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Thread: Notre Dame roof reconstruction

  1. #16
    Quote Originally Posted by Mark Hennebury View Post
    Interesting to see the differences and makes sense, reminds me a little of doing interior boatwork and plotting everything with plumbobs and squares all off of a single stringline from stem to stern.
    I recently met a cabinetmaker from Maine who said that he does interior yacht fitments in his shop using a layout generated by a 3d laser system.

  2. #17
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    How things have changed in such a short time. I worked on boats back in the seventies, did a lofting course, marked measured and mapped everything long before computers arrived. We built plugs and molds and made fibreglass hulls for fishing boats, later worked on outfitting a few sailboats. It was all quite interesting, good for the brain, learning to see things in 3D with no flat surfaces for reference, nothing is square or plumb all compound curve surfaces. I am happy to have started off working in those times, much as it would be nice to use layout generated by a 3D laser.

    Quote Originally Posted by Kevin Jenness View Post
    I recently met a cabinetmaker from Maine who said that he does interior yacht fitments in his shop using a layout generated by a 3d laser system.

  3. #18
    Yes, that's great training, and all the measurements needed to do that intricate lofting and functional sculpture derived from a single straight line plus plumb bobs and squares. Lasers and the like can save a lot of time but the fundamentals don't change.

  4. #19
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    What a privilege to be included in that project. An honor and also obviously well respected for his skills to be on that short list of craftsmen. Good thing he finished your bridge before he left. I'm sure your shirt buttons are popping with pride knowing your son is part of this huge undertaking.

  5. #20
    My wife and I just returned from Normandy where we were able to see some of the truss fabrication for the nave happening at SARL Desmonts in Perriers le Campagne. It's a small company started by 63 y/o Remy Desmonts as a cabinet/carpentry shop. Their primary focus now is on timber framing and restoration. Remy is "retired" but works at the shop every day, while his 24 y/o son Loic is running the show now.

    They have about 20 people currently involved in the Notre Dame project. About 5 are permanent full time employees, some are members of the Compagnons de Devoir, an ancient guild with a traditional apprentice/journeyman/master system, some are students or graduates of state technical schools, some are trainees changing from other careers, some are independent French craftsmen rung in for this job and there are four Americans, all members of the Timber Framers Guild. There are two other Amis working at Ateliers Perreault an hour away on the choir roof and two more working in eastern France on the spire.

    The workshop has one fully enclosed area with cabinet machinery around the perimeter, a large free span enclosed unheated space and a smaller open one, a bandmill and a sizeable log yard. A heavy duty telehandler, a forklift and a couple of small self-propelled stackers help with all the material handling. There is space to set up three trusses at once, and a borrowed bay in a warehouse a couple of doors down for overflow space. The office is in a small building in the yard and there is a communal kitchen/dining room where the workers who don't go home for the 1.5 hr lunch break take turns cooking.

    There is a huge tent, visible for miles from the surrounding farm fields in which the trusses will be fully assembled prior to disassemby and shipment to the jobsite, which is supposed to start in September with the erection finished in December. With at least four separate outfits working on various parts of the roof frame accurate planning and coordination are essential to a successful project.

    The schedule seems aspirational as the finished working drawings started to trickle in from Perrault's drafting office only about a month ago. There are 11 principal trusses connected with transverse frames and 45 simpler secondary trusses, all slightly different as the floor plan is slightly curved and the walls are neither perfectly parallel nor level, plus the pitch changes as the trusses approach the spire, a 19th century addition which involved modifying the original trusses to some degree. The drawings are based mainly on a laser scan done about 20 years ago and a fortuitously commissioned architectural survey done more recently. Very few fragments of the original roof remain, so there is a certain amount of conjecture as to the joinery details, but the intent is to copy the original work as closely as possible, down to inscribing historical witness marks on the parts. I actually was allowed to chop in one line of unknown meaning so I guess I can claim to have worked on the project.

    While waiting on drawings the crew worked on preparing parts. The timbers are sawn on two faces on the big bandmill, then kerfed and hewn to a line on the other two faces and finished all around with broadaxes of various designs. Power tools are used for time savings but the finished surfaces are hand tooled for authenticity and to keep the craft alive. The shop has a collection of saws and axes and other tools and the various crafts people have their own favorites. I caught myself from using "craftsmen" as there are three women on the crew.

    When we arrived the first secondary truss had been assembled and was being photographed in the cabinet shop, while the base chords of the primary trusses were being stockpiled after being mortised on their top faces by the square rule method. The next day another secondary truss was set up for scribing. The first primary truss was being set up in another space while the second one was being laid out on the floor of the largest shed. Miles and a helper were working down the road on one of the "consoles", auxiliary supports like corbels under the primary trusses.

    Most of the joinery is marked out by scribe rule, so the layout lines are snapped on the concrete floor and the timbers are laid out above on horses and the intersections pulled from the floor lines using plumb bobs. Scribing the lateral frames to the primary trusses will be particularly tricky as the plan curves and the truss faces will not be parallel. The trial assembly in the big tent should confirm all the work before it gets on site and assembled in public. Apparently the site in Paris is so tight that the trusses will be assembled on staging before being craned into place while work goes on underneath.

    All in all a very ambitious undertaking and wonderful to see the level of skill and commitment to rebuilding one part of a national religious monument. The fact that Loic, at 24, is able to manage this part of the project is quite impressive. He recently bid on the reconstruction of a Norman longboat (similar to the Viking boats) to be built using only hand tools and had Miles split out and hew an oak log into planks in order Remy, Hank & his dad.jpgto get an accurate labor estimate. I don't think there are many limits to what these people can accomplish given world enough and time.Miles & Matias.jpgZakari hewing.jpgWill Gusakof.jpgtruss layout.jpgRemy and Severine.jpgLoic & Zakari.jpgprimary truss drawings.jpg

    One of these days I will figure out how to arrange text and pictures properly. Until then, wysiwyg.
    Last edited by Kevin Jenness; 05-06-2023 at 2:18 PM.

  6. #21

  7. #22

  8. #23
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    Many thanks for posting that Kevin!!!

  9. #24
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    There is a famous unfinished Greek Temple, maybe in Africa. They chisel the layout for roof and column swell on the floor using string etc. After it was built the marble floor would be polished and flat so only that one temple , shows how they laid it out.
    Bill D

    https://www.jstor.org/stable/24967878

  10. #25
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    Thanks very much Kevin. Amazing undertaking. The photo with the log inventory and another with one of the main trusses being worked on gives a hint of what a massive undertaking it is. I saw a lot of drying cracks in one of the beams. I wonder how the continued drying will affect the joints when they go to reassemble the trusses on site. I guess people who do timber framing have that figured out.

    Sure must have been fun to spend time there.

    John

  11. #26
    Quote Originally Posted by John TenEyck View Post
    I saw a lot of drying cracks in one of the beams. I wonder how the continued drying will affect the joints when they go to reassemble the trusses on site. I guess people who do timber framing have that figured out.

    Sure must have been fun to spend time there.

    John
    Drying checks are part of the deal. I know Miles typically paints joints with a wax/oil mix for storage on his own work to slow down moisture transfer, but I didn't see that here. I believe they will start assembling sections as soon as they have a pair of principal trusses and all the included parts ready, and leave them assembled in the big tent until they are transported in order to minimize warpage during that time. I think it's assumed that if the joints went together initially they can be persuaded to do so again when the time comes, though there must inevitably be a bit of tuneup here and there after storage.

    I would have been happy to sit in a corner for a week to see just how the tricks are done but I fear I would have worn out my welcome.

    Miles will be coming back here for several weeks in June to help his crew with a difficult install. When I said, "I hope it goes well," he reached to touch wood and explained the French turn of phrase for that. The apprentices are called "lapins" or rabbits and the masters "singes" or monkeys. When someone makes a wish as I did the apprehensive recipient must reach out and "touch a monkey."

    Normandy is quite picturesque with many small farms and villages, each one with its church and graveyard. There is highly decorative half-timber and masonry work in even the most utilitarian buildings, and many clusters of wind turbines scattered about. Several of the American woodworkers live here part-time or are thinking of doing so, and they all referenced the different pace of life. It's not easy to find shops open outside of certain restricted hours in the smaller towns, and the care lavished on the buildings suggests that their balance of time and money tips in a different direction.

    brick, flint, slate.jpgLe Bec Hellouin.jpgEglise de Varengeville.jpgOffranville spire.jpgdance on the rooftop.jpgdormer framing.jpglive edge woodworking.jpg
    Last edited by Kevin Jenness; 05-06-2023 at 8:30 PM.

  12. #27
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    Thanks for posting Kevin, very interesting!

  13. #28
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    This is off the chart cool-wise. What a thing to be part of for your son. He will be part of your family lore forever.

    Plus those sawhorses are a thing of beauty. So simple, so strong.

  14. #29
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    Fascinating! thanks.

  15. #30
    Thanks, Kevin!

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