Sometimes you wonder if a log is big enough to be worthwhile milling ...

This is White Spruce. The log is 17' long and 24" x 22". It's been sitting for a couple of years for two reasons. When I got it as part of a 26 log truckload it was very heavy and I decided to wait until it dried a bit to make it safer to load - my poor little tractor was right at the tip limit when it was green. While it sat, outside in the weather for two summers and a winter, it became infested with Spruce Beetle and so I am hoping that it will have some interesting tunnel patterns and possibly some blue staining.
I am thinking that to stabilise it and end the Spruce Beetle attack, I'll probably square it up by taking 1" boards until I see what it looks like. If it doesn't look "special", I'll take out 8"x 8" beams and store them for my next project. I can get four beams with wane on one corner, or two clean beams. If I get interesting bore holes or bug tunnels or colouration I'll stop and think.
At the risk of sounding like I'm bragging .... this log is nice, but not really that special around here. I have to take down about a half dozen similar size trees over the winter to make room for a house. I'll post photos.
cheers
 
As Paul Harvey would say .... here's the rest of the story ::

A couple of years ago I bought a truckload of sawlogs - 26 logs, all White Spruce, all 17' (roughly) and most close to the size of the on in the O.P. I sawed them into 8" x 8" beams, 2" x 8" beams and 1" x 8" boards. The goal was to have enough wood to build a storage building for my various pieces of equipment that I have accumulated over the years. I sawed all but the one log.

This is the first part of a four part building - its the storage for my JD450 dozer. It's almost done now, so I'll get another picture with the tin on. I built it as this summer's project, and with one minor exception, I built it solo - working 3 to 4 hours a day by myself in the Northern Ontario bush. It was peaceful, quiet, tranquil and everything I needed for mental relaxation. I learned a lot about leverage, mechanical advantage, gib cranes, block and tackle setups, etc.

The rest of the building will be two "lean-to" shed wings (one on each side) and a firewood storage "lean-to" shed on the rear, behind the dozer portion.

The front opening s 10' high x 14' wide. The top three beams (two eaves and one ridge) are 16' long. I got a neighbour to help sling them up onto the cross beams. (that was the exception)

Here's the pic's so far ::

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Setting that ridge beam on the king post would be fun heh.

The angle braces are just lagged in it appears?
Correct on both counts. I started by trying to do a traditional mortise/tenon type post/beam build and very quickly realised that my skill set and patience length were both insufficient. I quickly switched to half lap joints with galvanised bolts/nuts for the beam laps and GRK RSS screws for the corner bracing. The hardware cost half as much as the logs !!

I set the ridge beam by laying the three king posts on their sides, with a strap hinge screwed into each one and into the cross beam. Then I screwed the ridge onto the king posts with long GRK screws, then using a 2x10 with chain from the ridge, over the 2x10 and thence to the tractor loader (a crude lever) , I pulled the king posts upright using the hinges to keep them in place at the bottom. Once they were upright I screwed them down and removed the hinges.
 
The half laps should be plenty sturdy on beams that size and looks like you fitted them nice and tight so that should add lots of wracking support.

I might have been tempted to birdsmouth the angle braces in just because I like making things difficult, but I'm not really sure it should matter much in practice..heh.

From what little I've done it seems that doing traditional M&T timber frame is a LOT easier with the right tooling which is a lot of $$$ for a one off... Or alternatively it is a heck of a lot of work.

Cute little dozer too. I got to help jump start a D4 a couple months back (which I think is close to the same size..) turns out an F250 can get it going good enough if you pop the clutch on the dozer in 3rd. But the truck gets pulled around a little when it happens heh.
 
Thank you all for the kind words !! I'll update next year when I get started on the side and rear lean-to sheds. For this year we're just about done. There's some snow on the ground now. It'll go as all first snows do, but it's always the final warning that the next one stays.

cheers
 
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