woodmizer

Greetings, dear reader! A lot has happened since my last journal. Springtime in Hale County is always busy with excitement as the weather improves. Short and cold days gradually turn sunny and quietly cheerful. The cows are particularly pleased as their fields begin to turn green again with fresh and tasty grass. Cats like myself take to basking. The students welcome the shift. Jeans are replaced with jean shorts, toboggans with sun hats. Moral appears to be high. What follows is a synopsis of recent events.

Ground Breaking News

My crew has been hard at work pushing the design of Reverend Walker’s Home to a new level of detail. Progress is swift and we look forward to breaking ground within the coming days. But before the shovel meets the dirt, there is a lot of rigorous preparation that needs to happen to ensure a smooth process. The team has been putting together a series of construction sets ranging from batter board drawings to plumbing documentation.

Batter board plan — batter-boards documentation

Jig for footings drawing — pier bracket jig

Last week, our friend and mentor, Steve Long, joined us on site to put up our batter boards! Batter boards give us the ability to make exact measurements during the building process. In the next couple weeks, the boards will help us with marking for earthwork, slab formwork, setting columns, and positioning plumbing stub-outs.

Students doing batterboards — distant students set a batter board

Addie through the site level — a site-level’s view of Addie

Paul through the site level — a site-level’s view of Paul

Milling

In addition to studio and site work, Adam Maggard, an Auburn University Forestry and Wildlife professor and Extension Specialist in Forest Systems Management, brought the Forestry Department’s portable wood mill to give a demonstration to students and faculty, mill two trees that were felled on Reverend Walker’s site, and to inspect the studio’s own portable mill. With Adam’s help, as well as Rural Studio Alum Will McGarity, and Professor David Kennedy, we milled cedar for a closet, and pecan slabs for exterior benches.

becca mills wood — Becca operating the mill

Windows and Hatches

An important component of Reverend Walker’s Home is a light & ventilation unit we are designing and building. The system takes the components of a single-hung window: light and ventilation, and separates them within an overarching frame. The goal is to produce a system that is more durable than the windows that are typically within budget.

The system features a fixed frame glass panel next to an operable ventilation hatch, which is covered by bug screen. By separating these systems we can potentially create a product that is comparably priced, and more airtight than conventional windows.

Reverend Walkers Window Unit — Reverend Walker’s Home unit

section drawings of unit — current iteration: sections through window and hatch

window unit plan — current iteration: plan of unit

After many iterations and with the help of Keith Cochran from Wood Studio, this is the current state of the system. It is a shop-built painted cypress frame containing a fixed glass window and an operable cypress hatch. We will be testing this design with a full scale mock-up in the coming weeks!

That is all for now, dear reader. I implore you to return for more information as I continue to document our endeavors. My evening tuna is being served in the officer’s hall, so I must leave my crew to continue their work. They are a self-sufficient and hard-working bunch, and I trust them to meet and exceed my very high expectations.

Respectfully yours,

Taterhead

Students working outside on Morrisette Campus

Live from Newbern, Alabama, it’s the Thermal Mass and Buoyancy Ventilation Research Project Team! 77 weeks in Hale County and the graduate student team is still firing on all cylinders. This post, they’ve got updates on concrete panels, drainage, and the steel walkway and stair. Plus, the wonders of the Wood-Mizer, a portable sawmill, for those readers who make it to the very end!

Panel Pour Product

*Section Isometric: a peak at the interior concrete panels*

A couple of weeks back the TMBV team poured four, new concrete panels. These panels were designed to test tongue and groove joining system. Also, this round of test concrete panels experimented with vertical formwork.

As predicted during the struggle of formwork construction and concrete pouring, the vertically poured panels did not turn out so well. However, the team made promising headway with the new joining method. Alright, now that the panels have cured, let’s take a look at the material.

Students undoing concrete formwork from concrete panel — Horizontal Pour… Easy Breezy

formwork lifted from half poured panel — Horizontal Pour… Easy Breezy

First, you’ve got to remove the panels from the formwork. You know from the team’s previous post that one of the vertically poured panels did not make it all the way through pouring. Look at that; live edge concrete!

rough edge of horizontally poured concrete — Vertical Pour Surface

However, the smaller vertically poured panel survived! The results were surprising, as seen above this panel had more air gaps than the traditionally poured panel. The students previously thought having formwork on all sides would create more even and consistent panels. But, without an open surface to trowel, the vertically poured panels were subject to more air bubbles.

The typical, horizontally poured panels turned out smooth and even as ever. And just look at that grooved edge!

Diagram showing the corresponding concrete panel surfaces and joints

Next, the concrete panels were attached to the Fabrication Pavilion pin-up wall to test the joints. The results were inconclusive. Some tongue and groove joints turned out well, while others broke at the edges of the panel. Going forward, the team wants to attempt a shiplap joint for the panels. Also, they’d like to make more, smaller test panels to assemble in a miniature wall configuration.

Drainage Days

As you can imagine, in the everchanging weather of late, the Test Building site became the town swimming pool. The 18″ deep hole containing the foundations was nearly filled to the brim during the past weeks’ rain. Luckily, the team, Mason, and a mini excavator got out while the sun was shining to install the drainage. The French drain leads from the Cooling Porch, betwixt the foundations, into the forest line.

Mason uses mini excavator to dig 18" trench for drain

student digging trench for drain between foundations

Rain between two foundations leading to woods

Walk this way

You might have been wondering how one day you might access the 30′ tall, 8′ above ground Test Buildings. Well, you’ll use the steel ships ladder and walkway of course.

As of late, the TMBV team students have been designing the fabrication and installation process of the stair and walkway. To detail the stair fabrication process, they partook in a classic rural studio technique; the cartoon storyboard.

Next, the team planned out the order of installation of the walkway and the SIPs structural floors. First, they plan to place and secure one assembled SIPs Test Building floor. Second, place the other Test Building floor, using the walkway steel angle frame to square the two to one another. When everything is properly adjusted, lag screw the steel angle frame to the SIPs floors. Third, place 1″ metal grate on top. Next, place and bolt the stair to the walkway and ground connection. Lastly, site weld the handrails to the exterior face of the steel angle frame. Voila! It’s that easy if you only have a crane!

axonmetric drawing showing process of install of steel walkway and stair between test buildings

Wood-Mizer Wonder

And the special bonus; a portable sawmill! Adam Maggard, an Auburn University Forestry and Wildlife professor and Extension Specialist in Forest Systems Management, travels the southeast with the Wood Mizer portable sawmill conducting forestry management research and reaching out to family, forest land owners. Adam collaborates with Auburn Architecture Professor and TMBV colleague David Kennedy and Rural Studio Alum Will McGarity. The three gave the students a Wood-Mizer tutorial as well as an introduction to their research.

Rev. Walker’s Home Project team requested the visitors to help mill some gorgeous tree’s from Rev. Walker’s land. Each student took a turn milling down either the cedar or pecan tree. The students were amazed by the machine and even more amazed that freshly cut cedar is bright, pink. It was a remarkable experience, big thanks to Adam, David, and Rev. Walker from the Thermal Mass and Buoyancy Ventilation Research Project Team!

On Recent Occurrence and Activity