Cabin Progress

Since my last progress update I have completed three of the six posts, four of the 12 diagonal braces and two of the three tie beams. The timbers pictured above are of the posts. These are 10 feet tall and have lots of joinery. The large mortise shown in the post on the left is where the tie beams will fit.  These tie beams are 15 feet long and will each go the width of the cabin and lock in at each end of the vertical posts. They will support the loft. But their main function is to hold the side walls together to resist the outward force of the roof rafters. When weight is put on the angled rafters force gets transferred horizontally that tends to push the walls out. To counter that the tie beams connect the posts together and hold the walls. Because the force is so great a wooden pin will not be enough so they have complicated ends called a wedged dovetail.Here is a close-up of that detail. The posts have angled mortises in them that the beam fits into. Then a hardwood wedge is pounded in to hold everything in place. I’ll take some pictures of the assembled joint and post in the future to make this clearer.

I also milled one of the top plates. These are the biggest in the cabin at 23 feet long. Our sawmill only handles 20 feet so this was a complicated process that required my brother to help. We would leave the log hanging over the end of the sawmill while we cut the first 20 feet. Then we moved log using the tractor and cut the remaining 3 feet. It was a bit tricky and took several hours but we got it done. I’ll carve it next and then get one more of them.

I’m committed to raising the cabin in October.

Namaste

Reverend Ern