Maybe I'm in over my head..

On Tue, 06 Apr 2004 15:01:30 GMT, "Tommy & Megan Price"
<[email protected]> wrote:

>
>
> /\45
> / \
> / \ <<<, How do I figure the length?
> / \
>/ \45
>! !
>! !
>! !
>! !
>! !
>! !
> < 8'>

At least sqrt(2) times the 4' half-base length. Add for overhang.
With 45 at both ends of the base, you'll have 90 at the peak.

Dan.

> Buy a Johnsons Speed Square and the little blue book.

Best advise yet.

Dave




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"Tommy & Megan Price" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Trying to finish up on my kid's playhouse. Putting an A frame roof on it.
> How do I come up with the measurements for the lengths to cut the trusses?
> 8' X 8' box.
>

I would put the ridge in place first by temp supports on the ends and then
measure it exactly. Be sure to leave some extra for overhangs!

Frank

On Tue, 06 Apr 2004 15:00:09 GMT, "js"
<[email protected]> scribbled:

>http://www.wickes.com/resourceLibrary/calculators.cfm
>
>rafter length calculator.

Alternatively, you could draw half the roof on a sheet of plywood &
take off your measurements and angles from that.


>"Tommy & Megan Price" <[email protected]> wrote in message
>news:[email protected]...
>> Trying to finish up on my kid's playhouse. Putting an A frame roof on it.
>> How do I come up with the measurements for the lengths to cut the trusses?
>> 8' X 8' box.

Luigi
Replace "nonet" with "yukonomics" for real email address
www.yukonomics.ca/wooddorking/antifaq.html
www.yukonomics.ca/wooddorking/humour.html

"Tommy & Megan Price" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
> Trying to finish up on my kid's playhouse. Putting an A frame roof on it.
> How do I come up with the measurements for the lengths to cut the trusses?
> 8' X 8' box.

Buy a Johnsons Speed Square and the little blue book.

jezzzzus Doug...wish you'd be a little more precise in your answers so we
wouldn't have to guess at things....;)

Bob S.

In article <[email protected]>, Secret Squirrel <Secret> wrote:
>"Tommy & Megan Price" <[email protected]> wrote in news:eDzcc.2236
>[email protected]:
>
>>
>>
>> /\45
>> / \
>> / \ <<<, How do I figure the length?
>> / \
>> / \45
>> ! !
>> ! !
>> ! !
>> ! !
>> ! !
>> ! !
>> < 8'>
>>
[snip]
>
>If those are to be 45 deg angles as you've indicated, then it is a simple
>right triangle and you can use old pythagorus' theorem x^2 + y^2 = z^2

It's a simple right triangle, and he can use the Pythagorean Theorem, whether
those angles are 45 degrees or not.

>and to simplify it further you've drawn a perfect 345 triangle.

No, he hasn't. He specified 45-degree angles. In a 45-degree right triangle,
both of the short legs are the same size. Conversely, in a 3-4-5 right
triangle, the acute angles are approximately 37 and 53 degrees, not 45.

>The base
>will be 4 (half the width of the box) the rise will be 3 and the
>hypotenuse (your rafter) will be 5 ft. You'll probably want to leave a
>little more for overhang of course.

Wrong. If the angles are 45 degrees, then the rise is precisely equal to half
the width of the box, or 4 feet, not 3 as you stated. And the rafter length is
4 * sqrt(2) = 4 * 1.414 or about 5 feet 7 7/8 inches, not 5 feet.

Note to the original poster: this does not allow for *any* overhang of the
rafters beyond the walls. Allow approximately 1.5 inches of rafter length for
every inch that you want the rafter to project from the wall (when measured
horizontally). [If you want to be precise, allow 1.414 inches. 1 7/16 is
pretty close to that. 1 1/2 is close enough.]

--
Regards,
Doug Miller (alphageek-at-milmac-dot-com)

For a copy of my TrollFilter for NewsProxy/Nfilter,
send email to autoresponder at filterinfo-at-milmac-dot-com

"Tommy & Megan Price" <[email protected]> wrote in news:eDzcc.2236
[email protected]:

>
>
> /\45
> / \
> / \ <<<, How do I figure the length?
> / \
> / \45
> ! !
> ! !
> ! !
> ! !
> ! !
> ! !
> < 8'>
>
> Sorry to be such a moron. lol
>
>
> "js" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
>> http://www.wickes.com/resourceLibrary/calculators.cfm
>>
>>
>>
>> rafter length calculator.
>>
>>
>> "Tommy & Megan Price" <[email protected]> wrote in message
>> news:[email protected]...
>> > Trying to finish up on my kid's playhouse. Putting an A frame roof
on
> it.
>> > How do I come up with the measurements for the lengths to cut the
> trusses?
>> > 8' X 8' box.
>> >
>> >
>>
>>
>
>
>

If those are to be 45 deg angles as you've indicated, then it is a simple
right triangle and you can use old pythagorus' theorem x^2 + y^2 = z^2
and to simplify it further you've drawn a perfect 345 triangle. The base
will be 4 (half the width of the box) the rise will be 3 and the
hypotenuse (your rafter) will be 5 ft. You'll probably want to leave a
little more for overhang of course.

[email protected] (Doug Miller) wrote in
news:[email protected]:

> In article <[email protected]>,
> Secret Squirrel <Secret> wrote:
>>"Tommy & Megan Price" <[email protected]> wrote in
>>news:eDzcc.2236 [email protected]:
>>
>>>
>>>
>>> /\45
>>> / \
>>> / \ <<<, How do I figure the length?
>>> / \
>>> / \45
>>> ! !
>>> ! !
>>> ! !
>>> ! !
>>> ! !
>>> ! !
>>> < 8'>
>>>
> [snip]
>>
>>If those are to be 45 deg angles as you've indicated, then it is a
>>simple right triangle and you can use old pythagorus' theorem x^2 +
>>y^2 = z^2
>
> It's a simple right triangle, and he can use the Pythagorean Theorem,
> whether those angles are 45 degrees or not.
>
>>and to simplify it further you've drawn a perfect 345 triangle.
>
> No, he hasn't. He specified 45-degree angles. In a 45-degree right
> triangle, both of the short legs are the same size. Conversely, in a
> 3-4-5 right triangle, the acute angles are approximately 37 and 53
> degrees, not 45.
>
>>The base
>>will be 4 (half the width of the box) the rise will be 3 and the
>>hypotenuse (your rafter) will be 5 ft. You'll probably want to leave a
>>little more for overhang of course.
>
> Wrong. If the angles are 45 degrees, then the rise is precisely equal
> to half the width of the box, or 4 feet, not 3 as you stated. And the
> rafter length is 4 * sqrt(2) = 4 * 1.414 or about 5 feet 7 7/8 inches,
> not 5 feet.
>
> Note to the original poster: this does not allow for *any* overhang of
> the rafters beyond the walls. Allow approximately 1.5 inches of rafter
> length for every inch that you want the rafter to project from the
> wall (when measured horizontally). [If you want to be precise, allow
> 1.414 inches. 1 7/16 is pretty close to that. 1 1/2 is close enough.]
>
> --
> Regards,
> Doug Miller (alphageek-at-milmac-dot-com)
>
> For a copy of my TrollFilter for NewsProxy/Nfilter,
> send email to autoresponder at filterinfo-at-milmac-dot-com
>
>
>

You're right of course. I was still half asleep this AM when I posted
this.

It is too late now but here is a secret that will prevent these kinds of
problem in the future.

Make your first set of rafters before you put up the walls. After all the
floor will/should be the exact same size as the walls. This makes it a lot
easier. You build the floor. Draw a centerline where you want the ridge
line. Then lay 2x4s on their sides at the correct pitch you want but on
their side. Then mark. Then cut. You can also go ahead and cut notches
for the top plates. And if you want you can then build trusses using the
floor. Set them to the side and when the wals are up the roof goes much
faster.

http://www.wickes.com/resourceLibrary/calculators.cfm



rafter length calculator.


"Tommy & Megan Price" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Trying to finish up on my kid's playhouse. Putting an A frame roof on it.
> How do I come up with the measurements for the lengths to cut the trusses?
> 8' X 8' box.
>
>

Tommy & Megan Price wrote:

> Trying to finish up on my kid's playhouse. Putting an A frame roof on it.
> How do I come up with the measurements for the lengths to cut the trusses?
> 8' X 8' box.

Draw the whole thing up to scale using an architect's scale (one of those
three-cornered ruler thingies you get at Staples for about 4 bucks--they
come two ways, "architect's" and "engineer's"--the "architect's" is made
for fractional inch measurements, the "engineer's" for decimal--for
construction you want an "architect's") and then measure off the drawing.
If you don't have a drafting set already they have a nice basic one for 30
bucks that will with the addition of a drawing board (piece of MDF of an
appropriate size will be fine) and a T-square (if you've not seen one
there's a picture on the Staples site that says it better than I can) get
you set up to draw just about anything you're likely to want to build.

The high-tech version--download the 30 day demo of Intellicad or
Ashlar-Vellum or whatever CAD program you like and draw it up then take off
the dimensions.

--
--John
Reply to jclarke at ae tee tee global dot net
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)

"Tommy & Megan Price"

> How do I figure the length?

As you nicely see here in this thread, the average person can't do high
school math.

Fortunately, building a roof doesn't actually require such math.

Go thumb through any "How to build a shed" book at Home Depot, the library,
whatever. and see how to actually build a small roof. You clearly don't
know how, and are heading in the wrong direction.


- Nate

On Tue, 06 Apr 2004 14:39:58 GMT, "Tommy & Megan Price"
<[email protected]> wrote:

>Trying to finish up on my kid's playhouse. Putting an A frame roof on it.
>How do I come up with the measurements for the lengths to cut the trusses?
>8' X 8' box.
>

framing square. set stops at the pitch you want to use and layout half
of the distance from one side of the playhouse to the other. if the
play house is 8 feet then your ridge is in the middle which would be 4
feet. if you use the layout 5 times you will have 1 foot extra for
overhang. the overhange wil be 6 inches on a 12 12 pitch. this is
realy hard to explain for me. much easier than doing it. sorry. maybe
someone here can put it into words better than i. skeez

/\45
/ \
/ \ <<<, How do I figure the length?
/ \
/ \45
! !
! !
! !
! !
! !
! !
< 8'>

Sorry to be such a moron. lol


"js" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> http://www.wickes.com/resourceLibrary/calculators.cfm
>
>
>
> rafter length calculator.
>
>
> "Tommy & Megan Price" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
> > Trying to finish up on my kid's playhouse. Putting an A frame roof on
it.
> > How do I come up with the measurements for the lengths to cut the
trusses?
> > 8' X 8' box.
> >
> >
>
>