What tool should I use to do this

[stevenf]

wushaw, John's road is about 5 miles from me I'm across IH 10 from Nelson City/POPO's restaurant. The reason for the pier and beam construction is I'm doing it by myself a little at a time and a major newbie to total house construction so my plan is to complete the house exterior and roof and then run the plumbing and electrical after the fact once its dried in.
Steve

 

[stevenf]

Dave, Your scaring me but I think you'd classify my construction as a bubba house. We are on fairly solid limestone and this method of construction is/was used a lot around Texas. My brother is a civil engineer and my dad a retired custom homebuilder besides having many friends in the building industry and they all say that although certainly not the best foundation it should be OK and I'll have almost 3' of crawl space under the house so that if something settles and comes out of level I can jack the beams up and relevel. Actually many houses around this area used cedar/juniper logs smaller then 5.5" x 5.5" and less piers to support houses in this area. It probably wouldn't pass code but out here in the sticks the only inspections I have is septic and well and I'm having them done with permits and all by reputable companies. I'm not questioning your thoughts I know full well what I should be doing and originally had hired a concrete guy to do a perimeter beam and cross beam structure for the foundation but he got called off the job by the company he works for and said sorry and removed all of his forms and left and about that time money got really tight so rather then wait for him to come back or hire someone else I decided to backup and do it on the cheap. Doing it this way did have one nice effect it allowed me to purchase a M9000 and a bunch of implements for the money I'd have spent on the concrete. So now I have a really big orange buddy to help with the heavy lifting and other ranch related chores.
Thanks for your concern!
Living the life in BUBBAVILLE
Steve

 

[Egon]

Exactly what I'd do! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

There are times hand saws are still the best.

Egon /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[RobertN]

I found a worm drive Skilsaw has a narrower profile so bumping the saw motor and/or body into your jig is less of an issue. I have used it on 4x4's and 6x6's. They are a more expensive saw though... I found it sure worked nicer than my $50 Craftsman direct drive.

 

[Richard]

Would this Beam Cutter work??

(not affiliated)

 

[stevenf]

neilly2, I forgot to respond to your question about the laser its a CST Berger I think a LM30 its not self leveling but even so it was over $200 on sale at Home Depot. I did a search on water levels to refamiliarise myself with their use and I found a cool video site of a guy explaining in great length how and why its better to use then Laser or transits etc. He used just clear tubing and in the water he put red food coloring for visibilty and Jet Dry to soften the water so it flowed better/faster. I'm still planing on using the laser or at least calibrating it but he had some good points as to why a water level was best to use for getting multiple upright post to the same height and it was very easy with two people. I'll let you know how the marking and cutting goes as tommorrow is the big day I hope.
Steve

 

[PILOON]

I have trimmed vertical posts often when building decks.
Both 4 x 4's and 6 X6's.

Once the height is determined (I generally use my surveyor's level, some call it a transit) I simply use a 12" rafter square.

These squares are about 1/4" thick and have 3/8" flanges on one of the legs.
Triangular in shape and usually grey in color.
The flanged side is held to the side of the post so that the other side is at a perfect 90deg.
Being 1/4" thick it makes for a perfect guide for the builder's saw.
Cutting a 6x6 involves 4 passes and when finished the last pass meets the first perfectly.

Naturally I have premarked the cut on all four faces and back off the 'square' to place the blade exactly at the cut line.

Works great every time.

I have never yet used this 'square' for anything else than a cutting guide.LOL!

Good luck.

 

[JustGary]

You already have your posts in the ground, so I guess that's that unless you choose to add more. If it's not too late, you could probably get old cut off telephone poles for free from your local utility. I got several nice twelve-inch diameter ones to use for my gazebo (see attached photo). The poles are 4 1/2 to 5 feet down in the ground. The longest pole is about nine feet long total. They were heavy and hard to deal with, but a whole lot cheaper and better than anything else I could think of.

I used a $9 laser level from the truckload tool sale to mark the posts for cutoff. The trick was to calibrate the level first (using a good 4' level), then plumb the tripod I had the level on. After a while (and with double-checking with string, a long straight 2X4, and the good level) I gained confidence that I had everything set up correctly.

By slowly rotating the laser level I could mark a pencil line halfway around each pole. Then I used a long piece of paper with a straight cut on it to wrap around each post. When the edge of the paper lined up with itself and the pencil mark, the paper was level. I continued the pencil mark all the way around the post.

By the way, my BIL stopped by with his super laser level setup. His was no more accurate than my homebrew one since I had taken the time to calibrate it and double check everything before I marked the poles. You don't need the $200 one if you take your time and work with what you have. The water level is a good choice too.

In my case, I used a small chainsaw to cut the posts and got well under 1/8" of error, but for 6X6 I would just use a good circular saw. Go slowly and watch the line. Also, cut the posts off a few inches above the finish cut so the extra weight of the post does not bear down on the finish cut and pinch the blade.

After we put the frame on the posts I went over the whole thing with a straightedge and a power planer to level each joist relative to its neighbors. I had to do it anyway because of the differences in the widths of the wood, and it also meant that my 1/8" tolerance on the post cuts was plenty good enough.

You can also use the power planer to dress the top of the posts if you want to. It works OK on and end cut like that if you just watch the feed rate.

As always, practice cutting on scrap first.

Good Luck!

- Just Gary

 

[flusher]

Right on.

I bought a B&D Navigator before Christmas to use on the saltbox style shed I'm building out back. It's great for trimming jobs (posts, plywood, studs, you name it). Best $59.95 I've spent in a while. It's lightweight and small. A lot better than a Sawzall for jobs in tight places, or while standing on a ladder. The blade is a lot stiffer than a Sawzall blade, so it's easier to get straight, even cuts. And the blade is about 8-9 inches long.

BTW, you can get metal-cutting blades too.

 

[redharley]

Man the only thing missing from this post is the picture's.When you get time put a few on.Just waiting to see how your proceeding.