Cutting joinery

Shop work is proceeding at a rapid pace and we are more than half way through the project. We have a new load out of the dry kiln and have nearly all of the timbers planed. Doug and Richard are just barely keeping ahead of the shop crew doing layout work. The Christmas Holidays loom large on the horizon and the crew is a bit exhausted so some time off to charge the batteries is much anticipated. Since there is so much going on at this point, this report will show a lot of different work in the shop.

	The shop's decorated for Christmas and there's lots of hot coffee and cookies to give the crew a sugar and caffeine high! Production seems to be at a faster pace... perhaps we're on to something?
The crew is finishing the initial planing of the new load of timbers. It's still rather warm for this time of year so we are taking advantage of the great weather.
	This load has some of the timbers that will be used in the main arch in the great room. The material is of very good quality and density... which makes for some heavy lifting. Here Kevin and Will are off loading the timbers from the Yates planer and moving them into the shop for layout.
Will is moving the planed timbers to the side of the layout barn for Doug and Richard to begin work. You should notice all of the wrapped timbers for your project in the background. These timbers have been hand planed and oiled and are ready for shipment to your job site. We are running out of room at this point and moving around is a lot more difficult
	This is the main set of shop plans being used in the layout barn. Each time Richard of Doug finishes a particular timber, it is marked in blue on the shop drawings. We do this to ensure that we have actually laid out the joinery on all of the timbers and didn't repeat any. There is a lot of blue on this page!
In this picture, Will is working on another scarf joint in a large plate. This joint is almost finished.
	Will is working on one of the shoulder mortis joints in one of the main post supporting the arched bents in the great room.
In the close up of the post, you can see the chamfered edges Will is cutting by hand. The angle of the chamfer must fit the curve of the arch for everything to work. There is a lot of precision in this joint and it can only be achieved by hand using the traditional carpentry skills.
	Work is progressing and the weather is still nice but the sun sure goes down early. Keith, Will and Kevin are pushing to get the final work done. Everything looks really good at this point in the project and you can see most of the post used in the arch trusses just behind Keith. There is still more to come but this is essentially what we are doing up till Christmas. The next report will pick up the work after the New Year.