Frame Building

Mark, the man who's making the timber frame, came to Bitton to begin assembling it last Tuesday.



I couldn't be there to join in so I was curious about what I'd find when I went in on Saturday. What I found was this:



As you can see, the sole-bars had been put together with the cross members and temporary tie-bars installed to hold it all together.

One of the longitudinal end beams is missing, it's over length by about an eighth of an inch, so Mark has to do a little work on it.

The whole frame was set up on blocks awaiting installation of the headstocks.

Today I wanted to get out and I fancied a cycle ride, so I rode out to Bitton along the cycle path and found the team working on the frame.



Mark is raising the headstock at this end, he's already located the other end onto the tenons on the sole-bar. Roger is winding the nut on the tie-bar along ready to begin tightening it all up.



The joints are good and tight and the timbers very heavy, so there was a lot of levering and hammering to get the whole thing together.

During a break in the assembly we decided to check that the fittings would fit. Ollie got one of the buffer bodies out of the shed and we put a couple of the sole-bar to headstock straps in. These hold the outside edges of he buffer body.




The sole-bar straps can be seen hear against the inner cheek of the sole-bar. I had some trepidation about whether these would fit properly but when I got the first one and inserted it through the headstock it fit perfectly.

We also checked that the draw-hook would fit.





Lastly Mark returned to the job of marking up the diagonals for cutting and preparation to put into the frame. He's taken them away to prepare and to cut in the slot for the transverse spring that bears onto the buffer ends.