Building Concepts II Course CMCC- 8' x 12' Post and Beam Bent Walls and Knee Braces Week 12

 This week we invested much of our time in getting the wood to a usable condition. A lot of planing and jointing with the planer. Also we got introduced in electric hand planers. They produce quite a pile of chips afterwards just for your information. We used a 3 1/2" planer and a larger planer for 6" by 6" timbers. We would only plane 3 out of 4 sides because of side was going to be exterior faced and that one gets covered up! Check it out

 One the left you can see the start of our "Mortises" which will be bored out further with a chisel and wooden mallet. Below you can see the "tenon" being cut out of a 4" x 4" timber that will act as a knee brace. A knee brace is a support member that takes the load from the top sill or connecting girders and transfers it the post that its fitted too. Typically at a 45 degree angle also.