Original Post:
Yurt Crown Almost Finished
[Sunday, November 1, 2009]
Today I spent almost all day finishing up the crown. The crown consists of two rings, each with 24 individual pieces which are held together in a ring form by wooden dowels and glue. This by itself isn't strong enough, so I made a inner supporting cross brace thing, in the shape of a tic-tac-toe.
6 of the 24 pieces that make up the double ring of the crown
I made the inner crossbars by cutting four pieces of the salvaged redwood 2x2's slightly larger than the inner diameter of the ring. I cut grooves into these pieces so that they would snap into each other.
The inner crossbars of the crown.
Next, I recessed the 8 spots where the crossbars meet the ring with a router tool. I then made the corners square with a small bit on the Dremel tool. The crossbars sink half way into each ring, and the rings sandwich the crossbars in.
The crown crossbars are recessed half way into the top ring.
After cutting notches in both the top and bottom rings, it was ready to be glued together, sandwiching the crossbars in the middle. Each notch had to be traced out and measured individually.
Getting ready to glue the top and bottom rings together.
After the rings were pressed on top of each other, I used long wood screws to screw them together, for added strength, to make sure the sandwiched pieces wouldn't come apart. These were the only screws in the entire structure of the crown.
Me and the crown all put together!
The crown is pretty strong! The crossbars really made a great difference in its strength. I am letting it dry overnight, and the next thing I need to do is sand all of it again to even out any bumps or jumps (some pieces didn't join exactly flush).
A closer look at the crown.
Its not perfect, but after sanding and filling in any gaps with wood putty, I think it should look a lot better. I am debating whether or not to just varnish and leave it natural, or paint it in a colorful, traditional Mongolian pattern, like this:
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Original Post:
Update On My Yurt
[Sunday, November 15, 2009]
I spent this weekend working on my yurt again. I got a lot done, and I'm really happy about that! But I've also been working on it sporadically during the past few weeks after I get home from school. After I finished putting together the crown, I sanded it down to even all of the jumps out of the wood, then filled in the holes and gaps. I got a type of wood putty that resembled tile grout, but it was light brown. It was hard putting the putty into the gaps, since it was very course and sandy (not like putty at all) and at first I was really upset at myself for not opening the little bottle up at the store to check its consistency. But the stuff dried very fast, and sanded down well, and didn't crack or anything yet. So overall I'm pretty happy with how the grout/putty turned out.
I am sealing the crown after I sanded and puttied it.
Since last time, I decided to paint the crown in a traditional Mongolian design, bright red, orange, blues, pinks, and yellows. That is why I am sealing it instead of varnishing it, because I will paint right over it in the next few weeks. Come to think of it, I may hold off on painting it until I finish the frame of the yurt and put it up once as a test.
After the wood sealer was dry on the crown, I drilled holes into it for the 36 roof poles to slide into. The roof angle is 30 degrees, so all of the holes had to be drilled at an angle, and made for quite a hard time fighting with the drill press. One hand was turning the wheel to bring the drill down, the other hand was holding the angle finder to make sure I was drilling at the correct angle, and both my legs were bent, supporting the wheel securely. Too bad Romy wasn't there to take a picture. I must of looked funny!
The yurt crown with 36 holes drilled into it.
The crown now is basically finished, except for some decorative touches (like the painting and some bowed sticks I will add later to support the rain dome).
