Bear-proofing My Log Cabin

Hello friends! Three years ago I installed a bear-proof door on my log cabin that I'm building in the remote location of Karelia the door has a time-tested design with a couple of interesting design ideas that are worth mentioning here a few words for my first-time viewers I've been developing my log cabin camp in the northern forest away from people and roads since 2014 during our short summer we have White Nights so I could accomplish a lot even in the span of one month summer vacation here are a few examples of what I was able to build here in five years I made this primitive fire-carved log furniture using trees downed by a severe storm I built dam and a small pond with a step-down ladder at the local stream built a hybrid tent / bed from recycled materials such as this PET rope cut from plastic bottles I also made a storage dome for slabs and boards using sticks and stretch film in addition I cleaned the campsite from fallen trees which I recycled for my log cabin construction I decided to build my cabin without chopping down a single live tree using a round notch reinforced with a square peg also known as the saddle cope many of the downed trees were huge which is why my cabin was atypically built from extra-thick logs the roof was built from halved logs with a polymer underlayment installed under the sod to protect the roof members from moisture and UV light some of my other bushcraft projects didn't get into this footage but I will leave the links below let's get back to the door story while installing the bottom logs I drilled a mortise for the door's bottom wooden hinge and the upper mortise was drilled a year later so now we need a door with two rounded build-in tenons that will act as primitive hinges to complete the set two years ago I cut narrow boards using a primitive sawmill jig made from two jointed boards and a couple of screws however these boards are too narrow for my door design I wanted to make it bear-proof using only two extra wide boards that milled and dried last summer I even bought a more powerful chainsaw with a longer guide bar to be able to milll extra wide slabs before milling slabs I resharpened an original crosscut chain to 10 degrees using my improvised vise made from a stump besides acquiring a better chainsaw for the task I made a sawmill similar to the Logosol or Alaskan Mill however I realized the jig will not work well for the boards required width as my Stihl MS260 couldn't handle even smaller than needed logs that's okay though as I know how to cut slabs freehand it is time to go to the place where I found a huge dried pine my traditional packframe made from pine planks a bird cherry branch and a rope cut from the bottle will help me to bring my tools food and video equipment to the site in one trip I highly recommend you to make or buy a packframe if you do similar activities in the woods I found this dried pine last summer not far from my camp the bottom section has started to rot but the rest of the trunk is still intact and dry it is quite dense to it is not difficult to cut a branchless tree trunk all you have to do is to cut out a deep wedge on one side and make a partial straight cut a little higher on the opposite side of the trunk then you simply hammer in a wedge into the straight cut this is one of the easiest and safest ways to cut down a tree however if the tree is asymmetrical in shape or has a lot of its branches on one side you will might need to use a different method I dropped this dried pine on a few skinny logs that I laid out in advance this way it will be easier to mill the door slabs later I have two doorways in my cabin so I need to cut four wide slabs for two doors I cut the slabs longer than needed as you can always cut them shorter naturally dried northern pine is called "Kelo" in Finnish because it is considered to be valuable in natural circumstances very old pine trees usually die while standing and then slowly dry for years "Kelo" logs and slabs are fairly dense and don't crack as they lose wood stresses during natural drying processes over the years while standing vertically the core of the "Kelo" is light while the sapwood is colored gray by fungus that lived there during the drying process the fungus has been dead in it for years and you can safely use this slab for construction I actually kind of like it's golden-grayishglow when you apply oil on it you can tell that the "Kelo" board is very old and has seen a lot during its lifespan all of the "Kelo's" sap has fully crystallized by now making the wood extra dense which means you have to resharpen your carpentry tools more frequently I have shown how to effectively cut a log into boards without any sawmill attachments in one of my previous videos I will leave a link to it below in case you wanted to see it in more detail for now I will just say this it is easier and faster to cut large slabs with the bottom tip of your chainsaw using swinging motions than when using mini sawmill attachments this free-handed slab cutting technique is three times faster and takes half the amount of gas those are the numerical facts I was able to measure okay the last slab is milled and I can now check their quality and geometry all four slabs passed my quality control and now it is time to take them back to the camp closer to my log cabin I put the glove under the slab to cushion my shoulder and started to make my way back while carrying the slab I couldn't help to be glad that the "Kelo" wood is so dry and comparatively light also I was happy that this log was located right in the trail that I cleared a few years ago so I didn't have to struggle through shrubs or a typical Karelian rocky terrain those soothing thoughts were giving me needed strength and again a few good words about my trusty packframe after feeling pretty tired from carrying the first slab I decided to carry the rest of them using my packframe's upper arch as a back support this unusual carrying technique is a lot more ergonomic spreading the slab's weight evenly on my arms and shoulders there was another log section from the same tree that I wanted to mill into slabs but I had to leave it to rot there because my Stihl MS 260 failed me the next day look at what happened to its cylinder-piston group Stihl service told me I was using a bad fuel mixture but they couldn't explain to me why the same fuel mixture poured from one tank didn't do any damage to my 20 year old Stihl MS 180 I wonder if the real reason is that the new MS 260 was made in Brazil while my trusty MS 180 was still made in the USA two decades ago there is no time to get upset though I need to make a temporary woodworking bench under the open sky I just milled a horizontal surface on a fallen tree and stretched a tent above it to get an all-weather temporary woodworking shop with a steady workbench while making my door with round tenon hinges I decided to cut out the round tenons first this way the large board is cut to its size and it is easier to shift it around on my workbench I took my time to the layout job because there was only one chance to do it right I don't have spare dried boards of that size laying around this is when the carpenter's mantra "Measure twice cut once" really came in handy I made a couple of precise cuts and carefully shaped the round tenon this slab got noticeably lighter there will be two tenons on the door so I shaped the second tenon in the same way the second board just needed to be cut to size to tightly fit the doorway that was installed into the cabin two years ago this old inexpensive hand plane is still doing a decent job in smoothing the slab ideally a jointer plane would be better but it was too heavy to bring it here so I will have to work with what I have it is a pleasure to make shavings with a hand plane arguably it is the most classical woodworking activity out of them all now we can shape the square tenons using a handsaw a chisel and a hammer note the tenons are 52 millimeters (two inches) in diameter while this slab is 80 millimeters (three in a quarter) each tenon is cut asymmetrically to be flush with the inner side of the door such asymmetry is needed to maximize the door's range of motion and to prevent air drafting okay both door tenons / hinges are cut and we can join both boards together my new two and a half inch wide (6 cm) chisel would have come in handy now but I still managed to do a decent job with a small chisel back then I cut the angled sides of the sliding dovetail joint using a regular hacksaw I know it is not an ideal saw to make such cuts but again I used what I had at my disposal it is raining but everything is dry in my woodworking shop thanks to the canopy stretched over and I can start to fit my sliding dovetail joint I rubbed a piece of charcoal on the plank and it will show where the plank is getting tight inside the sliding dovetail all you have to do is to use a sharp chisel to slightly remove the marked area and methodically repeat the procedure till you achieve the desired fit chiseling is a simple but tedious work that I kind of welcome in such times when it is raining outside and I can't really do any other projects at the camp or in the woods of course it is not necessary to have such a perfect joint fit in the log cabin's door but since I'm enjoying this process and I have time why not when I finished fitting the horizontal door rails I rounded over the door's back edge the rounded edge will allow the door to open all the way note it is important not to remove too much of the door's material as it could result in creating a gap between the door and the doorway in the closed position okay the rain finally stopped and I can take the hinged board to the log cabin and try it on I would say the slab lost almost half of its weight by feel through the whole process or perhaps I was too excited to start the door fitting I tried the board in the doorway many times each time making small adjustments to the wooden hinges but it was an enjoyable activity I've never seen doors with build-in wooden hinges before which is why even a partial success would have made me happy as a continues the door fitting process I grew to like its primitive and reliable design even anymore when you come to knock on such a door you could instantly tell that people who live in the house are hardly superficial in order to do the full installation of the door with built-in wooden hinges I had to lift a large sum of weight this included the doorway's head along with the whole roof that is made of logs and halved logs plus the weight of the wet sod as you probably guessed I used two wedges to accomplish this task the wedges have to be strong so I made them from the oiliest branches that I could find I will be honest I enjoyed that fidgeting process and even thought to myself that perhaps the second door should be a double door like in a saloon but maybe I watched too many Westerns back in the day I owe you an explanation as to why I'm making two doors in my log cabin and why they open outside some will say they need to open inwards especially in this area where snow can block in the door from outside why do you think I made them open outwards nevertheless? talk to me in the comments below I'd like to hear your version I probably tired you with my comments by now so I will let you watch the rest of the fitting process without them okay now we can assemble two slabs and two rails into the door to avoid gaps I decided to plane matching grooves and put a spline in between the boards I've never used a plough plane before but I like cutting long grooves with it a lot a plough plane is a very simple tool it's literally a chisel-like cutter affixed in a jig at an angle plus an adjustable side rail if you leave the side rail in the same position and make two long grooves in both boards they will inevitably match like a mirror image okay now I will make short perpendicular splines to install them into the corresponding grooves at that stage I had some difficulties because my makeshift workbench was not specialized enough for the task and I was using a ratchet strap to hold down a short plank this is when I decided to make a shaving horse the next season here is a little preview how it was made the next summer if there is enough interest in my audience I will make a separate video about the shaving horse but let's get back to the door project I finally have all of the necessary door members in place and it is time to put it all together if I had made any mistakes in my calculations I would have to make another door as the doorway is already installed but the careful measuring and layout paid off and this door turned out to be nearly perfect in its dimensions the assembly process is fairly straightforward and I will let you watch it while enjoying the sounds of pure bushcrafting I will only add that I reinforced the rails with dowels and made sure there is an adequate gap between the door and doorway to compensate for seasonal wood expansion and contraction this is Max Egorov from Saint Petersburg Russia if you liked this video perhaps you could share it with your friends let good people watch good videos p.s. I only produce one or two videos max a month and if you don't want to miss new content like this subscribe and click the notification bell to stay up to date with all of the latest content due to new youtube's recommendation algorithm its notifications have become more erratic and unstable otherwise I hope to see back on Advoko MAKES...

Channel: Advoko MAKES

Views: 4,569,399

Rating: 4.9162741 out of 5

Keywords: log cabin, off grid log cabin, off grid, log cabin build, log cabin building by hand, off grid living, off grid cabin build, off grid cabin build cheap, bushcraft skills, how to make log cabin, cabin living, bear proof survival shelter, advoko makes, max egorov

Id: arnAD8I7msQ

Length: 22min 34sec (1354 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 01 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/[deleted]]

I’m so happy you are on reddit. I could listen to your videos for hours! I am very jealous of your cabin.

[u/BLUE____sky]

You know it's an awesome video when 20 minutes seems like 5. Great craftsmanship!

[u/fuzzzybear]

My family lived in the Northern Rockies of British Columbia for years. I can say from experience that I'd a bear wants to get inside a cabin it will come in through the roof. They will climb on top of your cabin at start ripping their way down the same way they dig into a beaver's Lodge.

[u/vukodlac]

Love watching this guy work

[u/[deleted]]

I've watched this guys videos. I love him, he is my hero.

[u/arajguru]

Amazing craftsmanship!!! 🙏

[u/Iamflev705]

Hey advoko, I've just randomly found your channel and watched most of your videos in one night.

I absolutely love them.

Please keep making fantastic content!

[u/bergamotandvetiver76]

Wonderful video as always. I couldn't help but notice a very familiar bug at the ten minute mark. :)