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 make such a barrel yourself, and although this task is not an easy one, an amateur craftsman is quite capable of handling it.
Step 1. Selecting wood
Before creating a barrel with your own hands, you need to choose wood. Oak and pine are not suitable for storing honey - honey darkens in an oak barrel, and smells of resin in a pine barrel. Here we need linden, aspen, 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.
Usually used for rivets Bottom part trunks of old trees, 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.
Step 2. Splitting the lump
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 again split into two parts and so on, depending on the thickness of the chock (Fig. 1), 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 ensure that the split goes radially - this will protect the riveting from cracking in the future.
Step 3. Drying the workpiece and processing
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. First, the outer surface of the riveting is planed. In this case, to check the curvature of the surface, you should make a template in advance (Fig. 2), cutting it out of a thin plank along the already finished product. Next, the side surfaces are planed, also checking their curvature against the template.
Riveting can be tubular - in which one end is wider than the other, and barrel - with an expansion in the middle. The magnitude of these expansions determines the taper of the tub and the convexity of the central part of the barrel. It is enough if the ratio between the widest and narrowest part of the riveting is 1.7-1.8 (Fig. 3).
Processing of the side surface is completed by jointing. It is more convenient to do this by moving the workpiece along the jointer (Fig. 4).
Step 4. Processing the riveting from the inside
At the next stage, we process the internal (in relation to the finished barrel) surface of the stave, cutting off excess wood with a plane or even an ax (Fig. 5). After this, the barrel stave can be considered ready, but the barrel stave still needs to be thinned to 12-15 mm in the middle (Fig. 6). Don't be confused by the fact that the rivets can have different widths - we take the best we can from each workpiece.
Step 5. Preparing the 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 size. 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 (Fig. 7). One inner edge of the hoop must be flared by striking the pointed end of a hammer on a massive steel stand (Fig. 8).
Based on their location on the product, hoops are divided into fart hoops - the central hoop on the barrel, morning hoops - the outermost hoops, and neck hoops - the intermediate hoops.
Step 6. Assembling the product
A grandmother brought a crumbling tub to a handyman with a request to put it back together. Tom had never had to do this before, but he did not refuse the old woman. I came up with the following: I threw a rope on the floor and laid out rivets on it one after the other. Then he pressed them down with pillows and pulled the ends of the rope together. Gradually removing the pillows, I brought the outer rivets together and secured them with a hoop.
Coopers make it easier.
The product is assembled on any flat surface. First, two rivets are attached to the hoop opposite each other with special brackets bent from hoop iron (Fig. 9). Then, by attaching rivets to one of them, we will get to the other, which will press the assembled half of the barrel. Continue assembling until the rivets fill the entire perimeter of the hoop.
Lightly tapping the hoop with a hammer, we set it down and check whether the edges of the rivets meet tightly. To achieve contact between the rivets over the entire side surface, you need to add a rivet or pull out an extra one and then install a permanent hoop. By the way, if changing the number of rivets does not give the desired effect, you just need to narrow one of the rivets or replace the narrow one with a wider one.
Having leveled the ends of the frame with light blows of a hammer, put on the middle hoop and push it until it stops using a hammer (Fig. 10).
Step 7. Trimming the frame and final screed
Having placed the frame on a flat surface, we describe the cut line with a pencil using a block (Fig. 11). Having installed the morning hoop, we cut off the frame 2-3 mm from it and clean the ends of the rivets with a plane. We do the same with the other end of the frame.
When making a keg, after attaching the onion, neck and morning hoop on one side, the other side must first be tightened. Coopers have for this special device- yoke. Home master can use cable, rope, chain or wire for the same purposes. You can tie a noose and gag it, or tighten the ends of the cable with a lever (Fig. 12).
There is no need to steam or boil the core, as some experts recommend, before tightening. Occasionally, however, it happens that the riveting does not bend along its entire length, but in one place and therefore cracks. However, in such cases the cooper will prefer to simply make a new stave.
Step 8. Cleaning the frame from the inside
The assembled frame is cleaned from the inside with a plane or sherhebel, and the ends of the frame are cleaned with a humpback plane (Fig. 13).
Now you need to make a morning groove in the frame (Fig. 14). The cutter of the tool can be made from hoop iron, or even better, from a saw blade. The depth and width of the groove should be 3 mm (Figure 15).
Step 9. Making the bottom shield
First, from sweet clover with planed outer side and the bottom shield is assembled using the jointed side surfaces (Fig. 16). The clover is fastened with nails, as shown in the figure, for which nests 15-20 mm deep are pre-drilled. The radius of the future bottom is found as the side of a regular hexagon inscribed in the circle of the morning groove on the frame of the barrel. However, you need to cut out the bottom with a margin, departing from the intended circle by 1 - 1.5 mm. After cleaning with Sherhebel, chamfers are cut from the edge of the bottom (Fig. 17) so that three millimeters from the edge the thickness of the wood is 3 mm - this is necessary for the tightness of the connection between the bottom and the frame in the morning groove (Fig. 18).
Step 10. Fitting the bottom shield
We do the first fitting - having loosened the hoop, we put in the bottom, inserting one side of it into the groove, and then lightly hitting the rest of it with a hammer. If the bottom is tight, you need to further loosen the hoop, and if it is too loose, tighten it.
After stuffing the hoop, make sure there are no gaps. Perfect result It is rarely achieved the first time. Even if the cracks are not visible to the eye, you can find them by pouring a little water into the barrel. If it flows between the rivets, it means the bottom is too big and needs to be slightly planed. It's worse if water leaks through the bottom or through the mouth groove. Then you will have to disassemble the frame and narrow one of the rivets.
Step 11. Installing the second bottom
Before installing the second bottom, a filling hole with a diameter of 30-32 mm should be drilled in it. The plug is made as shown in Fig. 19, its height must be no less than the thickness of the bottom, but the plug must not protrude beyond the plane of the frame edge.
Step 12. Painting
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.
The brown color of oak is given by 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 the barrel serves, all this time it will be a pleasant reminder to the owner of the difficulties overcome in understanding the secrets of the ancient craft of the cooper.
If you are making your own wine and pickles, then you know that there is no better container than a wooden barrel. After all, made from wood, it becomes one of the main points in the recipe; it is an environmentally friendly raw material that preserves the taste and beneficial features products. In addition, the alcohol contained in wines or moonshine, when interacting with containers made of synthetic materials: plastic, nylon, can dissolve them and the reaction products are mixed with the drink.
Buying a barrel for your winemaking or brining is not difficult, but if you want to save money or like to do everything yourself, then it is worth learning the technique of making an oak barrel with your own hands. This is a process that takes a lot of time and effort, but with our tips you will see that making a barrel with your own hands is not so difficult even for those who have never done it.
Making barrels from wood is called “cooperage”, and the master who deals with this business is a cooper. This is a whole art that originated in Ancient Greece and still popular today. The technology has not changed for thousands of years, has been tested by time and is not as difficult to implement as it seems at first glance. But how to make a barrel yourself in modern conditions?
Choosing wood
First of all, of course, choose the material from which you are going to make your future barrel. We will offer you the main types of wood that coopers prefer, we will tell you what their positive and negative sides and will also help you choose the most suitable option just for you.
Oak
Of course, first of all, we should talk about making oak barrels. This wood rightfully deserves the title classic material, used by coopers. Possessing high strength and flexibility, this tree contains “tannins” that act as an antiseptic. The moisture acting on the walls of such a barrel makes them stronger. Therefore, the service life of oak barrels is measured not even in tens, but in hundreds of years. With drinks stored in such a barrel, oxidation processes and interaction with wood occur and they acquire pleasant aroma with a hint of vanilla.
Fur tree, pine tree
These types of wood are also used as material for making barrels. They are soft, easier to process and cut, but are inferior in strength to oak and many other species. Their disadvantage is the smell of resin, which is why this type of wood is rarely used as a material for barrels.
Cedar
Among the representatives of coniferous varieties, coopers prefer it, especially in those places where its natural habitat is located. Its properties are similar to pine or spruce, but such barrels have no smell. They are well suited for storing food, especially dairy products.
Linden
This type of wood is fibrous and can be easily cut and processed. Strong material, does not dry out, does not smell. Linden barrels are recognized as the best for storing and transporting honey, caviar, and pickles.
Aspen
This is a cheap but long-lasting material, it is strong, resistant to moisture, and has antiseptic properties. Aspen has been recognized as ideal for pickling and storing vegetables. The peculiarity of this variety is that it swells greatly, but for the cooper this is rather a plus, because thanks to this the rivets close tightly.
We make rivets
So, you have decided on the type of wood, let’s say it will be oak. Now we make the barrel parts, starting with the rivets. These are boards tapering at the edges or rectangular boards (sawn or chipped). The latter are superior in strength due to the structure of the fibers, which does not undergo destruction when split.
The shape of the stave depending on the type of barrel
To determine the exact number of such rivets, do the following:
- Determine the required parameters of the barrel
- Make drawings of your design
- Create sketches of rivets and bottoms of natural sizes
After these procedures, perform simple calculations so that you do not miscalculate how many rivets you need. It is calculated using the formula: 2*Pi*R/N, where:
- Pi – constant value 3.14
- Р – radius of the bottom (if the sides are equal) or the middle (if the sides are convex)
- W – riveting width size
Barrel sizes depending on volume
Making split staves will take a lot of time and effort; it requires certain skills. The main thing to do is to split the workpiece so that you get fragments with a smooth surface.
Scheme of splitting the flame into rivets
Two main methods of splitting:
- Radial (the split passes through the core of the deck, which requires less effort)
- Tangentially (does not affect the core, we do not recommend using it when processing hardwood, this makes the process slower and more difficult)
It is easiest to process raw material; freshly cut material is best. If you use ready-made boards, make sure that tree rings walked along the course of their plane, without cutting.
After harvesting, you need to dry it, in the summer, in the air, under a canopy, this period will be from 3 months. For artificial drying, use the following method:
- Glue paper to the ends of the rivets
- Place in the oven
- Leave it there for a day
Barrel rivets ready for use
The blanks are now ready for further work.
Making a hoop
Another detail is the hoop. It helps to connect all the rivets, creating a single whole; stainless steel is used to make the hoop.
Modern barrels have three hoops:
- Farts (closer to the center)
- Morning (closer to the edge)
- Neck (if the barrel has a large volume, additionally placed between the first two)
The size of the hoop depends on the volume of the container (thickness*width):
- Up to 25 l – 1.6mm*3cm
- 25 – 50 l – 1.6mm*3.6cm
- Up to 100 l – 1.6mm*4-4.5cm
- 120 l or more – 1.8*5cm
Stainless steel hoops for barrels
You will need temporary metal hoops, which are made according to the following algorithm:
- Cut the required size strips from a sheet of steel
- Make holes at the ends of the strips and fasten them with rivets.
Collecting a barrel
Now we are approaching the main stage - assembling a barrel consisting of rivets, which are connected first by temporary and then by permanent hoops.
Process with a tool - grinding, cut off uneven ends, drill a filler hole.
Watch a video of how an oak barrel is made.
Oak barrel repair
You have old barrels which you are not using because it is dry, leaking or for some other reason it is not suitable, watch the video on how the repair is done.
The second part of the video if the barrel is leaking
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, an 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 make a barrel yourself, and although this task is not an easy one, an amateur craftsman is quite capable of handling it.
Rivets
First of all, you need to choose wood. Oak and pine are not suitable for storing honey - honey darkens in an oak barrel, but in a pine barrel it smells like resin. Here we need linden, aspen, 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.
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 rivet - is split in half, gently tapping the log on the butt of the ax. Each half is then again split into two parts and so on, depending on the thickness of the chock (Fig. 1), to ultimately obtain blanks 5-10 cm wide (for sweet clover - 15 cm) and 2.5-3 cm thick. You need Just try to ensure that the split goes radially - this will protect the riveting from cracking in the future.
The chopped pieces are dried in a room with natural ventilation for 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. First, the outer surface of the riveting is planed. In this case, to check the curvature of the surface, you should make a template in advance (Fig. 2), cutting it out of a thin board according to the finished product. Next, the side surfaces are planed, also checking their curvature against the template.
The riveting can be tubular - in which one end is wider than the other, and barrel - with an expansion in the middle. The magnitude of these expansions determines the taper of the tub and the convexity of the central part of the barrel. It is enough if the ratio between the widest and narrowest part of the riveting is 1.7-1.8 (Fig. 3).
Processing of the side surface is completed by jointing. It is more convenient to do this by moving the workpiece along the jointer (Fig. 4). At the next stage, we process the internal (in relation to the finished barrel) surface of the stave, cutting off excess wood with a plane or even an ax (Fig. 5). After this, the barrel stave can be considered ready, but the barrel stave still needs to be thinned to 12-15 mm in the middle (Fig. 6). Don’t be confused by the fact that the rivets can have different widths - we take the best we can from each piece.
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 size. 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 (Fig. 7). One inner edge of the hoop must be flared by striking the pointed end of a hammer on a massive steel stand (Fig. 8).
Based on their location on the product, hoops are divided into fart hoops - the central hoop on the barrel, morning hoops - the outermost hoops, and neck hoops - the intermediate hoops.
Assembly
A grandmother brought a crumbling tub to a handyman with a request to put it back together. Tom had never had to do this before, but he did not refuse the old woman. I came up with the following: I threw a rope on the floor and laid out the rivets on it one after the other. Then he pressed them down with pillows and pulled the ends of the rope together. Gradually removing the pillows, I brought the outer rivets together and secured them with a hoop.
Coopers make it easier...
The product is assembled on any flat surface. First, two rivets are attached to the hoop opposite each other with special staples bent from hoop iron (Fig. 9). Then, by attaching rivets to one of them, we will get to the other, which will tighten the assembled half of the barrel. Continue assembling until the rivets fill the entire perimeter of the hoop.
Lightly tapping the hoop with a hammer, we set it down and check whether the edges of the rivets meet tightly. To achieve contact between the rivets over the entire side surface, you need to add a rivet or pull out an extra one and then install a permanent hoop. By the way, if changing the number of rivets does not give the desired effect, you just need to narrow one of the rivets or replace the narrow one with a wider one.
Having leveled the ends of the frame with light blows of a hammer, put on the middle hoop and push it until it stops using a hammer (Fig. 10).
Having placed the frame on a flat surface, we describe the cut line with a pencil using a block (Fig. 11). Having installed the morning hoop, we cut off the frame 2-3 mm from it and clean the ends of the rivets with a plane. We do the same with the other end of the frame.
When making a keg, after attaching the onion, neck and morning hoop on one side, the other side must first be tightened. Coopers have a special device for this - a yoke. A home craftsman can use a cable, rope, chain or wire for the same purposes. You can tie a noose and gag it, or tighten the ends of the cable with a lever (Fig. 12).
There is no need to steam or boil the core, as some experts recommend, before tightening. Occasionally, however, it happens that the rivet does not bend along its entire length, but in one place and therefore cracks. However, in such cases the cooper will prefer to simply make a new stave.
Donya
The assembled frame is cleaned from the inside with a plane or sherhebel, and the ends of the frame are cleaned with a humpback plane (Fig. 13).
Now you need to make a groove in the frame (Fig. 14). The cutter of the tool can be made from hoop iron, or even better, from a saw blade. The depth and width of the groove should be 3 mm (Figure 15).
First, a bottom shield is assembled from a sweet clover with a planed outer side and jointed side surfaces (Fig. 16). The clover is fastened with nails, as shown in the figure, for which nests 15-20 mm deep are pre-drilled. The radius of the future bottom is found as the side of a regular hexagon inscribed in the circle of the morning groove on the frame of the barrel. However, you need to cut out the bottom with a margin, deviating from the intended circle by 1-1.5 mm. After cleaning with Sherhebel, chamfers are cut from the edge of the bottom (Fig. 17) so that three millimeters from the edge the thickness of the wood is 3 mm - this is necessary for the tightness of the connection between the bottom and the frame in the morning groove (Fig. 18).
We do the first fitting - having loosened the hoop, we put in the bottom, inserting one side of it into the groove, and then lightly hitting the rest of it with a hammer. If the bottom is tight, you need to further loosen the hoop, and if it is too loose, tighten it.
After stuffing the hoop, make sure there are no gaps. An ideal result is rarely achieved the first time. Even if the cracks are not visible to the eye, you can find them by pouring a little water into the barrel. If it flows between the rivets, it means the bottom is too big and needs to be slightly planed. It's worse if water leaks through the bottom or through the mouth groove. Then you will have to disassemble the frame and narrow one of the rivets.
Before installing the second bottom, a filling hole with a diameter of 30-32 mm should be drilled in it. The plug is made as shown in Fig. 19, its height should be no less than the thickness of the bottom, but the plug should not protrude beyond the plane of the frame edge.
How long does a barrel last?
First of all, it depends on the operating conditions. But it is important to remember that you should not paint filling containers with oil paint: 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. Black - a 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 walnut fruit. 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 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.
An oak barrel is a great thing for a person. You can pickle vegetables in it, make wine, moonshine, and cognac. At worst, just sit until it dawns on you, as some do, a great idea. It is not for nothing that in the old days the making of barrels was the domain of real craftsmen. We continue to tell you about things that you can master in your dacha. Next up is cooperage.
Unlike many endangered professions, such as saddler, lamplighter or carriage maker, coopers are still in demand in the 21st century. The production of tubs, barrels and decorative bar elements is now on stream. Beer and wine containers are manufactured industrially - spacious workshops, computer quality control, wholesale supplies. The cost, depending on the volume, ranges from several hundred to tens of thousands of rubles.
But, of course, the Russian person’s craving for things made with my own hands, nothing can win. Therefore, if you decide to make the barrel of your dreams yourself, we can only advise you! Follow the recommendations below - and any Diogenes will thank you!
So where does the barrel start?
Tree selection
Of course, you'll need oak first. Moreover, not the first one that comes across, but more or less mature, with a trunk diameter of 40-60 cm. Some specimens can be rejected even at the inspection stage. Thus, the characteristic bumps on the trunk indicate that the giant is infected with tobacco rot.
We also “weed out” twisted and knotty trees. In cooperage, only “sprat” is used - the first 4 meters of the trunk, the rest can be safely turned into fuel for the barbecue. Yes, if you can’t cut down the tree you like, you can always buy a similar one at the nearest sawmill.
Manufacturing of rivets
Now a little theory. The barrel consists of wooden parts, rivets, tightly fitted to each other and tightened with metal hoops. And the final quality of the entire product directly depends on how accurately the manufacturing technology of these elements was followed.
First of all, decide on the dimensions of the future barrel. Its height will affect the length of the riveting itself (it should be 2.5–3 cm longer).
Have you chosen your size? Cut the previously prepared oak round timber into it. It’s good to have a hydraulic splitter on your farm. Well, if not, the oak log splits into sectors old-fashioned method, using wedges. The result should be 8 radially split ingots.
Now we cut off the core and soft “white” fabric into circular saw. From the resulting blanks we plan out even boards of equal thickness using a surface planer.
Ready? Now... stack all this beauty in stacks somewhere under a canopy. And leave it for at least a few months. Or better yet, for a year - they don’t make a good oak barrel in an hour☺. During this time, the sun and wind, without creating unnecessary stress on the wood, will remove excess moisture. For now, you can take up grapes (by the way, there are excellent varieties for the Moscow region, we’ll definitely tell you about them someday). When the workpieces dry, you can continue. Using a jigsaw, give the boards the correct cigar-shaped shape, where the thickening will be only 0.8–1 cm wider than the ends.
The inner edge of the workpieces is trimmed in the middle with a curved plow. Less than a millimeter is enough, and when necessary, the rivets will bend into right place. We give the outer edge the shape of an arc, the curvature of which is determined by a special pattern. Its radius depends on the radius of the barrel being manufactured. The tool is easy to make yourself. The result should be a product the same as in the picture.
On average, you will need from 25 to 30 staves per barrel.
Making a hoop
When the rivets are prepared, you can start making hoops. You will need a narrow strip of 2-3 mm iron, slightly longer than the circumference of the frame.
Twist it into a ring and secure it at the ends with rivets. The hoop is almost ready. Flare lightly with a hammer inner side– and can be put on the frame. For a small barrel you will need two pairs of hoops. Not less! What if some ring can't withstand the fermentation of your beer?
While you are working with iron, make a couple more metal staples. They will later serve as “clothespins”.
Assembling the barrel
The rivets are prepared, the hoops are ready. It's time to collect it all in a pot-bellied barrel. Take the finished ring and secure the ends of two or three rivets in it with clothespins in random places. The design will resemble a stool. In this position, fill the entire perimeter of the hoop with rivets. When the last board is in place, hammer the metal belt to fit the parts more tightly.
But before putting on the second hoop, the wood will have to be heated and steamed. It's done like this. We bring our semi-finished product to Fresh air and install it with the “socket” facing up. A small metal urn filled with wood chips is placed inside. We light a “fire” in it. While the fire is burning, wet the wood generously with water. This will keep it from catching fire and add flexibility to the boards. After half an hour of this “bath”, throw a noose on the end free from the hoop and pull it quietly with a winch. There is no rush in this place. The path to the finish line can take from 40 minutes to 3-4 hours, but any broken rivet will immediately return you to the beginning of the distance.
As soon as the wooden fan closes, immediately stuff the hoop. Just don’t forget the old Bondar law: “You can’t knock on the same place twice with a hammer.” In simple words When lowering the hoop, apply only one blow to each place. Under no circumstances hit there two or three times - you will split the wood.
When the metal belts are in place, the frame of the barrel ends up. The internal cavity is leveled with a special scraper and sanded with sandpaper.
And now another trial by fire. So that the tree gets used to its new form, it needs to be burned. The scheme is the same - the wood chips burn in the urn. Stir the fire constantly, otherwise the barrel will catch fire. Ready-made recipes not here. If you set fire to the boards, the wine will take on a burning smell. If you finish firing ahead of time, the rivets will tear the hoop.
Manufacturing and installation of bottoms
At a distance of up to 2.5 cm from the ends of the frame, select the so-called morning groove. The bottom will then be inserted into it. Previously, such an operation was trusted only to a special incisor, a morning dresser (another endangered profession!). Today it is much easier to use a cutter. At the same time, remove the chamfers from the ends of the barrel. Useful when shrinking the bottoms.
To make them you will need rivets again, just a little large sizes. They are connected into panels with steel nails without heads. By actually measuring the length of the mouth groove, you can easily determine the radius of the bottom. Outline it on the shield and cut it out with a jigsaw. Sharpen the ends of the round.
The connection between the bottom and the frame looks like this.
To put the bottom in its place, the frame will have to be unchained on one side. The rivets should already be in shape by this time. Insert the round piece into the morning groove, press it into place with a mallet, and tighten the product again with the hoop. If everything is done correctly, the bottom will not leak. Before repeating the operation with the other bottom, cut a drain hole in it. Diameter – 32 mm. When everything is ready, we polish the barrel, giving it a marketable appearance, and prepare it for soaking.
Soak
In principle, the barrel is already ready. One could calm down on this, but the wood is still too saturated with tannins and tannins. Therefore, you will have to soak them, otherwise the contents of the barrel will deteriorate.
Fill the container one third with hot (80 °C) water. Rotate the barrel for half an hour so that the moisture moves around the entire perimeter. Next, drain the liquid and replace it with cold one. It should stand in the container for a day, after which it must be replaced again. And so on for two weeks. Some people soak the barrel with ready-made wine, others with moonshine. Everyone has their own style. But it’s worth starting with water.
Now the barrel is really ready for wine. Or beer. Or moonshine with cucumbers - what do you choose?..
(Last Updated On: 09.19.2017)
How to make a wooden barrel with your own hands modern society? Surely, today you won’t have to hollow out a product from a solid tree trunk, as it was before. The modern barrel is very different from its predecessors. The most important step its production was prompted by the appearance metal hoops, which held the cone container very tightly.
What wood is best to make a barrel from?
oak tree
It pricks perfectly and, when steamed, acquires extraordinary flexibility. It is this quality that is highly valued. But, most importantly, oak wood contains preservative substances called tills, which protect the wood from rotting. Therefore, products in oak barrels can retain their properties for many decades.
Cedar
Also used in the manufacture of barrels. Its properties are soft, flexible and lightweight. Previously, it was believed that cedar itself contained substances that destroy microbes. Therefore, you can make a cedar barrel with your own hands, in which drinks will be stored for a very long time. for a long time and not spoil.
Juniper
The inside of the trunk has red-brown wood, and the sapwood is much lighter, yellowish in color. The wood of this tree is characterized by density, strength and heavy weight, and is very easy to process - it cuts well and does not crack.
Pine wood
It has average characteristics - low hardness and average strength, high elasticity, bends well. Due to the specific tar odor, food products are not stored in pine barrels.
How to make a barrel at home
The question of how to make a wooden barrel with your own hands worries many craftsmen who would like to master new secrets of working with wood.
To make cooperage products, rivets or frets are used. These are rectangular wooden planks, obtained by sawing the butt or trunk of a tree into separate parts. Another way is to split decks or logs.
Sawn frets are very durable. Chopped ones are more difficult to make. The most important thing is to be able to split the wood so that the rivets are clean and even, and there is little waste of wood chips left.
To make a wooden barrel with your own hands, you need to correctly split the wooden block in the direction of the radius, preferably getting into the core. If the ax hits slightly to the left or right of the core, then the chip line is called tangential. In this direction, almost all tree species split much harder.
Ordinary blocks will also be used to make rivets. Of these, you need to choose only those where the layers are located lengthwise and not across. The finished frets are dried and neatly folded.
How to make screed hoops
Iron hoops began to be used a very long time ago. Initially, they were used to tighten buckets consisting of sixteen rivets. Moreover, for strength, they were additionally pierced with nails.
Nowadays, hoops are cut from durable sheet steel, then blacksmiths decorate them with all sorts of stamped designs. The finished hoops are coated with bitumen varnish or drying oil. If the drying oil layer is dried blowtorch, you will get a beautiful light brown color.
How to assemble a conical barrel base
First, we will try to connect the prepared side rivets and temporarily tighten them with permanent hoops. To do this, attach two or three initial rivets to one of the hoops (it is better to take a small diameter one). Carefully holding each inserted board with your hand, we fill the entire space with the missing rivets. You need to insert the last rivet especially carefully. It may turn out that there is not enough space left for it. Take it and trim it a little, attaching it evenly to the rest of the rivets. This type of work is usually done with two or three assistants.
Barrel assembly diagram:
Using a hammer and a wooden drift, you need to hammer the hoop so that it sits tightly on the base of the barrel. A hoop of larger diameter is also settled.
The last operation is installing the bottom. It is carefully placed in the groove, the barrel is turned over and a large hoop is secured. If the connection is strong and reliable, then the temporary hoops are replaced with permanent ones.
Now you can imagine how to make a wooden barrel with your own hands, using only the material that everyone has on the farm.