Nowadays, a barrel not only has a practical function. Today, for storing liquids or anything else, they are used in warehouses, wine cellars, and so on. They began to be made for decorative purposes relatively recently. If handled skillfully, they can be used for decoration. garden plot, as well as in the form of furniture: chairs, tables, bar counters, etc.
Even a well-worn barrel can be restored and used for other purposes. This, of course, requires a fair amount of imagination. You also need to take into account its condition so that the material does not become too dry over time, otherwise all efforts will come to naught during the first time of its operation. There are actually a lot of ideas on how to turn such a container into something more functional or beautiful. For example, in the garden you can create a mini-flowerbed on it, and on several levels. Or make interesting table or a bench. You can even organize a fountain in them, but it won’t last long if the wood is not properly treated: under the influence of water, it can quickly lose both its aesthetic appearance and its strength. Some craftsmen adapt a barrel for a washbasin: for this purpose, top part a sink is inserted, and a pipe is installed inside the barrel.
How to make a wooden barrel with your own hands
Before you start making a barrel with your own hands, you need to decide on the material. Is it usually used for this purpose? DIY barrel
Before mounting the barrel, you must first make the frets. This wooden planks, which are cut from a tree trunk. They can also be made by splitting wooden blocks. Sawn, as a rule, is stronger than split logs because it is not always possible to split the log correctly, and because of this, some of the strength may be lost.
It has long been customary to fasten frets in single design using metal hoops, which are made of durable sheet steel. To make the barrel even more durable, you can additionally nail them. The number of hoops depends on the height of the barrel, but, as a rule, there are at least three.
The last step is installing the bottom. After it is installed on the owl, a hoop is put on to secure it, which is also additionally nailed for greater strength.
How to make a bar at home from an old wooden barrel
In fact, there are a lot of options for barrel minibars. This can be an option with a front door, or one that opens from the top, or with an open interior space with shelves for storing drinks. Which one is considered the best is difficult to say. It all depends on taste preferences.
barrel bar Before you start making a bar from a barrel, you need to clean old wood. This needs to be done both inside and outside. Before this, you need to remove all the hoops, except the one that holds the bottom. They are then put on quite simply, and you can move them down to the desired level using a hammer. Then the edges are aligned on both the bottom and the other side. We leave one part open for now. Next, the hoops are processed special composition so that the metal does not become rusty later. If a front hole is needed, mark its location and cut it out.
The best brands of cognac, wine, liqueur, rum, and whiskey are aged in wooden containers. IN household barrels, tubs are also rightfully considered best place storage for pickles. In terms of sanitary and hygienic characteristics, they are not much inferior to containers made of of stainless steel, but are superior to the latter in a number quality indicators. Natural material creates a favorable environment for ripening products, giving them original aromatic and taste properties. You can make an oak barrel with your own hands if you carefully read the step by step guide for the manufacture of this desired product.
Professionals high level units, but this does not mean that the work cannot be completed. The requirements for making the required container at home are different. It is enough to make a structure that can withstand moderate loads during operation. The Bondar must have skills and knowledge in the following areas of activity:
- Joinery. Basic operations are performed using techniques and tools used in this matter;
- Basic metalworking skills. They are needed for the manufacture of high-quality, geometrically and technologically correct hoops;
- Basic knowledge of geometry. The shape of the barrel is complex, you need to accurately calculate the dimensions of each part: rivets, bottom, hoop;
- General concepts of heat treatment of wood. In cooperage, it is important to choose the correct hot processing mode during assembly (if the riveting has a significant bend), and then fire the finished product.
In the classic production of wooden containers, no adhesives or metal fasteners are used, with the exception of outer hoops. All connections are made by precise fitting of parts. Slots and gaps that make the product unsuitable for solving the assigned tasks are not allowed. A well-made barrel or tub, after assembly without soaking, should have the required tightness. In some cases, small leaks are allowed if the wood dries out, which can be easily eliminated by moistening and swelling the natural fiber.
Manufacturing principle and details of cooperage products
The technology for producing wooden containers requires precise, step-by-step execution operations, from the selection of raw materials to decorative finishing outside products. To make oak barrel with your own hands, you need to know what it consists of:
- Frame. Assembled from prepared wooden blanks - rivets:
- Hoops. Made from metal strip. The exact diameter is determined in each specific case according to the planned dimensions of the barrel body. Wooden hoops are used less frequently. They are less reliable and more difficult to manufacture:
- Bottoms. Depending on the intended purpose, the container is equipped with one or two bottoms. The part is made by a set of wooden blanks assembled into a single plane, then a circle cut out according to a template with the necessary tolerance for a tight fit to the barrel body.
It is important to follow the exact recommendations of professionals at every stage of work. It is impossible to make a cooperage product of satisfactory quality without violating even one point of technology. The step-by-step production process is as follows:
- Choice of wood for staves, bottom;
- Drying, testing for suitability, rejecting low-quality workpieces;
- Manufacturing of rivets, bottoms, hoops;
- Barrel assembly;
- Burning;
- Final sanding decorative finishing front part (if necessary).
The geometric dimensions of the riveting in each case are original, depending on the height of the barrel, the degree of bending of the workpiece, its width, and the bevel angle of the end part for a tight fit with the adjacent element. You should accurately repeat the dimensions indicated in the existing drawings, or, having knowledge of spatial construction complex figures, independently determine the required values.
How to choose wood
Cooperage products can be made from various types of wood. However, oak barrels are considered the best. The choice is not accidental, since in addition to strength and durability, the material has unique biochemical characteristics to create optimal conditions storage of drinks, food products. Natural substances in oak wood fiber have an antiseptic effect and give pickles and alcoholic drinks unique taste and aromatic characteristics.
Experienced coopers choose raw materials when the tree is still growing. It is specially cut down and subsequently cut into necessary preparations. It's getting to work Bottom part a trunk that should not have branches, visible bumps or bends. Usually it is 4-5 meters from the root, when the plant is at least 100 years old. It is difficult to fulfill these conditions at home if the master is not a native inhabitant of the forest. Therefore, the criterion for choosing wood for staves becomes the visible quality of the fiber. The requirements are:
- No knots:
- Inadmissibility of cross-layering;
- Cracks, natural defects, voids;
- Variety.
Making a wooden barrel with your own hands will allow you not only to save money, but also to get a high-quality elegant product. Wooden barrels were used by our ancestors for pickles, making alcoholic beverages and storing water, which proved their versatility. Therefore, they are still successfully used to this day. How to make a wooden barrel so that it is durable and does not leak? What tools and skills are required to make a barrel at home?
If you are determined to achieve your goal and are not afraid that you will have to modify the product to the desired state, then you can make your dream come true and make a wooden barrel yourself. Cooperation is a difficult profession that came to us from past centuries. Today there are few masters of this craft, and there are even fewer highly qualified specialists in the manufacture of barrels, so barrels on free sale are rare, and not everyone can afford the cost of the product.
Tools
To make your first barrel or small barrel, you need to prepare a place in which it will be convenient to work, tools and suitable material. In addition to the carpentry kit needed to make a barrel with your own hands, you need to purchase cooper’s tools:
- a carpentry workbench adapted for the production of barrels;
- long jointer and circular humpback plane;
- a device for planing edges on boards, from which a barrel will be assembled;
- equipment for tightening rivets (post gate, chain tie and frame gate machine);
- staple, plow, staple;
- templates and patterns of our own production;
- clamps made of wood, metal (for assembling the frame of the barrel);
- Morning mat - a device that allows you to cut a morning groove into which the bottom part is inserted.
You need to understand that it is quite difficult to purchase these tools, wood and devices on the market, since almost all coopers make machines and layouts themselves, taking into account their height. This is done by trial and error, no instructions will help.
What you need to know
The main difference between cooperage products is the assembly from pre-prepared wooden planks(rivets). The size and shape of the barrel depend entirely on the pre-prepared boards, the configuration of which is set by the cooper. And the initial quality of wooden barrels depends entirely on the wood chosen. For this reason, it is not enough for a master to have thorough mastery of the instrument. You need to know the intricacies of each type of wood from which wooden products will be made.
An experienced craftsman will not make a barrel for honey from oak blanks, because he knows that in such a container the honey will quickly acquire a completely different aroma and darken. But it is impossible to find a replacement for oak barrels for aging wines and cognac.
The second element is a hoop that tightens all the components of the barrel. It is thanks to the hoop that water does not seep through the joints between the boards. It can be made of metal or wood. As the experience of the masters shows, metal hoops much stronger, and less time is spent on manufacturing than wooden ones. But some masters still prefer wooden hoop, giving the barrel a more beautiful appearance.
Details and principle of product manufacturing
Many people believe that becoming an amateur cooper is very difficult, and dreams never come true. But if you are not used to retreating from your decisions, then you need to decide which option will be your first job.
There are 3 types of products: conical, cylindrical and parabolic. Each corresponds to a certain type of rivets:
- Products made in the shape of a quadrangle, the long sides of which have the shape of a parabola, are used for dishes with convex edges: barrels or kegs.
- The cylinder-shaped design is simple. It is easy to make and connect with hoops of the same diameter, but when the wood in such a structure dries out, the rivets cease to perform their functions. This is the main reason why such containers are practically not manufactured.
- The shape of an elongated trapezoid allows you to get durable dishes when stuffing rivets. Therefore, this type of product is often suitable for making tubs, tubs and other utensils.
As an experimental sample, it is better to focus on a simple small barrel.
Many people are interested in how a regular tub is made. A tub is the simplest cooper's product; having achieved results in its manufacture, you can move on to more complex types of utensils, for example, making a wooden barrel with your own hands.
The principle of creating a product consists of the following stages:
- production of blanks;
- assembling dishes;
- Finishing work.
The reliability of the structure will depend on the quality of the riveting blank, so the most suitable are blanks from logs of sawn wood, chopped with an ax. For barrels, the most common wood choice is oak, as it splits easily in a radial direction. The process of preparing staves from different types of trees is practically the same; a single-row or double-row knockout method is used. For large logs, a two-row method is used, and for thin logs, only a single-row method is used.
The procedure for cutting out rivets is as follows:
- The ridge must be carefully split in half so that the split line runs strictly through the center of the workpiece.
- Each block must be split in two to obtain 4 equal parts.
- Next, you need to split the wood for the workpiece in half again to make 8 equal parts. Usually for small logs this is quite enough. It is 1/8 that will become the riveting blank.
- If the ridge is thick, double-row cutting is used, i.e. each of the 8 parts splits into 2 equal parts along the growth rings.
- The resulting logs must be split in the radial direction. The result will be 1-2 blanks of smaller size and 2-5 for blanks of larger parameters.
- Next you need to cut off the wedge-shaped protrusions and young wood from the bark side. Only after this can the workpiece be dried in an open area or resort to artificial drying.
Manufacturing of rivets
In order to make rivets from the prepared material, you must first prepare drawings and a template for a specific product in accordance with the desired shape. To get ready-made rivets, you will need:
- Perform markup.
- Make a rough cut of each of the workpieces. Namely, round the outer surface, bevel the edges with an ax.
- Perform finishing using a planer, constantly monitoring the result with a template.
- Plane the inside of the workpiece with a humpback staple.
- Trim the narrow edges and then level their surface with a jointer.
In the process of making barrels, the cooper has to make the tightening hoops himself. The easiest way to get a hoop is from steel tape. To do this, you will need to determine the diameter of the container and add twice the width of the strip to the resulting figure. Next, using a hammer, you need to bend the tape into a ring, drill 2 holes and secure them with rivets. To make a small barrel you will need 2 hoops that will correspond to the diameter of the upper and lower parts of the product.
Bottom assembly and installation
- Sand the edges of the boards, fix them on the workbench and divide the radius into 6 parts.
- Within the circle, mark the locations of the studs.
- Pull out the boards. Drill holes in the edges and drive wooden or metal pins into them.
- Connect all the elements tightly and secure with pins, after which you can plan the bottom.
- Cut out the bottom, leaving a small margin.
- Remove the chamfer with a straight plow and knock down the hoop, loosening the fastening of the rivets.
- Insert the bottom into the morning and turn the tub upside down.
- Set siege to the hoop.
All that remains is to make a lid for the tub and, after checking the design for strength, begin to use the container. If you like the work done, it makes sense to continue working on making barrels.
Barrels and tubs are in great demand in households. They keep lard and hams in brine, ferment cabbage, and soak apples. What can be compared to, for example, a cucumber or a tomato pickled in an oak tub? And in a linden barrel, honey and apple juice are perfectly stored, and you can make kvass in it.
Finally, oak tub with a lemon or laurel tree today will not spoil the interior of even a city apartment. You just can’t find these simple products either in the store or on the market. But you can do it yourself, and although this task is not an easy one, an amateur craftsman is quite capable of handling it. Let us tell you in more detail about the manufacture of these containers needed in the household.
First of all, you need to choose wood. Oak and pine are unsuitable for storing honey - honey darkens in an oak barrel, but in a pine barrel it smells like resin. Here you need linden, aspen, and plane tree. Poplar, willow, and alder will also do. But for pickling, pickling or soaking, there is nothing better than oak - such a barrel will last for decades. For other needs, you can use sedge, beech, spruce, fir, pine, cedar, larch and even birch.
The following table will help you determine the size.
| External dimensions | Width and depth morning groove |
Distance from the morning groove to the end |
|||
| Barrel capacity (l) | Height | Bunch diameter | In my head | ||
| 15 | 345 | 295 | 262 | 3*3 | 20 |
| 25 | 420 | 340 | 300 | 3*3 | 20 |
| 50 | 535 | 420 | 370 | 3*3 | 25 |
| 100 | 670 | 515 | 450 | 3*3 | 25 |
| 120 | 770 | 525 | 460 | 3*3 | 25 |
Please note that the dimensions of the barrels are given here to select the size for the tub, the height and diameter of the head remains the same. The diameter in the barrel bunch (diameter in the center) for the tub goes into the diameter of the bottom.
When the size is chosen, you need to start preparing the stave, the main component of the barrel.
I will give the sizes of the rivets
| Capacity | Rivet width | Rivet thickness | Thickness of the bottoms | Bottom width |
| 15 | 40-90 | 14 | 16 | 50 or more |
| 25 | 40-90 | 14 | 16 | 50 or more |
| 50 | 40-90 | 17 | 19 | 50 or more |
| 100 | 40-100 | 18 | 19 | 50 or more |
| 120 | 40-100 | 18 | 19 | 50 or more |
There is another way to determine the size. The ratio of the diameter of the height of the tub or barrel should be in proportion, for example, 350:490 mm (Fig. 1-6). By increasing or decreasing the height, the diameter of the container is changed. The number of rivets for a barrel or tub is calculated using the formula 2*Pi*R/W, where R is the radius of the tub in the lower section (for a barrel - in the middle); "Pi" is a constant value equal to 3.14; W - the width of the stave at the bottom of the tub (for a barrel - in the middle).
Rivets
Usually the lower part of the trunk of old trees is used for rivets; it is called “riveter”. But a tinkerer will choose blanks from ordinary firewood and adapt a thin trunk to the job. It is best to make rivets from raw wood. First, the log - it should be 5-6 cm longer than the future stave - is split in half, gently tapping the log on the butt of the ax. Each half is then split into two parts again, and so on, depending on the thickness of the chock, in order to ultimately obtain blanks 5-10 cm wide (for sweet clover - 15 cm) and 2.5-3 cm thick. You just need to try to split went radially - this will protect the riveting from cracking in the future.
The chopped pieces are dried in a room with natural ventilation at least a month. To speed up the process, you can use a dryer. The dried workpiece is processed with a plow or sherhebel and a plane.
Rivet marking.
Take a board with a width of 30 to 100 mm, draw a line along the outer side dividing the stave in half along the width (for a barrel - and along the length). For the taper of the tub (barrel), it is necessary to maintain the taper of the riveting. It should be about 8°. This means that if the riveting width at the bottom of the tub (for a barrel - in the middle) is 100 mm, at the top it should be 8 mm narrower, i.e. 92 mm. And for the barrel at the top and bottom - 92 mm. Fix the set riveting width with dots and connect 4 dots with lines - for the tub and 6 dots - for the barrel. These are the riveting planing guidelines that determine the taper. The plane of the radius segment on the template, its direction towards the center, together with the already determined slope of the future frame of the barrel or tub, is the main requirement for the fit of the riveting to one another during sharpening. Therefore, you need to more often apply the template to the riveting being processed, checking the correctness of planing.
Riveting edge.
They plan the staves with a plane, adjusting each one according to thickness, and immediately determine which side will be the outer one. To do this, the left and right sides of the riveting are half-lengthened. Using a sherkhebel with an oval base and a piece of iron, plan the inner side clean according to the template (Fig. 5) and draw a line with a pencil dividing the riveting in half along its length. Then, use a hacksaw to trim the stave to length and draw a dividing line at the ends. The outer and side sides of the riveting are cleaned with a semi-jointer (jointer), and the correctness of planing is checked with a template. It is made according to the radius of the assembly hoop for the tub, and for the barrel - according to the radius of the umbilical hoop, made in advance. For a barrel with two bottoms, two pairs of hoops are prepared - 2 persistent and 2 umbilical. The umbilical hoop should pass freely through the thrust hoop.
Especially carefully check the correct sharpening of the sides of the riveting for the barrel. The template should fit snugly against the side and outer sides of the stave, especially at the center line dividing the stave in half along its length. When planing the sides, deviations from the line drawn at the end and dividing the riveting in half should not be allowed.
HOOPS
Barrel hoops are made of wood or steel. Wooden ones are not so durable, and they are a hundred times more hassle, so it is better to use steel ones. The hoops are made from hot-rolled steel strip with a thickness of 1.6-2.0 mm and a width of 30-50 mm.
Having measured the barrel at the place where the hoop is tensioned, we add double the width of the strip to this measurement. Using a hammer, we bend the workpiece into a ring, punch or drill holes and install rivets made of soft steel wire with a diameter of 4-5 mm. One inner edge of the hoop must be flared by striking the pointed end of a hammer on a massive steel stand.
Frame assembly
The assembly hoop is made in the middle between the top and bottom of the tub and with a slightly smaller diameter along the center line for the barrel. On a clean wooden base We place the assembly hoop vertically and put 5-6 rivets inside it outer side to the hoop. On the left, we clamp one of the rivets and the hoop with a clamp. Raise the hoop slightly and arrange the remaining rivets. Let's clamp the hoop. The tight fit of the rivets along the entire length (for the tub) and to the center line (for the barrel) is the result of careful sharpening and adjustment. In the same way we assemble the frame for the barrel, but here we remove the assembly hoop after attaching the umbilical hoop, then we fill the persistent hoop. If it packs tightly, it means we planed correctly and selected the last rive correctly in width.
The frame for the barrel from the middle or slightly above fan-shapedly diverges to its bottom. To tighten the loose end of the frame, use various ways and devices. The end of a multi-core steel cable with a diameter of 6-8 mm is secured to a fixed support. The second end is thrown onto a hot, steamed, loose frame, put on the protrusion of a post made of earth dug for this purpose, or a raised part of a log, and using the “noose” method, using a strong stake inserted into a loop at the end of the cable, the frame is “twisted” and put on umbilical and then stubborn hoops.
After assembly, the frame is checked for horizontality and verticality and all hoops are finally seated. WITH inside the frames (barrels or tubs) are cleaned of the sag, and at the ends of the staves they are cut off by 1/3 of the thickness (Fig. 6) and by 2-3 mm from the outside. The outer and inner sides of the frame are finally cleaned, and the upper and lower ends are hollowed out.
Installing the bottoms into the frame
To do this, several operations are performed.
1. Cutting a morning groove in the frame. We will cut the morning groove with a morning knife. The width of the teeth of the steel file is 4-5 mm. Therefore, the width of the cut groove should be 4-5 mm. The file protrudes from the half-filled mound block by 4-5 mm. Therefore, the depth of the chimney groove cannot be different. The thickness of the chimney block is the limiter of the distance of cutting the chimney from the top of the frame to the bottom of the plank on which the block is fixed, i.e. 40-50 mm. Be sure to chamfer 2-3 mm or a little more on both sides of the morning groove to prevent the frame rivet from chipping when inserting the bottoms and compressing them with hoops.
2. Assembling bottom panels. They are assembled on wooden or metal (preferably stainless) pins and nails from 4-6 planks. The extreme ones are called shoals, the middle ones are called grouse. Wider planks are used for the jambs. We do not yet know the diameter of the circle by morning. We take a compass (Fig. 4) and spread its legs approximately to the radius of the intended circle along the chime, insert the tip of the compass leg into the chimney, and divide the circle into 6 parts. Thus, we will determine the radius of the circle from the sides for the bottom. We transfer the resulting radius to the bottom shield and draw a circle.
3. Sawing out the bottoms. Using a bow saw or a circular saw, we cut out the required bottom. In this case, the cut should be along the inside of the line drawn in the circle when the saw teeth are set apart by 2-2.5 mm. This will reduce the diameter of the circle by 0.14 constant values "Pi".
4. Processing of the Donets. Place the bottom of the circle on a workbench, sharpen both sides cleanly, and draw a line 3-4 mm thick on the end with a pencil in the middle. With a radius 25-30 mm smaller than the bottom, draw a circle on its two sides. These are the boundaries of chamfering. Use a chisel or plane to remove the chamfers and make sure that the chisel groove and the chamfered bottom fit well. We leave the line at the end of the bottom untouched.
5. Installation of bottoms. This is the final operation of making a barrel or tub. We turn the frame of the tub over with the wide part facing up and slightly knock down the lower hoop. We knock down the persistent one at the barrel, and move the umbilical hoop so that the bottom fits into the morning groove. A nylon thread tying the bottom crosswise will help keep the bottom in a horizontal position when installing it in the morning. When the bottom is installed in the chimes, the thread is pulled out and the hoops are put in place. Before installing the second bottom into the frame of the barrel, two tongue-and-groove holes are drilled in it opposite each other and 4-5 cm from the inner side of the frame with a diameter of 20-25 mm, into which tongues are placed so that debris does not get into the barrel. After installing the second bottom, the hoops are finally stuffed and make sure that the bottoms are pressed together with rivets in the chimes, and that the rivets have no gaps between each other. If the rivets were planed correctly and the slope was maintained according to the template, and the bottom was cut out carefully, the product will be of high quality.
Take note.
1. Before assembling the frames for a barrel or tub, the finished stave must be dried to 17-20% humidity.
2. Oak, spruce, pine, aspen barrels and tubs need to be soaked for at least 10 days, changing the water every 2-3 days. At the same time, the jambs and planks are soaked, with which the fermented product is pressed.
3. To reduce the formation of mold on the staves of the tub when stored in the cellar, wipe it with a swab dipped in calcined vegetable oil. The jambs, planks and pressure stone are washed with hot water once a week.
HOW LONG DOES THE BARREL SERVE?
First of all, it depends on the operating conditions. But it is important to remember that painting filling containers oil paint should not be used: it clogs the pores, which contributes to the rotting of the wood. It is advisable to paint the hoops - they will not rust. For decorative purposes, a barrel or flower tub can be treated with mordants.
Gives brown color to oak slaked lime mixed with a 25% ammonia solution. A black solution of iron sulfate or an infusion of iron filings in vinegar for 5-6 days.
A decoction of the rhizomes of woodruff (Asperula odorata) colors linden and aspen red. The red-brown color comes from a decoction of onion peels, and the brown color comes from a decoction of fertilized fruit. walnut. These dyes are both brighter than chemical ones and more stable.
It is also important to remember that wood is better preserved at constant humidity. Therefore, dry containers should always be kept dry, and bulk products filled with liquid. Both of them cannot be placed directly on the ground. It is better to place a brick or plank under the barrel than to subsequently get rid of rot by cutting the chimes.
But no matter how long a barrel made with your own hands serves, all this time it will be a pleasant reminder to the owner of difficulties overcome in understanding the secrets of the ancient craft of a cooper.
© finished barrels in the photo
Cooperation is one of the most difficult crafts, so the answer to the question is how to make a barrel with your own hands, it won’t be easy either. This is a very labor-intensive process that requires the performer to have a decent professional level and availability large quantity tools for wood processing.
Types of barrels by purpose and wood for their manufacture
Before you get interested, how to make a barrel, you need to decide what you need it for. The choice of material and manufacturing method depend on this. This type of container is manufactured for the following purposes:
- for fermentation, aging and storage of spirits, wine and beer;
- for preparing and storing pickles;
- for storing dry products;
- for storing honey, etc.
Beverage barrels have two bottoms and a hole for inserting taps. The same type of container, but without holes, was previously used for long-term storage some products (for example, corned beef).
For other purposes, barrels with one bottom are sufficient - they are also called tubs. They are covered with a lid or a circle on top for oppression. These parts are much easier to make than the bottom. Make a wooden barrel possible from such wood species as:
- oak;
- ash;
- cherry;
- Linden;
- alder and others.
The wood of the first three types is the most versatile. It is equally suitable for containers for any purpose. However, the “champion” should be recognized as an oak barrel, which, being strong, reliable and durable, provides ideal conditions for storing food.
Oak products have antiseptic properties, release tannins into alcoholic drinks, improving their taste, and also easily withstand the effects of brines when preparing pickles. Ash and cherry are the first “substitutes” of oak wood. They have similar, but weaker properties. Therefore, we will consider, . Making containers from other types of wood, such as linden, has no fundamental differences except for some nuances finishing.
Oak barrel for honey Rules for procuring material for barrels
Before you start doing DIY wooden barrel, should be prepared and prepared quality material. The wood must be mature, healthy, and free from defects (knots, cross-layers)
The best time for procurement of material is late autumn or winter, when natural humidity wood is at a minimum level.
It is unlikely that you will be able to meet all the requirements. For example, for making staves for wine and cognac barrels highest category quality, the process of drying and aging wood takes 6–8 years, but if you are only concerned with how to make a barrel for yourself, adhere to the following rules:
- Before drying, the logs are split into pieces of the required thickness;
- drying is carried out in a closed area sun rays place - under a canopy, in a barn, etc.;
- The duration of drying depends on many factors and can take 1–3 months;
- The residual moisture content of the wood before treatment should be about 25%.
Accelerating the drying process using hot air and other methods usually leads to a deterioration in the quality of the wood and its properties in finished product. The advice also takes into account the need to condition the processed rivets before assembling the product. As a result, the residual moisture content of the wood should be 17–20%.
Making rivets and tools for this
For those interested make your own oak barrel The most difficult part will be making the rivets. The process of marking and chopping logs is clearly presented in the following figure
As a result, you will receive blanks of conical cross-section, from which, after drying, they are made into rivets. This part has a complex shape, so its production places high demands on the skill of the performer. The main dimensions of the barrel and its elements, depending on the volume, are as follows:
This table will help you figure out how to make a barrel, and the drawing - to understand how to give the rivets the desired shape
Tool and what tools you will need for this. The curvature of the sides should provide the barrel with a taper of about 8°, due to which the product becomes resistant to loads from the outside and inside. To process the surfaces of rivets, a plane, jointer, sherhebel, plow and other tools of this group are used. In this case, the outer surface of the part should have a slightly convex shape, and the inner surface should have a concave shape.
|
Barrel capacity, l |
Height, mm |
Center diameter, mm |
Diameter at the edges, mm |
Riveting width, mm |
Rivet thickness, mm |
Thickness of bottoms, mm |
The accuracy and quality of planing are regularly checked using a template. To calculate the number of rivets, the longest circumference (at the center of the barrel) should be divided by the width of the workpieces. This way you will also determine the exact and uniform size of the part. The process of making rivets can be seen in the video.
After this, the answer to the question of how to make an oak barrel with your own hands, will become clearer as you tackle the toughest challenge.
Making bottom shields and tools for this
To make bottom shields, 4–6 planks are used, connected to each other with wooden or stainless steel pins. Drawings, or, more precisely, instructions, of this process are given here
But at first we will limit ourselves to only connecting the planks, since other operations are carried out taking into account the dimensions of the assembled barrel body. We just have to do the following:
- draw a circle on the shield: its diameter should correspond to the size of the bottom of the barrel, to which is added twice the depth of the morning groove (this is 6 mm);
- file along the contour using bow saw or circular hacksaw;
- chamfer around the entire circumference so that the bottom fits into the morning groove.
In a similar way (adjusted for a larger or smaller diameter), the lid and the circle for oppression are made. If you intend make your own barrel for drinks that have two bottoms, you should remember that such products are made according to individual measurements for the top and bottom. You will see the result of your efforts only after you collect all the details into a single whole. Assembling the barrel is the most pleasant stage its manufacture. We will describe how this process is carried out below.
Barrel assembly procedure
The following information about how to make a barrel, there will be recommendations for its assembly. For this, besides wooden parts, you will need metal hoops - assembly and permanent. The first of them serves to set and fix the complete frame. Permanent hoops are divided into morning and neck (umbilical) hoops. They provide tightening of the rivets. To make a wooden barrel from the existing set of parts, you will need to perform the following operations:
- using clamps, fix two, or preferably three, rivets on the assembly hoop;
- Fill the space between them with the remaining parts;
- put on a neck hoop on the fixed side;
- steam the loose side of the frame and tighten the rivets using a collar (noose), after which put a morning and neck hoop on this side of the frame;
- from the side of the assembly hoop, cut a morning groove to install the bottom;
- cut and process the first bottom, and then put it in place;
- On the same side, install a morning hoop, which finally fixes the bottom;
- carry out finishing treatment of the internal and external surfaces of the barrel body;
- carry out hardening (firing) from the inside;
- Repeat the operation of installing the bottom on the opposite side.
The initial stage of assembly can be seen in the video
.
Another video
will give an idea of subsequent operations. However, in this case, an allowance should be made for the fact that professionals work here who have their own techniques and perform many actions automatically. Perhaps not everything will work out the first time, but how to make your own oak barrel, you will definitely learn.
For barrels with a capacity of up to 50 liters, four hoops are used; for larger containers, their number is increased to six. They are made from steel strip 30–50 mm wide and 1.5–2 mm thick. The diameter of the hoop is determined by measuring the location of its installation on the body of the product. Double the bandwidth is added to the resulting value. This is necessary to connect the strip into a ring using rivets made of malleable steel wire with a cross-section of 4–5 mm.
Answering the question, how to make a barrel, it is necessary to mention that one edge inside the hoop requires flaring. This gives it the necessary taper for a tight fit to the frame rivets when putting on and setting down. Cutting the morning groove is done using special tool, which in professional slang is called a morning party. The procedure is somewhat reminiscent of opening a round tin can.
In an article about how to make a barrel, we cannot fail to mention the hardening of the product. Most often this is achieved by firing. This ensures increased wood resistance to moisture, organic acids and other influences. It is most convenient to fire a body without a bottom using a burner such as a portable forge.
Surface finishing and drilling of holes for taps (chops) are done before firing.
Checking the barrel and preparing it for use
Our advice on how to make a wooden barrel with your own hands, completes with information on how to check its tightness and prepare the product for use. To search for leaks, the barrel is filled with water. If it is still leaking within an hour of filling, you will need to take steps to seal it. For this, there is a proven “old-fashioned” method using cattail, which is also called barrel grass. They use it to caulk leakage areas. Another method of sealing is waxing using natural wax.
Each master has his own answers to the question, how to make a barrel, and more professional secrets, which would require writing an entire monograph to reveal. Therefore, you will have to repeatedly seek help from experts on a variety of nuances of the barrel making process. By the way, the literary hero Robinson Crusoe was never able to cope with this task. When you achieve the tightness of the product, all that remains is to prepare the barrel for use.
Answering the question, how to make an oak barrel, you should also give recommendations for soaking it. Most often this is done using ordinary water. The procedure takes up to 10 days with fluid changes every two to three days. However, for barrels intended for strong drinks, soaking continues from one month to six months using alcohol-containing liquids with a strength of 18–55%. In this article we have tried to answer basic questions regarding how to make a barrel. We hope you find this information useful.