Furnishing Your Cabin: 3 Expert Tips for Building Your Own Chairs

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While city living certainly has its advantages, it isn’t for everyone. Some of us need a little more room to breathe, which is what makes building a log cabin by hand on forested acreage so satisfying.

Portable Sawmill

If you’ve completed such an undertaking, you have a firsthand appreciation for just how personal this challenging work can be. But if you want to put even more of yourself into your new home, you can use your best-valued portable sawmill and other tools to handcraft furniture.

Whether you’re enjoying some solitude or hosting guests, you’ll need at least one chair in your new cabin. If you’re new to handcrafting furniture, here are a few tips that can save you plenty of time and hassle.

 Source and Prepare Logs Properly

As you surely learned during your cabin build, successful projects start with quality logs, so be sure to set aside plenty of time for this vital task. How you choose the right timber will depend on several factors, and there’s no wrong answer. It’s just a matter of deciding which approach works best for you.

For instance, if pine is the most readily available species in your area, that’s probably what you’ll find yourself working with. On the other hand, if the woods near you are more diverse, you can choose timber based on what you want in your finished product. You may even find the ideal wood by accident while using your wood chipper PTO with your tractor. Instead of chipping it, save it and use it for your chair!

Depending on the type of wood you’re using and whether you’re removing the bark or leaving it on, you’ll need to carefully prepare it. That could include stripping the bark and sanding your logs, and you’ll almost certainly want a moisture meter to determine when they’re adequately dry and ready for use.

 Get Acquainted with Mortise and Tenon Joints

If you’re an experienced woodworker, you may already have a firm grasp of forming mortise and tenon joints. But if this is your first rodeo, it’s well worth taking the time to learn about this method of joining before you start your chair build.

Woodworkers have employed this strong, simple method of joining logs for a long time. To join log A to log B, start by creating a tenon on log A. Do this by using a specialized, funnel-shaped blade to essentially whittle the end of a log down to a smaller diameter. This is your tenon.

Then, mark the spot on log B where you want to join the two logs, and drill a hole the same diameter as your tenon. You can use glue, a screw, or a lag bolt to hold mortise and tenon joints together.

 Measure Twice, Cut Once

If you’re already experienced when it comes to using portable milling equipment and woodworking hand tools, you know how easy it can be to end up with an incorrectly sized cut. That’s why it’s crucial to design your chair in detail before you start building.

Remember, building comfortable, dependable furniture is about more than just joining materials.

You also need to build a chair with proportions appropriate for your body, the amount of living space inside your cabin, and any other furniture you may use in conjunction with your chair, such as a dining table or footrest.

If your armrests sit so high that you can’t slide your chair in beneath the dining table, for instance, you’ll end up wasting space. That’s why it always pays to measure twice and cut once.

 About Woodland Mills

 Independent sawyers, landowners, and hobbyist woodworkers alike turn to Woodland Mills for the best-valued forestry products. Founded by childhood friends Neil Bramley and Josh Malcolm, Woodland Mills is recognized globally as an industry leader offering capable, dependable products at justifiable price points. More than a decade since releasing the flagship HM126 portable bandsaw mill, Woodland Mills continues to innovate. New offerings include robust Loglander log arches, the nimble yet sturdy Pathlander ATV trailer, and the forthcoming HM136MAX portable sawmill bandsaw, delivering a 36” cut width. The worldwide community of sawyers who depend on Woodland Mills rave about more than the products—they also love the peerless customer service and fast shipping. Whether you need a bandsaw sawmill for your portable milling operation or a UTV dump trailer for acreage management, you can count on Woodland Mills.

 Shop the industry’s best-valued forestry products from Woodland Mills at https://woodlandmills.com/

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