building our retirement cabin

rmorey · Mar 3, 2013

triangel said:
Yes , the same machine, How deep can it cut on say a 10 inch wide spruce board, I figure I have about 1200 sq ft of boards to plane for the roof boards and another 200ft for the loft walls and I wonder how much can one do in a day if everything is working right, I know Nothing about this job it will be a learning curve for sure. also this collector how much do they cost used and how big should they be? By the way great pictures of the cabin, There are people who build and there are people who build well,you would most definately be in the second catagory.Love the balcony railing very oridginal.

I have about 20 years experience working with wood. We have a sawmill and all the tools required to do that job, however, I would not even consider doing it myself. Find a guy with a 4 sided planer to make the t&g. It will cost about $0.20 per foot to plane and will take him about 2 hours.

To give you some insight, it will take you at least 2 passes on each side of the board to get the thickness correct. Then you need to cut out the tounges. 2 passes on the tablesaw or router. Then you need to cut out the grooves. 2 passes on the tablesaw or router. I think you probably get it. Not cost effective to do it yourself.

MotorSeven · Mar 4, 2013

Rmorey is right, this will be a time consuming project but it can be done. The only thing I planed in the house was the Hickory front door and the cherry for the kitchen cabinets. I wish I had T&G's the front door but my 3 year air dried Hickory cant in the shed was not dry enough..it's still shrinking so T&G might not have even helped. I have a solar kiln now so that won't happen again. The cherry was dried in my Kiln & has not moved a bit.

Btw you can ship lap faster and easier then T&G...something to consider & for a ceiling that would be fine. No, a shop vac will fill up in about 5 min.....remember your making a ton of sawdust. I got my dust collector at Harbor freight....check with Princess Auto up there they might carry the same machine. On sale it can be had for $150.

triangel · Mar 4, 2013

Rmorey,If there was someone close to do it that is most likely the way to go however there is no mills close to us and to buy the boards we priced out at about 2000 which may be a good price I don't know. We want to be in the cabin by this fall and we still have to buy insulation for the roof and walls $2000 windows for the bottom $2000 flooring and heat and we are on a limited budget so we are trying do ourselves what we can. Also other than the sheeting for the rafters we made everything else so we thought this is the last part and we would do it also. Thanks for the advise anyway and by the end of summer might wish I had listened to you.Motorseven thanks again for the info found a collector on kijiji for 150.Also we are considering doing shiplap. we will see once we do a couple of boards how time consuming it is. Can't wait for Spring, howling blizzard outside today with pile of more snow.

MotorSeven · Mar 5, 2013

I'd keep scrounging for pre-made T&G if your pressed for time, but at the same time I'm pick up the Planer since it will come in real handy for a lot of other things like trim, doors and cabinets. When your done with it you can sell it and recoup most of your money, the old Delta's a built like a tank. Take a beefey friend with you to pick it up...the dang thing is heavy as sin.

I think 1x6 T&G pine is(or was last year) running about 70 cents linear foot. I think you could purchase 1400 sq ft for $2K.

muddstopper · Mar 8, 2013

Good to see a few fellow railroaders make it to retirement. I have 37.5 yrs in with NS and am counting the days to the big RR. My wife an I are in the process of designing our retirement cabin too. We have the timber and soon I will have the time. I will most likely have my logs D milled as there is a place not far from me that has the right tools for the job. We are planning a microhydro system for electricity. Will also be doing solar for hot water and heat. And of course the good old wood stove.

Trails End · Mar 14, 2013

Does anyone know what might have happened to Triangel? No posts since Mar 04. Hope
all is OK up in SK Canada!

jinman · Mar 18, 2013

Trails End said:
Does anyone know what might have happened to Triangel? No posts since Mar 04. Hope
all is OK up in SK Canada!

I think he mentioned in one post that they were in blizzard conditions. I suspect all his free time may be used to dig himself out of these later winter storms in his area. Where he is, the weather is really in control. After all that snow, he may not want to drag logs through the mud either. I bet we hear from him soon. Anybody who can stick with that cabin building project of his is gonna be able to stick with most anything else.

Trails End · Mar 18, 2013

I hope so! I sent him a personal e-mail, asking if all was OK, but never received a response. Maybe he lost his internet connection from the blizzard.

jinman said:
I think he mentioned in one post that they were in blizzard conditions. I suspect all his free time may be used to dig himself out of these later winter storms in his area. Where he is, the weather is really in control. After all that snow, he may not want to drag logs through the mud either. I bet we hear from him soon. Anybody who can stick with that cabin building project of his is gonna be able to stick with most anything else.

triangel · Mar 18, 2013

Hi to everyone, I have been away at the SARM convention for the past week. For you people to the south of us SARM is short for Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities. I am an elected municipal councillor for our municipality and for a week we meet every year to discuss road issues,flooding,etc. Also it is a large trade show for heavy equipment and all their associates. I finally picked up my planer as well . It looks to be in very good condition and I am looking forward to using it for several projects that are waiting for warm weather. One snow storm after another, sick of looking at it moving it kicking it driving in it. To all you people who wish for snow I sure wish I could accomidate you and send you some. couple of pictures of my road