Yurt-Building Photo Essay: Drilling Jigs

When building a yurt, the lion's share of time goes toward tying knots. The next longest task is drilling over a thousand holes. It's important that it be done quickly and accurately. To that end, it pays to make a couple of jigs and learn to use them efficiently.

The master jig is short and holds three measurements: the distance from the top to the first hole, the distance between holes, and the distance from the last hole to the bottom. (I put extra holes in my jig, but don't use them.)

In designing this yurt, Cobb was very smart. He set it up to use standard lumber, 8' 1x2s. That's 96". The top hole is two inches down. The bottom hole is 4" up, leaving a little extra space to keep the bottom knots dry. That leaves 90" for 10 spaces, 9" each.

[Master jig, 2" from the top]

[Master jig, 4" from the bottom]

[Use a pin in the previous hole when drilling.]

[Use a full-length jig to drill rods 2 at a time. Notice the pin in each end.]