Back to working on the log cabin. Realised quite quickly using the twigs wasn't going to work. Even though they look straight and true, at 1/72 then are miles off. Even more so when I started leaving gaps for the doors and windows:
As you can see, even at a few levels high the walls are starting to get out of line and massive (scale) gaps are appearing between the logs. In real log cabin construction any gaps or filled with wadding but some of the gaps in my cabin were starting to get as wide as the logs
So, I switched to 3mm diameter bamboo skewers and put together a few rows to check they layed straight:
I'll add a bark texture to the skewers once the cabin is constructed.
After trying to hand cut the notches on the ends that lock the logs together I quickly realised that doing it by eye/hand wasn't going to be good enough. Even 1/2 a millimeter at this scale throws the walls out.
I needed to build a jig to make sure the notches are always the same distance from the end of each log. I don't own any fancy tools or access to a high tech milling machine but what I do have is a dremel clone, a workmate clone and time to experiment. After pondering for a while I came up with this...
I made the stop block out of pink foam as it was what I had to hand, but the vibration from the dremel pushed the end of the skewer into the foam meaning that the distance increased every time I cut another notch:
Still, the concept was sound so I fashioned something a bit more substantial from an offcut of wood.
Now to prepare lots and lots of little logs...
I'll have to give that technique a go sometime.
