We Built This Six-Sided Oak Cabin For Just $120

Article Tools

Image Gallery

Print

E-mail

Comments

RSS

Next, we constructed twelve more columns at points halfway between the original seven. (See Fig. 1.) First, we built the piers up to ground level ... thenafter setting the sill logs (i.e., those logs which rest directly upon the foundation) in place-we completed the additional columns. We built the "midpoint piers" in this fashion for two reasons: [1] In log cabin construction, the alternate sides of the building rise in half-log increments (see Fig. 2) . . . which means that supporting columns must necessarily be of different heights. [2) All logs have taper, humps, and bumps. For these reasons, it's always best-whenever possible-to set the sill logs (and/or floor joists) atop their main supports first, then raise the other columns to lend additional support to those sill logs or joists ... whatever their heights might be.

FLOORS, WALLS, WINDOWS, AND DOORS

Labor Day finally arrived, and with it about 25 people of all types and descriptions: old-timers, just-getting-started homesteaders, old and new friends, even some city folks. Together-over the next two days (days filled with work, play, food, and music)-we raised into place about two-thirds of the logs in our cabin.

Before starting work, we took a vote and decided that the best way to join the logs in our dwelling was to cut tenons in the ends of the timbers, and then stack the logs. (A tenon is made by removingwith a bucksaw, a wedge, and a sledge-- upper and lower surfaces of a log end, leaving just a rectangular tab-a tenonthat's one-half as thick as the log itself. See Fig. 3.) In other words, the tenons of one row of logs would rest upon the tenons in the row of logs beneath, and so forth. This way, the weight of the logs would be what actually holds the cabin together. (With uncured oak, of course, adequate weight is no problem. For safety's sake, however, we tied the sill logs together with 8" oak pins and secured all other logs with 40-penny spikes.)

The first structural members to be set in place (after the sill logs, which Tom and I had installed several days before) were the floor joists, which consisted of one 24'long log and four 12' timbers. We secured these to the sill logs by means of mortise and tenon joints. (The mortises were quite easily made with a 1 " chisel and provided very clean-looking joints. See Fig. 4.)

Next, we framed the doors and windows with 2 X 6 oak boards and began stacking the logs for the walls. (We set the door frames on the sill logs before beginning the walls, and placed the window frames on their mounts four or five layers later.) Around each door or window frame, we built up wall sections using logs cut to the appropriate length. As each cut-to-length timber was butted against the frame, we drove a 40-penny spike through the frame and into the log end, thus securing the bolt until small sticks could be hammered into the cracks between the logs to give more adequate support.

RSS | Comments | E-mail | Print