How to make this into a log cabin

FenS

Hi JJ,

good questions. I do have some ideas of course, but i did not want to put you in some direction because i have been doing that myself and by doing so, i could not solve the puzzle so maybe you have other ideas which makes it possible to solve it.
However:

i also think it would be a raised wooden deck, placed upon the footings (all new English words to me, but i think i know what you mean)
i think the floor base material is missing. If you would use all the material for the floor, it would be very hard to walk on (all these half circles), so you would still have to put some board over it to have a flat floor. That's why i also was thinking about a beam every 70 centimeters and then some board of say 1.40 meter on top of that
I am not sure. The porch itself is not that important, it would be nice to look at ofcourse but not necessary. I was trying to create the cabin itself and if i would have leftovers, than i would probably use them for a porch.
We thought about that one, i think the priority is to create something 'as big as possible'. I mean, if creating an extra wall to create an extra room means that the cabin itself will become smaller, than we rather have one big room. But then again, if we have a lot of leftovers that can be used to create an interior wall and the room itself is big, than maybe we can make that one.
For the size, we are not sure, if you calculate the (how do you call that: Width X hight) of all the wood and calculate some more, that in theory it would be possible to make a cabin of 4.20X8.40, but i don't know how. Should this be possible, than an extra room would be nice maybe, but if it is going to be a cabin of 4.20x4.20, than an extra room is not really necessary.
I think you are right, some pieces will have to be cut on the spot. There seems to be no specific beams for the window or the door, so i think that have to be cut afterwards. However, the beams all have holes, so if there is a hole, i expect that one to be there for a reason and hope that we do not have to make new gaps (but if necessary, well, so be it)

jessejames

OK i have taken a long hard look at this cabin and here is my synopsis.

<balk 1> wall
<balk 2> king-post
<balk 3> floor-beam/joist
<balk 4> ?wall?
<balk 5> floor-beam/joist
<balk 6> wall
<balk 7> floor-beam/joist
<balk 8> ridge-beam
<balk 9> wall
<balk 10> ?footing?/block
<balk 11,12,13,14> spacer

A typical cabin roof is constructed of a main ridge beam with either a king post at each end supporting it or the cabin walls supporting it. I think that is what you have here. Then standard nominal lumber is used to build a roof(2x joist) and usually it is covered with a metal(modern) of shingle roof. Of course there are many ways to build a roof, but i would think you would want to keep the weight overhead to a minimum.

I have tried every way(i can think of) under the sun to make this work with no success. This leads me do 2 common sense conclusions

1.) you miss counted/measured some lumber pieces and/or their notches.
2.) This is not a complete kit and/or is a hodgepodge of two or more kits.

I am leaning more towards #2. Many times when an organization donates something to a non-for-profit or what-not, it may not be complete/new, or whatever. There could be many reasons including a tax write-off, customer cancellation, parts not to spec, etc... These are the only conclusions i can draw from this puzzle.

I will continue to ponder this problem, but at this point i have no new ideas left.

DesignerGay

Hi FenS,

i'm a log home designer. All the logs should have a number on it. Normaly you have a Cut-Sheat where all logs are shown with the number on it. I know you have no drawings, but you should look at all the logs for the numbers, than you could figur out in witch possition they should be placed. It will take you some time to do it, but it would be the easiest to build the log cabin.

FenS

Hi DesignerGay,

you are absolutely right, but by the time i first saw the log cabin, almost all of the numbers were already gone. Either they were not readable anymore, of there was only a nail left in the log. I have written down some of these numbers back then, but by now they do not make any sense to me (i should be able to find the picture of the drawing i made back then.
Would you be able to give some hints if i would only have a few numbers? (i am not even sure that i now on which log the number was because the first time i wrote down some of the numbers, all the logs were lying on top of each other and i could not figure out what kind of log it was)
I will try to find the picture i made and will post it anyway (i keep feeling sorry that i did not do that right away because even things that might not help me by now, might be interesting information to one of you...)

Thanks again for your help, appreciate it

DesignerGay

The only thing you can do, try to put the logs together like a huge puzzle. Build it right next to the place it should be build.
Than put each layer on a own pile. If you start cutting the logs you are lost, because for the last few layers of logs you will run out of material.

Do you remember who donated the log cabin? Could you ask for the compay witch cut the logs? May they will have an old cut-shead.

FenS

We do know the people who donated the cabin, but although they are willing to help, they also can not give more information. They have given all they had but do not know from which company it came, that's why i have written some of the complanies that i could find (no luck). I agree that we should only cut if we are sure that the rest can fit but actually cutting is something i hope not to do unless there really is no other way.

DesignerGay

What hight has one log? A standarthight are between 7 and 9 layer. Do you speak german?

FenS

Ein bisschen

(with the help of google translate maybe...

One log itself is 15cm high (round), minus a little gap so it fits exactly on top of the previous one. So actually 13,5 cm.
I think that a normal height would be around 2 meter and a little so about 15-20 logs?

(google translate:
Ein Stam selbst ist 15cm hoch, minus ein wenig, damit sie passt genau auf der vorherigen auf. Also eigentlich 13,5 cm.
Ich denke, dass eine normale Höhe würden sich auf etwa 2 Meter und ein wenig so ca. 15-20 anmeldet?

DesignerGay

It schould be at least 2,40m. For example, you need 2,00m for a finished door opening to walk thru without hidding your head. i would say it will have 17-18 layers of logs.
As i menshend earlier, the best thing to do is to build the cabin once before next to the building place. Than take it apart and put each layer of logs on a own pile.

Billy Jolley 016.jpg

You have to look that the gap between the logs is on a different place at the next layer.

jessejames

I don't now about you DesignerGay, but i prefer to do my designing in the virtual world. "I can move 1000 logs with a single mouse click", and at the end of the day will still have enough energy for my wife

Have you looked at the model to see if you can make sense of it?

DesignerGay

i got my SketchUp last week, i am at the beginnig to find out the first steps. If he hab the parts also for ArchiCad, than i would have it done in a short time.
I know the blue peaces are used at the corners from the building, not for supporting the porchroof.

jessejames

DesignerGay

I agree about the short pieces.

1.) For this model, all you really need to use is the move tool, select tool, and rotation tool(Just FYI, you will probably find it easier to rotate a group with the move tool. The rotate tool can be a little confusing at first)

2.) You may need to group(Right Click->Make Group) un-group(Right Click->Explode) there is no need to make a component, FenS has already done that.

*One Warning though when using the move tool, do not push Control or you will make a copy, if you do by accident, just push Control again and the little "+" sign will disappear.

Hopefully with your experience, you can help us put this puzzle together.

DesignerGay

Something isn't right with the logs he gave in his file, there are to many cut-outs. he wrote the cabin will be 4mx8m, but i can't get an 8m long wall without holes in the middle of the wall.

FenS

Somewhere there lies the problem,
i am almost certain that the pieces i have drawn are correct and measured correctly (i really have lifted every beam myself and measured it (each of them waying a lot!)),
but indeed, if you try to make a cabin of 4x8 meters, then somewhere along the way it goes wrong. However, if you only make a cabin of 4x4 meters, then you have so many left, that i am thinking that an extra room should be there (or we really do have some mixture of 2 cabins?).

BTW, I have tried to find the picture with the numbers that were still readable, but haven't found it, i might still have one at work, if so, i will post it tomorrow.

I once made an effort in creating a 4x8 cabin and actually thought it was a good one, but when i tried it on a next trip to Bosnia i found out i missed a spot somewhere so that one was not possible also, I will try to make this one in SU and post it, maybe this give someone an idea..

Charlie__V

Fred,

Here is attempt #2.

I think balk06 should be a rafter, but the notch does not seem right.
Perhaps you have the notch incorrectly modeled?

I have enjoyed the challenge so far

Best,
Charlie

Attempt #2

jessejames

Charlie,
Nice improvement, you have some good ideas in there.

DesignerGay,
I think what we have here is a hodgepodge of cabin parts. I am going to start a new plan that will involve modifying some of the parts(as little as possible). But this way FenS can use every timber he has available.

PS: go to ( Window -> Outliner ) there you can browse all the comp/groups in the model. <balk 9> makes a nice 4m x 4m square.

FenS

Hi All,

in Holland it is midnight right now so i really have to go to bed, but i am so happy that you enjoy working on this problem! This is really helping me a lot (and keeping all the wood from going into the fireplace

I will take a look at the new skp you have posted just now, but will insert mine also.
I am not that good in moving yet so the parts do not really touch everywhere, but i think you will understand what i was trying back then.
The first three layers are for making the fundamentals,
In layer 4 i used beam 4 and opposite of that i used beam 9.
In layer 5 i used beam 9 and 4 on one side and opposite of that i did the same.
In layer 6 i turned around what i did in layer 4 (beam 9 and 4)
in layer 7 i turned around what i did in layer 5 (beam 4 and 9)
and then i repeated layer 4, 5, 6, 7 several times.
(in this skp i did not move the parts, i sometimes copied them so the leftovers are not correct).
In this 'solution' i would have to cut some beams (for instance the pile of beams sticking out and the overlap between beam 4 and 9.
(i can't remember what exactly, but there was something wrong about this solution which made me stop back then but i'm too tired right now to see what it was).
Thanks again for your support!

wrong try2.skp

FenS

Well, i have taken a look at an old excel-sheet i made with some caracteristics of the wood, but that was not really helpful (i tried to read the numbers on the logs, but i did not have the time to move the logs themselves, so i did not know which number corresponded with which log).
However, these are the only (strange to me) numbers i could read back than and wrote down:
C2-31 or C23-1?
B9-1
N18
B214
B165
N21
C15
C61
C22.1
B23
B231

All the labels (i don't know if this is helpful) were nailed into the log on a side which did not started with a gap, except for B23, that one was nailed to the side with a gap. (and unfortunately i did not write anything for B214 so that (and all the other beams are a mystery)

Anthony

Hi I've been looking at this for a couple of days now and it just occurred to me that if you cut the ends of the wall bauks from the end through the locking whole and on for another foot vertically and did the same to another but opposite then you could join two wall bauks and lock them together with the little blue ones, the same as you would with square timber.this is so simple it may have already have been brought up if not it adds a great deal to flexibility of design I'll try to add an attachment to show you what I mean but I'm new to all this so I may not have success.try

FenS

Hi Anthony,

i emidately downloaded your test.skp and wow!
Nope, never thought of this and this might just be an extra feature that we might need!
In the past replies we recieved a lot of good options and if i have some more time to spare, i will combine all these options and hope to come up with (maybe not the initally intended log cabin) a cabin that might be an option.
This joint is something i didn't think of (i was thinking of cutting it in the middle of the gap and also using the blue ones.
The results might be the same but in your case it is not possible to move them anymore so probably a much better way.
Thanks!