DIY wooden barrel. How to make an oak barrel with your own hands? Ash container

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, 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 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.

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 tub remain the same. The diameter in the bunch of the barrel (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

There is another way to determine the size. The ratio of the diameter to 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 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.

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 riveting lengthwise and draw a dividing line at the ends. A semi-jointer (jointer) is used to clean the outer and side sides of the riveting; 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 place 5-6 rivets inside it with the outer side facing 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. Various methods and devices are used to tighten the loose end of the frame. 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 the hoops are finally seated. From the inside of the frame (barrels or tubs) the sag is cleared, 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. Planks that are wider 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 value "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 mornings. 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 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.

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 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 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 the difficulties overcome in understanding the secrets of the ancient craft of a cooper.

© finished barrels in the photo

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, nothing can defeat the Russian people’s craving for things made with their own hands. 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 is split into sectors using the old-fashioned method, using wedges. The result should be 8 radially split ingots.

Now we cut the core and soft “white” fabric on a 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 from it. 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 in the 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 again need rivets, only a little larger. 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?..

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 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 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.

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 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.

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 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 (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 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 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, 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, 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. 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.

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 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.

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 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 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.

There are not many masters of cooperage left today, but the tradition of making pickling in tubs, or storing honey and wine in barrels has remained in Russia to this day. It often happens that for one reason or another it is not possible to acquire wooden containers. Then you can make an oak barrel with your own hands. Even if this is not the easiest task, however, if you set yourself a clear goal and follow all the features of the technology, you can make quite decent wooden containers for storing food and drinks. We will talk about how to make an oak barrel with your own hands below.

Making blanks

To make a container, you first need to select the material. If you want to store beekeeping products inside, pay attention to linden or aspen raw materials, plane tree. Honey is stored quite well in barrels made of poplar, alder wood, and willow. An oak barrel is ideal for pickling, fermenting or soaking.

If you have figured out the raw materials, you should choose an old tree. Its lower part is best suited for rivets. During preparation, be sure to make sure that the block is a couple of centimeters larger than the size of the future barrel. This reserve is needed for sanding the edges.

The wood must be damp. Initially, the block splits into 2 parts. To do this, use an ax and a small log, which is gently tapped on the butt. Each half splits in two again. It is necessary to ensure that the separation occurs radially. Do the same with each subsequent half - the number of blanks depends on the diameter of the oak barrel. It’s easy to prepare raw materials with your own hands, the main thing is accuracy. Please note that the blanks may have different widths, but this is not a problem.

The rivets are dried indoors where there is good natural ventilation. The period is at least 1 month, and ideally even about 1 year. After drying, it is processed with special tools. It could be:

• plow;
• sherhebel;
• plane.

First, the outer side of the riveting is processed, making sure to check the degree of curvature using a pre-prepared template. It can be cut from a thin piece of wood, attaching it to the finished product. After all the outer surfaces have been processed, you can proceed to the side ones. They are also leveled according to a template, and after processing they are jointed. The inner surface of the riveting is processed with a plane.

Rings

Both steel and wood can be used to make hoops. The latter option is less durable, so it is better to immediately give preference to metal. For hoops, hot-rolled steel in the form of a tape is used. Its width is about 3-5 cm, and thickness: 0.16-0.2 cm.

You need to take measurements at the place where the hoop will be stretched. After this, the width of the strip, doubled, is added to a certain value. Using a hammer, the workpiece is bent to take the shape of a ring, and then holes are punched or drilled in it and rivets are placed. The material for them is mild steel wire, the diameter of which is 0.4-0.5 cm. One of the inner edges of the hoop must be flared with the pointed end of a hammer.

Subtleties of assembly

Making oak barrels with your own hands requires patience. However, the result is worth the time and effort. So, to assemble a barrel for pickling, you need a flat surface. To get a finished barrel you need:

The skeleton does not need to be boiled or steamed before pulling, although there are those who insist on this. There are times when the workpiece may crack. Then experienced coopers replace it with a new one.

Bottom

To make the bottom, first you need to cut a groove from the bottom at a distance of 4-5 cm from the edge of the end; its dimensions can be 0.4-0.5 mm. For this purpose, a special tool is used - a morning party. Using a chisel, you need to make a chamfer of 0.1 to 0.2 cm on both sides of the groove.

The bottom is made from a special shield. It is assembled using metal pins or nails. Having drawn a circle, you need to step back from it by 1-1.5 cm and cut out the future bottom. After this, it is cleaned with Sherhebel, and chamfers are cut along the edges. As a result, the thickness of the rivets there will be no more than 0.3 cm. This ensures complete tightness of the structure.

To do the fitting, loosen the bottom hoop and insert the bottom. It is inserted into the groove from one side, and from the other it is adjusted with a hammer to the desired level by lightly tapping. If the movement is tight, you can loosen the hoop a little more; if it moves too loosely, it is better to tighten the hoop.

Next, the hoop is stuffed again, and the barrel is checked for leaks. To do this, pour some water into it. If there is a leak between the rivets, you need to reduce the bottom a little. If water seeps through the bottom or groove, you will have to disassemble the frame and narrow one of the blanks.

Before installing the second bottom, make a hole in it, the diameter of which is no more than 3 cm, and make a plug for it. The correct dimensions suggest that it will be slightly larger than the thickness of the bottom and will not protrude beyond the frame. That's the whole sequence that needs to be followed to make an oak barrel with your own hands.

Repair

Is it possible to repair an old barrel? Of course. If an alcoholic drink has been stored in it for a long time, it is worth disassembling the structure and removing a layer of about 2 mm thick from the wood. The drink does not penetrate further into the wood. After this, the rivets are processed and reassembled.

You can repair an oak barrel with your own hands, even if it is leaking. To do this, you need to repeat the same manipulations as when making containers - adjust the hoops.

This is what it is, cooperage. You can make wooden products yourself, but this requires a lot of time and effort. But is it worth spending them if today you can order online on the website of the Russian Bondar company?

The best brands of cognac, wine, liqueur, rum, and whiskey are aged in wooden containers. In the household, barrels and tubs are also rightfully considered the best storage place for pickles. In terms of sanitary and hygienic characteristics, they are not much inferior to stainless steel containers, but surpass the latter in a number of 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 instructions for making this necessary product.

There are only a few high-level professionals, 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. A cooper 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 of operations, from the selection of raw materials to the decorative finishing of the outside of the product. To make an 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:

• Selection 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 of the façade (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 the spatial construction of 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 for storing drinks and 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 the necessary pieces. The lower part of the trunk is used, on which there should be no 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.