# Lincoln Logs



## SPalm (Oct 9, 2007)

*Lincoln Logs*

I made two large sets of Lincoln Logs for the grandchildren. This is how I did it. There are a few steps involved so I used indexing stop blocks and such to make it more safe and repeatable.

I basically followed some of the same techniques as this post on the web but changed a few things and added roofs. http://home.comcast.net/~pocket83/site/ Also I decided not to stain my sets as we kind of liked the clean pine look, and this is also completely non-toxic (and easier to make).

I put together two houses to see how it all worked. This is using less than one set:









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First I bought a few 1×6 by 8ft boards at Home Depot. Actually I saw this pine there for not very much money and could not pass it up when I saw where it was 'made'. I went through 4 of these by the time I was done with the two sets (and yes, they are 1×5s). They were $6 something each.









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The main dimensions for all the parts are a 3/4 inch groove, spaced 3 inches apart, starting 3/8 inch from the end, and 3/16 inches deep.









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To fit 4 grooves on a board requires a 10.5 inch length of Swedish pine. I really like this technique of cutting 4 groove boards and then cutting them up later into 3s, 2s, and 1s logs. By doing it this way, a lot of custom cutting and thinking is actually reduced. Seems safer too, and a good length for cutting, routing etc. I set a stop block on the miter saw and cut nine 10.5 inch lengths out of each 8 foot board using a thin kerf blade.









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I then set two stop blocks on my miter gauge and installed a 3/4 inch dado blade. One of the stop blocks gave me the outside groove that leaves 3/8 inch, and the other flip stop block was three inches from the first stop block. Flip and repeat. Each board gets 8 grooves. I took my time setting up these stop blocks - they must be set accurately. I used scrap to test them to make sure that all the groves were on 3 inch centers.









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I also grooved a few extra boards on their sides while the dado and stop blocks are set up. These will be used for making roof gables.

Then a quick sanding. This was all the sanding I did - yay.









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I ripped these Swedish boards into 9/16 inch logs. Making the logs a bit skinnier than 3/4 inch leaves a little play in the logs to allow easier house building. A sharp blade made cuts that I did not have to sand.









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Then to the router table with a 3/8 inch round-over. Each log received four round-over edges.









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I stacked them in a tower to make sure that they worked. I threw ones that I didn't like or ones that had knots into the bucket. These ugly ones were cut up to make 3s, 2s, and 1s, so they were not wasted.









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I selected a few of the logs and split them in half. These will be used to start a house on the odd sides. Some of these get cut into 3s, 2s, and 1s.









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Time to cut most of the long logs into smaller ones. I readjusted my miter fence so that the dado groove notch was 3/8 inches away from the saw blade. I then glued a thin 3/4 inch stick to a scrap of wood and inserted it through this opening. I then clamped this scrap to the miter gauge. I now was able to load up several logs that would straddle this stick. I used another scrap to make sure that they did not jump up and then I cut multiples of the 3s, 2s, and 1s.









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I decided to make roof gables too and used the boards that I had stood on their edges when I routed grooves in them. First I reduced the thickness of these boards to 9/16 inch so they would fit into 3/4 inch grooves. To give an idea of how they are cut up, I drew lines on two of them. The top one will make two 3s, and the bottom one will make two 2s, and a 4 - so two bottom boards were cut per set. Not shown is the unused part of the top board can be used to make chimneys - two per set. I rough cut all these on the bandsaw.









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I then tilted my miter gauge at 60 degrees and clamped a thin 3/4 inch stick vertically to it near the blade. This allowed me to slide a gable onto the stick and cut, flip and repeat. This felt very safe and the results were very nice. I used the same stick position for all three sizes of gables.









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I ripped some boards into a whole bunch of sticks for use as roofing. Some of these were cross cut into 2s, and 3s. I ended up making a lot more of these sticks than in this picture.









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I glued some little sticks to the gable ends. When the glue dried I sanded them smooth and did a round-over on the router table. These will help hold the roof boards up.









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Done. One large set fits nicely into a plastic storage bin.









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Thanks for looking,
Steve


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## stefang (Apr 9, 2009)

SPalm said:


> *Lincoln Logs*
> 
> I made two large sets of Lincoln Logs for the grandchildren. This is how I did it. There are a few steps involved so I used indexing stop blocks and such to make it more safe and repeatable.
> 
> ...


Lincoln would be proud of you Steve. Nice of you to share your method here.


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## degoose (Mar 20, 2009)

SPalm said:


> *Lincoln Logs*
> 
> I made two large sets of Lincoln Logs for the grandchildren. This is how I did it. There are a few steps involved so I used indexing stop blocks and such to make it more safe and repeatable.
> 
> ...


Now that there is different…


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## Jim Jakosh (Nov 24, 2009)

SPalm said:


> *Lincoln Logs*
> 
> I made two large sets of Lincoln Logs for the grandchildren. This is how I did it. There are a few steps involved so I used indexing stop blocks and such to make it more safe and repeatable.
> 
> ...


Nice going Steve. Those logs will live on forever!!


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## GregInMaryland (Mar 11, 2010)

SPalm said:


> *Lincoln Logs*
> 
> I made two large sets of Lincoln Logs for the grandchildren. This is how I did it. There are a few steps involved so I used indexing stop blocks and such to make it more safe and repeatable.
> 
> ...


Nice job (as usual), though you look way too young to have grand kids…

I do have a question about your setup-on the back of your mitre gauge in pictures 11 and 12 you have a triangular piece of wood clamped with a red c-clamp. What's is this for?

Greg


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## SPalm (Oct 9, 2007)

SPalm said:


> *Lincoln Logs*
> 
> I made two large sets of Lincoln Logs for the grandchildren. This is how I did it. There are a few steps involved so I used indexing stop blocks and such to make it more safe and repeatable.
> 
> ...


Hey Greg, I started having kids when I was 12 

That triangle is a left over from the 3 groove gables. It had a perfect slot in it for gluing in the crosscut alignment stick. This triangle scrap was then clamped to the miter gauge. I have since figured out that I could use it as a chimney.

Steve


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## JL7 (Apr 13, 2010)

SPalm said:


> *Lincoln Logs*
> 
> I made two large sets of Lincoln Logs for the grandchildren. This is how I did it. There are a few steps involved so I used indexing stop blocks and such to make it more safe and repeatable.
> 
> ...


Steve - thanks for the detailed build blog - added to the favorites for sure. This is something I would like to try one of these days…..no grandkids here yet, but who knows, that may change…...nice work.


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## johnhutchinson (Dec 9, 2013)

SPalm said:


> *Lincoln Logs*
> 
> I made two large sets of Lincoln Logs for the grandchildren. This is how I did it. There are a few steps involved so I used indexing stop blocks and such to make it more safe and repeatable.
> 
> ...


Great technique, Steve !!! I've also used the Swedish "mystery wood" from Home Depot. Good stuff and the price is right. When I purchased some oak dowel the other day at HD, I noticed that they were "made" in China. Wood in general must be in short supply in the US. Or maybe the US is floating logs over for milling.

As an architect, I hope that you consulted with a structural engineer, pulled the appropriate permits, followed OSHA guidelines, and had a final inspection before thinking about giving them to your grandkids.


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## shipwright (Sep 27, 2010)

SPalm said:


> *Lincoln Logs*
> 
> I made two large sets of Lincoln Logs for the grandchildren. This is how I did it. There are a few steps involved so I used indexing stop blocks and such to make it more safe and repeatable.
> 
> ...


Hey Steve, you are a machine ….. with a heart.
How cool!

Thanks for the tips.


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## JoeLyddon (Apr 22, 2007)

SPalm said:


> *Lincoln Logs*
> 
> I made two large sets of Lincoln Logs for the grandchildren. This is how I did it. There are a few steps involved so I used indexing stop blocks and such to make it more safe and repeatable.
> 
> ...


Super COOL technique & procedure…

I will have to Check-Out the Home Depot lumber dept for SWISS MADE lumber!! Sure looks good!
... and a very reasonable price!! Would be fun to work with…

Thank you very much!

Your Grandchildren will LOVE'em… I guess you're going to Finish all the pieces Dark Tree Bark brown?


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## Karson (May 9, 2006)

SPalm said:


> *Lincoln Logs*
> 
> I made two large sets of Lincoln Logs for the grandchildren. This is how I did it. There are a few steps involved so I used indexing stop blocks and such to make it more safe and repeatable.
> 
> ...


Steve, nice set. we made 100 sets of these at the toy workshop a couple of years ago. Some prison inmates help cut paint and put into burlap sandbags to be given to some children at Christmas.


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## CFrye (May 13, 2013)

SPalm said:


> *Lincoln Logs*
> 
> I made two large sets of Lincoln Logs for the grandchildren. This is how I did it. There are a few steps involved so I used indexing stop blocks and such to make it more safe and repeatable.
> 
> ...


Thanks for the blog, Steve!


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## lumberdustjohn (Sep 24, 2009)

SPalm said:


> *Lincoln Logs*
> 
> I made two large sets of Lincoln Logs for the grandchildren. This is how I did it. There are a few steps involved so I used indexing stop blocks and such to make it more safe and repeatable.
> 
> ...


Nice Blog Steve, The children will have loads of fun.
Thanks for posting.


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## hotncold (Mar 4, 2014)

SPalm said:


> *Lincoln Logs*
> 
> I made two large sets of Lincoln Logs for the grandchildren. This is how I did it. There are a few steps involved so I used indexing stop blocks and such to make it more safe and repeatable.
> 
> ...


Steve that is a perfectly detailed blog and a great project! I absolutely have to try this for my 4 year old grandson!!
Thanks for sharing the details and inspiration!!


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## jerrells (Jul 3, 2010)

SPalm said:


> *Lincoln Logs*
> 
> I made two large sets of Lincoln Logs for the grandchildren. This is how I did it. There are a few steps involved so I used indexing stop blocks and such to make it more safe and repeatable.
> 
> ...


I assume the rough piece is 3/4 by 3/4 before the groove?


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## SPalm (Oct 9, 2007)

SPalm said:


> *Lincoln Logs*
> 
> I made two large sets of Lincoln Logs for the grandchildren. This is how I did it. There are a few steps involved so I used indexing stop blocks and such to make it more safe and repeatable.
> 
> ...


Hey jerrells,

The thickness of the initial 6 inch wide board is 3/4 inch. But this thickness is not real critical. This is why the dado height is set to 3/16 (3/16×4 = 3/4).

But the ripped logs are slightly less than 3/4 inch so that they fit in the 3/4 inch dado.

Steve


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## NormG (Mar 5, 2010)

SPalm said:


> *Lincoln Logs*
> 
> I made two large sets of Lincoln Logs for the grandchildren. This is how I did it. There are a few steps involved so I used indexing stop blocks and such to make it more safe and repeatable.
> 
> ...


Great idea and wonderful instructional


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## peteg (Sep 2, 2010)

SPalm said:


> *Lincoln Logs*
> 
> I made two large sets of Lincoln Logs for the grandchildren. This is how I did it. There are a few steps involved so I used indexing stop blocks and such to make it more safe and repeatable.
> 
> ...


A wonderfully designed & executed project Steve, bet you'll have a few guys trying this one thanks to your detailed WIP, 
Pete


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## Kentuk55 (Sep 21, 2010)

SPalm said:


> *Lincoln Logs*
> 
> I made two large sets of Lincoln Logs for the grandchildren. This is how I did it. There are a few steps involved so I used indexing stop blocks and such to make it more safe and repeatable.
> 
> ...


I think these are so much better than Lincoln Logs. There's a lotta work and luv put into these for sure. Super nice job.


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## fernandoindia (May 5, 2010)

SPalm said:


> *Lincoln Logs*
> 
> I made two large sets of Lincoln Logs for the grandchildren. This is how I did it. There are a few steps involved so I used indexing stop blocks and such to make it more safe and repeatable.
> 
> ...


Terrific blog Steve. As usual.
Thank you. Earmarked now
I´ll need some more granchilds


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## woodshaver (Mar 21, 2009)

SPalm said:


> *Lincoln Logs*
> 
> I made two large sets of Lincoln Logs for the grandchildren. This is how I did it. There are a few steps involved so I used indexing stop blocks and such to make it more safe and repeatable.
> 
> ...


Steve, 
I followed your lead and I just wanted to say thank you for posting this info. This was very helpful, Great blog! 
I made a miter gauge jig with two stops so I could run my 1" X 6" through the dado blade without measuring each time. This work out really well. I'll be making a bunch of these logs for our two grand-kids. 
Thank again for your help!


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## elBarnacle (Jun 25, 2014)

SPalm said:


> *Lincoln Logs*
> 
> I made two large sets of Lincoln Logs for the grandchildren. This is how I did it. There are a few steps involved so I used indexing stop blocks and such to make it more safe and repeatable.
> 
> ...


Hi Steve,
This is awesome! I was looking for a good tutorial with measurements, etc. to do this for my budding engineer/architect niece. One question…do you have a rough breakdown as to how many 1s, 2s, 3s, 4s, you make for a set? I haven't had nor seen actual Lincoln Logs in a long time, and I can't for the life of me figure out how many to make.
Thanks!
-Luke


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## SPalm (Oct 9, 2007)

SPalm said:


> *Lincoln Logs*
> 
> I made two large sets of Lincoln Logs for the grandchildren. This is how I did it. There are a few steps involved so I used indexing stop blocks and such to make it more safe and repeatable.
> 
> ...


Hey Luke,
I have thought about how many and to tell the truth, I don't know. Both boxes are at grandkids houses.

You can go to eBay and search for Lincoln Logs and a bunch of people have different size sets all spread out on tables.

I do know that the more there are the more fun it is. Other people always want to build their own. And probably less 4s and more 1s and 2s are desired if you like things like Windows.

Just grab a few 1×6s and have some fun.

Steve


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## helluvawreck (Jul 21, 2010)

SPalm said:


> *Lincoln Logs*
> 
> I made two large sets of Lincoln Logs for the grandchildren. This is how I did it. There are a few steps involved so I used indexing stop blocks and such to make it more safe and repeatable.
> 
> ...


Nice work, Steve. I know how much the kids love these. It looks like you did a great job on them. Congratulations.

helluvawreck aka Charles
http://woodworkingexpo.wordpress.com


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## JMorton (Nov 2, 2017)

SPalm said:


> *Lincoln Logs*
> 
> I made two large sets of Lincoln Logs for the grandchildren. This is how I did it. There are a few steps involved so I used indexing stop blocks and such to make it more safe and repeatable.
> 
> ...


Steve:

Do you still have these photos of the Lincoln logs being built? Photobucket now shows very blurry pictures for each step instead of your original sharp pictures. Thanks!


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## Baumy (Jan 16, 2020)

SPalm said:


> *Lincoln Logs*
> 
> I made two large sets of Lincoln Logs for the grandchildren. This is how I did it. There are a few steps involved so I used indexing stop blocks and such to make it more safe and repeatable.
> 
> ...


Hello! I can't wait to try this myself Steve. I would also be interested in the original photos though. "host. store. share. photobucket" doesn't want us to see what an awesome job you did ;-)

Hope you find the time to upload or send them. Thank you!


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