Work Continues Offsite

I hope everyone had a good holiday break. The tarps are holding up quite well in spite of the wind and rain that we’ve had. Work may slow down a bit during the winter months. I’ve been busy making the fly rafters and their supports.      

I used a bandsaw to cut the first rafter pattern at the beginning of the project. Then I realized that with a radius of about 26 feet, the chord height across a 7-1/4” saw blade is only a few thousands of an inch. These fly rafters were easily cut with a circular saw. The boards were a little narrow, so a piece was glued on at the top of the curve.        

The dovetail was laid out with a razor knife cutting in about 3/16” deep. A shallow grove is cut with a chisel creating a shoulder to help guide the backsaw. The waste is cut away and the dovetail is cleaned up a little bit with a chisel. The same process is used to make the dovetail mortise in the fly rafter support. The joint is adjusted to make to fit nice and snug.

The next area we will be working on leveling the caboose, fixing up the timbers and replace the floor where the shower was. Then we can work on extending support out to support the platforms on the ends of the caboose.