15x15 line cabin.

You can frame the gables like this and like Boco's cabin above,






Or you can build them out of logs.




If I'm putting in a loft where I need high gables, I prefer to frame them. With lower gables I prefer logs. You can go high with logs but you need to brace them up real well as you go. Had the wind knock down an end gable wall one time while I was inside the walls on a 16 x16, and it was raining logs for a couple of seconds. I had to get the quick-ash to keep from getting crushed. And I Thought I had it adequately braced.

Keep those cool photo sand comments coming fellas. I've been thinking about building a small cabin using the trappers corner but I think I can make a saddle notch just as fast. The old cabin I showed in my photos, I made those notches with a axe. Now days I use a chainsaw nose. I like a saddle notch that the bowl is down that way water wont puddle up and collect in the notch.


In regards to the trapper corner, I was out to Idaho a few years ago and the old log cabins I came across have that notch.

Permachink for the cracks between the logs is expensive stuff, but it is worth every penny of it. You can save some on it by running the saw between the logs when you're fitting them up until they fit tight, like this wall.


A Sthil 036 works good for this. I use a smaller saw like an 026 or 025 for cutting the corners, but a bigger saw is nice for running between the logs. You have to be careful of kick back when you put the saw through between the logs. Once you get the saw through the crack it is way easier to pull the saw through the wood
using the top side of the bar, than it is to push it through using the bottom edge of the bar, and you have lot's better control of the cut when you are following the contour of the log. Watch the leading edge of the saw or you will find yourself cutting deep into the log on one side or the other of the crack. May take several passes to get them to fit.

For heating purposes I like to permachink inside and out. You can make a log cabin tight enough that a spider can't get in with the stuff, and makes the cabin a lot easier to heat.



There is danger of of getting the cabin too tight. With a couple of people inside and a coleman lantern burning you may deplete the oxygen inside and risk carbon monoxide poisoning and possibly death. It has happened before. It is a good idea if you seal a cabin up tight to put a vent in one gable end or the other like this one.

Thanks for the drawing Spek. From what I see all the logs on each side have the same notch profile, correct? Is perma chink come in a tube, like silicone?

Thanks for the drawing Spek. From what I see all the logs on each side have the same notch profile, correct? Is perma chink come in a tube, like silicone?

man this is good stuff , spek on ur log gables do u spike or dowel them together if so how far apart would u recomend per spike or dowel

I love old log cabins Randyt, a lot of them that were standing when I was a kid here back in the 50's and 60's have all rotted into the ground now and there is not much trace left of them. Sad to see them go. Even worse though is when some government agency destroys them for no good reason. There's a lot of historical value in those old cabins. The old timers did not have roofing materials like we have now, otherwise a lot of those cabins would still be standing. The roof was the weak link for them. Once the roof goes the rest of the cabin doesn't last long.

The saddle notch is a good notch. I just can't make them as fast as the trapper notch. I don't mean to be putting them down either. People that build many cabins
develop their own style, and if you know the builder you can look at a cabin and tell who made it. Everybody has their own way.

Nice thing about the trapper notch is all the log is utilized. I have some cedar and have been thinking about building a small storage shed, may try the trappers notch. It's nice to try new methods, it just seems more complicated but maybe if I try it. I'll like it

Scanner, yes it's that same profile for all the logs and both ends of the log. Don't brain freeze and notch the ends of a log opposite directions, ha ha. The 45 goes to the inside, on both ends! Done that a couple of times, makes for a hat stomping moment.

Permachink comes in tubes or in bulk 5 gal buckets. It is much cheaper in bulk, but you have to buy the gun for the bulk stuff. It's worth it though. On a 14x16 it can take as many as 6 five gallon buckets to do inside and out, and if you went with the tubes you would have to have a wheel barrow full of them.

Saskamusher, I use the 10 inch timber lock log screws and I drill and countersink them a couple of inches. I pre-drill the gable logs before they go up on the wall, and put the screws about a foot apart. Don't get them in the way of cutting the pitch on them. I don't usually cut the pitch until I get the ridge pole set.

Do you insulate the floor?

I re-chinked a log home several years ago, in the winter, but had not heard of Permachink yet. We used the big tubes of Liquid Nail. It was hovering in the low teens, as for temperature, and even though we kept the tubes inside, half way through, your forearms were getting a serious work out! (We started the process from the outside, of course). I would guess we went through at least 10 cases of large tubes, (120 tubes, for our Canadian Friends). My right arm looked like Popeye!

Yes Scanner, I insulate the floor and roof both. Usually use fiberglass in the floor and foam board in the roof, but whatever a person wants.

AV, I can't even imagine pumping enough liquid nails to chink a cabin, lol. That's pretty thick stuff. Perma-chink is water based. If it sets in a bucket that has been opened for a long time it will get a little too thick to pump well. You can add a little water to it and stir it a bit to thin it down some. Add water sparingly, it doesn't take much. I've used the stuff after it sat for years. Clean up is with water. The stuff adhere's to the logs well, is very tough, stands up against weather, mice won't chew it, and it is flexible enough to not crack out. I have seen other brands of log chink used that was similar to Perma-chink but I can't remember the names of it now. Maybe someone here knows.

You can save on perma- chink if you have some wide cracks by using foam backer rod to tamp in the crack before you perma-chink it.

After I bought out the entire town of Juneau (Liquid Nail), my contractor salesman asked me what I was using it for. They had never had such a run on L.N. I told him, and he says, "Man, you should have said something! I can get this tuff called Super Chink!". Sounded like a very large Chinese man that I didn't want to meet.
That, or Bruce Lee. Either way.............

Lol.

I did a search on it, superchink is one of the other brands of chinking I was thinking of. Thanks AV.

Here is a picture of a perma-chink gun for bulk perma-chink. You just keep reloading it out of the bucket.


A box of wet towels (handy wipes or what ever) is good to use for cleaning off the threads when you get done filling the gun. Put the stuff on and after it sets a few minutes smooth it down and feather the edges to the logs with a pan water and a small paint brush. You don't want to get too far ahead with the application before smoothing out behind you. On a sunny day it will get a dry skim on it that makes it hard to smooth out. Works best to have two people, one applying and one smoothing out the bead.

Oh, when you get done wash the gun out real well right away with water. Dismantle it and get all the P-C out of it. Let it dry and then spray everything inside and out with WD40 before reassembling. If you don't the plunger will stick in the barrel and you will not be able to move it the next time you go to use it.

If you use the 5 gal buckets, get a follower plate for it. Its helps you to load the gun without making a big mess.

Good stuff Spek thanks for sharing.

I'd like to build a 16x24 with loft using the trapper notch...how much taper in the logs would you consider being too extreme?
Your picture of the cabin on the foundation must be about that size?
Did you just toe nail the rafters to the logs?

Schweg, the cabin on the foundation is 18x24. The less taper you have the better, but if the logs are running around 14 inches at the butt then I'd want at least a 9 inch top, or
if say 12" at the butt then you'd want at least 7" tops. When stacking them you alway's put a butt to a top all the way around the ring of logs, then the next ring do the same thing in the reverse direction. To do a full ring of logs it's like you put up a log say on one end, then you put the other end log in place, but you turn it the opposite direction.
If the but of the first log is toward the West , then the butt of the log on the other end of the cabin has to be towards the East. Then you do the same with the sides. If your taper is such that the top of the log is less than half the diameter of the butt, you can't build with them. All you can do is cut them down in length until you have a ratio close to what I said above, and that is as long as your wall can be. If that's not big enough for your needs then you have to build a two room cabin because you can only go as large as your logs will allow. There are places here on the Kenai where you can find logs that will work as long as 30 feet or more, but here where I'm at 24 foot is max, and you have to really pick your logs to do that. 16x18 is a pretty nice size for here.

The rafters are 4x6's and they are anchored to the logs with 10 inch log screws, 2 each at top and bottom. The log screws are great because you can run them in with an 18 volt Dewalt. Before they invented them we used 10 or 12 inch spikes and sledge hammers. A lot of pounding.

Another thing I would recommend if you choose the tubes of Perma-Chink is to get a pneumatic caulking gun. Yes, you need a compressor but it sure saves on the arms

I used to live near Eagle, AK where I picked up some logsmithing skills but am now in northern WI. I have an abundance of mature white spruce. My first thought was that they wouldn't be much different than the black spruce I was used to working with in AK, but now I'm not so sure. Any thoughts on that one? Anyone worked with white spruce?