log bed building

[ShawnS]

Yesterday evening a friend came by with a new set of the bits for building log beds, he also brought a truck load of cedar logs. He says they have been air dried for about 3 years in the back of his garage. He wants me to help him build a log bed and said I could use the cedar to build myself one if wanted. Just wanted to see if anyone here has tried this before and get any advice I could before I get in to deep, he laid one log up last night and stripped most of the bark off and ran a r/0 sander over it just to see what it would do.
Any help would be appreciated guys
thanks!

 

[Ralrick]

I don't have any direct experience in making log furniture but we do have a couple log beds in our log cabin. I spoke with the gentleman that was involved in building them and he mentioned having a 'pencil sharpener' type tenon cutter for the logs make the process fairly simple. I think the cutters are generally available but not sure of the key things to look for and I think the price is dependent on the size of logs you are planning to use. Here is one version of the cutter from Rockler http://www.rockler.com/industrial-series-log-tenon-cutters

I look forward to seeing some pictures of the furniture you build.

 

[ShawnS]

Thanks, that's what my friend brought was a set of the bits to cut tenons on the logs and the bits to put holes in. He had 3 sizes for each.

 

[McRabbet]

Lee Valley Tools carries a full suite of tenon cutters -- not cheap, but they work very well.

 

[SubGuy]

This one looks cool too: http://www.logcabintools.com/

I helped a neighbor when I was a kid build some log benches. He used some sort of homemade deal like a tenon cutter and drilled across the tenon and put in a dowel. But I was a kid and that's all I got out of it.