Blog

FifTEE

Over New Years we pulled a little prank on our friend. Most of our friends that have turned fifty have gotten something planted in their yard. My friend Ray Bortz builds houses. He was the recipient of 50 2×4 studs and a sign reading “Ray’s 50, but he’s still a STUD”. Scott (the mastermind behind many of these events) runs the dairy farm up the street. His birthday was celebrated with 50 cardboard cow utters and a sign “Scott Owes All His Success to Utters”. These photos are for our friend Matt. Matt and his family run a local farm with a miniature golf course and driving range. Of course, he was surprised to see how we celebrate his turning fifTEE.

Arched Rafters

A few years ago some friends of Brad’s had taken down an old arched barn on their property. The barn was a classic Gothic arch shaped barn, similar this picture of the Goodrich-Ramus Barn in Eden Prairie, Minnesota.

Wikipedia has a nice article about the Goodrich-Ramus Barn. I suspect that history of the barn here in Pennsylvania is very similar. "The barn was built in 1942 from materials made by Rilco (Rock Island Lumber Company), a subsidiary of Weyerhaeuser located in Albert Lea, Minnesota. The company had a number of premanufactured barn patterns available from a catalog. This method of barn construction became popular in the late 1930s. The roof has a Gothic arch shape formed from laminated timber rafters. The glued, laminated timber rafters had been developed in Europe and introduced to the United States in 1934. The United States Department of Agriculture issued a technical bulletin in 1939 on the use of these rafters, and Rilco was founded in Saint Paul, Minnesota that same year. Rilco’s marketing literature at the time promoted the rafters as being “factory-fabricated and engineered”, and the rafters were shipped predrilled and ready for assembly with all hardware included."

Transporting the rafters with our small truck presented it’s own small challenge. The truck has been a work-horse around the farm. After constructing a rack to hold the rafters secure, we got as many rafters as we could back to the shop.

Over the past few years, Brad has managed to find several uses for the rafters. A Rafter Bed, a few versions of a Rafter Bench, a Rafter Table, and even putting them back to use in a building that we affectionately call The Toaster.

Rafter Bed

The Rafter Bed, shown here at our 2005 Studio Open House. The spindles on this bed are tool handles.

Rafter Bench Version One

This Rafter Bench used found metal parts for legs and recycled pitchforks in the back support.

Rafter Dining Table

The Rafter Dining Table used a recycled steel plate set into a frame from arched rafters.

The Toaster

In the summer of 2006, we used some of the rafters to create a movable storage shed.

The Toaster is built on large skids. We can move it into position with the tractor. We use is mostly for wood storage and sawdust storage.

Rafter Bench

In late 2006 and 2007 Brad began making this version of the Rafter Bench.
We just made one more this year that can be seen here.

Many Thanks

Exhaustion and quiet has taken over on this rainy Monday after the three day Studio Open House. Friday, Saturday and Sunday all had very strong attendance.
It was great to see some old friends and meet many new ones.

We need to thank several people that made this year’s show possible. It was great to have Michael O’Neill and Carol Lee Heisler join us as our guest artists and of course our partner in this show, Royce Yoder.

This was the first year for a few things at the open house. We were very happy to have two local companies that helped supply delicious food and coffee. Tru-Brew Coffee Service generously provided our coffee and brewing equipment for the show. Please be sure to check them out if you need coffee in your business or office!

www.trubrew.com.

Ristorante Toscano and Vermella’s Market delivered a great selection of italian meats, cheeses, and delicious cookies to us on Saturday. I can’t forget the fantastic hoagies too!
Ristorate Toscano is a B.Y.O.B located at 213 N. Broad Street in Lansdale, PA.
They’re open for lunch and dinner. For more information about them visit www.toscanolansdale.com

James Lauchmen played live music in the studio on Sunday. He was a great addition open house. James lives in Sellersville, PA plays around the area. You can learn more about him on his MySpace page.

This was also the first year that we used our Facebook page and our Twitter page to share up to the minute images and news about the Studio Open House. You can always find up-to-date news and a behind the scenes look at Bradford Woodworking on those pages. Check them out!

Thanks again to all those that joined us! We hope to see you all again next year!

Open House Weekend!

Our annual Studio Open House kicks off this Friday at 10am!

Royce Yoder, Carol Heisler and Michael O’Neill will be joining us in the studio. We’re also very happy to have coffee provided by Tru-Brew Coffee. Tru-Brew Coffee Service is a family-owned, local coffee company which has faithfully served the Delaware Valley since 1972 with quality products, professional service and reliable equipment.

The Open House is located at 3120 Fisher Road, Worcester, PA 19490
Directions

We hope you can come by and join us!

We're on FaceBook

In case you did not know, we’re on Facebook. We post updates daily along with some pics of the shop and what is going on. We will even posted some Facebook only specials from time to time.
Why not become a fan?