Hi I'm new here

[Ben'Nwa]

Hi everyone

My past is in metal trades but have also dabbled in wood, have designed and made a pine dining suite and pine kitchen benches and cupboards.

However I'm in the throw of obtaining or making an Indian Tipi.

Living in WA there seems to be a problem with obtaining locally grown suitable timber in the length required for the tipi poles.

As cost and quarantine issues make importing poles into WA somewhat uneconomical I was hoping someone know of a suitable easily obtainable alternative.

I had a idea of laminating pine together to gain the length required and then shape it.

My question is can any advise whether this would be strong enough etc.

Cheers

[justinmcf]

hi ben, and welcome!
my past is in wood but i have also dabbled in metal!

you should be able to laminate pine, no worries.
we use laminated pine beams in construction all the time, but they are for interior use. i assume this pole will be outside, so just use more galvinized screws and nails.

what will be the finished dimensions of the pole?
how much laminating to you plan to do?
what length will the pole be? allow 1 metre extra underground.

we need details, details, details!!!

regards, justin

[Ben'Nwa]

Thanks Justin
I guess I should have put the dimensions in to begin with.

The pole needs to be approximately 30 feet long( because tipis are from America reference is made in the old money) with a base of about 4" tapering to about 1" at the tip
and about 2" thick approximately 5-6 feet from tip.

None of it is buried as it's free standing altogether 23 of them hold up the cover.

Cheers
Ben'Nwa

[munruben]

Hi Ben and welcome to the forum. What an interesting project.

[Christos]

Welcome to the forum.

Exactly how big is this tipi?

[Ben'Nwa]

Thanks Christos

The tipi I'm looking is either 24 or 26 footer, so the poles need to be around 29-30 feet.

I believe you can have the poles as short as 2 feet more that the diameter but you start to lose the effect.

[artme]

G´day Ben and welcome to the forum.
I think you are our first tipi builder so congrats on that score. Interesting project.

Laminating shold be fine. Good quality Oregan is very strong and light so That might be a better bet than ordinary pine ( Radiata ). Onlt thing is, termites love it.

[paul k]

Welcome Ben your project is certainly differant , we get some pretty strong winds over here, hope you have a good method of fixing down . Otherwise you might get in the guiness book of records for the biggest kite ever flown great project.

paul , k

[Christos]

Would be interesting to see the work in progress.