Dan's Workshop: Raising the Bents

Last time I showed you how Dan is making the bents for the workshop. (If you don’t know what a “bent” is, check out that link.) Here’s where we left off.

Ordinarily, large timber construction requires many hands to manipulate and position these heavy sections, but many hands was something we didn’t have – we only had our four. So to raise the bent and set it in place, Dan used the boom on his tractor, a strap around the beam, and a chain.

He started with a test lift and then adjusted the length of the chain accordingly.

At this point I had to set down the camera and go help. The boom was able to lift the bent about half-an-inch off the ground, so we were able to get it on the piers. Then Dan braced it temporarily.

The second one went up a little more quickly.

Besides the boards as temporary cross-bracing, Dan employed straps and ratchets.

Of course making sure everything is square and level is important and determined the placement of the bracing.

Third one also went well.

The last one proved a bit tricky, but by dinnertime we finally wrestled it into place and Dan secured it.

The next step will be the girders. These will connect the bents along the top outside edges and hold them all in place. Hopefully that step will go as well as this one did.