Friends Colorado Springs: Spring-Summer 2023

I am combining work sessions from May through August since several Colorado Springs sessions were missed due to activities in Chama and Antonito. This will be a longer post, however. During this time the old outer sill on the south side was removed and the new one put in place. Much of the time was spent splicing new ends on the vertical supports and tie rods and fitting them to the sill.

At the beginning of May most of the deteriorated ends of the vertical and angled supports have been removed and lap joints cut in anticipation of splicing new wood.

Tie rods have been cut.

Jacks were placed between the intermediate sill below to the clerestory sill above.

After extending the jacks the tenons have been lifted out of the mortises in the old sill.

The old sill now has to be detached from the bolsters and tie rods. It looks like Dean is cutting one of the bolster bolts.

The sill appears to be mostly loose from its attachments. Don is contemplating the next step.

The new sills have been spliced together and are in the roundhouse out of the weather. The one on the right is for the south side. Mortises have been cut and tenons installed on the end for attaching to the end sill.

A closer look at the mortises for the vertical side supports. The plan is to use the south sill as a pattern for spacing the mortises on the north sill.

Craig is drilling a hole in the north sill for the steel plate at the splice.

Sometimes it takes a village.

This photo was taken in early June and shows the new south sill in place next to 163 after having been brought from the roundhouse.

This photo taken the same day shows the new sill under the tenons of the uprights. It looks like everything is lining up well.

In July work continued on splicing and fitting the upright and angled wall supports to unite with the new sill. In this photo Mike is cutting one of the uprights for a new lap joint.

Here we see an upright ready to be spliced and an adjacent tie rod ready for an extension.

A little trimming and smoothing with the chisel.

The new lower portion of the upright is fitted.

The laps in the new extensions could be cut on the band saw.

The new extensions are glued into place and clamped.

The tie rods also need to be reattached. Joe has made connectors that will be welded together with the new lower ends.

This shows how the rod will fit together. Click on image to enlarge.

The angled tie rods are more challenging. Here Ron is holding a laser projecting where the hole for the extension should be drilled through the sill.

Craig is drilling the hole for one of the vertical tie rod extensions.

This is a view of the south outer sill at the beginning of August. A few of the vertical supports have been rebuilt but most have been cut and waiting for new lower ends. The roofs jacks can be seen resting on the intermediate sill.

This is a quiz. What are these corroded steel pieces functions?

From this photo that Glenn took it looks like the piece on the left above is in situ in the left upper part of the photo. The part in the middle above is an anchor for one of the diagonal tie rods. The curvy part on the right above I have not been able to find as yet in Glenn's photos. Stay tuned!