A Japanese timber framed garden shed

[GRadice]

Not much to add except that Willa is now a bit over 7 months old. Here she is this week in a nearby winter meadow. She is getting a little better behaved every day.

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[springwater]

Not much to add except that Willa is now a bit over 7 months old. Here she is this week in a nearby winter meadow. She is getting a little better behaved every day.

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I’ll give her 18 months to 2 years before her heads sorted out and 4 to 5 years to really settle in. She looks smart, love them!

[GRadice]

Yep, a puppy is a project for sure. This is our fourth golden and they have all been pretty trainable. I've become a better trainer, too. Much more patient.

Got the barge board mitres finally sorted out. Still a little cleanup planing to do, and they aren't perfect on the non-show side, but they are functional and look good on the show side.

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After getting a fit I liked I had a moment of panic that maybe I got the slope wrong, so I dug out my Pythagorean theorem and checked the lengths of the sides of the triangles. The base of the triangle is the distance from the center of the tie beam to the eave beam. In my case 3 ft or 914.4 mm. The slope should be 4.5/10 or 24.227. At that slope the hypotenuse (length from the midline to the eave beam centerline (centreline?) along the barge board should be 1002.2 mm.

So I layed out lines on the barge boards 1002.2 mm from the mitre. Then got out my story stick with centerlines marked every 914.4 mm. If I got the angle of the mitre correct, those story stick lines should line up with my hypotenuse lines. And they did! Thanks, Pythagoras!

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The mitre still has about a 0.5 mm gap that should close up fine when I tap in the locking key.
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Good place to quit for the day.

[GRadice]

I'm back to thinking about the door and window designs. Fortunately I have the rough dimensions set by the frame. The rest is esthetics.

Since I don't know much about Japanese door and window designs I've been scouring the internet for ideas. I came across this wonderful site of Japanese antiques that specializes in "fittings," doors, windows, and transoms.

Japanese Antiques Shop Nobiru｜時代家具 アンティーク 蔵戸 古民具 古材 骨董品店「のびる」 (https://e-nobiru.com/english.html)

Their galleries have hundreds of detailed images, mostly of pieces from the 20th century but some from earlier. I figured out a way to import pix from their site into iPhoto, change to B&W, import into Sketchup, and resize and duplicate to fit my drawing. Sketchup will snap the imported image to your drawing. Magic.

Here is one example. An imported image converted to B&W in iPhoto:

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Then imported to Sketchup, snapped to the face of my shed, rescaled, and duplicated:

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The method isn't perfect since rescaling changes the door proportions but it does give a quick look at what might work and what might not. Here is a workspace with several options I've recently swapped in and out.

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[GRadice]

Sills for the transom and gable end sash. I used a jointer for the rebates and long bevel. Short bevel and cleanup with planes. Here is one.

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[GRadice]

I'm working on grids for the gable ends. My plan is to make 4 sash that can be applied after the frame is up, backed by screens to keep the bugs out.

My inspiration is this photo from a book:
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And here is my interpretation for my shed.

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I don't really know the best way to go about this but what I am doing is making a separate sash that can be applied over a sill and inset into the frame.

I made frames for the sash:

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These are joined simply with saddle joints at the corners that will be glued. But I added a coped joint called in Japanese a jaguchi joint on the outside to accommodate a beveled face. Here is one before clean up.

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The grid will be half lapped and morticed into this frame. That layout on a square frame is not so hard but having a sloped top member introduces some challenges. When i imagined it I said, "No worries, I'll figure that out later. Later is now and I'm still working on the best way forward. Trigonometry is my friend, I hope.

[rwbuild]

Well within your capabilities

[GRadice]

My first attempt at doing the lattice parts didn't work. I made a jig for the table saw using a dado blade and indexing strip as if I was making box joints. I started on the horizontal parts. The result looked great from afar. Mesmerizing, even.

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But for reasons I won't go into the way I did it introduced an incremental increase in slot width from just below the target 22 mm wide to about 22.4 mm wide over 15 cuts on the long horizontal pieces. Not good.

So back to work. I remade the horizontal stock and I'm working on a different approach using a router jig. I had to order a 22 mm bit and it is in hand. The jig is nearly done. I hope to restart tomorrow.

[GRadice]

Plan B seems to be working. An mdf jig/fixture with spacers to add at the proper lattice pitch.
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But my Lord, what a mess of mdf flour and chips everywhere. I did clean up for the pics so you can see what's going on. I really hate using a screaming router but sometimes it is expedient.

[GRadice]

Horizontal slats are remade. I have half the verticals done, too. The verticals are meant to sit 2 mm proud of the horizontals on the front side and be flush on the back.

There is going to be some challenging joinery where the horizontals and verticals meet the sloping upper rail. I have a plan for it that involves tenoning the verticals but not the horizontals. I hope to get to that part next week.

Pictures are just the parts laid out.

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[GRadice]

And the laps on the verticals are done. Here is a quick test fit to see whether everything lines up. The frame is just resting on top. No joinery yet.

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[GRadice]

Here's how, conceptually, I'm planning to do the joinery of the verticals and horizontals along the sloping upper rail. For scale, the horizontals are 18x22 in section and the verticals are 20x22.

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I have 60 verticals to do and about 24 horizontals. It's going to take me awhile. But this is the fun stuff. Much better than routering.

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[rwbuild]

That last one at the bottom RHS will test your steady hand and sharp tools

[GRadice]

I have the vertical and horizontal lattice slats done. I made a little sawing/planing/paring guide for the verticals and another for the horizontals. They worked great. I could mostly work right off the saw with only a little paring afterward. I decided to carry one of the four frames through to completion as a test case before doing the other three. I hope to catch and not repeat mistakes that way.

I generally like to make mortices first and fit tenons to them but in this case I've done the reverse since the rigid lattice determines the mortice spacing.


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[GRadice]

Fitting this first frame has not gone well but I'm getting closer. Here is a dry fit. Still some tweaking to do to get that upper rail seated properly. I do like the layered look of frame proud of the verticals and beveled, and verticals proud of the horizontals and beveled. In the background you can see the carriage I had to add to my morticer to get the proper mortice angle on the upper rail.

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[GRadice]

One sash done except for flushing the frame corner joints.





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[GRadice]

A small update. A friend in central New York state, on the other side of the country, sent me a box of cutoffs from wood his son used to build a deck. The wood is commonly called black locust, Robinia pseudoacacia.

Black Locust | The Wood Database (Hardwood) (https://www.wood-database.com/black-locust/)

This is a north American hardwood common to the eastern half of the continent and often used for fence posts because it is extremely rot resistant. It is hard and dense and slightly brittle but machines well. I've never seen it used for furniture but it certainly could be although the tree rarely gets very large. I'm using it for the pegs and wedges and pins for my shed for its rot resistance, because pegs should be harder than the timbers, and because it was free. Well, at least a swap for a birdhouse I made for my friend.

I hope I'm not the only one who gets a surge of pleasure by getting a box of scrap wood in the post.

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And after a few minutes of band sawing, planing, an chiseling, a couple of wedges. I have 24 more of these to go.

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[GRadice]

I finally finished the four gable end lattices. They aren't perfect but I'm calling them acceptable.
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And here is more or less what a pair will look like with the central post and their sills.

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[GRadice]

A weekend project. I'm getting closer to being able to test fit the joinery and I need to have at least one persuader. This one has a head of Oregon white oak (about 2.5 kg) and a European beech handle. I've never made one of these before and wasn't sure how long to make the handle so I left this one maybe a bit long. Better than too short.

I have another one in the works that is about 7 kg. I'm calling that one a commander.

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[GRadice]

And the second one is done.

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[GRadice]

Ready to start test fitting joints and finish planing. This week I uncovered all the sticks that I had outside over our wet winter and wetter spring. But suddenly it is sunny and dry and 30 degrees C every day. I sorted and resorted the stack to make piles of timbers in some logical (to me) order for processing the fit. That was work. Either the beams got heavier or I got older over our winter.
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Here is one of the eave beams dragged into my shop for fitment and finish planing. Fortunately it didn't seem to move that much in the months since I cut the joints.

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[GRadice]

The two eave beams are finish planed, beveled, and have their dovetailed loose tenons fit along with their tapered wedges (wiggle fit only, not hammered home). Here is one. They are ready to be raised! 18 more posts and beams to go....

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[GRadice]

I'm working on the combined header/upper track for the doors and window, called a komai. These are usually fit after the frame is up and are meant to be replaceable eventually as the sliding doors or windows wear them down. That presents a joinery challenge if you don't want to nail or screw them to the posts. One method is to use a stub tenon on one end and a sliding tenon on the other. I'm going to put sliding tenons on both ends. If it is a long span the komai is supported in the center by a post that hangs from an eave beam. The post is attached to the komai by a sliding dovetail.

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Here's mine:

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[rwbuild]

That sliding tenon is very cunning

[GRadice]

Now I'm working fitting and finish planing the tie beams and their king posts. Here is one gable end set nearly done. I set the sash and sills on them to make sure I didn't make any gross layout mistakes. I think I might remake the two separate sills as one continuous sill that would tightly wrap the king post. That would eliminate the now odd looking (to me) gap between them. Looks like a place that might accumulate dirt and water and lead to rot.




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[GRadice]

I've set up to test fit joints, starting with the roof components: tie beams, eave beams, king posts, ridge beams, and barge boards and rafters. Given that is now the dry and warm season here most of this will be done outside. Here is the fit of the cogged lap joints between the eave and tie beams. I had a friend stop by to help me set the beams and take them apart for small paring adjustments. I can lift one beam by myself but having another hand for taking taking them apart was so much easier. So far, so good.

I've set a date of 29 July for raising the frame. I'm recruiting a team of about a dozen others to help. Should be fun.

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[GRadice]

Fitting the barge boards (hafu in Japanese) to the ends of the ridge beam and eave beams so that I can lay out the joinery on the backs. The camera angle and focal length makes it look asymmetric but it isn't. The two arms are, though, still about 125 mm longer than finished length.

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And here is a short video of how the joint between the two barge boards comes together and is locked (temporarily here) by its tapered wedge.

barge board joinery - YouTube (https://youtu.be/VyUib2bJ5wk)

[GRadice]

Got the joinery done for one of the barge board to eave beam and ridge beam connection. With one mistake.

The barge boards are joined to the eave beams with housed dovetails. The dovetails are on the ends of spline tenons that are drawn into the eave beams with tapered wedges. A lot going on here that has to line up vertically and horizontally.

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Here is one joint partially set in place.
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The ridge beam is similar but not housed. I messed up and cut the floating spline upside down. Perhaps not obvious to you because it sure wasn't to me. This way the barge board can't sit down level with the upper surface of the ridge beam. But not a big problem and easy to fix tomorrow by making another floating tenon.

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[GRadice]

Still pecking away at it every day but nothing photo worthy. I have finished fitting all of the mortise and tenon joinery and most of the finish planing.

I'm getting pretty fast at planing and beveling edges.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCp6h2dWoZM&feature=youtu.be (https://youtu.be/FCp6h2dWoZM)

I'm now onto cutting a series of grooves for fitting wall panels and various door and window fittings. For this I'm using a tool new to me: a Makita groove cutter. These aren't sold in the USA market (too dangerous, apparently) but can be had from Japan. A little scary to use the first time but after awhile I got used to it. Here it is on some scrap cutting a groove 15 mm wide and 9 mm deep in one go.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3xcinki-YE&feature=youtu.be (https://youtu.be/w3xcinki-YE)

And here are some finished grooves on my posts. These are 18 mm wide, which meant I had to make two passes. 18 mm cutters are available but they aren't cheap and I was too miserly to spend the money for one job. A friend and I did about 30 meters of these grooves in a couple of hours. It was nice to have another set of eyes on it to make sure I was cutting the correct face and correct side.

Compared to a router, this groover is quieter and lower pitched, much better ergonomics, makes flakes instead of dust, doesn't tend to pull to one side, and has a lower center of gravity so less tippy. The motor is wired for 100V whereas our local voltage is 120 but reports were that it worked just fine though spins a bit faster. I guess the intermittent use of it saves the motor from overheating.

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17 days until the frame raising.

[GRadice]

Frame raising tomorrow! Here is a "before" shot of the site. The plan is to assemble the lower frame (minus the roof beams) onto the boards that span the cribbing. Then remove the cribbing in steps to lower the frame onto the stones. Then top off with the roof beams. I think/hope we can get this done in one day.

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The weather will be sunny, clear and not too hot. Perfect. I have an enthusiastic amateur crew coming and plenty of food and drink for them.
I hope to have a time-lapse video of the assembly to share and plenty of stills.

Wish us luck!

[GRadice]

It's now in 3D. The raising went as well as I could hope. No major glitches, just some minor tweaking of a couple of tenons and a lap joint. From start to finish it went up in 4 hours. No one got hurt, and the crew of 12 all seemed to have a grand time. Especially those who got to yield the big mallet.

I didn't get to take any process pictures but others did that I can share as I get them. And there is a time-lapse video compressed to 6.5 minutes:

Tea House - YouTube (https://youtu.be/c7pXw2znRWw)


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That's me up there mounting the ceremonial laurel bough onto the ridge beam.

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[rwbuild]

You would be justifiably pleased with that :2tsup:
I look forward to the next stage

[GRadice]

Thanks, Ray. Here are a few joinery pics.

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[GRadice]

I'm working on the barge board details. I added a stopped rebate to the lower edges and have almost finished the gegyo, or pendants. There are many designs for the pendants, some large and elaborately carved. Since this is a shed, I chose about the simplest design which is a hexagon within a hexagon and a central rod. I have left the rod a little long since I wasn't sure what would look best. I think I need to shorted it a bit.

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How it is assembled:

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And how I'm attaching it to the barge board. No metal fasteners.
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[rwbuild]

I suggest make the dowel project the same as the thickness of the small hexagon

[GRadice]

I like that idea, Ray. I'll play with it.

[GRadice]

Change of plans. A couple of friends who know Japanese architecture much better than I suggested a style that is nearly as simple but adds a few curves. I like these better, especially the second one. Time to get out the carving tools.

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[GRadice]

Shed's got wings, mostly. Three more rafters to go.

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[GRadice]

Barge boards are up. A friend came over today to help. Good thing because this really was a two person job. Trial fit, dismount it, some discrete joint surgery, and repeat until it fit. The first side took two and half hours working slowly with much head scratching and time up and down scaffolding. But we learned, and the second set took about 45 minutes. I'm happy with how it looks. Tight and solid with some gap not visible from below.



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[GRadice]

And rafters are up. Taped for coat of primer on the end grain.

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[GRadice]

One advantage of doing a small shed: I can cover the whole thing when it rains. This was our first real rain since early May. A nice all day drizzle. I was hoping to have the roof done by now but having the tarp takes some of the pressure off of finishing it.


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[GRadice]

I'm still working on the roof. It is slightly complicated. Sitting on the rafters are two perimeter frames. The lower one surrounds a set of ceiling boards and the upper one surrounds some plank decking. Furring strips sit on the ceiling boards and support the plank decking above. The upper frame is 15 mm wider than the lower frame all around to create a shadow line and also a drip line beyond the rafter ends. The frames are mitered at the corners and joined with a through and wedged tenon. There is a lapped joint at the ridge. And because I didn't have long enough stock to make the long arms of the frames of one piece I'm splice joining two shorter pieces. All of the joinery is slowing me down, but I'm having fun.

Here is a schematic of the roof structure minus any flashing. The surface cladding will be metal panels.

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And the splice joint I'm using for the long arms of the frames. The arms of the frame will be screwed to the rafters to keep the rafters in line and prevent them from sagging.

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[GRadice]

A bit more joinery. This is one of eight corner joints for the roof frames. The through tenon will be wedged. The arm on the left is Port Orford cedar (Chamaecyparis lawsonii) like the rest of the shed. But I ran out of POC of the proper dimension for the frame and substituted yellow cedar (Cupressus nootkatensis is the current name) which I could get locally, dry and ready to use. It is a good substitute: strong for its weight, easy to work, rot resistant. Both will age to a similar silver/gray and 10 years from now someone would have to look really close to tell them apart.

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[GRadice]

And the joinery for those perimeter frames where they meet at the ridge. The frames sit on, overlap a bit, and are screwed to the barge boards that I've already shown. According to the Japanese carpentry text I'm using as a guide the barge end frames have this odd joint which is not fixed by any wedges or pins but seems to mainly be used to align and register the frames on the two sides of the gable.

One thing I love about this text is that even though the text is in Japanese, which I can't read, the drawing are clear and measurements are proportional.

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And one set of my attempts.

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[r3nov8or]

Nice work.

I guess the old saying, "Japan wasn't built in a day, but it was built beautifully", rings true :D

[GRadice]

Nice work.

I guess the old saying, "Japan wasn't built in a day, but it was built beautifully", rings true :D

Good one. I'll remember that.


I recently watched a youtube video that said less than 1% of houses in Japan are now built with traditional methods like the ones I'm trying to use. Far too labor/labour intensive and therefore expensive. Having worked on my little project for over a year, I can see why.

[GRadice]

Floor joists are done. They have cogged lapped joints with the two sleepers. The joists were milled and then planed about 0.5 ml oversized and then I compressed them with a hammer. In Japan this technique is called kigoroshi, which means "wood killing." When humidity rises the wood swells and tightens the joint. Works better with softwoods like this than with hardwoods. Here is a short video.

kigoroshi 1 - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQllcq5Tct0)


Then all are screwed down to prevent squeaking later.

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[GRadice]

Working on the ceiling boards. Ship lapped using a dado blade on the table saw. These are 138 mm wide and 16 mm thick with 9 mm laps. One side will be a show side and will be hand finish planed. Port Orford cedar as is most of the rest of the shed.

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Those boards were clear. Some of the others have either tight or empty knots. That can be fine for a shed, of course. But I realized when working the stock down to finished thickness that I could use the ~ 3mm bandsawn cutoffs from the clears and laminate them to the rough sides of the other boards. That took awhile (and a surprising amount of glue) than I expected but it worked. It will look nicer and the clear show surface will be easier to hand plane than one with knots, too.

Bad side:

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Laminated good side:

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On edge:
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Although in general one should veneer both sides of a substrate to avoid imbalances causing warping, in this case the main boards are only 138 mm wide, the wood is oriented in the same direction and is the same species, and will be screwed down and sandwiched between the rafters and furring strips every 300 mm. Fingers crossed that this experiment will be OK.

[GRadice]

I rabbeted and finished planed all the of the ceiling boards.

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I also finished milling some furring strips for the roof out of what we call Douglas fir. These will be cut to length when the roof goes on.
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And made a false ridge beam that will hidden but screwed down onto the visible ridge beam and support the roof deck planking.
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This piece was too long for me to make in one go in my shop so I spliced shorter pieces together in length and glued up in width. I've never seen this particular splice joint before but it seems to work. It was tricky to figure out since the whole piece is chevron shaped in cross section.

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[GRadice]

A friend came over this morning and together we got the subfloor pieced together and screwed down. The subfloor is 21 mm, 5 ply Douglas fir, tongue and grooved. And made right here in Oregon, about 130 km south of me. It is not rated for exterior exposure but I did spray it with borate salts to resist termites and fungi. I'm happy to report that it is solid, flat, and smooth. I was a little worried that those small section joists might be a little springy. But at 200 mm centers, robust perimeter beams, and well supported sleepers the whole system is truly stiff. The two of us looked like idiots jumping up and down on it but didn't move it a bit.

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Flushed with our success and encouraged by the weather forecast of no rain this week, we took the tarp off and started installing the lower perimeter roof frame, called a hirogomai in Japanese. The hirogomai has three functions. One is to keep the rafter ends from sagging and keep them a straight line. The second is to overlap provide a drip edge to keep the rain off the barge boards, and the third is to frame and hide the edges of the ceiling boards that sit on the rafters. I described how I chose to make the hirogomai somewhere previously.

Here you can see the front of the shed with the hirogomai in place.

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The overlap reveal on the left gable end.

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And I described earlier the splice joint along the long eave end members. I wanted to lay it out so that the splce fell exactly over a rafter and left even reveals on the two ends and closed up tightly. I got very close.

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That was a good day. And after we finished and my friend left I checked the forecast one more time. Oh NO! 50% chance of rain in the morning! A mad scramble to get the tarp back on. Got it done just after dark.

[GRadice]

It did rain, not too much, and the tarp saved the day. The weather cleared this morning and we had another good day of work.

We finished mounting the upper perimeter boards and false ridge. Then for fun I temporarily fixed one of the gable pendants to see how that looked. Tomorrow we (me plus neighbour and a woodworker friend) will start installing the ceiling boards. I hope to get that done in two days, before the next dose of rain moves in.

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[GRadice]

Two full days of work, mostly by a neighbor and friends since I'm a bit too old to be a roof monkey. But I was a champion go-fer and in a few sticky cases the decider. Ceiling boards are done.

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[yvan]

And the joinery for those perimeter frames where they meet at the ridge. The frames sit on, overlap a bit, and are screwed to the barge boards that I've already shown. According to the Japanese carpentry text I'm using as a guide the barge end frames have this odd joint which is not fixed by any wedges or pins but seems to mainly be used to align and register the frames on the two sides of the gable.

One thing I love about this text is that even though the text is in Japanese, which I can't read, the drawing are clear and measurements are proportional.

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And one set of my attempts.

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So, is 1 Shaku close enough to 1 foot for the carpentry work you are doing?
Or 1 Bu close enough to 1/8" for the joinery you are using?

It looks like the Japanese units of length are just about the same as the imperial system, but in decimal increments !?!?!!

Thanks for showing us the details of the various joints you are using in the process of building your "shed". Always interesting trying to work out how they actually "lock"!

Cheers
Yvan

[GRadice]

You are correct that the shaku is close to an English foot, (1 shaku = 0.99409 ft) but divided into decimals. Not close enough to be interchangeable if you mean marking a mortise in shaku and its tenon in English. In my situation, I need to stick with English for the roof parts because my roofing materials are produced in feet/inches. But yes, overall this shed built with the shaku system would not be noticeably different in size from what I'vce done. I am using metric for all of the rest of the shed parts which has meant lots of conversions from English to metric and back.

As I mentioned, the Japanese joinery text that I like uses proportions. So a mortise will be 1/4 the width of the post it is in, for example. Or a tongue will be 1/3 the thickness of its board.

[GRadice]

And I've installed two of the gable end lattices. I hope to get the other two installed tomorrow. I still need to add their trim pieces on the outside and eventually demountable screens inside to keep the bugs out.

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[GRadice]

And the other two lattices today. I still need to add some small trim pieces but now, except for the roof cladding yet to come, you can see how the whole gable end will look.

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This end faces west. At sundown the low angle light makes it through the lattice. I was hoping it would look something like this, and it does!

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[GRadice]

This is an experiment. I'm not a carpenter and I'm working for myself so I'm allowed to do weird stuff.

I want to attach some trim pieces to contain the gable lattices but I don't want to use metal screws or nails. One reason is esthetic. I'm not painting or caulking and I don't want screw or nail heads showing. I also really don't want the metal corrosion staining the wood. The other reason is that metal cools faster than wood and is a point of condensation in humid weather, which leads to rot. In old buildings often the degrade starts at nail holes for that reason. Or so I've been told. But the trim pieces are too small for wood joinery.

I'm trying bamboo nails.

I bought a package of 150 mm x 4 mm bamboo barbeque kebab skewers. I cut them into ~ 35 mm lengths. I cut off the tip of the skewers and used a pencil sharpener to taper the ends of the other pieces.

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Alas, I don't have metric drill bits. I found that decent substitutes are 5/32" or 9/64" Imperial bits. Drill and then tap in the nail. I chose to pare them flush. They are barely visible but not garish.

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There are some odd flag shaped trim bits where the rafters meet the middle of the eave beams. Those got a single bamboo nail.

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I have no idea how well this will work over time. But I reckon the stakes are low. If the pieces work loose with seasonal expansion and contraction, I or a future owner can probably shoot some metal nails in from the non-visible back side and set it right.

[rwbuild]

your on a winner with that one :2tsup:

[GRadice]

The past week or so was unusually clear and dry for November here so I was able to remove the tarp and get the roof planks installed with some much needed help from a neighbor. I've never been comfortable with heights and especially now at 71, I admit to being shaky on a ladder and a roof. But we got it done and no one got hurt.

Here is a view from my kitchen window at the start of planking on rare sunny morning. We screwed the planks rather than nailing them. That took longer.

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And over the few days it took to finish the job I came across this news feature from Japan:

Repair workers turn up 400-yr-old chisel found left under roof of Kyoto temple - The Mainichi (https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20221020/p2a/00m/0na/014000c)


Which gave me an idea. And yes, I did.

[GRadice]

A friend who was at the frame raising in July sent me his collection of short video clips he took. I made a rough movie of them. The real time sights and sounds give a pretty good impression of how the day went starting with assembling the first bent and finishing with me tacking up the laurel bough on the ridge.

I've always wanted to direct...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qd50X1v9k0&feature=youtu.be (https://youtu.be/4qd50X1v9k0)

[GRadice]

I finished and installed the kamoi for the doors and window. I described making these and how they work a few months (!) ago and now finally got a chance to see them in place. To refresh, a kamoi is a combined header, upper jamb, and door/window track. In typical "stick built" construction in the USA these would be three separate pieces with the header a permanent part of the framing. In this old school Japanese construction it is one piece and added after the frame is assembled. That complicates installation since it has to fit precisely between posts, level and square to prevent the sliding doors or windows binding, and give a finished look without applied trim or caulk or paint. Don't try this at home! I got it level and square but I'll admit to some gaps where the kamoi meet the posts. That was because the post surfaces were not exactly square to each other and I didn't think to try to scribe the kamoi. Oh, well. Next time I'll do better.

The door and window kamoi are in red.

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And what they look like from the inside, installed. You can see from underneath a groove for the inside door and window. The groove for the outside door and window will be in a separate jamb applied to the face of the shed.


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To get a tight fit between the posts, the preferred method is to cut the kamoi a fraction of a millimeter too long, and then temporarily spread the posts apart somehow. A post with an adjustable, screwed base can be adapted. I used some clamps/cramps that are reversible for spreading rather than drawing together. It worked. Not the best picture, sorry. But you can see the mortises for the sliding tenons.

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And here is one of the clever sliding, dovetailed tenons after tapping it into its corresponding mortice in the post. I sweated laying out and making those mortices on the already raised posts. Only one chance to get that location and dimensions right, and I think I did.


533240

I had worried about this part of the build for months. I treated myself to a nice single malt afterwards.

[rwbuild]

All good results deserve a good single malt :5822282438:

[GRadice]

I'm not an aficiando but do treat myself to one bottle to last the dark, cold rainy season here that has just started. Last year it was an Ardbeg Uigedail. I liked that very much. This year its price jumped considerably. I'm on the Ardbeg 10 year now. I don't like it as much, but it is better than no single malt!

[yvan]

A friend who was at the frame raising in July sent me his collection of short video clips he took. I made a rough movie of them. The real time sights and sounds give a pretty good impression of how the day went starting with assembling the first bent and finishing with me tacking up the laurel bough on the ridge.

I've always wanted to direct...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qd50X1v9k0&feature=youtu.be (https://youtu.be/4qd50X1v9k0)

Yet another proof that force should never, never be used...only bigger mallets !!!

This garden shed ain't goin' nowhere!

Cheers,
Yvan

[GRadice]

I'm on to the window and door jambs. I'm using a design that from what I understand is not common in Japan. But my guru here in the USA likes it and used it on his own home, and that is good enough for me. The idea is that you place the jambs outside of the frame so that the weather doesn't attack the important frame components but rather the smaller and sacrificial/replaceable jamb parts. The scheme also adds a layer of architectural interest. OK by me.

Here is what the two slide-by windows and jambs will look like, more or less, in Sketchup:

534072

And here is where I am now with the jambs. Dry fit and some linseed oil paint primer on the end grain.

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It gets more complicated since this exterior jamb overlaps an interior stool that is joined and fit tightly to the shed frame.

534074

The odd mortices at the end of the stool accommodate a spline that joins with the post. It is hard to describe and illustrate how this works but here is an image from a Japanese carpentry text that may explain things. One end of the stool has a tenon, the other has the spline.

534075


And my version of that morticed end. Later filled by a spline and two little loose stub tenon that are not shown. The spline prevents the stool from bowing up and binding the window. The little loose stub tenons prevent the stool from moving horizontally into or out of the window opening.

534076


This may be confusing to you all since it certainly was to me. But I think I have it right. I'm happy to explain better what I am doing if you have questions.

[GRadice]

I've moved on to the jamb and threshold for the doors. It is nearly the same construction as for the window apart from a difference in naming. Instead of a stool and sill there are the same pieces assembled as a two part threshold. And since the door threshold is longer there are two dovetailed and wedged tenons that drop into mortices in the floor beam. These prevent the threshold from bowing up in the middle. Yes, I could just screw them down or screw up from below, but what fun would that be? The ends have the same splines as the window stool to keep the ends from lifting up or twisting. Installation is also the same: cut the threshold a hair over length (and scribed to any deviation of the post faces from 90 degrees), then spread the posts with some reverse clamps to allow the threshold to drop in.

The dovetailed tenons:

534142534143534144


And installation. Post have been spread a bit and ready to install.

534141

Ready to tap down. Another quarter turn on the clamps needed for clearance.

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And almost down.

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Success!

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And wedged.

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And a tight fit at the posts at both ends. Whew!

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I will say that I was a little disappointed in my first attempt with the window. But I learned a lot from that and I feel pretty good about the door.

[GRadice]

Here is the rest of the window jamb. The sill has grooves routed to accept 1/8" stainless steel bar stock as tracks for rollers that I'll inset into the window sash. End grain of the upper jamb piece are covered with white linseed oil paint. The sill is joined to the side jambs with a housed through mortice and tenon. The side jambs are joined to the top with dovetails. There are holes drilled for mounting screws and mortices for plugs to cover the screw heads.

I have the external door jamb done almost exactly the same way but it is difficult to photograph in a way that shows anything interesting. Imagine the same but twice as wide and tall.

534648534649534650

Although in essence just a simple box, the trick is that in modern western framing (at least in the US, an I assume in Oz), window jambs are built solid and square and them shimmed into a rough opening. Gaps are flashed and covered with trim and caulked. In this old school Japanese construction, the jambs also have to be square so the windows/doors don't bind but must be fit to the shed frame without trim or caulk. As a first time amateur I'm pretty sure mine won't be up to Japanese carpenter standards. I'm concerned about weather tightness over the long term. On the other hand, this is a shed. And I'm old enough that my long term is probably short enough to not worry about it.

[GRadice]

We got a few days of dry weather. That allowed me with my neighbour's help to install the roof flashing. We hope to start installing the metal panels tomorrow. Since the underlayment is also on, the roof is water resistant enough to take the tarp off. At least long enough to get the panels up there.

535418

[GRadice]

And between rains we got a few of the terne panels up. It took more brain work that I like to figure out where to snip and fold the panels on the rake ends.; The manufacturers instructions were meager. But I think we have a system, now.

535513

[GRadice]

Roofing on sunny days. Windows in progress on rainy days. This time of year it is about 50:50 so I'm going back and forth.

535573

[GRadice]

Nearly done with the roof panels.

535714

[GRadice]

535746535747

[rwbuild]

:2tsup: x 10

[GRadice]

Windows parts are nearly done. I still need to chop mortices for the rollers and pulls, and finish plane before assembly.

535957

[GRadice]

External jambs for the windows and doors are done. The inner of each pair of windows and doors runs between the posts and the outer of each pair between the external jambs.

536557536558536559

[GRadice]

I added some temporary steps. The rise from grade to the shed floor is about 550 mm and man was I getting tired of lifting myself up in one go. Not as young, etc. etc. This is more civilized. Eventually the plan is have stone slabs but that will wait until the shed is finished. But wth the steps there another plus is that I can build a potting bench for inside, start moving gardening supplies in there, and my wife can actually use the shed during planting season (which for us begins right now) without disrupting my finishing the doors and windows.

536568
I've had another go round with the roofing company to supply me the few remaining panels I need. "Sure, no problem, we'll send them out next week, " they said. That was a month ago. The latest is that they were going to fabricate them today. Not holding my breath.

[GRadice]

I finished the gable pendants by adding a touch more sculpting and mounted them. I'm very happy with the way they look.

536776536777536778

[rwbuild]

:2tsup: x 10

[GRadice]

Windows are glued up. Here is a test fit today. They still need a little tweaking, and some glass and stops to hold the glass in place.

536937536938


And 30 seconds of them in motion.


https://youtu.be/8NnhBqfuclE

[GRadice]

It seems my last post before the move may not have transferred over to the new site. And maybe none of you have been transferred over either? In any case, the latest update is that I have finally after many months finished the metal roof. My neighbour did all the actual climbing on the roof parts while I remained safely on the ground sniping and bending panels and cheering him on. We are both very happy to have the roof done so there will be no more ladders to climb. We left a few boot marks but that is fine with me. They will fade over time.

I'm pretty sure this is the only roof like this in my town of 60,000 people, and probably one of only a handful in my state of Oregon (population 4.2 million).



537488537489537490537491

[Uncle Bob]

Looks very well built!

[r3nov8or]

I think I missed it... What's the roof material? Looks like zinc?

[GRadice]

It is tin coated stainless steel:
https://www.roofinox.com/en/

Made into interlocking panels by Spengler Industries:

https://spenglerindustries.com/products/quadro-panels/

[GRadice]

I finished the windows today. That took more fiddling than I would have liked. I had to remake one of the sash since it was out of square, and get the glass trimmed, and add weatherstripping. But now all done.

537512

Next up are the copper half round gutters.

[r3nov8or]

:2tsup:

[GRadice]

I'm working on the doors and gutters now. The doors will look like this:

537519

Here are the milled rails, stiles and hip board layed out to check proportions. I was able to get wonderful stock: clear and straight grained. The hip boards are 300 mm wide with a rippled chatoyance.

537520 537521

I have the mortices done.

537518


By a miracle (actually I knew a guy who knew a guy) I was able to get for about half price some new old stock, Japanese 80 mm half round copper gutters and brackets, and a rain chain from someone who purchased them from Japan and then never used them. The lot wasn't everything I needed but I was able to fill out the set with items from the same maker in Japan. The dollar/yen exchange worked in my favor although the shipping costs hurt. Oh, well.

Here is what the end caps for gutters look like. And the brackets are unusual in that they are tapped into holes in the end grain of the rafter tails. The risers for the brackets are graded in height to produce the drain slope. Apparently these are getting hard to find in Japan since building with exposed rafter tails is no long the norm.

537522 537523 537525

And the rain chain in place temporarily to make sure it was long enough. It is.

537524

The next step for the gutters is to solder the end caps and the short gutter sections together. I'm not a soldering expert so I've been researching methods and materials. My current plan is to use a 50:50 lead:tin solder, appropriate flux, and either/both copper soldering irons like this:

537526

Or a chisel tipped electric soldering iron that should arrive tomorrow. Or an open flame from a propane torch. Then some practice to see what works best.





537518

[r3nov8or]

Love the detail :2tsup:

[GRadice]

The front gutter is up along with its rain chain.

537527537528537529

[GRadice]

And tested the rain chain. It works!

https://youtube.com/shorts/dQZKL9X8qM4

[r3nov8or]

Aha! I thought the water was going to overflow each cup.

But thinking about it now, the potential for stagnant water would be an issue...

[GRadice]

Yes, and each flower acts as funnel to reduce splashing. Pleasant sound, too.

[GRadice]

I'm working on the two sliding glass doors. I have the rail and stile joinery done and dry fit (double tenons, through and will be wedged). I'm on to making and fitting the lattices. This is the front lattice in progress temporarily arranged to show the scheme. There will be a glass pane behind that and a removable matching lattice behind. Solid hip board below.

537547 537548

[GRadice]

One door glued up. I set in place to see how it would look and measure for trimming to fit. It looks square but maybe 3-5 mm too tall. I'll get that sorted and then finish the other door.

537554

[r3nov8or]

:2tsup:

[mic-d]

Looking great ��

[GRadice]

Both doors are now fit. I'm very happy with their motion.


https://youtube.com/shorts/Lv5XlKzfe-w

If anything they slide too easily but that will be dampened when I add the weather stripping and have extra mass when I install the glass. That should happen next week.

[r3nov8or]

Nice!

[GRadice]

I've been working on a potting bench for the shed. The goal for this piece is to mostly use up scraps from around the shop or construction grade timbers, make it sturdy and durable, draw bored M&T joinery, minimal glue or metal fasteners. Not particularly Japanese esthetic except for being simple. The base is done and the top will be done this weekend.

The legs are western red cedar, rails and aprons are Douglas fir. The top is laminated from a mix of boards from my stash that were too gnarly for furniture but fine for this. It includes black cherry, butternut, sycamore, white oak, and madrone. Plywood shelves will drop in the rebates in the rails.

537621537622537623

- - - Updated - - -

[r3nov8or]

Love that top!

[GRadice]

Top is fit to the base, plywood shelves fit to the rails. Still need to sand and finish the top, tack down the shelves with bamboo pegs, and make the border boards for the top that will keep the dirt and mess confined.

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