Hit me up, Scotty

SO.. what goes INTO a Yurt, you ask?

Many things!

(FYI: This post is very long and detailed, and a bit dry, so don't read it if you dont have at least 20 minutes to kill and a coffee nearby! ;)

Wood
Nails
Canvas
Thread (to sew the canvas)
some bolts, for the door assembly
Epoxy glue, to glue up the Toono (the ring at the top)
Poly glue, to glue the canvas seams
Poly sealant, to make the canvas waterproof
Cording, for the roof pole ends
Plywood, for the toono and some jigs
rope or nylon strapping, for the belly bands
Non stretch cording to attach the Khana (wall) sections together
and a number of other things

...but mostly Wood, Nails and Canvas :)

So.. WHAT wood, and for WHICH parts?

Some smart folks use Bamboo for everything that they can. The problem is that decent structural quality bamboo that wont split in a year costs a lot of money.

Some use lathing bought at the lumberyard for the walls, but I'd like it to be more durable.

Some use lathe wood for the walls, and big, heavy 2x4s for the roof timbers, reducing the number of timbers. I don't like that method as I am lazy, and I want to be able to pick everything up with one hand. :)

...and so on.

At the end of the day, the best price/performance ratio I could find was simply lumberyard 2x4 studs, 8' long, ripping lathes out of those, but cut a bit thicker, so as to increase their strength. at 3/4" thick, I'd get 5 pieces out of each 2x4, and at less than $3 each thats a grand spanky total of $85 for the wall wood. Not bad. I could make em 1" and pay $138, if I wanted xtra strength. I will have to pick through the piles for the best ones, but its worth it for the price and availability.

The roof timbers will probably be Douglas Fir, since I need them square and all very straight grain.

The Toono ring will be glued up around a pattern with epoxy

The door assembly will be 2x4 lumberyard material, or if I have a few extra dinero, select quality pine.

The door itself will be knocked together from select quality pine or rough sawn pine.

I'd like the door hinges to be leather.. we'll see if I can find someone to give me tips ;)

the covering will be canvas

Under the canvas there will be something like tarp or felt material. Probably just white truck tarp to start.

(EDIT: thought more about this, and for The basic Yurt Of Doom, this might be reversed, canvas on inside, tarp on outside. Allowing for lighter canvas to be used, aka less $$)

tarp floor

random carpet scraps for Burning Man, but ultimately the idea is to make a 4" raised platform to go along with the yurt. Not right this minute tho.. thats phase 2!

Where to start?

The walls, then the toono and roof timbers, then the door.

First, one Khana is carefully crafted by hand to serve as a pattern. It is measured and triple checked for all problems.

The pattern is clamped against a 2x4 and a drill press is used to drill the 10 holes that will go into each Khana

If there are several people doing this, that 2x4 can immediately be angle cut on each end, then fed into the table saw and ripped into individual Khana.

I only need 150. The yurt takes 138, but I will need xtras for breakage.

Now, if I have a team of people, we can get REALLY fast and assemble AS we cut :) Assembly is cake. All you do is pop a regular nail through the holes in the lathe pieces, then pound the protuding pointed bit over a half-moon piece of wood or steel, then one strike to hammer it flat. There will be 5 wall sections in total, and at the end, we'll need to cut some off each one, very particularly, so they can be more easily connected.

http://simplydifferently.org/Yurt_Notes?page=3#Flat%20Timber%20Lattice%20Wall

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Once this is done, then roof timbers. These are square timbers, rounded at at least one end, where it is drilled through and a cord of a particular length is tied. The other end is pointed, or has a steel dowel sticking out the end. Sound easy? It is! Especially since there will be about half as many roof timbers as lathes, in this case 75 or 80 (again, some extra for breakage).

We might make the timbers up from lumberyard stock, OR, if it works out, I have some 1" white cedar that may work as well, which would be cool since cedar smells so nice, and is very light for its strength. The "rounding" of the ends will probably be accomplished by clamping the wood in a vice, length wise, and using a box plane. Believe me, its a LOT faster than sanding, and the ends can be left rough.

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Then there is the Toono, or roof ring. This will almost certainly be made of 1/4" plywood, ripped into strips and glued up with epoxy over a simple form, which I will build. The size needs to be very exact, so I'll be sure to do all the calculations VERY carefully. The whole thing will probably be held together while curing with a "clamp strap", as some of you may know. Basically its a nylon strap with a ratchet on one end.

Once it is cured, then the hole pattern is placed over it, hole points carefully marked, and then with a jig, which I will make out of a block of wood, we will drill holes into it, angled upwards to receive the roof timbers.

We may also put some timber in the center, to make a "crown" in the form of a cross or star. This strengthens it, and provides for water runoff.

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Last is The Door. This is a basic door, only small and REALLY beefy, with a few twists. The door is the anchor point for the belly bands, so it will be under a bunch of stress, so it will be important to install features to give the door frame lots of lateral strength. What I will most likely do, because it is the simplest way, is to get some threaded rod and put it in a channel above and below the jamb, bolting it on the outside tightly and locking it in place, and then screwing on eye attachments for the belly bands so they don't stress the frame at all. The frame will also be constructed very thickly, with corner supports made from plywood to prevent skewing.

OR, I'll just make the upper and lower jamb wide enough so the belly bands can go right over the door frame and be covered up later :)

The door itself is up for grabs. Its just a door, but traditionally it is VERY decorated. :) I would like to make it up out of slats nailed and/or glued to a plywood backing, so the outside is natural wood, and then painting cool things on the inside, flat surface. If anyone has experience carving wood, they are more than welcome to use my door for some fun :) Just let me know what you'll do before hand!

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Thats the main structure DONE. :) Next is the cover.

Canvas is cut to the proper lengths, then sewn together on edge with a stitch that my wife J. will specify as she is the sewing machine expert :) The entire thing will then be together, and then each seam will be folded over, pressed down and ironed a bit to flatten it, and then sewn down the middle, to make the piece flat, and more tight. Then the open flap will be glued with water resistant poly glue.

She says we can do ALL the edge seams with a machine and something like half to 2/3 the flat seams with the machine, as long as we do it in a certain order, which I'll detail out in the specific, Canvas post. But basically this means about 1/2 of the final seams will need to be hand sewn. Probably not a big deal, as we can do this inside the house, with non alcohol and music, and be done in no time.

After the thing is finished, then the cover pattern is marked out on the canvas CAREFULLY, and then cut. Then the edges are finished off on the machine.

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The wall canvas is CAKE. Its just a long rectangle, so it doesn't need to be cut. All it needs is sewing, and all of it should be able to be done on a machine.

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And.. believe it or not, that is all for the basic yurt. :) There is the Tunno cover, skirt ropes and such, but these are the main bits that will take up time.

So... wanna be a part of a dream? I promise, you won't regret it. :-)