Unit Block building from Anchor plans

The other day I showed a simple structure from an Ankerstein plan sheet. Today I built three of the structures from that sheet using Unit Blocks instead of Anchor Stones.

We can get away with making up the "larger" sizes of Anchor blocks with double thicknesses of unit blocks because the latter are so much larger for equivalent blocks: the standard 1 3/8 x 2 3/4 x 5 1/2 unit block is equivalent to an Anchor #15, but twice as long, twice as wide and twice as thick.

I've used two different methods of substituting pairs of unit blocks and half-units for the specified Anker Block #5, which is one and a half unit blocks long: in two of the structures I have overlapped pairs of unit and half-unit blocks, providing a little extra stability and perhaps improving esthetics; in the other I have used the half-units as cap and base to a pillar of paired unit blocks.

Relatively few of the simpler Anchor structures use the length of the #5 structurally (on this plan sheet, it is mostly the crosses), but if you need them, I am sure our friends at Barclay Blocks would be happy to make you some "Sesqui-Unit Blocks," and perhaps even add them to their line.

For the steeple, Anchor #288, I used a pair of ramps, back to back. That only provides the taper in one direction, but I think it still looks good. Cutting the other tapers into a sacrificed pair of ramps would not be beyond most casual home woodworkers. Aleternatively, Barclay Blocks would probably be willing to make these as well.

The low step in one picture is a block from another set, substituting for an Anchor #69. Barclay Blocks has this in unit block size as a "Short Narrow Roof Plank."

The plan in my earlier post can be seen in enlarged form, as almost all the images here, by clicking on it. An even larger version is available online under Downloads of anchor material: Neue Folge building and layer plans: 00.