Frank Pellow
Member
- Joined
- Jan 16, 2007
- Messages
- 2,743
This is very much an ongoing project. My grandchildren Isla and Ethan have built some parts any we have lots of ideas for additional parts. As usual, I will write this by extracting notes from my journal.
8 July 2007:
Isla, my 7 year old granddaughter, is very interested in the construction of buildings and, while she and I were sitting in our refurbished garden this week, it struck both of us that she could use the old cedar boards from the fence that I recently tore down to make "forts", "playhouses" and other such structures. We put together a quick prototype in the shop and it worked. Here is a photo of a portion of the fence taken earlier this spring before I tore it down:
[attachthumb=#1]
The fence is 33 years old and the boards are cedar. They are in reasonably good shape.
I decided to make a 'construction kit' of parts that could be put up and torn down at will. The basic idea for the parts comes from my Pan Abode cedar cabin that I assembled on Pellow's Island thirty one years ago. Thirty three years has resulted in some wear and tear and there are some cracks, missing knots, and nail holes, so I decided to glue and screw two boards together to make the parts. The boards were planed on one side then glued with waterproof glue and clamped:
[attachthumb=#2] [attachthumb=#3] [attachthumb=#4]
Next the boards were planed on the exterior to a uniform depth (32 mm), to a uniform width (130 mm), and to one of several "standard" lengths. Then, two or four notches (depending on the part) were cut into each part using a jig saw. Depending on the parts, one to three stainless steel screws were inserted. The notches are 38mm wide which gives some play allowing children to easily put them together and take them apart.
[attachthumb=#5]
The next steps were:
[attachthumb=#6]
Here are the parts that have been produced so far:
[attachthumb=#7]
And here they are assembled into a couple of typical configurations:
[attachthumb=#8] [attachthumb=#9]
I need to make a LOT more of the parts that have already been designed and Isla and I have to design something for windows, doors, and the roof.
9 July 2007 (From Art Mulder):
I started a thread on this topic on the Canadian Woodworking forum and Art Mulder made this suggestion for a roof:
As for the roof... that's an interesting idea. I'm assuming you are looking for play value, and not serious weather protection. As well, a large solid roof would be too heavy for a 7 year old, and would also darken the interior.
How about something like this... just make a gable board, and put angled notches in it. And then Isla can just slip in the regular wall boards to make a roof, which is still open, light, and airy.
[attachthumb=#10]
My response to Art was:
Thanks Art, I showed Isla your drawings and she said that they were "neat". We cut a cardboard "prototype" of a top board at the gable ends and tried it out:
[attachthumb=#11]
The rafters are the same as the half long logs. I want to minimize the different pieces in the "kit" and these work well for both purposes.
10 July 2007:
OK, I have now made two top wall pieces for the gable ends and attached are a couple of pictures of them being tested:
[attachthumb=#12]
The gable end pieces are made from overlapping fence pieces in order to obtain the additional width needed. Also, my next door neighbours gave me some acrylic panels which I will (somehow?) frame to close in the roof should that be wanted:
[attachthumb=#13]
11 July 2007:
Now back to the more mundane routing and sanding of the parts that have been cut so far:
[attachthumb=#14] [attachthumb=#15]
15 July 2007:
Early this week, my Delta 15 inch 240 volt planer started to trip its 20 amp circuit breaker. I am not sure what the problem is and, thanks to Rick Thom, I can put off solving it until later. Rick knew that I wanted to get sufficient parts made this week so that some interesting structures can be built. I am leaving Toronto in a couple of days to go to our camp in Northern Ontario and I want to take the log kit with me. Tuesday morning about 8:30 Rick Thom arrived unannounced with his DeWalt 13 inch portable planer. I made good use of it during the rest of the week:
[attachthumb=#16]
I made a lot more of the same parts shown earlier. In addition, Isla and I designed windows and doors. I made two windows and one door frame. Both the window and door frames are the same width and are used in the middle of a wall with the short wall pieces stacked on each side and embedded in the envelope formed by the frame. Below are a couple of pictures showing a window under construction.
First acrylic is installed in slots cut into the frame:
[attachthumb=#17]
Then, molding is glued and screwed on all four edges of both side of the frame, forming and envelope that will surround a portion of the adjacent logs:
[attachthumb=#18]
The space between the molding is slightly (about 5mm) wider than the logs so that the window can easily be put in place and subsequently removed by children. The following series of three pictures shows a (very low) wall with a window being built:
[attachthumb=#19] [attachthumb=#20] [attachthumb=#21]
Observe the log above the widow. It does not appear very well in this photo but the log has been decorated by Ethan. I plan to have each of my five grandchildren decorate one or two logs. The decorated log has also had one coat of Spar Urethane applied over the drawing. All the logs will eventually have Spar Urethane applied.
A similar approach was used to build a door frame:
[attachthumb=#22]
The door frame has a built-in sill that fits over the half log below and rests on the ground. We have yet to design a door. It must be something that a child can easily install into the frame and remove from the frame. I have seen some ?lift on and off? hinges at Lee Valley that I know will do the job.
17 July 2007:
Margaret and I are leaving for Pellow's Island north of Hearst Ontario tomorrow morning and I just packed all the parts made so far into the trailer:
[attachthumb=#23]
They leave a lot of room for my tools and other stuff. There are sufficient parts to construct a small building with two windows, a door and a roof. Sometime in the future, I will make at least as many parts again and then we will be able to make some really interesting structures.
22 July 2007:
We are now at Pellow's Camp.
I thought that I had manufactured sufficient pieces back in Toronto to build something interesting but, when I assembled the part in the play-yard at camp, I found that I had not done so.
[attachthumb=#24]
I wanted to have a fuller set for my grandchildren Isla and Ethan when they arrive in August so decided maybe I would build some after I completed last years dock project. I can tell you that the adult visitors we are having at camp for the first week or so are really enthusiastic about the project. Lorna, my sister-in-law, seriously thought that I should market it and was persistent in this assertion. I told Lorna (and others) that at the rate I build things I would quickly go broke and that she or anyone else was quite at liberty to copy my ideas. Also, I used free scrap wood and paying for the wood would, I believe, put the price out of most folks reach.
29 July 2007:
I decided to make 9 logs for the log construction kit out of three 16 foot 2x6s from the reserve lumber pile:
[attachthumb=#25]
This is the large reserve store of pressure treated spruce wood that I keep on hand for projects that come up from time to time because I want to minimize the trips to town for supplies. Every few years, I get in a large stock of wood on spec. The wood is o good quality and seems to last well in spite of the ad-hoc way in which I store it. The wood that I picked is nice and straight with some small tight knots. It is quite a bit heavier than the cedar but I think that most children should still be able to manage the logs ?particularly if they are placed near the bottom of structures and I will encourage that practice. Here are some photos showing some steps taken to prepare the logs:
01) Planing to desired thickness:
[attachthumb=#26]
02) Trimming to desired width:
[attachthumb=#27]
03) Cutting to desired length:
[attachthumb=#28]
04) Cutting notches with jig saw:
[attachthumb=#29]
05) Rounding the edges:
[attachthumb=#30]
06) Sanding:
[attachthumb=#31]
The notches had to be sanded by hand.
07) Painting:
[attachthumb=#32]
The paint that I used is so old that it was still sold in 4 litre cans (from the good old days when we succumbed to soft conversion of US gallons for our paint). It has survived freezing and thawing for at least 15 winters but it still works well. I love Tremclad paint!
I also painted the door frame and a few of the cedar pieces green in order to be able to build a house with a green foundation and trim. I tried the logs out and I think that the green foundation looks very good!
[attachthumb=#33]
That worked so well that I decided to make a number of different pieces from wood that I salvaged from our old dock. That wood, too, was pressure treated spruce. There was enough scrap to make 15 of the pieces shown in the picture below as well as a few miscellaneous smaller pieces.
[attachthumb=#34]
These, too, were painted green.
3 August 2007:
Today, I finally finished sanding the cedar log pieces and getting one coat of spar urethane applied. This was none too soon for Isla and Ethan?s arrival on Saturday. Here I am sanding all the notches by hand:
[attachthumb=#35]
Here are some freshly varnished parts drying in the sun:
[attachthumb=#36]
I love the colour variations that one gets with old cedar.
Aug 5 2008:
I constructed a typical building for the children to discover upon their arrival and they certainly were surprised:
[attachimg=#37] [attachimg= #38]
But, they did not show as much interest as I hoped for. I expected that they would want to tear it down right away and build something else, but they simply looked at what had already been built.
9 Aug 2008:
A few days after their arrival at camp, Isla and Ethan finally got around to building something of their own with the logs. They decided that it would be good to build something on the deck rather than in the play-yard and spent considerable time taking apart the structure that I had build, carrying the pieces down to the deck and neatly arranging them their by type and colour. This was entirely their doing ?I helped but did not organize the task. Both Isla and Ethan required some instruction when assembling their own building, but not very much instruction and they both remembered well. Here are a few pictures of their activities:
[attachimg=#39] [attachimg=#40]
I had not anticipated that the children would want to build furniture, but they did. They used some log parts and well as some other wood that was lying around and even borrowed some dish towels for table cloths and curtains. And then they invited both me and Kathleen (their mother and my daughter) to visit them in their house:
[attachtimg=#41] [attachtimg=#42]
It turns out that I need not have worried about their interest. I should have remembered just how many great competing activities that children have at Pellow?s Camp. After all, I did spend a great deal of my childhood here. [big grin]
12 Aug 2007:
We are leaving camp tomorrow and I will take the logs back to Toronto. Here they are packed into the boat and ready for the first leg of the trip:
[attachthumb=#43]
2 Dec 2007:
No, I have not yet done any more work on the logs. Rather, this entry is to report continued use.
Last Friday, Ethan had the day off school and spent the day with us. He wanted to build a cabin, but it wasn't very nice outside, so he asked if we could build one in our basement recreation room. I figured that was a good idea so we moved all the parts of the kit inside. Ethan had another idea and that was to build a deck outside the cabin. Here he is sitting proudly on that deck:
[attachthumb=#44]
29 March 2008:
Over the last couple of weeks while Isla and Ethan were visiting we have spent considerable time in the shop. They are both working on extensions that they want to make to the life size log building kit. Isla is interested in the internals and wants to make furniture. To that end, we designed and built this folding table together:
[attachthumb=#45] [attachthumb=#46] [attachthumb=#47] [attachthumb=#48]
If course, it has been constructed from left over and restored wood.
Ethan has ideas for the additional parts he needs to build a castle with, among other things, a crane. Here is our start on that crane:
[attachthumb=#49]
20 April 2008:
I got a start on converting another bunch of old fence boards to play building logs. To the right is a picture of a big stack of boards planed on one side with a pair of boards in the background being glued together.
[attachthumb=#50]
Looking to the Future:
I will post further progress in this thread as progress is made.
8 July 2007:
Isla, my 7 year old granddaughter, is very interested in the construction of buildings and, while she and I were sitting in our refurbished garden this week, it struck both of us that she could use the old cedar boards from the fence that I recently tore down to make "forts", "playhouses" and other such structures. We put together a quick prototype in the shop and it worked. Here is a photo of a portion of the fence taken earlier this spring before I tore it down:
[attachthumb=#1]
The fence is 33 years old and the boards are cedar. They are in reasonably good shape.
I decided to make a 'construction kit' of parts that could be put up and torn down at will. The basic idea for the parts comes from my Pan Abode cedar cabin that I assembled on Pellow's Island thirty one years ago. Thirty three years has resulted in some wear and tear and there are some cracks, missing knots, and nail holes, so I decided to glue and screw two boards together to make the parts. The boards were planed on one side then glued with waterproof glue and clamped:
[attachthumb=#2] [attachthumb=#3] [attachthumb=#4]
Next the boards were planed on the exterior to a uniform depth (32 mm), to a uniform width (130 mm), and to one of several "standard" lengths. Then, two or four notches (depending on the part) were cut into each part using a jig saw. Depending on the parts, one to three stainless steel screws were inserted. The notches are 38mm wide which gives some play allowing children to easily put them together and take them apart.
[attachthumb=#5]
The next steps were:
- 1) to fill various holes in the part with Bondo auto body filler
- 2) round all the edges with round-over bit
- 3) sand it then
- 4) paint each board with a couple of coats of spar varnish
[attachthumb=#6]
Here are the parts that have been produced so far:
[attachthumb=#7]
And here they are assembled into a couple of typical configurations:
[attachthumb=#8] [attachthumb=#9]
I need to make a LOT more of the parts that have already been designed and Isla and I have to design something for windows, doors, and the roof.
9 July 2007 (From Art Mulder):
I started a thread on this topic on the Canadian Woodworking forum and Art Mulder made this suggestion for a roof:
As for the roof... that's an interesting idea. I'm assuming you are looking for play value, and not serious weather protection. As well, a large solid roof would be too heavy for a 7 year old, and would also darken the interior.
How about something like this... just make a gable board, and put angled notches in it. And then Isla can just slip in the regular wall boards to make a roof, which is still open, light, and airy.
[attachthumb=#10]
My response to Art was:
Thanks Art, I showed Isla your drawings and she said that they were "neat". We cut a cardboard "prototype" of a top board at the gable ends and tried it out:
[attachthumb=#11]
The rafters are the same as the half long logs. I want to minimize the different pieces in the "kit" and these work well for both purposes.
10 July 2007:
OK, I have now made two top wall pieces for the gable ends and attached are a couple of pictures of them being tested:
[attachthumb=#12]
The gable end pieces are made from overlapping fence pieces in order to obtain the additional width needed. Also, my next door neighbours gave me some acrylic panels which I will (somehow?) frame to close in the roof should that be wanted:
[attachthumb=#13]
11 July 2007:
Now back to the more mundane routing and sanding of the parts that have been cut so far:
[attachthumb=#14] [attachthumb=#15]
15 July 2007:
Early this week, my Delta 15 inch 240 volt planer started to trip its 20 amp circuit breaker. I am not sure what the problem is and, thanks to Rick Thom, I can put off solving it until later. Rick knew that I wanted to get sufficient parts made this week so that some interesting structures can be built. I am leaving Toronto in a couple of days to go to our camp in Northern Ontario and I want to take the log kit with me. Tuesday morning about 8:30 Rick Thom arrived unannounced with his DeWalt 13 inch portable planer. I made good use of it during the rest of the week:
[attachthumb=#16]
I made a lot more of the same parts shown earlier. In addition, Isla and I designed windows and doors. I made two windows and one door frame. Both the window and door frames are the same width and are used in the middle of a wall with the short wall pieces stacked on each side and embedded in the envelope formed by the frame. Below are a couple of pictures showing a window under construction.
First acrylic is installed in slots cut into the frame:
[attachthumb=#17]
Then, molding is glued and screwed on all four edges of both side of the frame, forming and envelope that will surround a portion of the adjacent logs:
[attachthumb=#18]
The space between the molding is slightly (about 5mm) wider than the logs so that the window can easily be put in place and subsequently removed by children. The following series of three pictures shows a (very low) wall with a window being built:
[attachthumb=#19] [attachthumb=#20] [attachthumb=#21]
Observe the log above the widow. It does not appear very well in this photo but the log has been decorated by Ethan. I plan to have each of my five grandchildren decorate one or two logs. The decorated log has also had one coat of Spar Urethane applied over the drawing. All the logs will eventually have Spar Urethane applied.
A similar approach was used to build a door frame:
[attachthumb=#22]
The door frame has a built-in sill that fits over the half log below and rests on the ground. We have yet to design a door. It must be something that a child can easily install into the frame and remove from the frame. I have seen some ?lift on and off? hinges at Lee Valley that I know will do the job.
17 July 2007:
Margaret and I are leaving for Pellow's Island north of Hearst Ontario tomorrow morning and I just packed all the parts made so far into the trailer:
[attachthumb=#23]
They leave a lot of room for my tools and other stuff. There are sufficient parts to construct a small building with two windows, a door and a roof. Sometime in the future, I will make at least as many parts again and then we will be able to make some really interesting structures.
22 July 2007:
We are now at Pellow's Camp.
I thought that I had manufactured sufficient pieces back in Toronto to build something interesting but, when I assembled the part in the play-yard at camp, I found that I had not done so.
[attachthumb=#24]
I wanted to have a fuller set for my grandchildren Isla and Ethan when they arrive in August so decided maybe I would build some after I completed last years dock project. I can tell you that the adult visitors we are having at camp for the first week or so are really enthusiastic about the project. Lorna, my sister-in-law, seriously thought that I should market it and was persistent in this assertion. I told Lorna (and others) that at the rate I build things I would quickly go broke and that she or anyone else was quite at liberty to copy my ideas. Also, I used free scrap wood and paying for the wood would, I believe, put the price out of most folks reach.
29 July 2007:
I decided to make 9 logs for the log construction kit out of three 16 foot 2x6s from the reserve lumber pile:
[attachthumb=#25]
This is the large reserve store of pressure treated spruce wood that I keep on hand for projects that come up from time to time because I want to minimize the trips to town for supplies. Every few years, I get in a large stock of wood on spec. The wood is o good quality and seems to last well in spite of the ad-hoc way in which I store it. The wood that I picked is nice and straight with some small tight knots. It is quite a bit heavier than the cedar but I think that most children should still be able to manage the logs ?particularly if they are placed near the bottom of structures and I will encourage that practice. Here are some photos showing some steps taken to prepare the logs:
01) Planing to desired thickness:
[attachthumb=#26]
02) Trimming to desired width:
[attachthumb=#27]
03) Cutting to desired length:
[attachthumb=#28]
04) Cutting notches with jig saw:
[attachthumb=#29]
05) Rounding the edges:
[attachthumb=#30]
06) Sanding:
[attachthumb=#31]
The notches had to be sanded by hand.
07) Painting:
[attachthumb=#32]
The paint that I used is so old that it was still sold in 4 litre cans (from the good old days when we succumbed to soft conversion of US gallons for our paint). It has survived freezing and thawing for at least 15 winters but it still works well. I love Tremclad paint!
I also painted the door frame and a few of the cedar pieces green in order to be able to build a house with a green foundation and trim. I tried the logs out and I think that the green foundation looks very good!
[attachthumb=#33]
That worked so well that I decided to make a number of different pieces from wood that I salvaged from our old dock. That wood, too, was pressure treated spruce. There was enough scrap to make 15 of the pieces shown in the picture below as well as a few miscellaneous smaller pieces.
[attachthumb=#34]
These, too, were painted green.
3 August 2007:
Today, I finally finished sanding the cedar log pieces and getting one coat of spar urethane applied. This was none too soon for Isla and Ethan?s arrival on Saturday. Here I am sanding all the notches by hand:
[attachthumb=#35]
Here are some freshly varnished parts drying in the sun:
[attachthumb=#36]
I love the colour variations that one gets with old cedar.
Aug 5 2008:
I constructed a typical building for the children to discover upon their arrival and they certainly were surprised:
[attachimg=#37] [attachimg= #38]
But, they did not show as much interest as I hoped for. I expected that they would want to tear it down right away and build something else, but they simply looked at what had already been built.
9 Aug 2008:
A few days after their arrival at camp, Isla and Ethan finally got around to building something of their own with the logs. They decided that it would be good to build something on the deck rather than in the play-yard and spent considerable time taking apart the structure that I had build, carrying the pieces down to the deck and neatly arranging them their by type and colour. This was entirely their doing ?I helped but did not organize the task. Both Isla and Ethan required some instruction when assembling their own building, but not very much instruction and they both remembered well. Here are a few pictures of their activities:
[attachimg=#39] [attachimg=#40]
I had not anticipated that the children would want to build furniture, but they did. They used some log parts and well as some other wood that was lying around and even borrowed some dish towels for table cloths and curtains. And then they invited both me and Kathleen (their mother and my daughter) to visit them in their house:
[attachtimg=#41] [attachtimg=#42]
It turns out that I need not have worried about their interest. I should have remembered just how many great competing activities that children have at Pellow?s Camp. After all, I did spend a great deal of my childhood here. [big grin]
12 Aug 2007:
We are leaving camp tomorrow and I will take the logs back to Toronto. Here they are packed into the boat and ready for the first leg of the trip:
[attachthumb=#43]
2 Dec 2007:
No, I have not yet done any more work on the logs. Rather, this entry is to report continued use.
Last Friday, Ethan had the day off school and spent the day with us. He wanted to build a cabin, but it wasn't very nice outside, so he asked if we could build one in our basement recreation room. I figured that was a good idea so we moved all the parts of the kit inside. Ethan had another idea and that was to build a deck outside the cabin. Here he is sitting proudly on that deck:
[attachthumb=#44]
29 March 2008:
Over the last couple of weeks while Isla and Ethan were visiting we have spent considerable time in the shop. They are both working on extensions that they want to make to the life size log building kit. Isla is interested in the internals and wants to make furniture. To that end, we designed and built this folding table together:
[attachthumb=#45] [attachthumb=#46] [attachthumb=#47] [attachthumb=#48]
If course, it has been constructed from left over and restored wood.
Ethan has ideas for the additional parts he needs to build a castle with, among other things, a crane. Here is our start on that crane:
[attachthumb=#49]
20 April 2008:
I got a start on converting another bunch of old fence boards to play building logs. To the right is a picture of a big stack of boards planed on one side with a pair of boards in the background being glued together.
[attachthumb=#50]
Looking to the Future:
I will post further progress in this thread as progress is made.
