! Josiah’s Bootcamp Log

It's great seeing the progress in those pics Josiah, thanks for sharing! #4 is called a butterpat joint according to Ben Law's book 'Roundwood Timber Framing'; when you have a chance, could you describe how you scribed that joint? I'm hoping to use that joint when building my own wofati when I retire (now hitting the 26 months and counting mark!) and that joint would be placed along the main beams which would hold the girders in place without any rebar pins.

Mark,

Glad to hear from you! I’m trying to thoroughly document the scribing process for the Wofati greenhouse movie, so you can look forward to that. What made this one so difficult was that it’s face was neither in plane with, nor perpendicular to any other face on the greenhouse.

Cheers!

Josiah Kobernik wrote:#31

Do you guys have a large point diamond trowel and a brick jointer?
Hold a loaded up trowel along the bottom and push your mud in as you need.

Don't know how well it works with cob but it works well with mortar joints and it is faster, neater, and you don't wear out your gloves or finger tips.

Kyle, we do have those tools and I frequently use them for putting rough cob between logs. It hasn’t worked for me with finish cob as the irregular surface of the log causes the trowel to bump and leave marks on the cob. Maybe if we had one of those finger shaped trowels.

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One part of my job that I enjoy and am challenged by is managing the cameras to film the construction of the first wofati greenhouse. Some days I only use one camera. Some days I hand them out like candy to any boot willing to point and shoot. I'm constantly juggling batteries (fresh in right shirt pocket, dead in left), memory cards (I could have sworn I packed an extra!), and focus as I shift from builder to film producer back to builder.

what an adventure.

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Today we made 12 roundwood notches on the first wofati greenhouse. Only 6 more to go.

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Today we installed the last beams on the first wofati greenhouse. A significant step indeed.

Do the slopes.of those front beams match the beams they connect to?

That is the intention. They are not exactly the same but they are close.