Any good books on building a yurt?

[Bob Rowlands]

3/4" is pretty common.

To get a nice straight wall when erected, (with laths crossing at 90 degrees), steam bend them. Drive three stakes in the ground, the middle stake centered between the other two. Set the end two stakes a foot under lath length, and in alignment with eachother. Steam laths until pliable and bend between the stakes. Alternate laths so the stakes don't bend, themselves. IMO a straight walled yurt looks WAY better than waisted.

[Bob Rowlands]

hyperboloid. Just looked up the shape.

[njtool]

Can you explain what you are talking about a little better. Are you referring to a straight wall as a wall that is plumb and doesn't curve inwards along the middle?
Im a woodworker so I am familiar with steam bending and I understand the setup you are talking about but im not sure about what you are telling me to do. If I bend the lathe pieces, how would I assemble them? all the bows facing out so when its erected the center will remain plumb?

[Bob Rowlands]

njtool, google images:

hyperbolid nuclear cooling tower

Assemble the laths with the bow all facing the same direction. Erect the khana so the bow faces to the outside of the yurt. Although the curve will remain, the yurt wall will appear plumb. Thin laths like the 5/16ths thick variety on my yurt, bends and twists a WHOLE lot better than the thicker laths, so that nasty shape is minimized. I just have this thing about plumb walls being a carpenter for 43 years. . The more diamond shaped the khana crosses, the more vertical the laths, and the less that hyperbolid shape appears.

[Bob Rowlands]

Yes, all the lath bows face out when assembled into wall sections, and also when the yurt is erected. The wall appears plumb, but in fact the laths have to be bowed to pull off that look. The laths on a forty five degree angleare bending from top to bottom because they are on erected on a circle, not a line. I like squares that is a fast reference when erecting the yurt wall to proper diameter. To my jaded eye diamonds don't look traditional.

Google Mongolian yurts on youtube, as a rule they have steam bent laths and look GREAT when erected. Also there are a couple yt vids on steam bending. I can't emphasize enough how nice a steam bent wall appears in comparison to a hyperbolid wall. Have fun. Glad you are a woodworker, that will be a HUGE advantage when building your place.

[Bob Rowlands]

lol Call me Mr. short term memory.

[Bob Rowlands]

Did I mention I have a short term memory? heh heh

[njtool]

How much of a bend do you put in the pieces?

Whats the ratio to roof poles to lathe "notches"? Is there a ratio or does a 16' yurt just need a certain number of roof poles that are evenly spaced along the wall.

[Bob Rowlands]

Never bent wall lath. Just watch a yt vid and eyeball the steam bend setup, and just go for it.

Use the pythagorean theorem on your lath centers. The hypotenuse gives you the horizontal distance cross to cross on the wall. Divide that into the yurt circumference, round up or down to a whole number, and there is the number of rafters. That includes the two or three over the entry door that are odballs. That's for a trad yurt with a pole on every cross.

To really get a detail on yurt build, read the Kaminari plan carefully. I read it several times before I built my first one, to really get the procedure set in my head. Good luck.

[Benene Lane]

I have built one using plans "Building a mongolian yurt by Sir Orgami Akira" But recently have been inspired by utube videos ,search "Yurta" I will be building another.