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Post by ohiosam on Mar 22, 2013 20:51:46 GMT -6
Here's a couple of pictures of a log being sawn for my barn from the winter of 1912-13. The log is poplar, finished it is sawn on a slight taper 16x16 at the one end 14x14 at the other and is 60 feet long. The saw mill is a Enterprise, not sure if the engine is an Enterprise or if it some other make.  |
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Post by Dave on Mar 23, 2013 9:00:23 GMT -6
Was there a reason for the taper, or was that as big as they could get it from the tree size?
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Post by ohiosam on Mar 23, 2013 9:54:56 GMT -6
I can't be sure but I think they wanted to keep the beam as thick as possible and still be square. This beam is under several queen post trusses supporting the second floor of the straw shed. Originally it was a clear span 30x60, but the beam began sagging. About 10 years ago I jacked it up and got it reasonably level.
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Post by ohiosam on Mar 24, 2013 15:29:20 GMT -6
A couple pictures will explain it better. Here is the beam, originally no posts under it except at each end.  These are the trusses over it.  |
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Post by Dave on Mar 24, 2013 17:22:42 GMT -6
That seemed like they were asking a lot of that span.
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Post by ohiosam on Mar 24, 2013 20:14:11 GMT -6
That was a common truss used in covered bridges. It held for many years, at least 30 years before my dad added one post under the middle. I removed the one post and put 2 posts under it.
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Post by tarnished on Apr 1, 2013 18:25:35 GMT -6
OhioSam: 60ft beam. And it held for 30 years. Tough to say what kind of weight it had to support in that time. Tough to find trees that tall now, let alone getting one milled like that. I am assuming that they brought the mill to your place and did the sawing there. What a story that must have been. Amazing piece of history. Thanks for posting the pics.
John
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