Home » Spotlight » Spotlight: Jim Rogers and JR Sawmill / Jim Rogers Timber Designs

Spotlight: Jim Rogers and JR Sawmill / Jim Rogers Timber Designs

TFG members at Expo in NH March 2016 smaller
TFG members at Expo in NH March 2016

 

Exploded Dragon and Cross JointJim Rogers owns and operates Jim Rogers Sawmill and Jim Rogers Timber Designs in Georgetown, Massachusetts, and is active with Vintage Tool NE.

Jim Rogers Timber Design assists owner builders with detailed, dimensioned drawings of their project frame. The company uses  state of the art 3-D CAD drawing software.

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They also offer CAD software training, and timber frame consulting services. Jim Rogers Timber Designs teaches many “beginner” workshops around New England and all over the country. He has taught students in Georgia, Kansas, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Rhode Island and Texas. More than 100 students have completed a workshop with Jim Rogers.

Workshop class in North Carolina with student and timbers 2014.
Workshop class in North Carolina

Jim Rogers Sawmill offers custom sawing with a portable sawmill. Some of the sawing options are: Grade Sawn, Quarter Sawn, Flat Sawn, Flitch Sawn, Beams, Log Cabin (two sides),Log Cabin (three sides), Rafters (one side), and Re-sawing. He can saw boards up to 24” wide, and lumber and beams up to 22’ long. He can handle rough logs up to 36” in diameter.

Vintage Tools NE (NE means New England) sells reconditioned vintage timber frame tools such as chisels, slicks, boring machines and bits.

Jim Rogers on site giving instructions 2015.
Jim Rogers on site giving instructions 2015

After running the sawmill for several years and sawing out  complete timber frame barns for a local organization, Jim attended several timber framing schools in New England, with the Friends of the Cheat Pavilionintent to understand timber framing. That drew him into the design side of the industry.

To Jim, time management is key in controlling a timber frame project. As he says “Most folks need to understand the amount of time it will take for them to cut their own frame. I have developed an excel spreadsheet that we use to keep track of every process needed to cut every joint in every timber of their frame. This can be used to do a time study in order to figure out how many hours it is taking you to cut a timber. And then project how many hours/days it will take to complete their project.”

TFG Expo participants with frame winner 2016
TFG Expo participants with frame winner 2016

 

Of course, there are challenges in any construction project. For Jim, The most challenging project that he was involved with was working with an owner-customer to construct his timber frame barn, after he told Jim that he didn’t want to learn timber framing.Pavillion

Jim’s most recent proudest moment, on the other hand, was “ when we completed an 8’x12’ shed frame I designed during a Timber Framers Guild event in New Hampshire.”

Jim Rogers’ email address is jrsawmill@verizon.net.
Find him on the Web at www.jrsawmillcom
The physical address is 117-R Jewett Street, Georgetown, MA 01833
Phone number is 1-800-422-6250
Check him out on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/Jim-Rogers-Sawmill-237684086326465/

4 thoughts on “Spotlight: Jim Rogers and JR Sawmill / Jim Rogers Timber Designs”

  1. Jim became my Obi-Wan when I decided to build a 16′ x 24′ TF pool house in 2014. I could not have completed the project without his teaching, guidance and inspiration. Forever grateful.

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