Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Making a Summerbeam

I made another summerbeam. See, the cabin will be 24 feet long. There will be 2 summerbeams, one will be 16 feet long, the other 8 feet long, and they will be spliced together on top of a big stout post.
The loft will set on top of the summerbeam. This is timber framing, the loft joists will be 8x8s, all will be exposed.

So, this tree is for the 16 foot summerbeam. But, it fell over the wrong way and got snagged on another tree. I had a rope tied to it, and as I was making the cutting notches, I was pulling the rope with the 4WD pickup, and the rope broke. Manila rope.






I came back with a new rope, with a working strength of 2,100 lbs, and 4 snatch blocks. These are beautiful antique American made snatch blocks, I bought 'em off of ebay for 80 bucks apiece.






I rigged the tow strap to the black walnut tree






I rigged the rope to the pulleys, on a second tree:






And up the mountain to a pulley on another tree, and down to the little 4WD Nissan.






I pulled the tree loose from the snag, cut it 18 feet long, and pulled it 120 feet up the steep mountain. The Stihl got a workout on this big beast:





This beast is 18 inches high, 8 inches thick, and 18 feet long. So heavy, my log cart would barely lift it. I believe it is about 500 pounds.

[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v644/simonkenton/IMG_0480_zps9890588f.jpg[/img]


I hauled it over to the carport where it is drying, along with the 8 foot summerbeam, and the 8x8 black walnut post.
These beams will lose quite a bit of water weight in the next year, Thank God.

Since y'all are interested, I will post pics of the log cabin construction next year. You will see the summerbeam in place! I will sand it down with my disc grinder and belt sander, and put a coat of satin poly on it, it will be beautiful.

I build cabins in the Appalachian style, the logs are 6 inches thick and left round on the top and bottom, about 14 inches high. I cut dovetail notches at the corners with the chain saw and big chisels and a slick.