Frank Pellow
Member
- Messages
- 2,332
- Location
- Toronto, Ontario, CANADA
((part 1 of 2)
A few years ago, I made a "lifesize`log construction kit. See the thread: http://familywoodworking.org/forums/showthread.php?t=4467&highlight=construction
Now, I find myself making a more traditional model size kit. Here is what has happened so far:
Two weeks ago at Pellow`s Camp, my nine year old grandson Ethan brought a project with him to camp that was to involve the building of a “hunting” cabin. We decided to make the building out of scraps of cedar and, to that end, we planed some wood down to a thickness of 1 centimetre. Here is a photo of Ethan using my portable Delta planer:
Observe that he is wearing my glasses to guard against chips in his eyes.
The thing that got Ethan started on the project was a model rifle that he saw in a Doll House supply store near his home. I asked him how long the rifle was in order that I could determine scale, but he didn’t remember well enough to be reliable. This put a halt to the project.
On Wednesday night this week back home in Tronto Ethan slept over at our house, then the next afternoon the two of us went to the store to check the model rifle. It is 9 centimetres long. I imagine that the real rifle would be about 6 feet long. So this gives us a scale of 1 centimetre representing 4 feet. Ethan wants a cabin the represents a period about 100 years ago and, back then, Canada used the Imperial measurement system. So I decided that the world we are representing will be Imperial. However, I can still use the much superior Metric system for the parts I am making. Hence, the Metric to Imperial conversion.
It suddenly occurred to me that the best way to build a log cabin model would be with model logs and that I should rip the boards that we had planed into strips and then cut and shape those strips into squared logs much like the logs in the Pan Abode cabin at Pellow’s Camp. We had not planed a large enough supply at camp, so I planed down a few of old cedar boards that I salvaged when I replaced a section of Kathleen’s fence in July.
Ethan and I traced out a rough plan of the cabin that he wants. It is to be 24 by 20 feet interior space divided into a kitchen, store room, and living/dining room on the main floor and a sleeping loft above the kitchen and store room part. A ladder will be used to reach the loft. It should be possible to easily remove the roof and to look inside. There will be a separate bécosse.
The next thing that occurred to me is that I could design the logs and other parts with dimensions such that Ethan could build not only this cabin but other structures as well.
On my tablesaw, I cut the 1 cm thick boards down to 1.5 cm (mostly) and .75 cm (a few) strips.
Thus, each part will represent a log 8 inches in width and 1 foot in height. Back 100 years ago, it was easy to get such squared pine timbers in Ontario.
I beveled the strips slightly using this:
bit on my router table.
Then, each strip was hand sanded to 120 grit using a Festool Granat pad:
A few years ago, I made a "lifesize`log construction kit. See the thread: http://familywoodworking.org/forums/showthread.php?t=4467&highlight=construction
Now, I find myself making a more traditional model size kit. Here is what has happened so far:
Two weeks ago at Pellow`s Camp, my nine year old grandson Ethan brought a project with him to camp that was to involve the building of a “hunting” cabin. We decided to make the building out of scraps of cedar and, to that end, we planed some wood down to a thickness of 1 centimetre. Here is a photo of Ethan using my portable Delta planer:
Observe that he is wearing my glasses to guard against chips in his eyes.
The thing that got Ethan started on the project was a model rifle that he saw in a Doll House supply store near his home. I asked him how long the rifle was in order that I could determine scale, but he didn’t remember well enough to be reliable. This put a halt to the project.
On Wednesday night this week back home in Tronto Ethan slept over at our house, then the next afternoon the two of us went to the store to check the model rifle. It is 9 centimetres long. I imagine that the real rifle would be about 6 feet long. So this gives us a scale of 1 centimetre representing 4 feet. Ethan wants a cabin the represents a period about 100 years ago and, back then, Canada used the Imperial measurement system. So I decided that the world we are representing will be Imperial. However, I can still use the much superior Metric system for the parts I am making. Hence, the Metric to Imperial conversion.
It suddenly occurred to me that the best way to build a log cabin model would be with model logs and that I should rip the boards that we had planed into strips and then cut and shape those strips into squared logs much like the logs in the Pan Abode cabin at Pellow’s Camp. We had not planed a large enough supply at camp, so I planed down a few of old cedar boards that I salvaged when I replaced a section of Kathleen’s fence in July.
Ethan and I traced out a rough plan of the cabin that he wants. It is to be 24 by 20 feet interior space divided into a kitchen, store room, and living/dining room on the main floor and a sleeping loft above the kitchen and store room part. A ladder will be used to reach the loft. It should be possible to easily remove the roof and to look inside. There will be a separate bécosse.
The next thing that occurred to me is that I could design the logs and other parts with dimensions such that Ethan could build not only this cabin but other structures as well.
On my tablesaw, I cut the 1 cm thick boards down to 1.5 cm (mostly) and .75 cm (a few) strips.
Thus, each part will represent a log 8 inches in width and 1 foot in height. Back 100 years ago, it was easy to get such squared pine timbers in Ontario.
I beveled the strips slightly using this:
bit on my router table.
Then, each strip was hand sanded to 120 grit using a Festool Granat pad:
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