Tréteau 31 -finis!

Last post in this series, previous installments are archived to the right of the page, and for a preamble, please look at the multi-post series entitled "French Connection", which are scattered here and there back over the past 12 months.

The last matter to deal with on this project is the fitting of the sacrificial cap. I managed to obtain a nice piece of vertical grain Fir from the architectural millwork shop down the street, for $6. Price was right! I wanted something a bit softer than the Canarywood, a material that would not be too slippery in surface quality, and the Fir fit the bill perfectly.

I made up a MDF jig to rough out the sliding dovetail mortises, of which there are 6 in total to be cut in the top and cap:


A few steps later, the mortises were roughed out:


Then a little chisel work to square up the drop in sections - here on the Fir cap:


A run in with a dovetail bit and a little more chisel work and the mortises were complete:


Then I made up the double dovetail keys in a scrap piece of white oak, and checked the fit of the keys:


The fit was acceptable, so I glued them in place.

Next, I started cutting the trench for the locking pin:


I checked the pin against the trench to see how it fit:


Next, I installed the cap, slid it forward and transferred marks from the beam to the cap:


The trenched parts complete:


Install - the parallelogram shaped pin is Honduran Mahogany, which is about half-way in between the hardness of the Fir and the Canarywood:


Peek-a-boo out the other side:


Last step was to clean up the cap with a few planing passes and some chamfering:


Here it is, at last all done and ready for use:


The other side:


For the near term, I'll leave the fixing pin a bit long, and then run it in and out a few times before trimming it flush at some future point. The cap is also slightly proud of the beam to act as a bit of a bumper to keep the beam underneath it in better shape longer (I hope).

All in all it came out well, though not all the fits are as nice as I would like them due to an error in the glue-up process. The main point was to learn a layout method which would apply to roof carpentry, and in that respect it has been a very worthwhile undertaking. The sawhorse should last a while - I wonder how much weight it can take? I won't be doing any destruction testing though, hah-hah!

Thanks for dropping by today. I wonder what I'll find to write about next time?