Yurt Without Steel

Step 5 Wall Lattice Head End

Here's what the top edge of the wall lattice looks like.
It has 30 "heads" or peaks, one for each of 30 rafters. Two other rafters rest on the doorframe.
The sticks are 53.25" long, same as the rafters. They are 3/8" thick and 3/4" wide. Mine are hardwood because that's the straightest grain stuff I could scavenge. They're stronger than they need to be. They could be softwood like the Mongolians use.

If anyone is curious I'll dig out the dimensions and hole spacing of a standard Mongolian lattice stick. They're standardized so ger parts can be interchangeable. Okay, someone asked, so they're at the bottom of the page.

My knotted pivot cords are spaced 8" apart. I skipped the two pivots on either side of the middle on each stick. The tip of the stick is 2.25" beyond the top pivot and the bottom extends 3" below the bottom pivot. (6x8")+2.25"+3"=53"!

If you want your walls to be wider at the bottom, make the hole spacing wider at the bottom there and narrower at the top.

I melted and squished the end of a nylon cord into a sort of needle to make it easier to thread through the holes in the sticks. I pulled the knots tight with a hemostat and needlenose pliers. I used wet cord because nylon shrinks when it dries. I got blisters from pulling those hundreds of knots tight.

I tried lots of ways of whittling the thumbs.
I ended up doing most of them with a small beltsander clamped to a bench. I manipulated the stick over the round end of the beltsander to carve the waist of the thumb.

[Mongolian wall lattice stick dimensions, from "The Complete Yurt Handbook" by Paul King:]
The stick is 82.5" long. The knotted pivot cords are spaced 7" apart. There would be a dozen holes for pivot cords, but they skip pivots #3, #5, #7 counting up from the bottom.The tip of the stick extends 2.5" above the top pivot and the bottom extends 3" below the bottom pivot. (11x7")+2.5"+3"=82.5"]

Comments

[Jep711]

You may have answered this already, however, I Used pivots at all points on mine. Why skip the odd Numbers?

[TimAnderson]

That's how they do it in Mongolia. It saves some work, and it seems to be plenty strong. They use bent sticks so their wall is less concave, it may let the sticks shift into that shape.

[kurtsyurt]

Hay tim nice yurt!!!! My question is The top an bottom of the lattice do not need to be the same distance Mine is 2" top and bottom yours is 3"bottom 2.5 top so the X's are the same in between ?. well i am having an awha moment. question 2 you pulled out the spokes of the hub? wouldn't that colaps on itself? thanks kurtsyurt

[TimAnderson]

The "thumbs" at the top and bottom of the lattice are slightly different, but it's not too important. The top ones are short so they don't poke through the skin. The bike rim has no spokes, it doesn't collapse because the force from the rafters is all the same. A bike wheel with plastic tied over it would make a nice skylight, set on top of the hoop.

[openperspective]

well, if you have them, i would be interested in those dimensions. this is a great instructable, and i especially love the non-use of metal. very classy, and also a little easier to do myself

[TimAnderson]

Thanks! post pix of the one you build!

I added the standard Mongolian stick info, from "The Complete Yurt Handbook" by Paul King. It's a good book.
The stick is 82.5" long. The knotted pivot cords are spaced 7" apart. There would be a dozen holes for pivot cords, but they skip pivots #3, #5, #7 counting up from the bottom.The tip of the stick extends 2.5" above the top pivot and the bottom extends 3" below the bottom pivot. (11x7")+2.5"+3"=82.5"