Oak barrel- 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. Lightly flare the inner side with a hammer - and you can put it 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 take our semi-finished product out into the 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. In order for the tree to get used to its new shape, 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. There are no ready-made recipes 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?..
Instructions
First of all, choose the wood depending on your purpose. Linden, aspen, poplar, willow, and alder are suitable for storing honey. Oak is best suited for pickling, pickling or soaking. For other needs, beech, spruce, fir, pine, cedar, larch or birch are used.
Blanks or rivets are made from raw wood, from the lower part of the trunk. Radially split the lump of wood, which is 5-6 cm longer than the future stave, into blanks 5-10 cm wide (for sweet clover 15 cm) and 2.5-3 cm thick. Then store the blanks for a month or more in a room with natural ventilation for drying.
Process the dried workpieces with a plow and plane, first from the outside, checking the curvature using a template taken from finished product. Then process side surfaces with a jointer, also taking into account the curvature according to the template, and internal ones, to reduce the thickness in the middle, with an ax.
For the taper of the tub and the convexity of the barrel, the size of the stave expansions has a ratio of 1.7-1.8 between the widest and narrowest parts. For a tub, the lower end is wider; for a barrel, the middle of the stave is wider.
To make hoops, take a hot-rolled steel strip 1.6-2 mm thick and 30-50 mm wide. To calculate the length of the future hoop, add twice the width of the strip to the dimensions of the barrel at the screed site. Bend the tape into a ring, punch or drill holes and rivet with soft steel wire with a diameter of 4-5 mm.
Flare one edge of each hoop with a hammer on an anvil. Based on their location on the barrel, the hoops are called as follows: the central one is “onion”, the outermost one is “morning”, the intermediate one is “neck”.
Collect at flat surface, pressing two rivets against each other to the morning hoop with staples. Then, one by one, we insert the next rivets, assembling the first half of the barrel, and also the second half. Tapping with a hammer, we push the hoop until the edges of the rivets are tightly connected.
If there is a gap that the last stave won't fit into, don't be afraid to trim it to the desired width, or remove another narrow stave and insert a wide one.
Trim the ends of the frame with a hammer, put on the onion hoop and push it in until it stops using a hammer. With the base level, tighten the other edge of the frame with a rope loop with a lever. Having installed the second morning hoop, level the ends of the rivets with a humpback plane, 2-3 mm from the hoops.
From one edge of the frame, use a mortar to make a groove with a depth and width of 3 mm with inside, into which you will subsequently insert the bottom.
Assemble the bottom from boards fitted at the edges, pinning them together with staples, and then cut them along a pre-drawn circle. Insert the bottom after slightly loosening the hoop, adjusting the tightness of insertion and pressing with light blows of the hammer. The second bottom is also inserted on the other side, with the only difference that a filling hole with a diameter of 30-32 mm is first drilled into it, to which a plug is fitted.
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 do 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 tool. 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 craftsmen shows, metal hoops are much stronger, and less time is spent on manufacturing than wooden hoops. But some craftsmen still prefer a wooden hoop, giving the barrel a more beautiful look.
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 rivets from different breeds trees are 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 up outer surface, bevel the edges with an axe.
- Perform finishing using a planer, constantly monitoring the result with a template.
- Plane inner part blanks with a humpbacked scraper.
- 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.
Especially for the “Craftsmen” website, Vladimir Nikolaevich shares the “technology” for making a 25-liter oak barrel. Read on to learn how to make a barrel with your own hands.
How to make a barrel with your own hands
In the spring, I brought material from the forest, sawed it and covered it with sawdust in the basement, leaving it to dry out all summer. Soon we will have a wooden barrel with our own hands.A block of wood d 50 and 42 cm high was carefully split into four parts. From quarters, carefully tapping the butt with a mallet (photo 1), pinned 14 blanks for rivets about 3 cm thick.
Important! The split should be radial so that the tree does not crack in the future.
I used homemade shavings to process the workpieces on all sides, making them slightly concave (photo 2). I used a plane to make it smooth, while simultaneously narrowing it at the top and bottom. (photo 3).
To ensure the uniformity of barrels of a given volume, the master made two mounting hoops (the middle one is slightly larger diameter). There is also the main hoop-shutter, which Vladimir Nikolaevich guards like the apple of his eye: he does not hit it with a sledgehammer and constantly checks its evenness with a pattern drawn on the table, because the future “face” of the barrel depends on the correctness of the circle.
Three rivets were secured to the shutter using special brackets made of hoop iron. (photo 4). I continued assembling the barrel, filling the perimeter. Lightly tapping the hoop with a hammer, I brought it down and checked whether the edges of the rivets met tightly. Then I placed the middle hoop (photo 5).
On a note. To achieve contact between the rivets along the entire length of the side surface, you need to accurately calculate the width and number of blanks based on the future diameter of the homemade barrel.
After attaching two hoops, the remaining part of the barrel must be pulled together. Coopers have a special device for this - a yoke. But Vladimir Nikolaevich came up with his own original structure for the screed, which he calls “goat”.
I attached a winch to a U-shaped metal frame turned upside down. I placed the barrel on the crossbar, wrapped the loose part of the frame with a cable and carefully pulled it off with a winch. (photo 6).
Placed the third hoop on a wooden barrel (photo 7) and took her off the “goat”.
Use a special chisel with a groove on the flat end to lower the hoop as low as possible (photo 8).
I put the barrel in the barn to dry, heating the stove for no more than two hours every day.
Two weeks later I continued working. I cleaned the outer sides of the product with a straight plow. I made 4 hoops of two sizes from black painted steel. Having removed the middle mounting hoop, I filled the permanent hoop at a distance of 10 cm from the bottom. Trimmed both sides of the barrel with a jigsaw (photo 9). I installed two more hoops at the top. Leveled inner surface shaped plows (photo 10). Using a homemade chisel with four teeth from a saw, I cut a groove 5-6 mm deep inside around the circumference (photo 11).
I assembled the bottom for the barrel from prepared planks, connecting it with stainless steel galvanized nails without heads.
To prevent leakage, I pre-lined the ends with cattail strips (photo 12)- the first secret received from the craftsman Belov.
I calculated the size of the bottom as follows: I marked a point near the groove and, having estimated the approximate radius of the barrel in this place, used a compass to mark six radii along the groove, as if inscribing a hexagon in a circle. To start and finish exactly at the intended point, it is necessary to select the radius empirically. The size thus obtained was marked with a compass on a shield assembled from boards (photo 13). I cut it around the intended circumference using a circular saw. (photo 14).
Clamping the bottom in a homemade stand (a vice for suspended support), I used a plow to make a bevel along the entire perimeter (photo 15).
I put a soaked white bun in the groove - the second secret from Belov against leaks.
DIY oak barrels video
(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 towards its production was the appearance of metal hoops, which pulled the conical dishes very tightly together.
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 and will 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.
