John Hutter

I found 3 compound miters saws that only beveled in one direction before I found one person with a necessarily mobile Makita.

stencil blocks acquired!  

It kinda looks like they aren't beveled even though I set them upside down in the photo, so that that strut face bevel wold be more visible XD
I just screwed 3 2x6" together instead of tracking down some actual 6x6".  Funny how cheap screws and nails are compared to larger wood.

The base/foundation struts get cut something like this, except for the purpose of getting them to sit level on pier blocks without a ton of work and whatnot, all the sides need to be nice planes...pretty sure I'm going to get 10 dimensional beams for this bit despite the test run



on paper with all the bits labeled

Think I've devised a method one can proceed with logs, like likity split;

1.)  fasten small thin planks to the beveled face of each stencil block, so that you don't have to worry about damaging the oh-so-carefully cut stencils with a chain saw - the additional plank face is replaceable/disposable.

2.) Get a perfect 4x4, and fasten the proper 2 stencil blocks to said 4x4, such that the shortest point of the stencil is the desired vertex distance of the strut - not counting the disposable strut face

3.) chain saw and wedge out a hunk of each log top such that the stencils can sit on the log top without any 1/2"+ gaps

4.) fasten 4x4 with attached stencils to an immobilized log with a few long strong lag bolts

5.) use the stencil face to cut the log with a chainsaw.  There's a ton of room for error here as long as one doesn't cut the bevel too steep, because

6.) remove disposable strut face planks, and use a hand planner to finish it each strut face - you'll roughly be taking out the thickness of the disposable stencil face.  Gotta be careful not to take anything out of your stencils.


Think that about does it for the frame method, about time to get raising

This model was kinda "quick and dirty" despite the hours of cutting - I used a skill saw to grind out steeper angles into a few strut points I cut too wide.

Mr. "I think I'm decent with Geometry" totally failed to notice the 3D compound angle bit, so the model ended up having struts that make "exterior shell contact" but not along the interior length of the strut face.  If you cut each of the two cuts that make each pointed strut end with an 18 degree or whatever bevel, you don't end up with an 18 degree strut face.  The online "compound angle" calculators appeared to be backwards, so Mr "I can has geometry" find L as a function of theta and X



looks like, L= x / (sin(90 - theta)

So if it's a 2x4" that's gonna be a B end (or 18 degree strut angle);

x= 4" tan 18

then use x and miter theta to solve for L, then set the bevel angle to give you L!  If you don't piece meal it and actually solve for the proper bevel angle, the beam dimension will cancel out...  Looks like the first solution is 9.2?

Since the foundation struts are half lapped, the first level of struts that sit on the foundation struts get a straightup 18 degree bevel, because they are sitting on a flat surface and not another cut strut end.   However, the 90 degree faces needs the fix...

Next up, turn two "slightly wonky log end tops" into two precisely level planes and distanced vertexes.  And then slap a stencil block on there and choose your saw.

I did a little 2 day miter saw exercise which was a single strut model with 6 and 8 inch pieces of 2x4".  I learned a few things;

A.) cutting 6-8 inch pieces of 2x4" at 60 and 54 x18 and 15.9 degrees with a compound miter saw is kind of a rush, due to trying not to lose a finger.  Just make sure your hand/finger is pressing straight down with an anchor, and will thus not be pulled more than an inch or so towards the blade if she catches.  In the process of this learning experience, I didn't almost lose a finger but I did nearly break a window with one ejection. Fortunately the piece hit a wood wall (cutting slowly helps.)

All that is kinda beside the point though XD

Dove tailing pieces at 144 degrees doesn't work very well.  Instead, half lap the foundation struts, and then drill and dowel the first level of struts into place.  A much better 4 way hub joint solution.

I cut 6 struts with a quick and dirty version of the previously diagrammed "flux capacitor" hub joint with a skill saw, which takes 10 cuts per strut or 5 per end (after the initial 4 compound miter saw cuts.)  It's not fast....

I was looking at my oh-so-fancy all-wood-joinery come together, and I realized

"it won't be as strong, but you could do the same thing by drilling two holes and putting a dowel there.  Good lord, that'll be 10x faster.  And the strength of each joint method is irrelevant compared to a load in the middle of the beam. You just need a means of getting those drill points exact."

which was followed by the realization a minute or so later after using a few screws to hold things in place:

"don't bother measuring and lining up exact dowel holes, instead drill and dowel the beams while they are set in the assembled position (and before the next strut is blocking your drill path.)  You're just gonna need, like a foot long bit for a largish structure.  And just use rebar as dowels.  It's cheaper, the holes to be drilled are much smaller, and you need like 130 feet to do a 2100 ft^2 structure.  Talk about a negligible cost..."

Pretty sure, the first one is just gonna be an open air roofed mat space, with the foundation and first level struts simply being shingled to protect from the rain.  I haven't yet calculated how big the B strut needs to be for me to step through that isosceles triangle without stooping, but that's likely to be the next scale of model : )

I especially enjoyed the laugh after "and then your mother tried to shame you into compliance!"  XD

ITS SO MESSY!  Let's get out of here and go golfing, and then order some chem ag lunch.

It's a joke, also depressing if I take it seriously.  

also the quote about "most people want a tidy 'compartmentalized?' experience of reality" and the healing land stewardship method (and whatnot) lies completely outside of that.

Shit, really?   Wow, we got a real number going on here...

Thanks and good luck!

given all the planning (2 year lead time?), 6x6+ beam size, and lack of concern for a smooth finished appearance, letting the bugs and rain do most of the peeling work is the way to go.  

Sepp would call them his employees! I also think Mike Oehler voiced something like this, but memory might not be serving.

It's hard to tell which thing made the biggest difference on this hectare.  There was an initial round of grading/earthworks on much of the property, but otherwise it has been no-till, chop and drop (or throw into a nearby pile) and hand managed - no burning save turning a limb pile into a half yard of charcoal.  These unnammended soils do look better than the former lawn, but 5+ years later and it's still not fertile enough to grow anything other than some hardy greens or trees.

The biggest difference is probably the mycelia feeder or "Super Duper Hugel Pooper" as I like to call it.

Like, 6" of strawish stuff, in a foot deep trench on a local elevation maxima, between a few foot+ diamater logs set on the ground (the walk n squat rails) which then gets filled with compressed humanure wood chip matrix (fresh septic trench compresses like a pile of woodchips if stepped on.)   In the first growing season after capping toilet sites with a few inches of poor topsoil, they were dominated by clovers, suggesting the C:N ratio is C heavy in a my "compressed poo- chip matrix."   Interesting how turning hot manure into a thin layer with nearly maximized surface area contact with wood, totally alters the decomposition process.  After the first year of clover and a few hardier plants, Super Duper hugel Pooper sites support high yield squash, tomatoes, and broccoli. I'm pretty sure they would support high yield anything, but root vegetables are not recommended XD

There's also like, 500 lbs of primo fertilizers, 12 yards of finished horse manure, 10 poultry worth of manure for 6 or so years, and something like 50 yards of wood from the site was returned to the soil.   Apart from the wood, none of this stuff was added to the toilets.

If a "long run" is 5 years, the super duper hugel pooper is definitely the biggest soil difference.  It makes significant calories now.  However, if "the long run" is more like 10 or 20 years, most of the other inputs that have been slowly added added over 7 years could be the bigger difference, but I won't be here to see the 55 seed started fruit and nut trees grow up.  There 15 or so that are 15' tall, otherwise the trees are still popping off 3 or 4 at a time each year.  They had a mostly rough start in some fresh hugels, or a rough life thus far;  9 of the trees are still knee high 5+ years later.  

These ones are almost certainly stuck in a hardpan bowl.  Transplant or no, there was never going to be a taproot there  XD

That is, until something happens.  Swales which changed water flows and then caused ~50 to 100 ft^2 sections of hillside to moves a few inches, and then a tree pops off, or some perennial broccoli rabe plants are growing off irrigation and surviving a summer without rain...big difference!

What if,

the interior of the structure is completely sealed off from the unpeeled framing (cob doesn't need bark to stay in place) and

there is no bark anywhere there is wood on wood contact in the frame - or the only contact points are the cut ends of logs.

the next bit; promotes rot and insect damage.

I'm wondering, given the log is not going to see any more water or ground contact after cutting, how much insect damage is generally being promoted beyond the thin layer of cambium some larvae manage to eat before it dries out?  
Termites and beetles around here aren't seen in dried wood that is isolated from any water flow.  It might be that there so much wood on and in the ground out here, they don't stray from their preferred habitat.  

I understand that when a roof leak does occur, rot occurs faster if the bark is still there.  Any precise idea how much faster?

Does it matter that it rots faster if leaks are easily detectable, fixable, and dryable, when you compare it to a peeled log you can't see getting damp?

What are the reasons for pealing a log at this point? hrmmmm

This one time I got a hot tip for popcorn seasoning:

dehydrated kimchi, ground into a fine powder.

dang, that's good.

I make a 2 gallon bucket of miso every few years.  Maybe miso would be like good like that also...  

Yep!

I landed on the following a few years back, roughly equal parts

kimchi
miso
spirulina
nutritional yeast

This stuff will make cardboard pretty darned tasty XD

Popcorn? FORGET ABOUT IT