On to the Next Semester

We are in the first few weeks of the second semester researching Green Oak and all its possibilities.  Before we get started on the new things that will be happening, we should recap the end of last semester and where we left off.  We built two different small frames to be placed in a kiln for over a month.  A month in a kiln is about the same time as a year air drying.  The two frames were designed and built using two very different construction methods.  The construction types were picked from a specific criteria that the class discussed and chose.  Each criteria was given a certain weight in the priority of it’s importance and then five different detailed systems were chosen to judge according to this criteria.  

The final three we decided on were a Simpson bracket system, traditional mortise and tenon, and a specific hardware called Sihga.  Unfortunately, the Sihga did not come in time to be built, but beginning this semester we will be experimenting with them.  We built the other two frames in about a week and a half during finals and placed them in the kiln before Christmas break. 

The first week we started classes again we took out the frames to see the changes.  The next step that we will be doing is going through our original criteria in which we selected these two types of construction and grading on things like how they performed, the difficulty to build, etc.  The P3 competition in Washington, DC is coming up fast in April.  We have a lot to do and a great new team to complete the task.  We have six “old faces” from last semester, and five “new faces” that just joined.  Here are some images of the construction process – soon will be images of the aftermath of the frames and how they performed.