Red Suspenders Timber Frames:

More timber production

A decision on the final timber finish has been made and we have secured a source for the product. The first batch of stain for testing was picked up in Dallas by a crew member and delivered to the shop. Test samples of the stain color have been done and sent overnight for approval. We have started hand planing the dormer timbers. Timbers keep piling up in the big barn as we are getting closer to the end.

	Its late evening and the last of 8 laminated arches has been built. You can see the arch through the open shop doors.
The big barn is almost full to capacity with chapel timbers. Chapel rafters can be seen at the back of the barn while on the right are the arch segments, tie beams and hammer beams. Just to the left behind the crew are the finished laminated arches.
	All of the dormer timbers have been fabricated and are ready for finish planing. We will set up a work area in front of the big barn where the work will take place. You'll see lots of shavings flying in later images.
Doug is checking Tim's layout work on one of the laminated arches. When this picture was taken, we had completed 5 of the 8 laminated arches and this was arch 6. Tim was working on arch 7 and arch 8 was still in the timber shop.
	Kevin is cutting and finishing a tenon on the laminated arch that Doug just checked. Arch 8 will be out of the shop today and we should have all of the arches finished and ready for staining by tomorrow morning.
The finish stain specifications have been received and we are doing the first test of the stain on a sample from one of the chapel timbers. The finish uses a Pittsburgh Paint transparent stain base with a custom color tint.
	Travis can be seen applying the stain in this image. The timber sample just to the right of the stained sample is the original color of the wood. We will apply the stain to the wood using a roller, then wipe the stain with a shop towel to achieve a uniform application. Since wood is a natural material, there will be differences in the way it will take stain and the color of the timber will vary across its surface; just as it does in nature. We will show some finished timbers in a later report.
Although your computer monitor may not show these samples in their true color, this picture should give you some feeling for the difference between the stained sample on the left and the original color of the timbers on the right. Once we get approval of the finish from the church building committee, we will begin the final staining of all the completed and planed timbers.
	We have completed planing about half of the dormer timbers but there is still more work to be done. Teak the wonder dog takes advantage of the pile of shavings from the dormer timbers where she has made herself a nice comfortable bed. In the next report we will see Richard working on more detailing of chapel timbers. You will also see the first trail fit of compound arches and dormer timbers.