Oxfordshire Woodland Group

Storms tore off the top 30 ft of this nice 100 ft Douglas Fir Tree.

This tree will now be felled and converted into planks and beams using a mobile saw.

We eventually took down the 65 ft (85 cu ft) snag Douglas Fir tree.

We measured this and found that this will yield sufficient structural timbers needed to make a small home office or large garden shed timber-frame.

The trunk should be able to be quartered to make beams.

We then designed a timber frame that we will build.

Would you like one (or two or three) ?

Logs 6 & 7 were put through the saw and yielded 2 off 8" x 8" x 8ft posts ready for incorpration into a local building. Local produce for local projects.

addendum - Jul 2021
Nick Dunthorne completed his Berkshire home office building incorporating the two Douglas Fir posts (seen on the extreme left).

This building demonstrates that timber buildings can be truly beautiful.

Log 3 was quarter sawn to produce 4 off 6" x 6" x 7ft sidewall & door posts for the local home garden office.

Log 4 is 12" longer than the saw head can travel and so the last 12" had to be rip sawn using a 2 man (cross cut) saw. Not ideal. This log will be used to make 2 off x 7" x 7" x 11ft cross sills for the local home garden office. We need a longer sawbed !

Log 4 is 12" longer than the saw head travel and so the last 12" had to be rip sawn using a 2 man (cross cut) saw. Not ideal. This log will be used to make 2 off x 7" x 7" x 11ft cross sills for a local home garden office. We need a longer sawbed !

OWG Fellow Andrew Jarvis fitted a 6ft extension to the sawmill bed but the end of this stuck outside the barn. We need a bigger barn !

Following the fitting of the sawbed extension we converted log 5 to form 2 matching tie beams. Each end of the tie beams will be taper profiled.

Log 2 was squared up on the saw to make a 14" x 14" beam.

This was then quartered to produce 4 off waney edged 7" x 7" x 14 ft long wall plates(2 off) and long sills (2 off).

Log 1 was two side slabbed to form a 14 " thick billet that was then halved to make 7" thick stock to be halved again to make 4 matching corner jowl posts. The jowl is the flare at the butt end of the log and it is used to make the tying joint between post, wall plate & tie beam.

The sawmill has a throat size of 7" which limits sawing the 2 x post slab all the way along it's length.

The slab was taken off the mill and then rip sawn using a Japanese pull saw.

The 2nd jowl posts slab was sawn on the mill to form 2 x 7" x 7" posts with 10" wide jowls.

These were then rip sawn using a medieval style frame saw to make 2 x jowl posts.

We need a bigger saw or bigger muscles !

We were short 2 straight braces for sidewall frame #2 and so we headed out into the woodland to find some decent stock. A European larch tree with blown out top was chosen.

This yielded 8" x 3" halved brace stock and a curved butt log that will be hewn to make a cranked tie beam.

The brace stock was fashioned into 2 sidewall braces, cut to size with bare faced tenons ready for fitting into the wall post and plate mortices.