Tuesday

German Timber Framing, Session 2: The Stuhl

Session two of the German Timber framing Suite was heavier than the horses, both in weight and complexity.  Stuhl is the German word for stool or chair - the chair upon which the roof sits.  It's an admirably beefy structure.  Any roof will have plates on which rafters sit.  Normally those plates are the top of a wall (as in a shed roof) or rafters run from a plate at the bottom and butt-up to a mirroring rafter or ridge beam (gable roof).  On our structure (above) rafters are supported at three points: on the lower plate (which is more or less the joists that support the second floor), on the stuhl plate (about the middle of the rafters), and at the ridge beam (which is in turn supported by the stuhl).  As I said, beefy in a hot way.
As advertised, one of the focal points of this class was a review of classic timber frame joinery.  There where an assortment of garden-variety connections made, but the cross half-lap caught the eye of a couple folks. It came together like a dream.



AND this is what arrivals to the final class were greeted by...

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