The Tiny House Blog features photos of small houses in beautiful landscapes every so often and this week they posted one that I took while I was in Peru. Click here to see it.
This past week I finally cut oak wedges to tighten up the dovetails on the joists. The tenons are intentionally cut slightly under size to allow room for a hardwood wedge. When this is driven in, it pulls the joint togehter allowing it to stay tight even as the wood continues to dry and shrink. I also filed down a 1" drill bit for the peg holes. The pegs are 1", but they were loose in a hole drilled with a 1" bit. By filing a little bit off of the bit, they fit in the hole better. Check back soon to see the frame tightened up and pegged!
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Why didn't you use green over-size tapered square peg ... and very slightly offset holes?
ReplyDeleteUsing a hand hewn peg (usually octagonal) and offset holes is a great way to do it. It is called draw-boring. Draw-boring eliminates the need for ratchet straps to tighten up the frame and generally speeds up the raising and pegging process, but it requires more forethought when cutting the joinery. The holes must be drilled in each piece individually before the pieces are assembled, each pair offset by about an eighth-inch. When a tapered peg is driven into the hole, it pulls the joint together and even allows for a tight joint after shrinkage. On the next project I want to try this, but for now I was to antsy to get the frame up, so I saved myself a lot of time by buying pegs and just drilling the holes in the assembled frame where I could clearly see the joinery. It gave me fewer places to make layout mistakes as well. Draw-boring is a great way to to it, and is more traditional, so next time I guess! Thanks for the comment.
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