Project Information

Project Description:

 This is a timber framed carport with a solar panel roof. I used SketchUp to modify your 16x24 shed roof pavilion plan. I used a mixture of power tools finished with hand tools. Wood is Virginia pine skidded out from our woods here in southern Indiana. A friend runs a local custom mill and we rough milled them in a day. Bents were all assembled and mounted in place then We had a party to put the rest of it together. It is my first timber frame so it took me about 5 months from tree felling to turning on the solar panels.

It will produce about 1.5 times the electricity our house and cars use. Overall the project cost 18k. The timber frame component was maybe 3k of that (but lots of free labor:).

After trying several different layout methods I settled on using the what I believe is called the line rule. It isn’t described on the timber frame website but definitely should be. It’s much better than square rule for jointers layout and adds only a bit more time. The joints were roughed out with a chain mortise (used from Japan), a 10 1/4 inch circular saw, and a router for the housings. Joints were finished primarily with a 3” slick and 1.5” mortising chisel. A timber would take between 4-6 hours to cut the joints and stain. Just sharing these details for others considering tackling a timber frame.

I am already planning my next project. Hopefully a community pavilion at a local park

Project Images:

Recent Raisings