That's right, not just tools, but the whole shop...
Part One. You gotta Love Lincoln Logs.
Unless the Administrator whacks it, this thread is going to be in several parts because the project was too long to write about in one shot. A lot of guys can post their workbenches, but not a lot get to build a shop from the ground up. My daughter bought the new house in Newmanstown, Pa., and we left Connecticut to move in with her. I didn’t want to just build a gunmaking/leatherworking bench. I wanted to build and customize the whole shop. Then I wanted it to be portable so some other lunatic could do it just by reading my post, and I did not want it top be too modern.
It was gonna be a cabin, built indoors until we could scrape up enough money to either build a slab or install pylons in the back yard. That meant it had to be capable of dis-assembly and transport. It also meant I could defer the roof, true-ing it up, adding features and details of windows and door until later. If I don’t get dead I’ll post that part when I do it.
I got the idea by viewing the riflemakers shop in Jacobsburg in 2013. Also, I always had a fancy for Lincoln Logs. I always wanted a log cabin and Pennsylvania is loaded with historical samples. Now, with the move, I had another shot at a shop. It’d have a bench that would platform everything from Flintlocks to shoemaking to reloading for my BP sixguns and Yellow Boy to household projects. It’d have plenty of storage and only two outlets for power tools that could be hidden when stepping out of the century and using hand tools, It’d also hold my shop vac. Every man should have a shop vac. If they’d a had it, they’d a used it. Ouch.
Railroad ties or hewn logs were too bulky and expensive. Pine or Cedar planking was too thin and flimsy. Drive around historical sites enough and you will see plenty of rough planks and hand hewn timber. The answer came when I wandered into Home Depot for a drill and tap and dye for the tang bolt on the Jaeger I was working on; Decking Lumber…nice thick planks that were already treated and could be worked with a minimum of tools. I could notch the ends. I could make a cabin. What a concept.
I bought a cheap notebook and started to draw plans. Each page had one level of planking until I had plans for about seven feet of height. I drew in the cutouts for the windows and the structure of the main, built in bench level by level. I concocted a numbering system for each plank when it came time to take it down and move it.
Here’s what I started out with;
• A spiral bound notebook to make notes and plans; one page, one level of planks with notes
• About $750.00 of decking lumber in the form of 2x4 and 2x8 in 8,10 and 12 foot lengths.
• A Bow Saw ( with a back up saber saw and rotary saw for true up)
• A Maul
• An inch wide chisel to finish cut notches
• Two templates for notching the end of the logs and for making chocks ( you know…those short little Lincoln Logs you used to throw at your brother when he pestered you) which would be interspersed on the main logs to hold them together just like Lincoln Log Cabins. The notches had to be a quarter of the width of the plank and about a quarter to three eighths inch wider than the thickness of the plank so they would all seat well.
• My DVD entitled “Alone In The Wilderness” in which a guy named Dick Proenneke built an 11x14 foot cabin in the middle of Alaska and then lived there for thirty years. Do the search and buy the DVD. IT’s worth it.
• My Rockwell Jaw Horse and Kreg Joiner
• A bunch of two to three inch plasterboard screws which would be replaced by wood dowels in the final project to assist in holding the planks together. I wanted dowels because folks did not use plasterboard screws in the eighteenth century
Here’s what I ended up with;
Looking from the outside ( with my guncart in the foreground). Once I set the foundation outside, it'll get roofed, trued up, windowed and doored, floored and set up permanently
IN the doorway, looking to the main bench;
IN the door, looking left at my BP reloading
In the doorwqay looking toward the left at some of my tools;
In the doorway looking right at my cordwaining area
Next Post, how to build a cabin without being at all capable.
