HUGE Sill Logs!
This was our first work with logs, and of course you start with the bottom (sill) logs that are the most difficult, and also the biggest. Logan, cleverly, took most of this week off to spend with Sabrina, so Tom came over to take his place. The progress is described below, followed by the usual summary of lessons learned, mistakes, and whatnot.
Tom (thankfully!) did the chainsaw work. The notch design we are using involves carving out a scarf on the log, which provides a relatively flat zone for the next log to sit on. This is a new approach to both of us, so Tom began with a practice scarf (left image — can you believe we actually practiced!). The right image shows Tom carving out the first real scarf on one of our big sill logs.
We got our first sill log onto the stem wall with only one major error. My idea was to carve key notches into the ends of the logs facing the windows. (You can see this notch on the end of the log.) Unfortunately we misplaced the notch so it wasn’t on center, so we probably won’t use it. With this error, we quickly abandoned putting in the key notch — we can carve them in later with the logs in place.
It was an ongoing adventure, or perhaps more accurately, comedy of errors with me operating the telehandler. Tom would signal to move the log right, and I would send it left. When he signaled in, I would go out – backwards on practically everything. Additionally, for part of the time the idle on the telehandler was running too fast, so whenever I had to drive a log around it was pretty jerky. Tom wisely did his best to stay away from the wildly swinging huge logs, plus he managed perplexed smiles at my incompetence rather than angry outbursts. In the end we got through the week with no injuries.
We worked past 6:00 pretty much every day, but there was some time for some decent food and good wine afterwards. Scott’s T-bone steaks played well the first night. It was really great sharing camp with Tom again, something we haven’t done enough in recent years. However, I forgot the coffee and we ran out of beer and wine, so it may require some serious bribery to convince Tom to share a camp with me again anytime soon.
Logan brought Sabrina up to see the project, and she took the photo above of how Swansons do work. Note that Logan and I have a similar work ethic with Tom sawing away.
Each sill log had to be milled so it has one flat side to sit on top of the stem walls. A treated 2 by 6 was placed on top of the stem wall with a foam barrier above and below. (I abandoned my idea of using a tar-like sealant when it had the consistency of thin paint — another of my many mistakes. Fortunately Tom brought over some foam that simply rolled out and was way easier with no mess.) The Alaska mill worked well, as shown above, but it’s not a fast process.
Our first sill notch was so bad we threw away the log. This was largely because we did the scarf wrong (my error). However we found another log and got a fair but not great notch. It will require some foam, but it’s workable. There will be some warts…
We saved the longest sill log for last. It required a long mill, plus we had to peel off a bunch of dried-on bark first. This log had a bunch of knots, but we found a nice flat side for the top. The right photo shows the log on the wall ready for scribing.
My tendency to go right when I should go left is not an asset when scribing. Still, with patience I think we’re getting some decent scribe lines. At any rate, if the log doesn’t fit after we’ve cut to the scribe line, it’s my fault.
The left photo shows the a completed notch for the last sill log. It’s cupped in the middle so all the weight rests on edges that sit on the scarf of the log below. Or at least that’s how it’s supposed to work — we got it pretty close. The notch looks like a weak point, but there’s fairly thick wood underneath what you can see. However, we did get careless and cracked the log near the notch at the small end of the log. Logan came up to help on the last day of the week, and this picture gives you an idea of how big the log is.
With Logan back on the telehandler, we laid out almost all our logs so we can pick and choose better moving forward.
We got all the sill logs placed by the end of the week, plus we just got started on the second row. The log sitting next to the cabin has had it’s preliminary notch cut and it has been scribed for final notching. Also, we scribed the long-groove that will go the length of the log so it matches the lower log when it sits on top. We will get to that next week.
Lessons, boo-boos, and so forth
Although one always wishes for more progress, overall we had a good week. The biggest logs are on the wall and we’ve ramped up the learning curve a bit more. Here are some observations:
I really regretted using the huge logs for sills much of this week. They are difficult to handle, take a long time to mill and cut, and if you make a mistake it’s very painful. Also, these were the first logs that go up, so they were a poor choice to learn on. Having said that, Tom did a great job with the chainsaw and I think they will look fantastic when we are done.
Once again I proved that I made a wise choice in NOT being a heavy equipment operator. Thankfully I didn’t hurt Tom and I really appreciate his patience and bemused, good-natured responses to my operator blunders.
Other than having me driving the telehandler, the other big error we got away with was cracking one sill log near the notch. When we put other logs on top it should be totally fine.
We ran out of beer and wine — not great!
Finally, even though it’s a lot of work, the logs are much more fun than the concrete work, and also less stressful. Once again, next week will be interesting!
Other than your posts being put together in an entirely different language than English, currently my original and only remaining one (sort of), it has taken me several hours getting up to translation speed to even begin begin to figure what the hell you are trying to tell the reader. After teaching myself the new language I’m getting with it, I think. No tests yet, thank you.
You are a very lucky dude, Rand, to have such great family members to rely on through these tough times. AND even more lucky that I personally am too far away to provide my own assistance and/or opinions regarding this marvelous adventure.