/diy/ - Do It Yourself

I source your lumber from the trees around you, are you familiar with the "chainsaw lumber mill" and log cabin building methods?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oseCVRhOE2g

A quicker/easier solution to the lack of a power source may be to build a pre-fab building/trailer.

Also, use the opportunity to build something that is architecturally interesting. You could try building something like this, which is small enough to put on a trailer and tow to your site:
http://www.signal-shed.com/home.html
http://www.sunset.com/home/architecture-design/how-to-build-a-small-cabin-00418000068536/

>>167399
While the ironic "great outdoors" picture hanging on the wall really bugs me in this pic, the advice is sound. If you've got no power it really is a metric fuck-ton of work to build even a small cabin.

Hauling in a generator, a circular saw, a compressor and a nailgun are going to make your life wonderful.

How much do you like nature?

I for one could spend days isolated in a cabin.

As long as I can stay warm, and maybe have an HF radio set to play with, I would be perfectly happy. Maybe some good books by Mises, John Baptiste Say, and F.A. Hayek as well...

A snorkel tub would be icing on the cake.

>>167402
Gotta agree with this Anon. Also, you could build yourself a portable battery bank. It consists of few marine batteries, and inverter. Charge it at home, put it in your car, and recharge/plug your equipment in it. You can scale it up or down, depending what you want. Once you are done with the build, you can leave the batteries in there with either solar or wind power attached to it so it recharges/maintains the batteries and you have power at your place.

Also, HF transceiver don't draw much.

Output power is around 100w.

Tube rigs draw more at idle, due to the filament heaters. Usually there's an on-off switch for the heaters for that reason, but it takes about a minute to heat them up from cold. It takes about 10 minutes to reach maximum stability.

All-in-all, pure solid state rigs are better for off-grid excursions.

The FT897D is a perfect off-grid transceiver. It draws 600 ma squelched, 1a on receive, and 22a on transmit. Conversational voice over SSB is around 30% duty cycle. In an hour, you'll spend about 20 minutes transmitting, and 40 minutes receiving.

All in all, it doesn't take much of a solar or wind generator setup to keep a deep cycle battery charged, even with a "high power" rig.

http://outlands.tripod.com/farm/logcabin.htm

Im planning on building something like this in some secret snowy mountains somewhere secluded with trees. the snow melts during summer so its a great place to live with a wonderful range of weather.

its going to be near a water source so i can have electricity and clean water.

im studying electronic engineering (so i can turn natural energy sources into electricity) and mechanical engineer (i build off road vehicles), carpentry building and plumbing (this is my job) and i am joining some military forces soon.

It's been a dream of mine for years to be self sustainable, a natural life.

>>167411
Just a quick little thought.

There are two main types of batteries:
Starting batteries
Deep cycle batteries

Starting batteries deliver high initial amperes, but taper off quickly, and lose voltage quite fast.

Deep cycle batteries have a slow taper of both ampere and voltage. The downside is they don't provide cranking amps to start an engine.

Marine batteries are a hybrid battery. They have thicker plates than a starting battery, but not as thick as a standard deep cycle.

For pure power use, I highly advise getting ahold of a Trojan industrial deep cycle battery. I warn you though, you'll want a wheelbarrow or something to carry it. They are quite heavy.

>>167308
In sweden you can buy house "kits", consisting of a floor, walls, a roof, and whatever else you might need.

I suggest that you do the same; build as much as you can while you have easy access to things like electricity and a hospital (for when you saw your fingers off, shit happens), then move it into the woods and assemble it.

This is of course not very practical if you don't have access to a crane. Alternatively, maybe you can scratch build the floor and roof?

bumpin for interest

Rape cabin?

>>167768
most definitely a rape cabin

>yfw this is exactly what you want
http://simplesolarhomesteading.com/
I don't advise buying his info, but Idk how to make it.

>>167857
Those cabins look so dorky.

This, on the other hand, is a sweet looking cabin. (However, concrete and steel is not practical for DIY.)

>>167867
Liessss!

Everyone should own a welder and know how to work with concrete. =)

>>167867
>concrete and steel is not practical for DIY
wat.

>>167857
could just google the pdf just as easily :P

>>167875
>>167875
http://www.edibleplanet.org/pdf/Home/Solar%20Hot%20Water/Simple%20Solar%20Homesteading.pdf
>mfw I forgot about filetype:pdf

Prefab the build in sections and rent some mules to haul it in with you. then you only need a few handtools to assemble.

>>167879
I like his solar setup
I dont know much about solar, but it looks pretty functional.

>>167879
thanks for the pdf, fucking laughed pretty hard.
the best quote is the cabin under $2000, but wait in that staggeringly low price the windows, door, and porch are not included. I would not call something that has no windows a cabin, I would call it unfinished.

>>167885
>>167885
I may make something like this once I move to my second school. His toilet is pretty stupid, you should either hook it up to city sewer/water, or make a better toilet to live in your cabin full time.
That being said, it needs a better foundation, and pouring 14x14 in concrete is still easy as shit,and wouldn't cost more than 500ish, especially with used wood to frame what you're pouring.
I guess all of it depends on how long you use your cabin/what for.

>>167888
>>167888
I know hurr left out windows and door, but secondhand building materials places are overflowing with old windows/doors, so the price is in theory wildly more variable(cheap) than something like, say, the price of 2x4s.
if you really wanted to get into the details, you'd notice that he left out the cost of that propane fridge....

>>167889
I had downloaded this a year or two ago with hopes of building a cheap cabin

I saw his foundation and yeah
I live in illinois, a cabin built like that will crumble in the extremes of the year.

>>167879
what if you combined some of the ideas from that
with this
http://www.mediafire.com/?0ar766n8kdgwj53

>>167896
>>167896
I don't know enough about construction to know how exactly to do this, but I've used cement with timer to make basketball goals. Could you dig a deep hole, fill with cement half-way, insert post, do this with all of the sides, and then lay down the 4in of gravel or whatever in between the posts(under the house), then lay the concrete?
Kind of likes cement posts to keep them in ground/not as wind vulnerable, and then have the main slab anyways?
How would you make your own slab?

>>167916

You'd need some sort of footer. A small foot print will just continue to sink, some faster than others. That's why footers are much wider than the walls they support.

I'm honestly looking to make something like this, does anyone know how butt hurt a small city would be about someone living like this, as far as zoning/permission?
I'll probably hook up to city electricity/water, as having electricity go out during winter or having people over and having my house reek like shit both seem quite unfun.
Also, BTW, Jay Shaffer failed out of architecture school, so his plans are essentially on the same tier as the solar cabin guy.

>>167920
Im not sure, it really really depends on where you live.

I was halfway serious looking for a small bit of land once, and googled about building codes,
There are some horror stories about some of the more anal places

>>167903
look at
>>167920

>>167921
>>167921
yeah. the place I'm talking about has half acre lots for 10k, and say I make one of these cabins for 5k(assuming I attach to city or well for water, and electrcity(can't let power go out in winter/when I have guests over/studying)), that'd still be a pretty sweet deal for a home.
Also, I'm not sure if you'd have to give them the schemas for your house, which would be another problem.
I'm looking up the minimum house size for my city.
I just found out you can only have six pets unless you're an animal breeder.
>wut

>>167929
>>167929
me again.
I can't find the minimum house size for my zoning code, but depending on the laws you can just make a big ass deck to compensate.
: )

>>167929

digging a well is expensive

>>168005
I was thinking of going with city water anyways

also, this place has some plans/inspiration that can actually get approved
link related
http://countryplans.com/cottage1.html

>>168005
That really depends where you live.

If you're blessed with a shallow water table, you can drill down about 50 ft pretty easily by yourself. Even 100 ft isn't out of the realm of a diy'er, assuming you're not digging into rocky soil.

>>168005
He could dig a bore instead of a well, especially if he's planning to have power. A rainwater tank would be a better option, though, as long as the area he builds in has decent rainfall and isn't too polluted.

>>168020
the reason I wanted city electricity/water is to at least have a backup should I run out, somehow

>>168020
Rainwater is not a safe potable water option in my eyes, there are just too many variables and no filtration.

Versus a well, which the water goes through cubic miles of compacted soil to naturally filter out impurities. No risk of mosquito larvae, bacteria, viruses, or industrial fallout.

>>168023
If you have access to city water/sewer, by all means do it. It's a ton cheaper than dealing with well / septic systems.

City electricity is the way to go too. If you want to be frugal, plan all of your system for efficiency. LED LCD screens, LED / Fluorescent light bulbs, gas/propane/wood heating...

If you live in a sunny area, a solar water heater may be an okay option as well.

Go to your local home building supplier. Buy a shitload of 2X4's. Build the frames for each wall, floor and roof. Carry each one out to your building site, either on a trailer or drag them by hand, whichever is most practical.

Once they're all out there, brace the wall frames on the floor frame and nail them all together. Then nail your ceiling frame into place. Overlay your shingles and siding, then install your door and any windows.

Yes it's tedious, and yes it can be a little bit pricey, but that's how it goes. Don't forget to set your floor frame on some cinder blocks, at least. Make sure the ground is nice and hard and your blocks are all at the same height.

You can do it, even as a rank amateur. If all you do is lay there bitching about what could go wrong, you'll never have a chance to use all that caution to ensure things go right.

Having a little cabin in the woods is a great place to be alone and just reconnect with nature. Many great thinkers built or bought such hideaways for themselves.

>>168024
I drank rainwater with minimal filtration for most of my childhood, while the ground water in my area had fairly high levels of mercury and tasted noticeably different a week after any nearby farmers used fertiliser, so I hold the reverse bias.

It depends on how often OP plans to use the house. If he'll only be there occasionally, popping a few chlorine tablets into the water or boiling it before drinking might be possible.

>>168035
Did you ever send out the rainwater for testing?

The results would surprise you if you live on the east coast.

>>168039
I don't live in the US. Is rainwater there dangerous even outside major industrial areas?

>>168035
rainwater isnt good for drinking because it lacks minerals that the body requires. Long periods of drinking rainwater and/or distilled water with nothing else can lead to imbalances in body minerals that are hard on the kidneys, etc.

I would suggest getting bottled water. Bottled water these days gets filtered then has the minerals necessary for the human body added back in.

>>168041

The western parts of the country fuck over the east coast but building tall smile stacks on there powerplants/ factories which sent the pollutents into the jet stream where is eventually get rained out onto the east coast.

>>168067
doesn't quite have it right. But close enough. The midwest and eastern seaboard is dotted with massive coal power plants in the hills - the jet stream actually carries most of it into Canada, but the whole northeastern quarter of the country has a noticeable acid rain problem.

Canada responds to our air-dumping on their east coast by dumping raw sewage in the ocean just north of our border on the west coast, where ocean currents carry it into our fjords in Washington.

>>168058
wouldn't it be possible to mineralize the Rainwater yourself? Like filtering it throu a layer of rock or adding stones to the container where you store it? I also heard you could add salt (in this case simple kitchen salt) to the water do like 0,9 % so it has isotonic concentration

>>168069
Nailed it.

Coal plants puke out radioactive particulate, arsenic, and mercury like crazy.

I call it "combustion distillation". The hydrocarbons are burned and what we're left with are the nasty impurities.

>>168041
Depends. If there's coal power plants or heavy industry to the west of you, there's a likely hood that contaminants will make it into your water supply.

Now, are they really all that harmful? Maybe, maybe not. The ground acts as a natural filter for well water, filtering most of that garbage out. This can all get disrupted though with bad farming techniques, bad well drilling techniques (natural gas and oil included), or simply a bad location. One of the prime examples of a "bad location" is Ramsar, Iran. Naturally occurring radium causes the water sources to be significantly radioactive. The data though seems to support the radiation hormesis theory, in which constant exposure to low dose sources is beneficial. The lifespan in Ramsar is above average, and cancer rates are below average.

At the end of the day though, choose your own risk. What you consent to doesn't affect me. Just be sure to know what you're getting into with any option.

>>168067
>>168069
Yeah blame the midwest, not the west. Most of the West is powered by Hydro-Electric power plants. And we have terrible air over here because China has pretty much no industrial rules and their pollution carries over here. Washington, Oregon and California have some of the strictest air quality laws in the U.S. and some of the worst pollution because of China.

>>168058
>rainwater isnt good for drinking because it lacks minerals that the body require
This is a myth. The vast majority of minerals by far come from food. If you were relying on minerals from water, then you have much worse problems.

>>167308

OP... have you actually been out in the woods for an extended period of time? We just got back from 2 nights of that shit and that's about all I care to take without the modern stuff... and we even had a generator. Getting up in the middle of the night to stoke the fire cause you're freezing your ass off is a pain i the ass even with a chainsaw, nature gets boring fucking fast.

Rent a cabin somewhere and see how you like it first...

>>168812

This guy knows what he's talking about... water doesn't need minerals, you get minerals from food.