Timber Ore Bin

FRAMES & LINCOLN LOGS

In the drawing above you may have noticed that I have both an Inner Frame and a shorter Outer Frame. The outer frames have a cap across them. The various timbers are notched over one another much like the Lincoln Logs we played with as kids. Using Sketchup I was able to virtually get all the notches and lengths to fit. I could when happy with the result pull the structure apart and get exact measurements for each piece. Here the Outer vertical frame member is in red, the inner vertical frame member in orange, the cap across the outer vertical frame member in blue and in green a cap that connects all the frame members. I know I am repeating myself but .. this would be much harder to do in a 2d CAD program – for me at least.

FRAMES

So. This is what I wanted to end up with. One of the things I wanted to do was to have everything joined via a dadoo or housing joint as it sometimes called – traditional post and beam joinery. If nothing else would make for a much stronger model .. and heck .. would be fun to do.

NOTCHING

The question then is .. how to cut the notches? Well .. yeah .. you could do it with a razor saw and chisel but I just so happen to own a PROXXON MF70 Mini Mill. One of those things that honestly is seldom used but occasionally worth it’s weight in good German beer. The collet holds 1/8″ shanked tools .. which means Dremel Router bits work perfectly.

Here I am milking the two caps that fit across the outer frames.

NOTCHED

Various frame members notched out. Not sure about why I have the small filler pieces in the notch with the vertical .. probably milled it a bit too wide (Yeah .. I know .. I am not perfect. It surprises me too!)

FLOOR & SUPPORTS

I used a jig to align the outer and inner support frames, shown in blue and another in green. With everything clamped as shown I could build the floor. I used coffee stirrers for that floor planking by the way. Who knew you could find model building materials at the grocery store?