  a nice balance of natural materials and weight.


Some of the notches will be shallow and easier to cut with a few passes of a router.  The best I found for that work is an uncut spiral router bit.  The best source, for the best quality seems to be Whiteside. http://www.whitesiderouterbits.com/

WoodOwl Ultra Smooth Auger

Lastly in this round of discussions on tools are the Woodowl bits I ordered.  The Ultra Smooth Ship Augers actually have three spurs, and are balanced well for fast clean cuts.  www.woodowl.com  I will be using them for the interlocking wood dowels used to hold panels in place.

Fedex-day

My team within Autodesk experimented with a concept that is called Fedex-day, which translated as a one day project that absolutely without exception had to happen in 24 hours and be completed. The team all did this on the same day. We unplugged from our normal daily routine, were not allowed to schedule any meetings or calls, turned off our email and hid our phones. Our task was to come up with a one day project, that at we could execute within 24 hours, then document it and report out to our team the next morning. It could be any topic, but it had to result in something. You could not use it as an excuse to sleep all day.

We had team members who did videos, one that wrote a short story, one that created a database of worldwide relationships, and others that created new ways of engagement for the team. My project became the kickoff of my dream. I had been wondering about how to execute the burr puzzle cabin, and always realized the most critical step was the execution of the corner. The corner is a six-piece burr that is replicated 8 times to form the main frame of the cabin. It is the first key and arguably the most complex of the joints. If I could create this joint, then I could create the cabin. So my Project for FEDEX day was born.

I had already determined at the most practical working size for the frame were 6x6s mainly because of the weight of a 16 foot long timber which was the most practical and readily available size to use for the first cabin. An 8x8 of the same length was simply to heavy to handle, and probably overkill. So I picked up a few 6x6 wood posts which is the only material needed and pondered the process.

There are two fundamental cuts in any notchable burr. One is a notch the width of the "post" by half its width and the other is half its width by half its width. That is to say in this case 5.5 by 2.75 inches and 2.75 by 2.75 inches since a nominal 6x6 is actually 5.5 inches. With this combination all the notch combinations can be made.

On a small puzzle this can be done with repeated cuts on a table saw, a dado blade or a router. On a larger scale, the typical method for timber appeared to be to cut relief cuts the width of the final notch and then chisel the remainder of the notch to clean it. Therefore I needed a saw that could cut 2.75 inches deep. I could not bring myself to use a hand saw unless it was the last resort. I needed a 10 inch circular saw. A task easy to find at the contractor rental stores. Well easier said than done. I called everyone, and no where in my area was anything like this available to rent. So I looked for local stores to buy one, and that was a lost cause also. No one could get me one in time for Fedex-day. The hand saw was looking better at this point.

But alas, after moaning about how strangely hard it was to find a saw, my brother discovered a friend of his that had a 12 inch circular saw. My backbreaking work with a handsaw was avoided, but then the beast showed up. It was huge. The biggest saw I have ever seen. (Even though now have a 16 inch saw, but that is a different blog post.) The saw was the key, and Fedex-day day arrived, with me ready to go.

I think there is no need to write about the process since I can show you it all in pictures. I placed them in order below and you can follow the details picture by picture.

My Conversation Starter On My Front Porch

The result was a big puzzle, but the key to a bigger process. It stood on my front porch for a while, then my back deck and now that I have a model shop, it is the first thing you see as you ascend the stairs. I knew that this trial run would teach me some valuable lessons, so here they are:

• The accuracy of the depth of the cuts was critical, and this large saw was not designed to have good control over the depth.  It was hard to adjust and slipped over time.
• A big chisel is needed. A 2.5 inch one would be ideal. Even bigger would work best in the wide notches.
• The routing of the 45 degree chamfer cleaned up the world of sins, and uneven depth of cuts.
• Getting the saw aligned and stable was critical.  In the end, even after the modification of the Krebs guide to make it as long as possible, it was too small to guide the saw.
• Creating a layout jig will be helpful when doing multiple cuts in the future.

The Main Corner Burr

The Burr Tools Design Interface

There are thousands of ways to make a six-piece burr, but admittedly I was only looking for one.  It needed to be construct-able with reasonable methods.  In a puzzle the rod is maybe a few ounces, but in this timber frame it is about 130 lbs for a 16 foot, 6x6.  Not at all easy to manipulate 8 feet in the air.  This is especially true when you consider that in many burrs the rest of the burr has to be moved as a whole, as the parts slide together.  The other consideration is to try to find the strongest members passing through the burr joint, that will take the load of the floor joists or roofs.

Solution (in Yellow), 1 Blue, 1 Green, 2 Red, 2 Cyan

After modeling many alternatives, this is the current solution.  It utilizes vertical rods that can be braced, a main horizontal rod that locks the first pairs in place and then two other horizontal rods that lock that level in place and finally a single solid rod that slides into place which locks the whole burr.  By many standards it would not be too interesting of a burr made as a small puzzle, but it is just right at the scale of an assembled timber frame.  I sketched and modeled the burr in different ways, but one of the best ways is a software tool call Burr Tools, and I used it here to illustrate the burr I am using in the Burr Puzzle Cabin.

The solution for the burr

www.burrtools.soureforge.net

The next step is to build the burr and test the theory, which I got a chance to do during Fedex-day, which I will show in a separate post.

My Mr Puzzle Limited Edition Burr

Lost Day, 2001 Limited Edition, Mr Puzzle

I had seen sketches of a 8 burr bounding frame before, but never actually seen one constructed until Brian Young, aka Mr Puzzle of Australia, created one in 2001 as a special edition.  This was one of my first special editions from Brian, and I have been collecting them ever since.

The puzzle is nicknamed "Lost Day", based on the time it will take to solve it.  Many people joke it is more like a lost weekend.  To quote Brian's website: "David Bruce designed this puzzle in 1985 and although he designed it by hand he did later have a computer check it’s assembly to ensure it was unique.  ...  The goal of the design was to make sure each of the eight corners was a different burr and that all were notchable burrs with no key piece".   The special editions for this puzzle are long gone, and about the only way to acquire one would be to find it on ebay or and auction site, or as many craftsmen might want to do, simply make it yourself.

 

AutoCAD for Mac Model of the Lost Day

This became one of the first puzzles that really inspired my thinking about making a habitable space.  The fact that each burr in "Lost Day" is different makes it nearly impossible to do at the scale of a timber frame, because it would be very difficult to raise and slide the timber and frame as you manipulate the puzzle.  This is easy when the sticks are a few ounces, but not when a 6 x 6 by 16 feet at about 130 lbs each.  On the Burr Puzzle Cabin, I made the burrs the same and designed them to be able to be assembled in a logical sequence, but when constructed it looks exactly like the "Lost Day" with 8 burrs.  Well actually the Burr Puzzle Cabin has evolved to 16 burrs when I added the roof structure. As you will see, it has become a lot more complicated.

My Burrs

I have collected many burr and burr-like puzzles over the years. They include false burrs such as the three piece burr which actually is more of a kumiki puzzle than a burr, to a great grandpapachuck which has 150 pieces. Here are a few of my favorites.  I'll add more in other blogs to give you a flavor of the variety.

"Leaning Tower of Altekruse" by Stewart Coffin

"Decemburr" by Brian Young, aka Mr Puzzle

"Vertigo" by Pentangle

"Windmill Burr", designed by Junichi Yananose, crafted by Brian Young, aka Mr Puzzle

"Visible Burr" Designed by Bill Cutler, crafted by Brian Young

"The Big Crystal"

My Puzzle Collection

Part of My Puzzle Collection

I have been collecting puzzles for almost 50 years.  That of course includes the first Kumiki puzzles given to me as a child by my parents.  In the early days that was about it, obviously limited by opportunity, knowledge and most of all funding.

The second wave came after starting my profession as an architect, and moving to Madrid, Spain.  Traveling within Spain, the UK and Italy helped be rediscover puzzles.  It was trips to London and buying the Pentangle puzzles in Hamleys that got me truly hooked.  Most of Pentangles puzzles were burrs or a type often referred to as a chuck.  I collected most of what they had that over a few years of consistent travel to London.

Special and more LE Puzzles

And then the internet!  This single tool transformed my collection as I am sure it did for many reading this.  It was the combination of Ebay and individual sites that allowed my collection to expand.   In the beginning I was not the purist that I am now, but I did try to limit it to unpainted puzzles made of wood. So I do have some jigsaw types, string puzzles and oddities but I continued to find the burrs were my favorite.

I have about 180 or so now in my collection, ranging from about 2 x 2 inches up to 3 feet by 3 feet.  Most to them I have disassembled and assembled.  I will have to admit here publicly that I do have some puzzles that I have not dared to fully take apart as I doubt if I have the time or patience to be able to figure out how to put them back together.  They are beautiful pieces that I cherish and guard from the disassembling hands of my grandchildren.