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Four of the great room top arch sections are seen here. The joinery has been cut
and the arches inspected to ensure quality compliance. Next stop will be final finishing
and oiling.
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The two remaining arch sections for the outside bents are seen here in the Layout
Barn. Doug will begin work on these today. First he will plan all sides to smooth
and square the arch sections then he will layout the tenon joinery at each end.
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John Box looks on with wonder at the arch form for the three bedroom arches. This
is one of the largest arches we've built and it is a challenge. You can see the
size of the arch compared with John who stands near 6 foot.
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The first load of 1x laminate board from the board planer arrives at the shop. There
will be many of these loads before all three bedroom arches are finished. The flexible
nature of this material makes handling such long boards difficult. But, it's this
very flexibility that we need to conform the laminate material to the arch form.
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All of the laminate board for the arch has been pulled into the shop and is ready
for staging. Even in this rather cool shop we are working up a sweat moving all
this material around. It really has a mind of its own.
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The initial build has been done successfully and the crew is pulling the end pieces
into position. There is considerable tension in the arch laminate so many clamps
are required to hold the board to the form.
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Doug and Kevin are inspecting the ends of the form to ensure the laminate is following
the curving surface correctly. They have determined that we need additional pressure
on the ends of the laminate to pull the boards into place. There is a lot more tension
that we anticipated and the crew has to work quickly before the epoxy becomes unworkable.
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Keith and Doug decided to run a strap across the end section and pull the laminate
into place with a "come-along" braced against the main support post in
the form. The plan works better than anticipated and the laminate boards are pulled
into place. We will used this technique on the two remaining arches.
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The first build of a bedroom arch is completed and it is an impressive sight. Tomorrow,
all the clamps will be removed and we will do this all over again as we build up
the arch to its final thickness. Building an arch of this size is very time consuming
but the end result is very impressive!
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