iDRY Vacuum Kilns

Sponsors:

"Lugged" half-dovetails as cabin corner notches?

Started by jake pogg, May 30, 2021, 10:49:18 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

jake pogg

As a separate issue but also related to the topic https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?topic=115500.0

Sometimes on a half-lap/square-lap corner notch a "lug"-a square male/female detail was carved to prevent the air infiltration of a joint.

(i seem to not be able to insert photos here...the only thing it'd let me do is to create an album in my "profile";and i tried that,and have (i think) a photo of such a joint in there somewhere).

My question to the community is:Was a similar device ever carved into a sloped joint such as half-dovetail?

I seem to remember seeing photos of one somewhere,but my (feeble)research has so far resulted in no info;also,having carved a hal-dovetail to show the client as an example of the possible corner joint,i'm failing to see myself,even having it right in front of me in 3-D,just how it could possibly be done... 
"You can teach a pig anything,it just takes time;but what's time to a pig?"
Mark Twain

Don P

Well, something ate that post  :D, try again. 

B.A. Mackie's "Notches of All Kinds" has a good selection and instructions on a number of corner notches.

This was a factory cut air dam on a dovetail kit, It was pretty wimpy but I liked the concept, I've seen right outside along the verticals on several dovetail homes as the logs shrink.


 

I was playing with the concept and a french dovetailed cog, this is the idea but the french tail is way too big, it weakens the relish beyond, there is a happy place in there somewhere.


 

In notch and pass corners I've done a vertical slightly wedge shaped drop in french dovetail before that worked pretty well. Didn't take any pictures.


jake pogg

Thanks so much,Don,that's very interesting(taking place in the horizontal plane, i didn't even think in that axis!).

Very interesting concept(-s),and Very neat work.Wonderful.
(i get a feeling those twin lateral ridges were not made with a plow-plane :) )
"You can teach a pig anything,it just takes time;but what's time to a pig?"
Mark Twain

jake pogg

Since i discovered how to post photos i thought i'd abuse it a bit...

The order of photos is still challenging,so the first one is my treatment of the "bark-",the last remaining round side of a D-log. It'd taken down about 3/8" to 1/2" deep using Makita 1002BA:




And this is my first experiment with half-dovetail(the lug situation is still hazy,but this does help in thinking):


 



Next is the treatment of the Face,the flat side that'll be the finish surface inside the house.
The planer i use on this(i believe in All wooden surfaces to be finished with a sharp blade,abrasives of Any kind are an abomination,and are to be resorted to only in an emergency),is Makita 1806B,the width of cut is 6 3/4".
That face is 8" now,but i'll cut a chamfer on each edge(for acrylic sealant),and this will bring the overall width to where i can cover the entire surface in a pass:  


 


And finally just a shot of my lovely work-site.We build on pilings here because of the fairly regular flooding.The pilings are 6" sch.40 pipe that go down 16' to the permafrost.
The H-beams on top are 10" tall by 8" wide flange/1/2" thick.
12" BCI joists and 1 1/8" underlayment,screwed&glued...Everything pretty much according to Hoyle:


 

 
"You can teach a pig anything,it just takes time;but what's time to a pig?"
Mark Twain

doc henderson

Jake you are doing well. the pick goes where you leave the cursor in the post.  It is good to give a couple spaces between the photos, and you can go back and put comments between them.  you can back space and remove a photo just like words.  If you save a post, you can go back and modify and redo stuff, such as photos and repost.  for a long post, it is not bad to save it then modify to add more in case you are worried about loosing all your work.
Timber king 2000, 277c track loader, PJ 32 foot gooseneck, 1976 F700 state dump truck, JD 850 tractor.  2007 Chevy 3500HD dually, home built log splitter 18 horse 28 gpm with 5 inch cylinder and 32 inch split range with conveyor powered by a 12 volt tarp motor

jake pogg

Quote from: doc henderson on May 31, 2021, 10:51:13 AM
Jake you are doing well. the pick goes where you leave the cursor in the post.  It is good to give a couple spaces between the photos, and you can go back and put comments between them.  you can back space and remove a photo just like words.  If you save a post, you can go back and modify and redo stuff, such as photos and repost.  for a long post, it is not bad to save it then modify to add more in case you are worried about loosing all your work.
Thank you,Sir,that's very kind of you.
I'll try to mark this post somehow so i can refer to it in the future.
I'm not sure if i'm not being a bit long-winded here,if that detailed of information is of any interest to anyone.
However,part of it is that at present i'm in a sort of a hiatus,up against making a number of decisions absolutely crucial to the future of project.
Once i get going on this in earnest i'll probably not have the time to post.
(the work-crew on this project is me,myself,and i,and if i don't stretch tin over this by early November at the latest i'll be performing seppuku...(so then i'll definitely not post,although i can try to ask someone to video it...wonder if this site will allow that though?:))
"You can teach a pig anything,it just takes time;but what's time to a pig?"
Mark Twain

doc henderson

I think for video, you have to have a you tube account and then link to it.  @Jeff is not only the chief bottle washer, but an expert (owner) on the site and video posting.  after you use it a time or two, it will seem intuitive and come natural.  at first I did not want to screw up a post, but then I experimented and can get a better fluid post.  we like pics, and more details is usually helpful, or you will get answers to questions you did not ask for.  when I first joined it was from work, and I did not have time to mess around.  Now it is a daily habit, good or bad!
Timber king 2000, 277c track loader, PJ 32 foot gooseneck, 1976 F700 state dump truck, JD 850 tractor.  2007 Chevy 3500HD dually, home built log splitter 18 horse 28 gpm with 5 inch cylinder and 32 inch split range with conveyor powered by a 12 volt tarp motor

Don P

Mackie calls it a locked dovetail notch, I googled this morning and saw a different one in a short video.

Tangential vs radial shrinkage will make the flat face convex. Run a 3" power planer up the center of the bottom to leave a wide, shallow relief which will throw the bearing back onto the 2 outer edges.

jake pogg

Thank you guys,and that below is one heck of a valuable tip.


Quote from: Don P on May 31, 2021, 04:28:34 PMTangential vs radial shrinkage will make the flat face convex. Run a 3" power planer up the center of the bottom to leave a wide, shallow relief which will throw the bearing back onto the 2 outer edges.


And thank you,I'll see if i can find Mackie's info somewhere on internet...(of course i don't have his book..most foolishly...:(...).

I've met Alan Mackie once,at a log-building conference in Fairbanks AK.
He struck me as the mildest,most well-mannered man that i possibly ever met...I remember feeling embarrassed afterwards at how patiently he listened to some nonsense i was spouting...Also remember discussing with him a very old deal of building in a pocket-mortise filled with rock-salt into every log,for it to(supposedly,as the myth has it)dissipate along the grain preserving the wood....Good Lord,i believe it was in the previous century that it all happened...:( 
"You can teach a pig anything,it just takes time;but what's time to a pig?"
Mark Twain

Don P

His daughter has links to the book here;
BOOKS | B Allan Mackie
I have several they published or reprinted back in the day. We were holed up in a camper on a seriously subzero jobsite for a winter but a kindly neighbor gave me a stack of his magazines for the long winter nights.

I've not done that style of D log but have done double round flat on flat. It is worth the time to make certain the upper log overhangs the lower a small amount, drip edges rather than water catching ledges. Big over or underlaps are not pretty. We would trial set the next log and scribe to remove offending ledges and blend the diameters better, using drawknives. That power planed finish is not lovely. I think I'd either drawknife or get an Osborne brush or similar and engage in some abrasive abomination to break up or blend those lines better.

jake pogg

Quote from: Don P on May 31, 2021, 07:39:23 PMThat power planed finish is not lovely. I think I'd either drawknife or get an Osborne brush or similar and engage in some abrasive abomination to break up or blend those lines better.


Ah!...I think my heart is breaking!...Is not my 1002BA finish decent?!!!
(but wait,i've TWO(!!!) brand-new sets of HSS blades for it,i was just too stingy to swap them out yet!THEN you'll be impressed:))

Seriously,do you think that that rounded part would be better drawknifed?

And i'm afraid i'm not at all familiar with Osborne brush...I'll look it up,my internet data account gets recharged tonight,on the 31-st/1-st of each month(btw,i'm in a remote,roadless village,and all comms here are sat-based).

Thank you very much for all this most constructive info,i'm isolated here,do not work professionally,and really am out of the loop;and so really appreciate any and all criticism.

It was very good and conscientious of you to mark off and deal with all those "ledges"(good term for it).
That's yet another incurable,really,downfall of 2-,or 3-sided logs...Matching them in profile will Look better,for sure,but will it solve the seepage,the wicking-type action of water capillaring it's way about?...(No,Sir,i do not believe it will,alas and alack...:(...).
"You can teach a pig anything,it just takes time;but what's time to a pig?"
Mark Twain

Don P

Just my opinion but long faceted lines is not going to look good. Either a fair curve or a drawknife texture will look better. If the power planer has knives rather than inserts I have ground convex and concave curves in the knives and extend them out as far as possible without hitting the case, round the corners to avoid leaving lines. If its those narrow disposable inserts you're stuck with just using it for initial hogging the junk off.

I saw Mackie's daughter has a site that lists his books and videos, that is a good one for the bookshelf.

This isn't meant to offend just something to think about. It isn't full scribe nor is it trying to be, it is a different form of construction. I'm seeing what looks like the wrong attitude going in, that doesn't lead to your best work or anyone being happy in the end. A friend told me one time as I was regretting things said and going on at work "I've learned that if I'm behaving badly I'm in the wrong place, its time for a change". There are certainly jobs I've regretted taking. Screen what you take. We all grouse, I'm whining about being a mole under a house now and would have preferred to burn this one down and recreate it, but I adjusted my attitude to their desires as much as possible. I do bring some level of expertise, at least relative to the client, and have to do things right but am respecting their wishes as well, pick the ones where you can shine. A fail is not a referral, meeting a tough challenge and prevailing is a big one.

Capillary... what is the capillary limit? The strength of a hydrogen bond. Trees don't have pumps, that is natures best capillary. A redwood is within a very few feet of the theoretical limit of the ultimate strength of that bond. Don't fool yourself, detail to prevent wicking. A friend who was really conscientious used a dremel to create drip edges similar to a window sill detail on an appalachian style chinker, wow. He was kicking the water off at every course rather than allowing it to flow down the wall and trying to keep it out.

We abandoned spikes after using them on one house and went to 3/8x10 lags. Prebored with a 1/2" bit through the upper log and counterbored a couple of inches deep for the washer. Deep well socket on an impact for running them in and spaced every 2-3' to pull down tight. You'll still need to chink after dry but it'll keep everything flat and in plane as much as possible during drying. Dead on vertical holes, divergent angles will hang it up. There is less settlement in this style of construction than in full scribe, there is no slumping or compression.

We fashioned a C shaped head that would reach over the course. A long handle with a foot that engages the fixed course below allows a helper to bow the logs into plane as the lag is run in. We could work bowed logs into a flat plane.

jake pogg

I'm amazed,Don,that someone doesn't find long/faceted planer marks appealing-amazed and glad,as obviously this has been a blind spot on my part,and i'm happy to know of it's existence now.

All the technical stuff you describe relating to building with "sided" logs is Very valid.Technically,(although of course under specific conditions or working with different species all that is subject to adjustment),but more importantly-it makes it obvious that you're a Thinking builder,which is the ultimate quality in this very creative field.
Good for you,good for your clients,and i'm honored to have a chance to converse with someone like you.

Thank you for those Mackie books link,i really should get some of these for our local school library here.(i've lost all my paper books in a severe flood we had in 2013,and decided to not keep real books any longer-too heavy to load up each spring when i prepare for ice break-up and possibility of a flood).

What you write about a friend carving drip-edges into logs with a Dremel reminded me of a book i looked through many years ago now-it was a dissertation of an older friend's granddaughter,an architect,on the details of Norse architecture in something like 9th-10th c.c.
Here's an amazon link to the book:https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/norwegian-wood--a-tradition-of-building_christian-norberg-schulz_jerri-holan/434657/item/10077971/?gclid=CjwKCAjwtdeFBhBAEiwAKOIy50mP_qiyZCUqGfMmKo7Us_lZ44JbBAYmay2iBMvi-ei7RPDUGRRdqhoCSncQAvD_BwE#idiq=10077971&edition=6890947

But in it she describes and has diagrams and photos of beautiful bored and carved channels and little drain holes,to drain all kinds of dados and other nooks and crannies resulting from those curious architectural details...

So good on your friend-he's following in a ancient noble woodworking tradition! 
"You can teach a pig anything,it just takes time;but what's time to a pig?"
Mark Twain

jake pogg

Quote from: Don P on June 01, 2021, 08:17:08 AMThis isn't meant to offend just something to think about. It isn't full scribe nor is it trying to be, it is a different form of construction. I'm seeing what looks like the wrong attitude going in, that doesn't lead to your best work or anyone being happy in the end.


Don,do you mean my ill-natured grousing about the sided logs in general?

If so i'm sorry,i may've misrepresented my attitude to this whole project.

I'll try again,in hopes of making it a bit clearer:

I live in a remote community not connected by road to any place(air and barge traffic in summer only).Originally a WWII "lend-lease" AFB base(now closed),it was the place where many Native families have moved to in search of work.Most people here are Dena' Athabaskans,with (Wikipedia tells me:) 29% of non-Native population.

We don't have "reservations" in Alaska,but in some ways this is not dissimilar to some of the rez environment in other states,many people are poor and disenfranchised,and the local "architecture" reflects that.
Black Elk,the Lakota medicine man of the mid-1800's had an older mentor,a man who himself has not encountered white people.And long before the "contact" he had a horrifying vision,in describing which he said,in part:"...and i can see my people,they're living in square houses,and they're starving...".

This is a`place where these two Very dissimilar economic systems meet-that ageless one of Nomadic hunting&gathering and the Cash economy.Actually they're the Opposites of each other,so much so as to be mutually exclusive,and they do not meet as much as they clash together.

A Log Cabin is a powerful romantic symbol for very many,both the indigenous people and the ex-europeans.
It's best to not examine this too closely,as in reality it'll be found that most of our ancestors lived in soddies or wattle&daub dwellings and so on,and likewise on the indigenous part of the equation where the people did not live in permanent solid structures at all.
But here we have it,it is a Myth,and a powerful one-everyone loves a log house(even those that prefer the reliability and comfort of the more modern materials often have a soft spot for a log-cabin even just hypothetically).

So the kind of log houses prevalent here is that D-log kind. I Am indeed prejudiced against it myself,especially to the manner in which it's most often executed here-unfinished on the inside logs of 6" on the flat very crudely stacked together,fiberglass exposed in every seam(in a ray of sunlight coming through the window,if you stomp your foot on the floor,you can see glass dust billowing out of the wall).
Those that could would fur the interior walls out and insulate them additionally and then finish them(turning the thermal envelope into a nonsensical mess).
It was,and though less often now but still is,the Log House for the Poor.

I myself came here nearly 30 years ago as a penniless,homeless stray.
This community has taken me in,warmed and clothed me for all these years,treated me better than one of their own.I could not possibly describe the degree of kindness and helpfullness and respect with which i'm treated here.

The gratitude and the appreciation that i feel towards my fellow villagers is Immense,and one of the ways i express it is by crusading against this sub-par dwellings.
I do so by means of education,if asked for info,and i volunteer my labor on projects such as this present one.
(I no longer work for money at all,on principle,my time is way too valuable;and my needs are few and satisfied mostly by harvesting local resources,with help from others as far as the more technological means for that).

So,my objective is to Demonstrate that one CAN,indeed,create a quality dwelling from logs,it just needs to be done in a certain Thoughtful manner.

You scribe logs together because it's Economical,not because it's "fashionable"-it saves nearly 1/3 of the wall height from same number of logs handled.
You use local resources because it demonstrates(especially to the young)the Deliberate choice in living here/vs being stuck here 'cos you're a poor indian.
And you put that dwelling together in a Quality manner,because the architecture is a Language,that surrounds you(today we spend vastly more time inside then in the past),and speaks and affects you in numerous significant ways.
And i'll NOT have it speak to my beloved neighbors and friends of poverty,and second-class-ness!!!

My present "client" is a Very bright,progressive-thinking young lady,who's very much on the same page with me on all this.

It's a Quixotic quest on both of our parts-in spite of glaring lack of monetary resources,manpower,equipment et c.,we'll build her a Superlative house,and so in every possible way:Aesthetically,Thermally,in terms of longevity,it's "value" as far as modern economy is concerned-the whole enchilada:).

It's to be a statement,a very important one.
(it's also not my first rodeo,i've a few other such,scattered about the lanscape).

So you see,my attitude about D-logs is not just sour apples.   
 
"You can teach a pig anything,it just takes time;but what's time to a pig?"
Mark Twain

Don P

I'm glad. What I was concerned with was a contempt for the job, which because we are on a job for so long, always rears its head. When I've had jobs fall apart it affects me for some years, I guess forever. What I've realized is the mistake has never been in leaving a job, and most we have found a way to muddle through, it was in taking the job, there was never a meeting of the minds. I can lay blame in some instances but in reality I've always in hindsight looked back and realized the clues were always there. Even though this is Appalachia and I am also no stranger to financial poverty I've learned that it is fine to say "no thank you" to work that I shouldn't be doing for whatever reason.

It's funny Mackie came up. I was working a job in winter, we had gone far afield for work, living in a frozen camper in serious sub zero long nights. A huge articulated loader had pushed us up the mountain in November and a dozer lowered us back down in Feb. We never saw the ground, young and bulletproof  :D.  A neighbor brought by a stack of his magazines which got us through the long nights. You sound much like him.

So back to the notch. What started the vertical cogs and dovetails I showed earlier is draftstopping. Although folks think dovetail corners self tighten, they do not. As the timbers shrink a gap opens in the vertical part of the notch and the light and wind come through. Not saying I'm showing the ideal solution but your joint is not yet complete, something needs to be done there.

jake pogg

I hear you,Don,oh,i  Absolutely do,on all of the above...:(

We,as Builders,are not slaves,and betraying your craftsman's dignity is unspeakably foul,and being caught between that and betraying your family,in terms of financial support,that is something that cripples one for a lifetime...:(

Alan Mackie,bless him,was by nature a philosopher and educator,and has inspired so many along the way,i'm glad that fates brought you together...

But yes,back to the notch...I've been busy playing with my new toy most of the day,avoiding thinking about this unresolved issue.

 

I'm just ridiculously,moronically happy about having a tractor of my very own,until the end of this job!!!
And what a sweet old Allis Chalmers critter it is,i'm in love!:)

But yes,here's what complicates my decision-making further yet:I dont Need to draft-dam the corners(nor ought else).See,the nature of climate,and accepted building practices here,dictates that at least one side of the house(preferably both)be sealed with this acrylic-based compound("Perma-chink" or one of it's clones).
If we're on time(before it gets below +45F) we may do the inside even this season.
So the draft-proof joinery is a belt-and-suspenders kind of a deal.
As well as(originally hoped for by me)a visual detail,yet another indicator of Quality.
But i cannot for the life of me conceive of it in a manner visible from the outside.
Blind-yes,a few different ways;probably the crudest would be a plunge-cut with a saw and a corresponding thickness bisquit of some sort,but other ways a bit more gracious as well.

There two issues here,the draft,and the resulting gap that ends up uninsulated.
That second one,the insulation,i've a bit of a story about that you may find curious.



 

Last fall i had the pleasure of traveling with this same young lady who's project this is,and her son and her father(my whiskey-drinking partner) to a cabin 90 miles up the Nowitna river,that her grandfather has built.
He was an old bush pilot/mechanic/adventurer,who built that cabin in the late '50-ies to hunt in the fall and spring,he'd land nearby on floats or skis.

As we were cleaning the old place up we had a discussion about chinking.The cabin,over the years,was chinked and re-chinked with about every material known to man-fiberglass,old rags,polyurethane spray-foam,newspaper and cardboard,and of course moss.
All of the chinking has failed pretty much catastrophically except one kind-you guessed it,the good old Sphagnum moss.
In pulling it out of a few spots and examining it we found it to be intact,not falling apart at all,and still having Very great elasticity.
Now i wonder if you know,or can guess why that is?

I found out myself not too many years ago,in idle beer-drinking discussion at a party with a friend who,it turned out,was a biologist researching moss.
Turns out,Sphagnum never dies!:) Well,maybe it does not live forever,but for a number of centuries it does(more than 3,as according to old Norse sources one replaces the birch-bark under the sod roof every 300 years,but the moss is by then still good:))

Without moisture it goes dormant,it hibernates...It's cellular structure remains intact,thus it's springiness,it's gap-filling magik.

But it's beyond our means and timeline to insulate the entire place with sphagnum,it's located quite far from here,and not easy to get to,we've discussed it already.
I wonder if i can try to talk her into using it on just the corner joints,that may actually be doable... 
"You can teach a pig anything,it just takes time;but what's time to a pig?"
Mark Twain

kantuckid

I am a definite fan of draw knifing the logs vs. planer or a milled finish! My home is stack log with two bark surfaces.
That said, I can probably draw knife a "D"-log as fast as a hand power planer for starters. FWIW, I bought my first power planer to do the log bottom thing to localize season cracks in my own build. 

 When I first saw your plan to use the planer on the bark my mind immediately questioned why you'd do so in Alaska's climate? Aside from the esthetics notion which is important for me.   
Kan=Kansas;tuck=Kentucky;kid=what I'm not

jake pogg

Quote from: kantuckid on June 02, 2021, 11:23:04 AMWhen I first saw your plan to use the planer on the bark my mind immediately questioned why you'd do so in Alaska's climate? Aside from the esthetics notion which is important for me.   


Sorry,i don't quite get the question-why use a plane on "bark"?(i drawknife the bark off,and use the plane on the layer of sapwood below).

In general,the White spruce only have a living tissue in about the outer 1 1/2"-2" of it's outer sapwood.

That layer,especially the portion right beneath cambium layer,is So saturated with sugars and starch that NO matter what you do,the bacteria will come and destroy it structurally.

So that layer has gots to go,and as deep as you can manage.

In the process,why a Blade of some kind is so important(vs abrasion):Wood fibers are too soft to resist abrasives,they do not provide enough resistance to the cutting edge of carborundum et c.
Think of trying to shave some very soft hairs with a dull razor,they'll just bend...Another way of looking at it is the burr that's formed on the very tip of an edge being sharpened,at some point the material gets so weak/soft it just bends away from abrasive.

So any abrasive creates Fuzz,that combined with moisture from the air will make a meal for the critters.

As opposed to all that a sharp blade does two things:It shaves the fibers as smoothly as possible,and it Planishes the wood(to use machining term):






Planish definition is - to smooth, toughen, and finish (metal) by hammering lightly.

The pressure of the drawknife(or long ago of an axe or an adze,in some cultures,like Suomi,the severely weighted down axe-blade of a very special finishing axe called Piilukirve).

It presses the fibers down,and even to some extent momentarily melts the lignin,"gluing" the fibers flat...It most probably does so with resins,on resinous species.

It is my belief that the rotating blades of an electric plane further emphasize these effects,by kinda beating on the wood in their action...(touch the wood after some planing passes,you can feel a degree of heat...).

All that is to preserve the surface,for longevity of the outside of your structure.Making it as impermeable to bacteria as possible. 
"You can teach a pig anything,it just takes time;but what's time to a pig?"
Mark Twain

jake pogg

"You can teach a pig anything,it just takes time;but what's time to a pig?"
Mark Twain

kantuckid

FWIW, I am a lifelong woodworker so no need to explain cutting wood no matter how it's being done. Metal I know pretty well as well as I am a well trained pro mechanic of several types. 

My point was that once the outer bark is gone, that in your climate I figured what's left wont deteriorate as it does in my humidity down here in KY? I have a booklet from the AK forestry or university folks-I forget which and they include a recipe for a log wall finish which would never survive in the humidity of the warmer areas of the lower 48. Maybe global warming has made for more log prep or is it moistly the look as in esthetics?
 That's what i was thinking, not wood fibers, etc.. 
Kan=Kansas;tuck=Kentucky;kid=what I'm not

jake pogg

Sorry,i didn't mean to come off "preachy" like that.

Good question,as you're quite right about "Alaska"(Alaska is huge,and has all these different climates,some are technically a rainforest,but my area here-the Middle Yukon valley-is so dry as to be often called an "Arctic desert").

Yes,it's very dry here.The 50-some year old cabin that i posted a photo of above had the bark left on the logs...To no apparent detriment,as only some length of tails have rotted off,the ends that protruded beyond the roof overhangs.
(and that roof was poles and moss,for most of it's life,only in the last decade or so someone has casually thrown some tin over it).

The logs Will deteriorate if any moisture is ever added to them:Recently i was hired to remove and replace a part of a log wall that was located behind a fuel tank next to the building.
The drip from the roof was deflecting off the rounded tank surface right at that wall,and the wood was completely gone,you could take chunks out of it with your fingers.
So any driven moisture will make your wall-logs go away.

So a very good question-why bother with the surface,if it's all only the matter of protecting the logs,i.e. strictly the roofing issues.

I have no clear,maybe not even a rational answer...:(

It's some type of a chip on my shoulder issue...Competing with all those synthetic materials,vinyl siding and other crap?

Not that they're any challenge in a Practical,functional sense,it's the Perception of it all that i guess i mean...
Trying to fight that prejudiced views that would have all of us in the (roadless)Western AK villages as poor and shiftless and 3rd World?

That,+ a builder's vanity?..."Pride of craftsmanship",if i tried to hide behind something loftier-sounding?  

Yes,a Very good question indeed.   
"You can teach a pig anything,it just takes time;but what's time to a pig?"
Mark Twain

kantuckid

Denali NP actually meets the criteria for a desert precipitation wise. 
I bought the DeWalt power planer to use on my wall logs underbelly. I went for the higher amp version off an ebay buy vs. the more common box store DeWalt. 
Kan=Kansas;tuck=Kentucky;kid=what I'm not

jake pogg

Quote from: kantuckid on June 03, 2021, 11:22:41 AMI bought the DeWalt power planer to use on my wall logs underbelly. I went for the higher amp version off an ebay buy vs. the more common box store DeWalt. 


"Underbelly"-as in the bottom contact surface?

And do you mean something that Don P mentions elsewhere-running a relief on center of a flat surface,with a 3" plane,to allow for better contact?

Good for you though,sounds like a nice tool,hope it serves you well.

Speaking or aridity,it's raining pretty steadily here for second day in a row.Me and the tractor had to build a tarp-shelter,to hide under to plane,as wet shavings`stick in the plane's exhaust shute,really annoying cleaning them out every couple minutes... 
"You can teach a pig anything,it just takes time;but what's time to a pig?"
Mark Twain

kantuckid

Not just contact, it helps focus the drying, i.e. season cracks in an unseen area. 
Kan=Kansas;tuck=Kentucky;kid=what I'm not

jake pogg

"You can teach a pig anything,it just takes time;but what's time to a pig?"
Mark Twain

Thank You Sponsors!