YAWS (Yet another woodshed), from scratch

[DiscoInferno]

Ran out of wood storage again, time to build another woodshed. Here are links to my previous one, which I built using peeled balsam fir poles from my property and sided with hemlock and maple that I milled:
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/timber-frame-woodshed.52493
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/wood-shed-update-now-with-siding-also-some-milling-pics.70211

I didn't feel like dealing with balsam this time, and unfortunately our beeches are starting to die from beech bark disease. So I figured I'd use the beech before it's all punky.

First, need to cut some trees down:

This tree was dead, but the trunk was in perfectly good shape. Same with another I felled. Many others are not in such good shape.

Next, I milled some posts:

I got to try out my new Timberjig mill for this. I mostly think it's great for this sort of thing, except that the quality control on one particular part makes square cuts difficult. But that's for another post.

The footings are in place:

Beech will rot quickly in contact with the ground, so I used the same concrete footings as for the previous shed. Note there is a woodpile right in the middle; there was a second one closer to the camera that I unstacked in a pile off camera. I couldn't bear to do that again, so I built around this stack. Note also the multiple layers of shredded tarp on the pile in the background. This is why I need sheds, tarps cannot survive UP weather.

Here the posts are up and braced:

Because the footers follow the non-flat ground, I had to put the posts up, use a string to measure for the cuts, and then take them down and cut them and replace them one at a time. I soaked the bottoms of the posts in CopperCoat (copper napthenate) and painted all the surfaces to try to ward off any bugs or rot. I used the same on the last shed and I've had no issues.

At this point I got lazy with the camera. I milled 4 beams to run front-to-back, notched the posts, and attached with carriage bolts. For purlins I just used 2x4s from Menards instead of milling those out of beech. Partly because it was quicker, and partly because I don't know how much green beech 2x4s would warp. I ran the purlins between the beams on ledgers, and they are also end-nailed. The roof is 8 sections of 3' x 8' steel, yielding roughly a 24' x 6' storage area (around 7 cords depending on height):

The ratchet strap was used to square up the roof framing before the metal was screwed down, it was a couple of inches off.

Still needing to be done: flashing front and back, some diagonal bracing, and siding (next year). Also filling it up, which isn't going to take long with all the beech dying.

 

[sportbikerider78]

Looks great man.

 

[Ash]

Nice! How do you like the timberjig?

 

[iamlucky13]

Looks good, although the pole shed you linked to wins the charm award.

Out of purely idle curiosity, how long does your timberjig take to set up for a cut? Any idea how long a single pass through, say an 8-12' long log takes you?

 

[DiscoInferno]

Nice! How do you like the timberjig?

I liked almost everything about the timberjig. It's lightweight and easy to put on and take off, I like the rail design better than the Alaskan-style rails, the thickness gauge was accurate. Just one somewhat major problem, and one minor one. The minor one is that the knobs for tightening the thickness guide aren't as secure as I would like, it did come loose once and the cut got thicker in the middle of the cut. The major one is that the ends of the aluminum riser (the "scale bail") are not square, and so the riser mounts at an angle to the bottom plate:

This means that the saw bar, which is attached to the bottom plate, is not parallel to the guide, which is attached to the scale bail. I reported this to Baileys and they sent a replacement, but I could see just looking at the ends that it was even worse than the first one. Ideally I'll find someone with a metal shop to square up the ends. I found that if I mounted the bail backwards (so it leaned back rather than forwards) I tended to get more-square cuts, probably it countered some irregularity in how I held it. This issue doesn't affect cuts with the rails, which only use the bottom plate, but that's just the first 2 cuts.

 

[DiscoInferno]

Looks good, although the pole shed you linked to wins the charm award.

Out of purely idle curiosity, how long does your timberjig take to set up for a cut? Any idea how long a single pass through, say an 8-12' long log takes you?

I certainly wasn't as fast as the man in the official videos. It takes a few times to figure out what goes where to get the right alignment, and beech weighs a lot more than the pine in the videos so lifting and rolling is a challenge. But figure 5-10 minutes to choose where to screw the end boards on for the first cut and to clamp on the guide rail. Another 5 to reposition the rail because it's too far away from the log, etc. Setting up for the 2nd cut is easier, as you put the rail directly on the flat surface. And the subsequent slices don't require much setup at all, just the thickness. I think an 8' pass through 12-14" diameter beech took maybe 5 minutes, although I did not attempt to time it. But that's very saw, chain, and wood dependent. I got as many as 6 or 7 cuts on a tank of gas.

I was testing out a new setup at the same time: the WoodlandPRO narrow-kerf 20" bar/chain combo on my 359. For semi-chisel chain it was very aggressive, I need to grind it down to 10 degrees to smooth out the cut a little. But I was very impressed with how it held an edge, usually while milling I need to sharpen a lot but not in this case. With the timberjig in place I had 16" of cutting length, which is fine for dimensional lumber. One of the logs was wider and I used my other mill (Panthermill) to slice it up first.