Yurt Workshop, Day 7

[Sea of knots]

These last couple of days have involved nothing but the tying of knots. It's kind of incredible that sturdy walls can be created by thin strips of wood and hundreds of knots.

To demonstrate the lashing used to hold panels together, and to figure out how much strap is required, I stood up two sections and lashed them together. 20 feet is the answer. To make a traditional yurt of this size, I'll need to weave three 20' straps to hold the panels together.

[Closeup of the lashing]

[Two panels lashed, a sight to behold]

After this, my work here is done. The panels are all labelled and stacked neatly in a corner. It's hard to believe that a beautiful 450 square foot home can slide easily onto the floor of a station wagon, but that's the attraction of the yurt. Nearly anyone can build one with cheap materials and simple tools. It can be set up in a lazy afternoon, taken down in an hour, and transported in an ordinary vehicle. Now that I know how to do the hard parts, I can't wait to design and build my own.

[All four panels finished and stored]

And then I emerged from the basement to find Portland covered in snow. The whole household went for a walk to the video store. Beautiful!

[Crab Apples in the snow]

[Snow piled high]

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.]

Yurt Workshop, Day 6

Yesterday I found another problem with the yurt panels. My measuring stick is slightly different from Cobb's and the new lumber is slightly longer. This means that the ends aren't quite perfect, being sometimes off by as much as 3/4". It's a little tough to see because there are some rods that we knew would be shorter. Those were reclaimed from broken rafters.

In the end, we stood it up to see if it was close enough. And it was! No matter how tight the knots are, there's always a little play. This is actually necessary because of the curvature that happens when the panels are bent. This structure is way more forgiving than I had understood. Cool!

[Look how uneven the ends are]

[But it stands just fine]

[Look how curved the walls are!]

Then it was time to buckle down and get lots of knots tied as fast as possible. Putting the panel up on the workbench made it easier to reach with comfort. Putting it up on blocks made it easy to reach beneath without lifting the panel every time. I got Section D finished completely and Section C halfway done. One more day and I'll have all of the wooden pieces finished.

[Up on blocks to make the knots easier to tie]

[Not every row needs to be tied]

Yurt-Building Photo Essay: Tying Knots

This little photo essay is the best way I can think of to demonstrate the fat knot used to hold together the lattice wall sections. It pays to figure out how to tie these knots tightly and quickly. There are 600 of them in the four wall panels.

My friend, Sage, took these photos for me. You can see some of his art on his website: http://sage-ink.com.

[Tie "the knot" (demonstrated below) to go on the bottom, where it's tough to reach]

[Twist an overhand knot an extra half turn to make a Figure 8 knot]

[Use the needle to tighten it snugly against the wood]

[Use pliers to tighten all knots]

[Tie an overhand knot below the figure 8 to make it even tighter. You may need two or three if it's still loose.]

[Cut it off]

[And it's done. Just 600 more and the walls will be finished.]