Mastering the Strongest Timber Frame Joinery Techniques

This is a timber frame bladed scarf joint, which is actually one of the strongest scarf joints that you can actually put together. It actually is going to help you with deflection. It's actually used for, let's say you don't have a lot of big beams on your property, you can make yourself a big beam by making this exact joint. And the other good point about this joint is it's also good for old barns where you actually might have a rotted post. This would be the joint you use to change the bottom of a post. So today we're going to show you how easy it is to actually cut off of your sawmill. And we're going to give you directions on exactly how we lay it out, how we cut it, and how much fun it actually is. So let's get together and let's make a bladed scarf joint together. Let's do it. I love this thing. I do too, Jay. Let's get it on. So you get your joint that you just made off your sawmill, and you can do all your checking. You can see our tenon there is perfect. But let's just say you make a bigger cut, smaller cut. Here by me, I did it for you. We made one that's actually a little bit different. So actually you can actually make the adjustment, any adjustment you need to make on your next piece that you're going to do. So it's easy sometimes if you needed to do the layout is to actually put piece, piece together. And you can actually see what's going on here. Now you can see this isn't a beam for anything. We're just cutting the joint for you today. So this piece of wood is not the greatest on this end. So it might be a little bit of, let's just say roughness. But if you were building a building, you'd have a fresh beam. Important, also check before you get going. I almost ran past it. You see from the middle how square this cut is. So there's really no work to do to this. Zero. Maybe a little sanding. That's beautiful. It is beautiful. So you can actually use this as a guide. You could even measure the pieces as you do it. And it gives you some sort of visual here. But we know we have a two by eight. So what I'm doing is I actually marking my first center cut. Before we go too far, let's just check, make sure we're centered. Right on four. So it's perfect. I'm going to keep going so I don't have to erase this line. Okay. So we know we want the tab here. Now what I do is I actually cut my tabs at this point long. So I'm able to adjust the fitting, cut it and make it at the final, uh, the final procedure there. So normally what I'm doing is I'm leaving a five inch tab and then we're going to go back to 29 inches, which is going to be the 24 inch lap plus our five inch tab. There we go. Now we're right here. We want to mark our tab at an inch and a half using our, uh, there's where our tab is going to be. Here's the line. There's our five inches. Here's going to be the end of our tab. Now let's check. Maybe my math was wrong. I kind of just sped through that. Boom, boom. You come from the four inches of your tab. You should be 24 inches. It's 24 inches. And there we have that portion of what we need to do there. Okay. So now we're at the point where we need to make, uh, this actually fit of what's going on here. So we need to make an inch and a half tenon, which, uh, I marked down here, but I'm also going to bring this and mark it down here. I'll show you why in a minute, but the final layout that goes on here. So, uh, we know that we were looking for a four inch pocket. I said, we've cut our tabs five inches. You're a four and a quarter, three and three quarter. You can adjust on your final cut. I mean, I know everybody wants to be precise, but stuff happens here. You know what? When you put your ruler on one, do the math. Okay. And I actually always hold my ruler on one. I'm going to try to erase that line there for you. That's a good tip though. I just picked that up the other day from you. I'm like, you know what? That it's accurate. I mean, this, uh, yeah, no, of course I have to do math. That's a whole different story. So really that's what we got going on here. So I'm going to take my eraser. If you actually do a layout and you got to move, remove. Are you good with that representation? Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Okay. So there we go. Uh, last little bit that we're going to do right here is I'm going to take my lines. I'm going to square them down so that I've got, uh, no pencil deck. Here you go. Perfect. That's going to be more accurate. So this is going to be my guidelines for my saw. Got to really work that pencil deck on the end piece you do. And that's what I do. Okay. Then we also need to just square down. This is going to be our cut for our top shoulder, our tab going in. We're going to come back. We're going to cut to here. I've got to do one more square mark right here on the other side. So we have two shoulder cuts, two that we're going to use our skill saw for. And then we just need to plunge a hole right here, run it through the mill. I mean, um, hopefully that is a good representation of actually how to lay it out. Now you actually, I probably skipped over. You probably, if you want to double check, now you got your piece next to you. So I was ready to hit it on the saw, but let's double check everything. So I'm two and a half to my first tab, perfectly two and a half to my next tab, four inches to the following four inches to the bottom. I like when the math and then five and a half to the next top of the tab. Now this is actually the tab that's a little bigger. So maybe it's not look, it's five and five eights. So what would you do? What would you do? Let's make the top tab bigger because I know the line here is perfectly in the middle. So our tab was taken maybe a little bit more up top. I'm going to have to make this. Let's take the magic eraser, Jay. Bring it out. Let's get the magic eraser. Double check your work. Double check your work. Always. So now we've made tab. That's the inch and five, eight, a little bit bigger. So it's going to fit tighter in our saw. And I'm going to do that. Now I got to change the line again. I don't mind going back. That's the layout. We double checked it. It's back to what we need to. So we're going to show you how we plunge through it and show you how we cut it on the sawmill. Then we'll fit it. Now that you've got your beam completely laid out, you're happy with your layout. It's time to start cutting what we need to get the sawmill to get this ready. So there's a couple of prep cuts and we'll go from there. Really the first thing that we're going to do is work on this tab. So we're going to be using a chain mortiser. All I'm doing is helping there with the blowout, but this can actually be done if you want to use a Forrester drill bit and can drill perfectly straight, have a guide. You can do that and chisel it out for us. It is just quicker and simpler right here. So we need the gauge up right on our zero there. Then let's just check to make sure. I always try to cut a little bit less and tighter than that. I want to move this this way. There we go. I want to save my life. There we go. I think it's time for a new blade We've been pushing it pretty hard, Dan. It is a gooey pine. The pine usually gets through pretty quickly. The first cut is always the hardest no matter what. I'm going to put a new blade on for the video. Okay, now I just need the gauge for my last cut. Yeah, I think we forgot to blow it lower. That's it for that. Okay, see look, that worked out perfect right on our chisel mark. So heck, we did a good job. Now I just need to flip it. Make two cuts. Let's change sides, Jay. Let's Okay, so first right here, we're looking to make the shoulder cuts right here, here and here. They're exactly equal. So you set your saw to the depth that you have. Perfect, my man, perfect. I'm working on your sawmill. I mean, my gosh, it's just as easy. Put your cants on. Finish them. Let's see how we do on this one. You're going to get to see the mark. How'd we do, Jack? Looks pretty good, man. Right on the money. I love the money. But you see, look, we cut just slightly so that we don't, even if we have to break it, chisel the corner, we don't want to make an overcut and that's what we got. So right here, if you look, I've got everything lined up already. We're going to make three cuts with the saw. We're going to call that done. Got it, buddy. I'm going to need you on the mill, my friend. Show those marks in there. You got those marks? We are ready to cut. I don't even know if we warmed her up today, Jay. We did. I was using it earlier. Oh, yeah, you were. OK, I'll leave you alone. Should be running good, Dan. OK, can you actually just drop it down to here, buddy? Let's let her have it. So I'm really reading the laser. It helps with Jay over there. So as the cuts coming across, I'm reading, making sure we're doing everything correct. All right, let's do it. Pop me up one button. Hit me one button up. OK, let's go. There you go. Let's roll. I'll got you. Drop her down, buddy. Perfect. Perfect, perfect, perfect. One cut done. One cut done. Nice. Let her have it. That's it. See how easy that was for me to line up? I mean, I know where I'm going to be. Do me a favor. Pop it up. Go up again. Up on here. See, I cut. I moved too fast. I didn't finish my cut. That will take this board out. Let's see how. Hey, hey, hey. One click down. OK, go ahead. Right there. Took our board right out of there. OK, we've got only one more cut to do, guys. And then we just need to do a little bit of cleanup. Little bit down. Give me one click down. Let's do it. You have a perfect inch and a half tenon. So, really, there you go. That's a scarf joint. Cut pretty quickly. And I actually made a mistake and we had to come back. So, I don't know. It's not that quick with a chisel. Does look good. So, we just have a little bit of clean out right here. It's probably going to be perfectly square. So, OK, these are actually still rough cut off the mill. We have not even done anything to them yet. Not put any sand. We're really just dry fitting. Make sure how everything looks. But these joints are tight. If I squoze this together right now with probably with two hammers and a clamp, I could get this together. We're never getting it apart. So, we're going to just take this up, clean it up. But look how flat this is laying, how tight this is. So, on the first look, you can see how this is actually going to work. So, I need to size my tabs now. Just double check the last couple of measurements. Cut the ends of the tabs and we're going to squeeze them together. It is pretty good. This is a strong joint, fellas. Easy to make. I have a feeling there's going to be a lot of these in the next couple of projects. I think we're, yeah, a lot more. Look at the strength that that thing is going to create. OK, we actually just sanded off our little rough sawn material here. But we're going to do our first dry fit to see if we need any adjustments here. And it is tight, fellas. It's tight. So, let me get the crank in. If I do that too much, you see how snug that joint is. Hope it fits, Jay. I hope so too, Dan. We're going to be using a lot of it. There we go. Looking pretty good. Holy smoke. Are we good? Straighten that out. That baby's going to have a little bit more of a knock to it. Pretty darn tight for the first drive, really. Let's unstrap it so we can take a look. Let us unstrap it because let it bounce down just a little bit. I don't think so. It's a very good looking joint. It is a good, this is a good looking, strong, easy joint. You see how square that laid up together. I mean, even here, even this is a rough cut beam. So, we really, it looks pretty good. I got to tell you, if I ran over with my sander, everybody would be liking it. So, that's how really simple and easy on your sawmill that you can actually make yourself a scarf joint, a bladed scarf joint, twice as strong as anything else. I like that better than the lap with the tabs. I do like it better than the lap with the tab. So, there we go, fellas. Beautiful. Sand it up, make it look as pretty as you want, but look at that joint. It's tight. There ain't nothing wrong with that little rough. See you, guys.