Visualize and Confirm Rafter Placement

1:41

2:36

35.2K views

At 1:41 in

Cutting a birds mouth for a 2x4 top plate using a speed square! #diy #tools #home #construction

Watch on YouTube

What happens here

After marking, the presenter demonstrates a pre-cut rafter with a bird's mouth notch. He places this rafter onto a piece of wood simulating a top plate to show how the notch cradles the plate, providing a stable and flush surface for secure fastening. The angled cut ensures the rafter sits properly with the roof pitch, while the horizontal cut provides a flat bearing surface on the top plate. This visual confirms the function and accuracy of the marked bird's mouth.

Goal: Understand how the bird's mouth cut will sit on the top plate.

Tools and materials

Pre-cut Wood Rafter — Demonstrating the finished bird's mouth cut
Wood — Representing the wall's top plate

What they say

(932 characters)

Hide

out and I'll come back. All right, now let's imagine that this is the top plate of your wall, right? You have your wall, this is your 2 by 4 top plate, this is your rafter. It's going to sit just like that. See how it's notched here and it's like this? Then you go ahead and this would run all the way up and you could put the same angle right here and you'd cut your 4 12 from here down and you'd put your fascia board on and you'd be good to go. So, that's how you cut a bird's mouth for a 4 12 pitch. You can do it for any pitch the same exact way and I'll go over rafter tails tomorrow. I said that I was going to release a full video of pretty much everything a speed square can do. I lost track of time this week. I looked over some footage. I didn't like it. I want to put out a quality video for you guys. So, I'm going to try to work on it tomorrow and we'll drop it this weekend. All right. Y'all have a good night. Peace.

Auto-generated from the video audio.