I didn’t do any work on the lantern this weekend, however before I get underway today I thought I’d post up the remainder of the pictures from last time, as I left things, as they say, hanging.
The barge boards, or hafū each mount independently, sliding in on the horizontal axis until they are fast against the end of the ridge and wall plate beams:
Though fully seated, the draw bars need a gap at the end so that there is some room for them to slide in a bit further when the wedge is driven in:
Currently the space at the end of the draw bar is about 1/16″ – which is barely adequate I suspect and I may yet open it up a tad further depending upon how things go when the wedges are fitted. If I leave a slight amount of space at the end of the bar, and the wedge can be driven down snug but with room to go further, then I would have a little allowance for future tightening up (to deal with wood shrinkage or compression):
A view from the top, through the wedge mortise, showing the two draw bars. Today I will trim these bars back inside the opening so that they leave just a small amount of material at the inside end of the hole, that way the wedge, when driven down, will tighten the joint fully up:
This doubled version of the floating tenon pole joint (yatoi hozo) is my own adaptation and you won’t likely find it any any book (though I’m sure it’s been done before).
So, with the barge boards attached with the draw bar pins, here’s how the roof of the lantern is shaping up:
Another one:
A slightly blurry close up of a hafū fitted onto one of the wall plates, or keta:
I’m unlikely to be winning any prizes at photography shows, eh?
And three pictures giving an overall view – it’s tough to photograph this lantern, with my camera at least, so as to get the whole thing into the frame while having adequate detail:
Today I will make the wedges and finish off the draw bar joints, fine tune the fit of the roof parts a little more, and see if I can get the upper roof boards installed and maybe even get a start in on the upper ridgepole. More pictures will be posted up in a day or two on post 26 – see you then.