Timberframing Part 3: The Raising

In the past two parts of my timberframing primer, I wrote about theory, layout and some joinery. In this post, I'm going to talk a little bit about the raising of the 10 x 8 shed we built (mostly - we didn't get to the rafters). The first thing to know is that raising is a community event. It takes a bit of group strength and coordination to lift hundreds of pounds of hemlock into position safely - our instructors were extremely experienced in handling structures much larger than our shed.

Most all of our joints were too tight and had to be tweaked before they fit well. After one bent's joints were satisfactory, we tilted it into place. Major rules for lifting these beasts are:

1. One person is in charge and everyone listens to him/her.
2. Don't lift if you don't have to. (use crowbars and levers when possible)
   
3. Don't lift timbers alone. Ever.

I'll wrap up with some photos that tell the rest of the story.

Enjoy.