New build

We installed the remaining trusses today and now we will stick frame to tie together the various roof sections.

On the far right is the screen room, that roof will be timber frame.

Dream house in a dream location for me. Wait until you see what I am buying to do up, I will start a thread on it when we are in. Nowhere near as interesting though!

Thanks for the kind words guys.

We really heavily on the GRK structural screws, we use them at every connection. Essentially we have the loads directly bearing timber to timber and use the GRKs to fasten the joints. Never are the GRKs used for weight bearing, nor are placed in a situation where they are subject to shear forces.

We don't use any pegs so I guess you could say that we don't use any traditional joinery.

I'd like to use more traditional joinery, to foster more of the sense of old school craftsmanship, but as beautiful as the homes are cost is always an issue. My customers don't want to pay more for the time it would take to cut those joints so I don't use them.

I use red pine for all of my timbers. It is cut in our area and is the timber of choice.

Gents,
So what are some good SIPs?
And where does one find out how electrical and water is run in a TF design?
The infrastructure seems easier with P$B or Hybrid as there are some hollow walls.

Back to the Arunda versus Jason's joint... They seem pretty the same, except that the Arunda/Ligna has the dove tail so it cannot really pull out very far.

I think I will try making a small version of the Arunda/Linga for a scale model build.
The idea would be to maybe send the model off to a designer to get some engineer blessing, joint design, drawings, etc. As well as be easier to conceptualise the structure.

No worries on the topic shift Red, it's funny how threads morph as they unfold. Originally I wanted to share a picture of the ceiling I think has an appealing design and the thread rapidly grew from there, I like that about forums.

I agree that post and beam would be the more accurate description for the style of timber work I do. In my area however, any type of framing that incorporates exposed timbers, regardless of the joinery employed, is referred to as timber frame so I went with it.

I've seriously considered attending a workshop or two to expand my skill set, I love the idea of respecting and continuing time honoured techniques, but I want to be able to incorporate the more time consuming traditional joinery in a profitable fashion. At this point my customers don't really care how the timbers are joined together so I can't charge more for it. I take pride in my work and take care to get the details right, but I need to keep the bottom line in mind.

The big difference in my mind between the joint I use and the Arunda is that I didn't spend $4560.00 USD ($6441.68 CAD + shipping and taxes) to cut them. We all measure the "worth" of a tool quite differently, I consider the very expensive Z5 and ZSX to be "worth it" because they enable me to easily perform cuts that would otherwise be more difficult or time consuming. I realize that others may consider these tools way overpriced.

I hope I don't come across as defensive, I'm just sharing my thoughts.

Jason's thoughts about the difficulty of moving from "normal" framing work to traditional timber framing (TF) are well taken, but, as Ghost Fist seems to be pointing out, your reputation is what gets you the work.  In other words, a great framer tends gets the framing work and a great finish carpenter gets more of the "big" jobs and, in exactly the same way, a great traditional joint cutter gets the over one-million USD residential timber frame work.  

I've worked with a master timber framer who's stayed quite busy -- for a long time -- doing nothing more than traditional TF.  How does he do it?  First, thanks to word of mouth, monied folk contact him...and, if he really gets into the basic vision, he hand-draws the plans, creates a scale model -- all on the owner's dime -- and, in the end, presents his ideas of how the frame should be constructed.  Quite frankly, the guy's ideas are invariably great...and the owner(s) usually see it.  It's very hard to beat simple word of mouth.      

Well, considering your backlog, it seems obvious to me that the framing work you've done over the years must be pretty good.    

As for traditional timber framing, Jason, you do have a pretty good head start -- tool wise -- so it would be a shame if you never pursued any instruction.   Once again, good luck to you.