What are you building with your milled wood? merged

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Progress on the retaining wall

Well the evenings are starting to get short up here; the sun's down behind the trees well before 6pm and it's fairly dark by 7, so not much time to work on stuff at home after putting in a shift at the mill anymore... Couldn't ask for better weather though. It's been sunny and beautiful here for the last two weeks fairly solid, with temps hovering between 17-25°C, which is high for this time of year, and only a few frosty nights so far. I've been slowly plodding along on the retaining wall; here's what I've done so far after this afternoon's contributions:

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A couple days ago, I installed the deadman that's about halfway back that goes into the hill. It's resting on cinder blocks and a good bed of drain rock that I buried in the dirt. It will be the far end of the third platform/step; this one will be pretty much buried and unexposed - another 8X8 will go on top of it, and the stairs will come down onto that one.

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It's a bit hard to tell from that shot, but it's pretty darn good for level across the gap there. My level was showing about an eighth of an inch high to the left across its 6' length; if that's the average over the length of the wall, I could expect less than a half inch off of level from one end to the other; we shall see, once it's all done. Considering all the inaccuracies in leveling the base blocks, and warp and sawing tolerances in the wood, I'm pretty happy with that. It's not nearly enough that you could notice.

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Looking down from above. The stairway down will be 3' wide and will start at the gap between two deck boards that's just to right of center at the bottom and is in line with the bottom platform of the retaining wall. The stairway will end on the deadman that's in place. It's approximately a 6' rise over an 8' run. This pic gives a better idea of the whole layout of the project. The next platform will be to the right of the one already built, and will go 3' (the width of the staircase) past the 8X8 that's across the back of the existing platform, past which the inner retaining wall will start; the overall depth from the face of the main wall is just a bit over 6'. The next platform will come towards the camera to the deadman. An 8X8 will come off the near corner of the first platform and be lap jointed into the deadman, forming the outer edge of the third platform. This will create a "box" of sorts surrounded by the main wall, first platform, third platform, and deadman, so I'll have a flowerbed/box in there or something.

I'm almost out of wood again; down to two eight-foot 8X8s and one of those is a bit whitespecked and suspect to begin with; not sure I wanna use it, really. I need to mill a good 8-10 more, I think. The inner retaining wall will be built with 6X6, which I have a few of already and have three suitable logs to make some more.
 
When I've built things that are over 6' horizontal and wanted to make sure they were level I'd take a piece of hose, long enough to curl w/ both ends up (garden or whatever), tie one end on a stick at one end of the structure, and the same at the other. Fill the hose with water, and I've got a level. Works over long distances, given enough hose. Does not compensate for gravity anomalies or earth curvature.

Also works well with cheap clear plastic air hose used for aquariums, stick one end in a jug add some food coloring and water.

Nowadays you can get a laser level fairly cheaply.
 
mtngun - I love your barn! I remember seeing some pictures of a house you were working on a while ago and that looked great too.

I'm looking forward to working on a structure at some point in the future but for now I'm concentrating on furniture. Here's an idea I came up with to show off an interesting maple log I snagged that fell onto the side of the road after being killed by ivy. The frame is English walnut that I milled from a yard tree.

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This is a hall table with a live edge top from cedar I milled in Idaho. I also milled the cherry from a nail filled yard tree. The black walnut was bought from someone who cut it free hand with a chainsaw - took a lot of work to straighten it out.

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Here's a table I made with a bent laminated base and a book matched top from a lovely walnut log I milled.

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This is a Silver Maple dining table 8' long x ~48" wide. Two boards glued together. Base and butterflies are black walnut. The Maple was milled in January and kiln dried over the winter/spring. The big end was 44". Take a look at the thread for surfacing large slabs: "http://www.arboristsite.com/showthread.php?t=144231" to see how it was flattened.

Finish is Deftoil Marine Teakwood.

Steve.


Beautiful!

Sure a lot of really nice work in here. I miss my shop.:(
 
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I figure the woodshed alone paid for the CSM and milling saw. If I had built the woodshed with storebought lumber, the cost of lumber would have been easily over $1000, maybe several thousand. It would have been smaller and it would have used a lot of OSB. Just not the same as using big timbers and sturdy rough cut lumber.

Mtngun.
Im a builder/remodeler by trade. You probably have over $1,500.00 (lumber yard purchaced) in just rafters and purlins.
I would give a guess at $8,000.00 + for materials purchaced for the whole building. Thats wood alone, and probably a bit conservitive.
So. What did your mill cost??? :greenchainsaw:

Fantastic job on it!:clap::clap:


Jason
 
A little more tin ..... getting close, but the last few pieces will be the most time consuming and the most dangerous.
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I ordered some special shoes for walking on the steel roofing, which I'll have to do to install the cap. Expensive, but not as expensive as a trip to the emergency room.
 
mtngun, that barn roof is looking sensational. do you ever put skylights in the roof? It looks like it would get pretty dark up under that roof?

It's still there- but I am not. I've moved twice in the 2 years and it looks like I might move again shortly. Hopefully this will be the last one for a good while and I can set up again.

That's too bad. One of the downsides of all the traveling I've been doing this year is being away from my shop and then I get back and itchin to get started but have an injured left hand that stops me. I also need to enlarge my shop as it is getting dangerously crowded.
 
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A little more tin ..... getting close, but the last few pieces will be the most time consuming and the most dangerous.
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I ordered some special shoes for walking on the steel roofing, which I'll have to do to install the cap. Expensive, but not as expensive as a trip to the emergency room.

I always rope myself to the peak and get as far down as I can. It does help to predrill holes in the metal so the screws don't start walking, especially on that last piece. You should be able to get a lot of the screws in from the ladder. You should try to have someone around.
 
more from the sled shed project

I'm making slow progress with the snowmobile shed...

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The floor boards are, well, not square or consistent, but a few rips in and out of the shed with a studded snowmobile track will fix that :D

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Starting to put the posts up. Just nailing stuff together, with a few TimberLock screws here and there. Will do some triangulating links to tighten and square things up. The wall boards will also tighten it up quite a bit.

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Expert joinery...nothing like the little Echo CS-300 for this "precision" work (I'm poking fun at myself here).

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I'll post more pics as I get farther along. Hoping to take a couple hours to modify/improve my CSM so it can make something that resembles square cuts! This project might not make the cover of Fine Shed Building, but I'm having a great time turning trees into a building!
 
Wow, just stumbled on this thread. Really makes me want to start milling! I bought a granberg mill a few months ago, but havent had the time to start trying to figure my way around it yet!

mtngun, that is an amazing project you have going. I am hoping to start building a a generator shed/workshop up at my cabin next spring. Hoping it turns out even remotely as nice as that!
 
I always rope myself to the peak and get as far down as I can. It does help to predrill holes in the metal so the screws don't start walking, especially on that last piece. You should be able to get a lot of the screws in from the ladder. You should try to have someone around.




Awesome!
 
You should try to have someone around.
Ya, if I fall off someone will need to dig a grave, otherwise the coyotes will eat the carcass. I'm not afraid of heights, but metal roofs scare me to death. It's like walking on a skating rink.

Finished all metal except for the ridge cap. The special roofing shoes seem to be back ordered, so I'm investigating plan "B." Meanwhile, the forecast calls for several days of wind. Doesn't look like that cap is going on anytime soon. :confused:
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