Sunday, July 26, 2015

2/5 Pairs of Rafters Ready to Go....

Well, I spent a few minutes this morning looking a distant neighbors blog on the subject of building a cabin and thought that I should add an update...  I have been working on (milling) what I am now calling the 'tool shed' and 'temporary tractor shed' this summer and just finished cutting two of five rafter pairs.

I got the logs from a rental property that was doing some clean up and, unfortunately, the timing is was pretty poor.   Cutting in the summer with all the sap in the trees is less than ideal but I had to take advantage of the readily available wood.

The problem I am seeing with the very wet wood is mold/fungus.  The big pine that I took (9 - 4x10 beams :-) had some serious discoloration and growth.  Not sure if it was the best idea but I thought that perhaps a little bleach would be a good way to knock it back.   Seems to have worked, will have to find out later if it messes my finish up.   I figure that I'll rinse all the pieces off good after they dry.

Tool Shed Plan.

Put on the big bar.

Makes for a pretty impressive saw :-)

Buck the log, took the 'small end'.

36" cut was almost not enough!

Too big for the mill, so invert to get it down to manageable sizes.

Second cut...

... and another view.

Result: 4" x 34" 'board'.

Quartered.

All that's needed are some basic tools.

And a plan.

Here are the first four rafters.





2 comments:

  1. Nice work, Id LOVE to get a piece of pine that size, would make a sweet Roubo bench top! I feel your pain on the summer cutting, we fought mold and ambrosia beetles with sprays of borax, didn't really work, only drying seemed to help.

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  2. Do you ever get up to the Southern MD, Northern VA area? I could keep a lookout for another tree ;-).

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