Poppy's 16x16 timber frame cabin

[poppy]

Scott

Looks to be a little off.

That's the problem with the camera, it doesn't lie.  To my 63 year old glacoma laden eyes, it looked perfect. 

It does feel good to be building, but my hammer arm is sore.

[TexstarJim]

Poppy, I'm really impressed with your beams.  Heck, John Roebling could have used your beams during his build of the Brooklynn Bridge.  Well done young man!

[poppy]

Jim, funny that you should mention Roebling and the Brooklyn bridge.

For those who don't know, prior to designing the Brooklyn bridge, Roebling designed what is now named the John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge spanning the Ohio River between Cincinnati, OH and Covington, KY.




And for more info. here is a link.  http://www.cincinnati-transit.net/suspension.html

My understanding is that construction was delayed during the Civil War and it is considered the protoype for the longer Brooklyn bridge.

I have always admired the style of the suspension bridge and have tried numerous times to incorportate some elements of it in a house or cabin design, with no success so far.  

[poppy]

Didn't get any real work done over the Labor Day week end since I had booth duty at a festival.

But just when I was about to order some lumber from the mill on Coon Hollow Rd. some oak and pine showed up on craigslist, cheap.




Here is the first load of pin oak, about 225 bf, 4/4 x 11" x 10' mostly.  Actual dimensions are 1.125" x 10.75".
Still have another 135 bf of oak and 100 bf of pine to pick up.




This was a pretty big tree as you can possibly see by the matching boards.

Oh, and all of it for 2 bits a bf. 

[TexstarJim]

Excellent buy poppy, proud for you.  Funny thing about us folks that like to work with wood, we see the rough lumber as it will look someday, the finished product.  Others see discolored and unuseable boards.  That must be the lure of doing what we do;  turning a board into a beautiful piece to go into our house or to make into furniture.  Keep us posted young man.

[poppy]

Got a little more done on the second girder/beam and wanted to get a feel for some of the future work.




This is a depiction of the joist layout at the SW corner.  There is a total of 3 10" joists, one 2x8 nailer and one 2x4 nailer spanning the beams, all within 17" along the beam.

I have also tried to show the sub-floor with a wire chase and the flooring butting up to the plank wall supported by the 2x8 nailer.  The 2x4 nailer is for the rigid foam board insulation and outside of that will be strapping to hold the foam board and be a nailer for the horizontal cedar siding.


Then on the east side.



Here I wanted to get a feel for the joist height.  Shown is a 2x8 that was handy, but the actual joists will be 2x10's.




And here looking NE.

Still working on the post design, so didn't get much done except for base plates and got some gusset material cut.

[poppy]

Unloaded the remaining pin oak and pine for a total of 460 bf at a cost of $115.    The plan for the oak is old school diagonal sub-flooring and haven't decided what to use the pine for, maybe strapping for porch roofing.




It rained hard on Sun. and got the wood a little wet before I got it into the barn, but it dried over night.

On to finish the second beam and work on the posts.




The proposed post design with 3 nailer/gussets for braces.




Put the tallest post pre-assembly on the pier to think about how to do final assembly.  Went to a local supply store to see what they had for pole barn nails and/or lag screws.  Decided to get the lag screws, 1/4 x 5 galv., but they didn't have galv. washers, so went to the hardware/gun store to find washers. 

The lag screws cost $2.00 a lb. (16 count per lb.), but the worker gave me 18.  Then the washers were 10 cents each, so almost cost as much as the screws.    Decided to check the price of the lag screws at the hardware store and they were 65 cents each. 

So the good ole supply store that has been around since before all the other stores were but dreams in a corn field, saved me over $8 on one small fastner buy.  (another example was a $2 cut-off wheel for the angle grinder, that the hardware store and even Wally World wanted $5 or $6 for.)




Set up the second post to use as a template while assembling the first one.




I know, I know, I tend to make it more complicated than it needs to be, but I'm having so much fun. 




Got the first post assembled and decided to call it a day.  May need to add more screws later.




One final note.  The local stray bitch dog decided to have her pups under the old house directly behind my trailer.  They wined and cried all night.  There was an all black one yesterday, but I didn't see it today.

Ah, country living at its best. 

[poppy]

Back at it this week and working on the assembly of the second post, then....




Hit my thumb with the hammer.  That's what I get for using a right handed hammer.   

This may be the first blood shed and deposited on the work in the "blood, sweat, and tears" game called building your own cabin. 




Despite the blood letting, got the post assembled.




Looking at the NE corner after trial setting the beam.




Looking at the NW post.




The beam looks good to me.

[poppy]

Time to get some of the joists from storage in the old garage.




Using the new driveway to transport the reclaimed 2x10 joists (actual height is about 10 1/8")




Trial setting two joists on the E and W sides of the main cabin.




The E joist looks pretty good.




Looking from the south.




Looking from the NE.  Still don't have the N beam where it needs to be, but that's for another day.

[poppy]

Got the big chain saw back from the second rebuild and decided to do some more timber work.




This is where I had to stop after the saw burned up the second time.  That was back in May.




Got the 3rd and 4th cuts completed and did a little draw knife work on the wane.  This is one of the timber posts for the N wall.

[poppy]

In case you all haven't noticed, this build has been designed on the fly, based mainly on what materials have made themselves available.

In addition, while making numerous sketches along the way, there has been no official set of plans or even construction guide notes.  I assumed (wrongly) that since the progress was very slow and methodical, that mistakes could be avoided.

After reading on another thread that official plans are a good idea, I suspose I'm in the position now to second the motion. 

It may be hard to pick up, but in the last set of pics. one can see that the trial joists are not centered on the north beam.

Before driving the pins for the third pier, I made a design change to the pier layout, but by the time I got to the fourth pier, my mind reverted back to the previous design and pier number 4 is out of position.

It is not a fatal mistake, but it will be necessary to move the beams along their long axis to end up with a square floor frame. 

If I really wanted to be eccentric, I could keep the beams where they are and make an out-of-square cabin, but I don't think I'm prepared to make those kind of adjustments to the timber frames. 

[Whitlock]

You have been busy. Plans who needs plans

[glenn kangiser]

Poppy, I believe in letting a house grow and evolve naturally.  I see nothing wrong with a tree growing crooked.

I know -- I'll catch heck for that one.... yeah --- make them straight.

[poppy]

Glenn

I see nothing wrong with a tree growing crooked

Now you have me thinking more about this.  Since there will be a cruck frame (from a crooked tree), maybe the cabin should be crooked also.

Nah, it's going to have to be square.  I couldn't face you all with an out-of-square floor.

[poppy]

So I decided what to do about the out-of-square foundation beams.  Slide the S beam to the E and the N beam to the W.




This attempts to show where the timber frame post will fall relative to the pier on the NW corner.  No, that's not the real brace; just a mockup of a 45 deg. brace.




And the NE corner.  The beams were off by about 7"   but it looks like all will work out.


Then it was time to pick up more 2x10 joists.




As it turns out, the joists vary in height from about 9 7/8" to 10 3/4", so I had to go through all of them to select 11 to be used on the main cabin floor. (will be using 6 more for the porches)




I also had to verify the lengths, since there are a few short ones.  All of the full joists are about 15' 7" long.  So how to get a 16' cabin width, you ask?  Stay tuned for the next post.

[poppy]

So how to get a 16' wide cabin with short joists?  Well use timber sills, of course; after all, this is a timber frame cabin.




First is to harvest a standing dead red oak.  The 9 1/2' bottom section there in front of the tractor will become braces probably.





Preparing to drag the 17' log (de-barked with an adze) down to the timber preparation area.




The trick is to lift one end enough to minimize soil damage and avoid getting too much dirt on the log.




Setting up the new hoisting frame.




Even a log from a dead tree is heavy.




Making the first cut for the 6x6 sill timber.




Using this method for the first cut means that a 10" log is about the max size for a 20" bar.




And a relatively clean cut in the red oak.  Ran out of time at this point.

[poppy]

A new week, some more work.  Before completing the 6x6 sill timber, I got to thinking about proper sequencing of the timber frame, you know, last raised has to be the first assembled. (the first will be last, for you biblical scholars out there  )

So decided to cut a couple more trees that potentially can be used for the loft frame which can't be raised untill the end frames are up.




Here are 3 potential trees, but the one in the middle is the most crooked, so decided to cut the other two in order to verify that they each will yield a 16' 6x8 timber.

Not sure why all of these red oaks are dying, but these 3 are close to the one I cut last week plus there is a 5th one that died this year in the same area.




This is the left side tree that sort of "kissed" the bent tree on the left(made that way by a previous logging venture) as it came down.  Not to worry; I expected the kissing to occur, and moved accordingly.  




The 2 red oaks down and bucked.  They will each easily provide the 2 16' loft frame timbers.  The larger of the 2 also yielded a 17' log that will make a nice one piece 5-sided ridge pole/beam.  The other tree provided a 9" dia. 13.5' log for something.

For those who haven't done any logging, if you look closely, you can see the peavey (auction find) used to roll logs.




One good thing about felling dead trees is that they tend to buck themselves.  

[poppy]

Part 2 for this week.  Went back to finish up the sill timber.




Setting up for the 2nd to 4th cuts are much easier than the first. This is the 4 cut.




The draw knife makes quick work of some wane clean up.

Now, on to the sill timbers for the south side.




Here's the set up for short timbers of which there will be 3 for the south side. (has something to do with the bump out feature)




Timbers completed so far; 6x6, 8x8, & 6x8.  No, the 6x6 is not twisted; just distortion from the wide angle lens again (plus the end cut is not square yet).  




And then a parting shot of early fall over the pond.  Tall trees in the left center background is a small hickory grove.

[TexstarJim]

poppy, what do you call the device that holds the chain saw in place for doing millwork?

[poppy]

Jim, the device in the pics. is a Mini-Mill II by Grandberg.  It is also called an edger used to square up a log for making slabs with the larger Alaskan mill or for just making timbers.

I also have the Alaskan small log mill that will be used to halve the log for the cruck frame.  I have also used this mill for the first cut on a log for a timber.

[ScottA]

Very cool! 

[jdhen]

Poppy- Does the chainsaw move easily and smoothly along the track?  I'd love to mill some of my own wood but I have mostly black locust on my place and I understand that wood eats up chains pretty quickly!

That sure is a nice view of the pond from your milling site.  Are you right next to where the cabin sits?

[poppy]

Jesse, yes the saw moves easily and smoothly, but as an example, these cuts for a 6" sq. timber were at a rate of only about 4-5" a minute, plus I would stop the saw every 6" or so to hit the oil plunger.  Also, to make one pass of about 17' took more than one tank of gas.

It will be a really slow process for the cruck blades which are planned to be 12" wide at the base.

Those who use chainsaws to mill lumber use a much larger saw; at least 1.5 to 2 times the power of mine.  Most of my lumber needs will be handled by the local Amish mill that has a Woodmiser bandsaw.

If I had any locust, I probably wouldn't attempt anything larger than a 4x4 timber with the rig I'm using.

The milling station is directly behind the barn downhill and within 50' of the cabin site.  Here's a couple of previously posted pics. that give some perspective.  The gray tarps are over the milling area.



This was taken above the cabin site and the next one below.

[jdhen]

Wow, I didn't realize it was such a slow-go with the chainsaw mill!  I guess it's a lot of wood for the blade to remove.  Seems like if you wanted planks it would be prohibitive because of the high fuel consumption.

You've got a nice looking place there.  Sun light in the winter and shade in the summer.  It will be many years before I get any shade at my house!

[Sassy]

Sure is a beautiful view from where you are milling the wood!  Sounds like a lot of work with the chainsaw mill.