Natural tapered house log milling process

Abstract

A process to enable the manufacture of tapered house building logs of various diameters, which would be used in hand-crafted round log construction, in both residential and commercial applications. A milling process would remove wood to create the lateral notches, also known as grooves or copes, on the underside of each wall log, while maintaining the natural taper of each whole log used. The convex curvature of the top of each log is milled to match the concave curvature on the bottom of the log sitting directly above it, using a common curvature for specified diameters; in the process of planing the top and the underside of each log, the same degree of taper is achieved. Whole, round trees are utilized and the natural taper of each log is always maintained.

What is claimed is:  
     
         1 . A process to construct log walls in which whole natural logs with similar taper and a maximum butt size and a minimum tip size are planed in such a way so that the same degree of taper is achieved and matching concave surfaces on the underside of every log and convex surfaces on the top of every log are created, and any given log can be stacked upon another (with gasket material in between) with the logs being reversed to one another as they are placed on the wall, so that a butt end (or largest diameter of a log) always alternates with a tip end (or smallest diameter of a log) and when the logs are stacked in a wall assembly, level wall height will always be achieved every 2 rounds, and comprising: 
 a) whole natural logs being of similar taper;    b) said logs being positioned for the first phase of milling, the cutting of the concave groove, so that the top surface of each log is on a horizontal plane;    c) a concave groove of specified curvature, based on the diameter of the log, is cut into this surface, which will become the bottom of the log, once it is placed in a wall on a building;    d) said logs are then rotated 180 degrees so that the opposite surface of the log is on top, and positioned so that the planing process results in an identical degree of taper being achieved;    e) a matching convex curve is cut into that surface, which will become the top of the log once it is placed in a wall on a building;    f) a minimal amount of waste wood being generated.    
     
     
         2 . This process, as claimed in  claim 1 , relies upon planing logs of similar taper to create logs of exactly the same degree of taper.  
     
     
         3 . This process, as claimed in  claim 1 , wherein the convex curvature of the top of each log is milled to match the concave curvature on the bottom of the log sitting directly above it, using a common curvature for specified diameters; once a common curvature has been established, that curvature must be maintained for the milling of every wall log for each particular building.  
     
     
         4 . This process, as claimed in  claim 1 , wherein a 16 inch diameter curvature is defined as being equal to any portion of the perimeter of a 16 inch circle; similarly, a 10 inch curvature equals any portion of the perimeter of a 10 inch circle; logs ranging from 5 to 10 inches in diameter would use a 10″ curvature blade, logs ranging from 10 to 16 inches in diameter would use a 16″ curvature blade and logs ranging from 16 to 24 inches in diameter would use a 24 inch curvature blade.  
     
     
         5 . This process, as claimed in  claim 1 , wherein by using the largest butt diameter of a given set of logs for a particular building, with a range in diameter of approximately 6 inches (from butt size to tip size), the curvature would be equal to, or slightly larger than, the diameter of the largest butt.  
     
     
         6 . This process, wherein the log wall construction as claimed in  claim 1  is contingent upon on planing each log to the identical degree of taper and using a common curvature of blade throughout a particular building, and placing the logs onto the wall so that a butt alternates with a tip so that no matter what diameter of log is used, based on the established ranges, level wall height is achieved every 2 rounds.