Thread: A Japanese timber framed garden shed

The two eave beams are finish planed, beveled, and have their dovetailed loose tenons fit along with their tapered wedges (wiggle fit only, not hammered home). Here is one. They are ready to be raised! 18 more posts and beams to go....

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I'm working on the combined header/upper track for the doors and window, called a komai. These are usually fit after the frame is up and are meant to be replaceable eventually as the sliding doors or windows wear them down. That presents a joinery challenge if you don't want to nail or screw them to the posts. One method is to use a stub tenon on one end and a sliding tenon on the other. I'm going to put sliding tenons on both ends. If it is a long span the komai is supported in the center by a post that hangs from an eave beam. The post is attached to the komai by a sliding dovetail.

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Here's mine:

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That sliding tenon is very cunning

Now I'm working fitting and finish planing the tie beams and their king posts. Here is one gable end set nearly done. I set the sash and sills on them to make sure I didn't make any gross layout mistakes. I think I might remake the two separate sills as one continuous sill that would tightly wrap the king post. That would eliminate the now odd looking (to me) gap between them. Looks like a place that might accumulate dirt and water and lead to rot.




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