Dovetail Log Cabin Walls

Today was  typical Grand Marais day. Blustery, overcast, 40 degrees, and off and on it rained most of the day.  The upside is that there was no snow.  However, there is a 30 percent chance of snow overnight and into tomorrow.  It doesn’t get much better than this.  

Our class continued to build the log walls.  Our ability significantly improved over the last two days.  As we looked at the timbers we cut on Thursday, it is clear that we were just hacking away at the dovetail joints.  It is amazing what two days of practice made in regards to the quality of our work.  Across the board all the students went from hacking our crap joints to cutting precise dovetail joints. 

Today, was spent fitting up the logs to the building.  We placed the timbers on the building and then fine tuned the joints so the logs were level and tight.  And, fine tuning the crap-j0bs we cut over the last two days certainly gave us plenty of practice in fitting really poorly cut joints.  Which we did quite well, and the building  looks great.

Tomorrow, we will install the purlins and gable ends which will give us a r0of system and finish off the building.

I am certainly amazed.  With just a bit of instruction, eight unskilled trainees are able to grasp the half-dovetail technique and produce a building in just four days.

I will be building a very similar structure for the sauna at The Stump Ranch.  I believe it will take me two days to cut the timber on the mill and then another 8 days to install the foundation and the cut out the logs that are needed to erect a cabin shell.

Dovetail Cabin Walls

Today, we had some practice on cutting the timbers for the cabin walls.  In general, the quality of our work significantly improved over our efforts from yesterday.    Layout is very straight forward, cutting the shoulders with a skill saw is quite easy, and, then, yesterday, totally butchering the joint when it is cut with a chainsaw was common practice.  Which really torqued me off since I have spent so much time with a chainsaw cutting notched and lateral grooves that I consider myself somewhat of an expert.    Today, we did see some some improvement with our ability to operate a chainsaw.  Finally, cleaning up the joint with a slick actually produced some joints that looked good.

Just like any craft or trade, you get better with practice.  So, today as  a group we really improved our technique over yesterday which felt pretty good after the butcher-job joints we produced yesterday.

We also started stacking the logs on the walls and fine-tuning the joints so the dovetails fit properly.  I really like this technique.  In particular I like that  cause close, in general, is good enough when your are cutting the dovetails; you can fine tune the fit later.  This suits my outlook quite well.

As we progress, it is very clear that this technique is actually quite quick and will work very well.  The chinked look for a cabin is a little different; however, I like the general feel of the building.  The cabin we are working on is 8’ x 8’ and would likely be used for  sauna.   The gap between the logs is three inches.  This gab will be filled with 3/4” foam insulation on each side of the joint and then covered with perma-chink.  This will leave an insulated air space in the middle of the log, which should help with overall insulation of the building.

I believe tomorrow we should finish up the cabin walls and we should start on the roof structure.  I certainly enjoy the North House Folk School method of construction as it allows the students to get “hands on” experience in all aspects of cabin building.  That way, when we leave the school, the students have both the expertise and confidence to tackle a building on their own.

A few more photos from downtown Grand Marais, Minnesota:

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dovetail Joint— No longer a Mystery

I’ve read a number of books that describe dovetail joint layout.  Yet, I could not picture it; I couldn’t figure it out.  I liked the look of the dovetails, but I could not comprehend how to make the joint.  Probably, too much, too hard, back in the 70s, which certainly had an effect on the number of functioning brain cells.   However, after day one of the North House Folk School Dovetail Log Building Cabin class and I fully understand how the half-dovetail functions.   It is really quite simple; seeing it in person and actually performing the layout and cutting made it clear that this technique is easy and useful. 

Also, it was clear that working with square timbers and cutting half-dovetail joints is way quicker than either hand-scribed log cabin construction or timber framing.  I plan to use this technique to build the sauna at The Stump Ranch.

How to layout the 1/2 Dovetail Joint

A few photos from day one in the class:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Discussing timbers in the workshop.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Using a slick to clean up a half-dovetail notch.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The North House School is located right on Lake Superior in downtown Grand Marais, Minnesota.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A few logs notched and ready for fit up.

Too Many Projects; Too Little Time

Stopped by the Ranch this morning to pick up some tools.  At least the snow is gone and things are starting to dry out.  I hope to have a couple of weeks in the near future when I can stay up there and get on with my summer-time projects.

Need to run the mill, cut some planking, install the decking, install the roofing, install the gable siding, do some painting, finish the outhouse, start the deck, building sauna, make a place for the firewood, and that is just the beginning.  Clearly, The Stump Ranch will be finished…never!

Grand Marais, Minnesota

James, Kevin, and I are at Trout Lake Resort in Grand Marais, Minnesota.  The resort is about 14 miles up the Gunflint Trail and then 4 miles down a single-lane, snow covered, dirt road.  

The cabin is nice, plenty of room and right on the lake.   Oh, by the way, the ice is not yet out, so the small lakes up this way are still iced over.  And, for the looks  of things, there was a good six inches of snow this morning.   Snow on April 27, doesn’t get much better than that.

Tomorrow, I start my class on Dovetail Log Cabin Building at the North House Folk School.  Looking forward to learning a new building technique that I will use to build the sauna at The Stump Ranch.

SketchUp File 10’ x 12’ Timber Framed Shed

For anyone interested, I posted my timber framed shed plan on Google Docs. If you install SketchUp on your computer, you can download the file and use SketchUp to open it.   Installing Timber Frame Rubies will allow you to make shop drawings directly from the SketchUp file.

It Is Always Something

Yup, I started the tie beam layout over the weekend on the beams I hauled back to Red Wing.  Funny thing, one beam was dead on 10’ the other was 9’ 8”.    The tie beam really should be 11’ so I have some room to work and make a 10’ beam.   What was I thinking when I cut those beams.   Well, I can work on one, the other is no available for some other project cause you can't stretch a tie-beam and it is the wrong size beam for the King Posts. 

Reindeer Games?

Man, what a day.  I planned to make a quick trip into the Stump Ranch, grab a a couple of 6” x 8” beams that I cut last fall, and haul them back to Red Wing.   That way, I can keep cutting my shed timbers.  Because I finished up the posts and since I have some time over the next few weeks, I want to keep making some progress on the shed.

When I got out to the minimum maintenance road that leads to the Stump Ranch, I unloaded the ATV, installed the rear tire chains, and piloted the Big Red Beast back to the cabin.  In general, all the dirt roads out near our place are now  “Mud-Fest”  wet and sloppy.  And, we still have 10” of heavy, heavy, wet snow in the woods.  With the chains installed, the ATV easily chewed up the snow and got me back to the ranch.   Running the “Big Red” is quite interesting, she, in general, follows the old tracks, but you really can’t steer her.   If the tracks don’t go to the right location, you are pretty much screwed.

At the ranch, I hooked up the trailer, dug out the beams which where hiding under a foot or two of snow, and, then, loaded up trailer with the timbers.   As  I was getting ready roll, I looked over at my shovel and said, “Self, you really should bring that shovel.”    That thought immediately exited my brain; I got on the ATV and headed out sans shovel.

The ATV pulled the trailer, the trailer was loaded with beams, and everything seemed to be going well.  Maneuvering around the trees took a couple of tries and I managed to get up the hills on the path out without any issue. 

However, there was one section of trail that had some deep snow.  For a moment, I considered an alternate path and then decided, screw it,  this should be no problem.    Within moments, it became clear that this choice was a big problem.  I got the ATV stuck and I got  the trailer stuck. Then, I separated the ATV from the trailer and got the ATV  free,   and then I  managed to get the ATV stuck again.  After that, I unloaded the ATV and trailer to free things. Yet,  both were still stuck, stuck! ? And, now the beams I unloaded were coated with wet, heavy snow so they now weighed in about 100 pounds heavier than they did when I loaded them up. 

At this point, I determined that it was time to dig my way to freedom.  I looked around for my shovel.  I looked around, again, for my shovel. And, then, I realized, I can look around and look around; however, there was no shovel!  And, I was about a mile and half from the cabin.   At that point, I was really wishing I had an attention span that was able to focus for more than eight seconds.  An attention span that would have allowed me to consider bringing the shovel and then actually loading the shovel up so that I might have it when it was  needed.

Eventually, I understood, it was time to walk.  So, I spent an hour fighting the wet, heavy snow while trying to stay upright and trekked back to the cabin.   I grabbed the shovel, and then, made my way back to the ATV. 

Another hour later and I managed to dig out the ATV and get the beams hauled out to my truck and then loaded up.   And, since it was so wet and sloppy, even though it was not cold, I froze my ass and toes off.