Poppy's 16x16 timber frame cabin

[poppy]

Yea, Jesse, there's a lot of reasons for not using a chainsaw mill to make planks.  If you watch any of the video's of these mills making planks, they are always using a much larger saw than I use, plus they are usually sawing soft wood like pine.

If you are way out in the woods and the closest mill is 50 miles away, then maybe it makes sense to consider a chainsaw mill for casual work, like building your own cabin. 

I never intended to make anything other than timbers with the mill.  And I may even have some of the timbers done at the Amish mill to save time.  Even though that mill is within 5 miles of my farm, it's a lot of work to load the trailer since I don't have a loader on my tractor, but when I do go it will be with a full load.

I may also limit the use of the mill by doing more hand hewing; I just have to get better at it.

Thanks for the comment on sun and shade.  Even though it's on a north facing slope, I am confident that there will be enough solar gain in the winter.

[poppy]

Thanks, Sassy. I really do enjoy my views.

Yes, there is a lot of work with the mill, but mostly in preparation for the sawing.  The sawing is the easy part.  Moving the logs is the work part.

I keep looking for a cheap tractor with a loader but the only ones I can afford are too big for such a small farm.  There are loaders made for the tractor I have, but they are almost as expensive as the tractor itself. 

Everybody wants a compact tractor, so the large ones go cheap.

All is good though; it's not like I am in a big hurry.

[Don_P]

I don't have a loader on Fergie, my '54 MF35. I welded up a set of forks for low lifting and a heavy boom pole for higher lifting, those, although slower than a bucket, have worked pretty well for my hobby purposes. I don't thing my front spindle could handle the loads I've put on the rear of the machine, they're pretty light.
Alot of bandmills are portable and I would encourage folks to check on some type of milling of their trees as they clear their roads and sites. It always makes me shake my head when I drive up on a jobsite and see nice cherry, walnut or oak logs in a burn heap and the carpenters are bringing in some cheapo trim or cabinets. We tend not to see the gold mine at our doorstep sometimes. I smoked my old farmboss in the first cut when I thought I wanted to chainmill some timber here, finally saved up and got a little circle mill. I still take some logs over to a nearby bandmill as it is more accurate than my setup and wastes less. He can get through locust much easier than me too. I've got a monster locust to drop on one of our previous jobs and they want a desk made from it if it opens up nice. I'll have to freehand chainsaw a couple of slabs for the top, that oughta be a fun day  .

[poppy]

Don, thanks for the idea of using a boom pole, but I have always assumed (perhaps wrongly) that my JD 750 2 wheel drive tractor was not heavy enough for a pole. 

The JD is over a half ton lighter than your MF and even though I have 225 lbs. of front weights, I still don't have great confidence that I can lift much.

I have a 5' brush hog that tends to lift the front end if I don't keep the trailing wheel on the ground.

But I do appreciate the idea and if I can pick up a boom pole cheap at an auction, I will give it a try.

You make an excellent point about portable bandsaw mills.  We have them around these parts and several are available to do contract sawing on owners land.  That is definitely a good option to consider for initial clearing.

Since I have been sizing up trees for potential timbers on my own land, it has also made me more aware of the potential timber and lumber that is just going to waste as people cut down nice hardwood trees to build a garage or get rid of one that is too close to the house or fell a dead tree that they are afraid of.

On my 75 mile trip from the condo to the farm, I pass multiple standing dead hardwoods, storm downed trees, and logs laying on the ground that haven't been cut up yet for firewood.  Craigslist is full of ads for free hardwood firewood, a lot of which is from perfectly good logs that I or someone else could use.

About 2 miles from the farm I pass a house close to the road that had a large hardwood between it and the road.  One day someone had started cutting the tree from the top down and had some pretty good sized logs laying in the yard.  I suspected that it would end up as firewood and that's eventially what happened but in the mean time I had time to request one of those logs, but it seemed that each time I passed by, I was too tired to stop and ask.  One particular log would have yielded several really neat curved braces, but I was tired, soo....

Good luck with the locust; I wish I had some.

[MushCreek]

I see lots of timber going to waste up in SC where our property is. They shove the trees over with an excavator, then reduce it to wood chips. The price of hardwood is so low in many areas that it's not worth their trouble. When I had some trees felled for a driveway, the pine was sold for pulp, but the hardwoods became firewood. The contractor said it wouldn't pay to haul it to a sawmill. When we clear for the house, I plan to have a sawyer come out and mill the oaks up for flooring. I'm going to build a solar kiln, and I already have a table saw, jointer, shaper, and planer to do the rest of the milling.

[Don_P]

It might not pay to haul it to the sawmill to sell as sawlogs but if you can find a mill to saw it for your use the equation is a bit different. Price an oak board at Lowes. We grin and count off in $35 increments when the good stuff is coming off the mill, that is not what I could sell the green lumber for but it is how much I'm not having to spend for each nice board.

[poppy]

Jay, It sounds like you have what you need for flooring.  Are you going to do tongue and groove?

There surely is a lot of hardwood logging going on around me.  Yesterday I noticed that there were some new red flags along the border with the neighbor to the north.  Today he was talking to a logger, I think.  He has about 40 acres of hardwoods pretty much like my 10 acres.

Don, you make an excellent point.  I'm taking logs to the Amish mill that others won't touch and I'm getting nice timbers out of logs that are left in the woods.

My next post will show what a 9" log will produce and later on I will be making 4x4's out of 6" logs.

[poppy]

Boy, we surely have been having nice weather.  High 30's to low 40's at night and then 50's and 60's with sunshine during the day.

Time to finish the first short sill.




This is the bottom section of a forked tree branch that died a couple of years ago.  Had to play around a little to minimize wane.




Got this 6x6 sill sawed (almost no wane  ) and decided the chain probably needed to be sharpened.  So stopped the mill process and went back to do more on the pier/post connections.




Got tired of messing around with a 3/8" drill and a short drill bit, so went to my favorite supply store (name over the door is John B. Harsha Co., Hardware, Bolts, Surplus) to buy a long drill bit and stuck it in the auction find 1/2" drill.




Got all the pier/post connections pretty much complete.  I don't think I have to worry about filling all the nail holes since I used a 3/8" carrage bolt through everything.

[poppy]

There was a thread a while back about chain saw chain sharpening.  I have tried hand filing and Dremil tools on my chains with little success so since the local Husqvarna dealer only charges $5 per chain, that's where they went.




Set up for the second 6x6 sill after installing the sharpened chain.  This is the next section up on that forked tree.  A side note is that I have 4 sets of saw horses being used around this build and they were all purchased at auctions for cheap.    (plus a 5th pair for a dollar from Craig's list still in the garage at home.)




Even though this log was much straighter than the other one, it was still prudent to do some adjusting to minimize wane.  If you look closely, you may be able to see the moisture that ozzed out around the nail hole on the upper left.  I was surprised at how wet this log was since it was cut over 2 years ago after it died. 




It's a beautiful thing to get ready to make the final cut.    By the way, the saw rate doubled on this timber; may have had something to do with a sharp chain. 




Got finished with the second sill timber so fast that there was time to go back to the foundation and work on the post/beam connections.  Even though I'm not bolting these, I may still not have to fill all the holes since we don't have hurricanes around these parts. 

[MushCreek]

Jay, It sounds like you have what you need for flooring.  Are you going to do tongue and groove?

There surely is a lot of hardwood logging going on around me.  Yesterday I noticed that there were some new red flags along the border with the neighbor to the north.  Today he was talking to a logger, I think.  He has about 40 acres of hardwoods pretty much like my 10 acres.

Don, you make an excellent point.  I'm taking logs to the Amish mill that others won't touch and I'm getting nice timbers out of logs that are left in the woods.

My next post will show what a 9" log will produce and later on I will be making 4x4's out of 6" logs.

I will probably do T&G, although it's going to be a pretty rustic floor. I'm going to face nail it with wrought-head nails from Tremont. The 200 y/o house I grew up in had floors like that, with boards up to 14" wide. They weren't T&G, so they pounded rope into the inevitable gaps. That floor had character!

[poppy]

Jay, I also will probably face nail the cherry that is set aside for the flooring.  Rustic is good.  

Speaking of wood, I made a detour last night on the way home to pick up some sassafras from a guy on craigslist.  I think I mentioned earlier that all of the sass on my place are shrubs.




Only got about 11 bf and still not sure where it will be used, but it will be in the cabin somewhere.  




A close up of some spalting and knots.  It was nearly dark when I picked this up and so didn't notice the difference with the board on the left.  I'm going to have to saw a little to give it the smell test.  

The guy also claimed to have curly maple but he couldn't find it?

He promised to get some hickory and persimmon in later.  The attempt is to encorporate has much indiginous wood as possible in the cabin.

[poppy]

Time to mess with the joists.  Their placement is based on the final floor plan design rather that evenly spaced; so needed to do a trial run.



Unfortunately, there will be a lot of fitting to do.  Not only do the joists vary in height, but also in thickness:  1 5/8" to 2 1/8".  Will also need to splice extensions on the bump out joists.

I then came to the realization that the beams were not far enough along to mount the side joists. 




The cabin width is 16' 7" inside, so all the joists don't fit on a 16' plate. 




This is the south side showing the corner arrangement that will support the cruck blade; and also the 16" bump out centered on the wall.  There are std. 2x8's on each side of the bump out that will support the plank wall section.

Since posting the question in General about preparing the subfloor for a stone section, the location of the fireplace has changed.  I will still add a couple more joists that are not placed yet once the final location is chosen.

These are some of the stones to be used under the Franklin fireplace.



The original cabin design had a stone Rumford fireplace.  Since finding the Franklin fireplace on craigslist for $100, I decided to use it instead but still wanted some stone work inside.

Next time will be my version of drying in. 

[TexstarJim]

poppy, I don't know what's on your mind, but I've learned to respect your ideas and apparently, you've got a humdinger of a design going on in your head.  When I saw the beams being constructed I asked myself what in the heck is this guy doing.  I decided you might be the only one in the world that knew, but I decided also it would be brilliant.

Of all the plans and construction going on in here, yours is the most fascinating, keep it up mate, I'm excited for what you're doing. 

[poppy]

Thank you very much Jim for the kind words.  You are right about one thing; there is a lot going on in my head. 

I have been sketching house and cabin ideas in my mind as well as on paper and now on Sketchup for about 40 years, so sometimes it gets a little cluttered. 

I appreciate you calling it brilliant, but I just classify it as unique.  The build is certainly not perfect, but there is only one person to satisfy and he's flexible. 

[poppy]

I didn't get much work done on the cabin lately because there is this holliday where kids (and adults) like to get candy.




The 3 on the right are 3 of 4 of my grandchildren who I would rather spend time with than about anything else. 

I was able to get out to the farm for a little work after the week end.




It was time to build a platform for the garage in anticipation of working on the timber frame once the joists are installed and blocked.

After re-arranging some of the joists to take advantage of the different thicknesses, it was time to do some trimming to make them all the same height.




Here is one of the nails that I missed before trimming the reclaimed joist.  I figured that the lumber was old, but had no idea just how old; even so it was interesting to find square nails.




And this is my version of drying in at this stage of the construct.  I still have some joists to trim and some more to add to support the stone floor section.

[poppy]

I just realized that the fancy platform for the garage is in the way of installing the sill timbers. 

I knew some blocking would have to wait until the garage was raised to the floor level, but I forgot about the sills.  Oh well, live and learn.

[poppy]

On the way to the farm, I stopped by the Adams County Heritage Center where an old log cabin restoration was dedicated the day before. 



This is a 15' square cabin that was built in 1804 by an interesting guy that I may write more about later.  When he became the post master, this cabin became the first post office in the county in 1805.

Several log buildings have survived over the last century because the owners applied clapboard siding.  Such was the case with this particular cabin.

Now that most of the leaves have dropped, the cabin site really pops out with that white garage covering it. 



This view is from the Northwest and shows the basic profile of the future cabin; except that it will be 12' wider and 12' taller than the garage.


It took most of the morning to sort through the reclaimed joists to find more 2x10's to add support for the stone floor section and 2x8's for sill plates and porch joists.




The guy who sold me the reclaimed lumber really misrepresented how good the 2x8's were.  He advertised 10; I got 9, 6 of which had major flaws.  But I'll be able to get the job done with what I have. 


Once I transported the extra lumber to the site; I placed the new joists for the stone floor section.




I just threw a few pieces of plywood on the layout to get an idea of how the stone section would look.




I added 3 extra joists making a total of 6 joists to support about a 5' section of stone.

The carpenter level is centered on the cabin floor E to W, so the stone for the fireplace base is off-set to the west and the near edge of the stone is on the centerline S to N.

[Redoverfarm]

Nice looking cabin. Love the stone.  A friend of mine has built about 9 log cabins from the original log cabins and he has natural stone chimneys that he has acquired from the original cabins and houses in the area.  It was definitely an art to the cutting and laying of original stone.  I wish I could visit that era and learn.

[poppy]

I had to cut most of the joists to a consistent length and now it's time to start the notching process for the sill timbers and plates.




This represents what a sill cross section assembly should look like.




I thought it might be easier to notch several joists together, so I clamped 4.  The sill plate is the 2x8 laying flat to the right.



I probably need a little more practice in the notching process.  




With all the scab plates needed for the "I" beams, it was a good thing that they were almost free. 

[poppy]

You're right John, the stone work on that cabin is really nice.  I have been impressed with several examples of stone work in the area. 

The funny thing is that the stone work on houses and churches (other than the chimney) have a much rougher surface.  I will try to get some representative pics. later.

[poppy]

Forgot to mention that the neighbor with the 40 acres of woods is having it logged, as I speculated he would after seeing some new flags along the border with me.

I was rudely awakened the second morning by a chain saw and bull dozer.  No pics. yet; I didn't want them to think I had any concerns (even though I'm keeping a close eye on them).

I'm trying to figure a way for this logging operation to be of benefit to me.  There may be some slash that would produce some timber braces or something.

I expected them to wait untill the ground was frozen to minimize the damage, but we can never count on many days of frozen ground in these parts.

[Don_P]

Walk it with your unfilled timber wish list in hand, cruck blades, etc. I bought 2 nice loads from across the road last winter. I went over at one point to chat and he offered me the load he had on, I couldn't have rolled those monsters with 3 guys.

[poppy]

I figured you might have a good suggestion Don.  Unfortunately I won't be back out there until this coming Sun., so they will have 3 or 4 days head start (they cut the first trees Tues. afternoon) and good weather is predicted.

I'm not sure how long it will take to log 40 acres, but if they do the whole tract, it could take until next week -- hopefully.

I should probably give the owner a call before the end of the week.  Otherwise, they may cut up all the slash for firewood.

[2zwudz]

  Poppy

Forgive me for going off topic but I couldn't get over your grandson striking that POSE in the picture.  I can imagine what he is pretending in his head.  I have two sons the were like that (great imaginations).  Now they are in there teens and think they are as cool as the other side of the pillow.  You know the teen thing.  It may be time to get some of our old pictures out to show their girlfriends

Thanks for that picture it caught my eye

Mark

[TexstarJim]

Here's my youngest grandson and look at the expression on his face.  Reminds of the cartoon strip character "Calvin & Hobbs".



Sorry poppy, didn't want to hijack your thread, but figured you wouldn't mind.......