You can buy almost everything today. But it’s quite difficult to find a wooden barrel, really high-quality, solid, and besides, it is expensive. There is another point that not everyone takes into account - it is not a fact that a finished barrel is suitable for a specific purpose. The reason is the mismatch of the wood species. The conclusion is unequivocal - to make a barrel yourself. And if you deal in detail with the drawings, the nuances of the work, then it will not turn out to be any complicated and impossible with your own hands.
Pine
- Elasticity, bending flexibility.
- Easily processed with household tools.
- When the temperature rises, it will resin abundantly.
- The characteristic smell that will always be present inside the barrel.
Juniper
Strength combined with ease of processing.
Big weight.
Recommendation - it is advisable to use for the manufacture of relatively small barrels for transportation (storage) of bulk materials.
Oak
- It bends beautifully after the tree is well steamed.
- Contains fungicides that protect the structural elements of the barrel from decay.
High material cost. To make a high-quality barrel, you will have to use a tree that is at least 80-100 years old.
Recommendation - if the barrel is intended for storage (sourdough) of products, aging of wines, and so on, then oak boards should be chosen.According to the reviews of those who have already made a wooden barrel with their own hands, you can also use such types of wood as linden, ash, aspen, mulberry.
The choice of material is a rather specific issue. If a barrel is needed to store stocks of wine (cognac, vodka), sourdough (salting) of cucumbers, watermelons, apples, and so on, then the best tree for it is oak. This is undeniable. But it is hardly correct to spend such wood (given its cost) on making a container with your own hands, in which it is supposed to store cement, sand, bulk products. Other breeds, “simpler”, are quite suitable for these purposes.
The procedure for calculating the parameters of the barrel
Based on its purpose and installation location, dimensions and design features are selected. In everyday life there is some confusion with the concepts. In principle, both the tub and the barrel are containers of a certain capacity, which are assembled manually from separate boards (staves, fret in the language of professionals). The difference is only in the geometry. The pictures explain everything well.
What is defined for the drawing:
- Barrel height
- Diameters (large and small).
- The angle of the staves and their number.
To simplify calculations, it is advisable to focus on typical data that are used by specialists when drawing up barrel drawings.
Do-it-yourself wooden barrel - instructions
The algorithm of actions is clear from the figures, which show the main stages of work.
But separate explanations will not be superfluous.
Rivets can be made from logs or boards. The first option is preferable, although its implementation by hand is much more difficult. The fact is that only the lower part of the tree trunk goes to the manufacture of the barrel, from the roots to the branches. You will have to chop logs (decks) on your own.
What is the feature?
- The ax blade must hit exactly in the center, along the diametral line. This will somewhat facilitate the work and allow you to get high-quality rivets in larger quantities (based on each deck).
- Boards are obtained by splitting, hewing chocks. Wood processing is always carried out along the fibers, and not across.
To facilitate bending, the rivets are given an irregular geometry. The thickness at the ends of each board should exceed the same parameter in the center by about 0.2. That is, if it is planned to assemble a barrel from 10 mm boards with your own hands, then they are hewn with the expectation that their thickness in the lower and upper parts of the container is at least 12.
Drying staves
Various sources indicate terms that are measured in months, or even years (up to 3). At this point, it is necessary to focus on local conditions, the initial and its porosity. Recommendations for artificially accelerating this process when doing do-it-yourself work are not entirely useful. Without practice, it is difficult to determine the optimal mode for the same electric / cabinet and the exposure time of the tree in it. Experienced craftsmen advise to wait until the moisture evaporates from the wood naturally.
It is only necessary to place it in a room with proper conditions - a temperature of at least +20 ºС and good ventilation. You may have to wait 2 or 3 years. But a high-quality barrel "in one day" is not made, and this must be understood.
If we are talking about a container for household purposes, then you can dry the staves even on the stove. But in any case, a barrel is not assembled from raw boards. After a couple of weeks (due to shrinkage of the wood), gaps will begin to appear between them. Checked.
hoops
Finding metal strips, drilling holes for rivets with your own hands is easy. The only thing you should pay attention to is that it is better to take tool steel. It is characterized by increased strength (tensile strength) and corrosion resistance. If it is pre-treated with drying oil and then burned (for example, with a blowtorch), you will get hoops of the original light brown shade.
Bottom
It is cut out of a shield, which is assembled by hand from pre-prepared boards. Moreover, using a different technology than frets (sidewalls). Their thickness does not change along the length. To ensure the tightness of the joints, the ends are milled, that is, the assembly is carried out according to the well-known tenon-groove principle. In some cases, special (sealing) rails are installed.
Barrel assembly
The sequence of actions is shown in this figure.
This work is not done alone; 2 - 3 assistants will definitely be needed. Rivets are placed along the lower hoop with maximum fit. If the last board does not "fit in", it should be trimmed slightly to size. This is where spares come in handy, since the first or even the second time, with your own hands, without experience, it may not be possible to adjust the “finishing” board. A little bust with a sample of wood, and it will have to be rejected.
The penultimate stage - installation of the bottom
And only after that, the hoops are coupled (if they are adjustable) or their final landing in place (in height).
The last step is wood sanding.
How to process the barrel from the outside is decided on the spot (“skin” and manually, sanding / machine), but after that it is desirable to cover the container with beeswax (thin layer). This will provide additional protection for the tree from external factors.
Good luck, beginner coopers!
An oak barrel is a great thing for a person. In it you can salt vegetables, make wine, moonshine, cognac. At worst, just sit until it hits, like some, a great idea. No wonder in the old days the manufacture of barrels was the lot of real masters. We continue to tell you about the development of which you can do in the country. Next up is cooperage.
Unlike many endangered professions, such as saddler, lamplighter or carriage maker, coopers are quite 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 deliveries. The cost, depending on the volume, ranges from several hundred to tens of thousands of rubles.
But, of course, the craving of a Russian person for things made with his own hands cannot be defeated by anything. Therefore, if you decide to make the barrel of your dreams on your own, 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, first you need an oak tree. Moreover, not the first one that came across, but more or less adult, with a trunk diameter of 40-60 cm. Some specimens can be rejected even at the inspection stage. So, the characteristic tuberosity on the trunk testifies to the defeat of the giant by tobacco rot.
We also “weed out” twisted and knotty trees. In cooperage, only “tulka” 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.
Making staves
Now for some theory. The barrel consists of wooden parts, staves, tightly fitted to each other and tied with metal hoops. And the final quality of the entire product directly depends on how accurately the manufacturing technology of these elements was observed.
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 a size? Cut on it the previously prepared oak round timber. It is good when the farm has a hydraulic cleaver. Well, if not, the oak log is split into sectors using the old-fashioned method, using wedges. The result should be 8 radially chipped ingots.
Now we cut the core and soft "white" fabric on a circular saw. From the resulting blanks, we plan out even boards of the same thickness on the thickness gauge.
Ready? And now ... put all this beauty in piles somewhere under a canopy. And leave it for at least a few months. And better for a year - a good oak barrel is not made in an hour☺. During this time, the sun and wind, without creating unnecessary stresses on the wood, will remove excess moisture from it. For now, you can work on grapes (for the Moscow region, by the way, there are excellent varieties, we will definitely tell you about them somehow). When the blanks are dry, you can continue. Using an electric 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 blanks is crimped in the middle by a curved plow. Less than a millimeter is enough, and when necessary, the rivets will bend in the right place. We give the outer face the shape of an arc, the curvature of which is determined by a special pattern. Its radius depends on the radius of the produced barrel. The tool is easy to make yourself. The result should be a product the same as in the figure.
On average, a barrel will need from 25 to 30 staves.
Making a hoop
When the rivets are prepared, you can do the hoops. You will need a narrow strip of 2-3 mm iron, slightly longer than the circumference of the core.
Twist it into a ring and fix it at the ends with rivets. The hoop is almost ready. Slightly flare the inside with a hammer - and you can put it on the skeleton. For a small barrel, you will need two pairs of hoops. Not less! What if some ring will not withstand the fermentation of your beer?
While working with iron, make a couple more metal staples. They will then serve as "clothespins".
Barrel assembly
Rivets are prepared, hoops are ready. It's time to collect it all in a pot-bellied barrel. Take the finished ring and fasten the ends of two or three rivets in it with clothespins in arbitrary places. The design will resemble a stool. In this position, fill the entire perimeter of the hoop with rivets. When the last plank is in place, tap the metal belt with a hammer to fit the pieces tighter.
But before putting on the second hoop, the tree will have to be heated and steamed. It is done like this. We take out our semi-finished product to fresh air and install it with the “socket” up. A small metal urn filled with wood chips is placed inside. We kindle a fire in it. While the fire is burning, moisten the wood liberally with water. This will keep it from burning and add flexibility to the boards. After half an hour of such a “bath”, throw a noose on the end free from the hoop and pull it off quietly with a winch. In this place, haste is unacceptable. 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 start of the race.
As soon as the wooden fan closes, immediately stuff the hoop. Just do not forget the old Cooper's law: "The same place is not knocked twice with a hammer." In simple words, when upsetting the hoop, apply only one blow to each place. In no case do not hit there two or three times - you will split the tree.
When the metal belts are in place, the skeleton of the barrel ends up. The internal cavity is leveled with a special scraper and polished with sandpaper.
And now another trial by fire. In order for the tree to get used to its new shape, it must be burned. The scheme is the same - wood chips burn in an urn. Stir the fire constantly, otherwise the barrel will catch fire. There are no recipes here. If you set fire to the boards, the wine will take on the smell of burning. You finish the firing ahead of time, and the staves will break the hoop.
Manufacturing and installation of bottoms
At a distance of up to 2.5 cm from the ends of the core, select the so-called morning groove. The bottom will then be inserted into it. Previously, such an operation was trusted only to a special cutter, the morning man (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 bottoms.
To make them, you will again need rivets, only a little larger. They are connected into shields with steel nails without hats. By actually measuring the length of the morning 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 of the bottom with the skeleton looks like this.
To put the bottom in its place, the skeleton will have to be unforged on one side. Rivets by this time should already hold their shape. Insert the circle into the morning groove, put it in place with a mallet - and again pull the product with a hoop. If everything is done correctly, the bottom will not leak. Before repeating the operation with another bottom, cut a drain hole in it. Diameter - 32 mm. When everything is ready, we grind the barrel, giving it a marketable appearance, and prepare for soaking.
Soak
In principle, the barrel is already ready. On this one could calm down, but the tree is still too saturated with tannins and tannins. Therefore, you 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. Then drain the liquid, replace it with a cold one. It should stand in the container for a day, after which it must be replaced again. And so - for two weeks. Someone soaks the barrel with ready-made wine, someone with moonshine. Everyone has their own style. But it's worth starting with the water.
Now the barrel is really ready for wine. Or beer. Or moonshine with cucumbers - what do you choose? ..
What unites people with the surnames Bocharov, Bondarenko, Cooper, Tonnelier, Fassbinder, Kadar? That's right, their ancestors were the owners of the ancient and very respected profession of a cooper (cooper). The barrel is firmly rooted in human culture. From the names of the barrel came the designations of volume and mass - barrel and ton. And which pickles, herring or beer are the best? Well, of course barrel! The barrel is not so complicated in design, but it is fantastically difficult to make it right.
Initially, cooperage production was entirely based on manual labor. Nowadays, at the service of masters are machines with the help of which rivets are shaped, a rosette is pulled together, and hoops are upset. However, some operations are still performed manually, and for this they use tools that have existed for many centuries.
Cooperage products is a broader concept than a barrel. It includes tubs for salting cabbage, and wooden buckets, and gangs, and now fashionable fonts for different types of baths. And everywhere we are talking about a certain vessel, the walls of which are assembled from separate wooden planks, pulled together with hoops. But the barrel is clearly distinguished from this series by the complexity of manufacturing, and by its special properties. Let's start with the fact that it cannot be called a 100% carpentry product. The task of the carpenter is to prepare wooden parts of the desired dimensions, and then connect them using metal fasteners, spikes or glue. In a barrel, prepared wooden parts (they are called rivets) simply cannot be connected. The rivets are not only connected to each other, but also bent with great effort under the influence of high temperature, which softens the wood fibers. So the barrel is, in a certain sense, molded from wood. By the way, the technology of bending wooden parts under the influence of heat or steam was first worked out in antiquity during the construction of wooden boats and, apparently, only then was borrowed by coopers.
The first wooden vessels (like the first wooden ships) were dugouts. Under the influence of air and moisture, the hollowed-out vessels dried up and cracked, and perhaps it was then that our ancestors came up with the idea of assembling a vessel from segments with the correct direction of the fibers. 1. Preparation of staves. Different types of wood are suitable for the manufacture of barrels, but dense woods are preferred for wine barrels. Churak (a fragment of a tree trunk) is initially cut by a cleaver into four segments, and riveting is already made from them.
In a tree belly
Take a look at the giant cargo ship, on the deck of which metal containers with various goods are displayed several floors. The barrel has become the first sea container in history that can be stacked in the holds in the same multi-storey stacks. No barrel can take this, but a barrel can easily: thanks to its design, it can withstand very high pressure from the outside. The domed shape of the side walls ensures the transfer of a point load to the entire body of the vessel. It is also convenient to roll the barrel, and due to the small “contact spot” with the surface, you can change the direction of movement without much effort. "To steer" a vessel of the correct cylindrical shape would be much harder.
2. Assembling the outlet. Draft hoops are used to assemble the skeleton of the barrel. Due to their shape (wider in the middle, narrower at the ends), the staves connected in a circle form a structure that vaguely resembles a flower with divergent petals.
Particular importance is attached to the contact of the contents of the barrel with its wooden walls during the aging process. Not only well-known types of alcoholic beverages like wine, cognac, whiskey, Calvados, but also balsamic vinegar, as well as salted cayenne pepper puree, which after fermentation and aging becomes the basis for Tabasco sauce, ripen to the desired organoleptic conditions in barrels.
Initially, cooperage production was entirely based on manual labor. Nowadays, at the service of masters are machines with the help of which rivets are shaped, a rosette is pulled together, and hoops are upset. However, some operations are still performed manually, and for this they use tools that have existed for many centuries.
Even in Soviet times, barrels were made in our country a lot - they were the main container for fish, meat, pickles. Now plastic containers are used much more often, and the barrel has become, as they say, a niche product. In order to understand the technique of modern cooperage production, PM visited the production site of the St. Petersburg enterprise Vinstandard, which produces tubs, fonts and other wooden joys, as well as barrels for aging wine, the manufacture of which has special requirements.
3. Pulling and heat treatment. The rivets are pulled together to obtain a characteristic "pot-bellied" shape using a loop of a metal cable. To relieve stress in the wood, the core is heated several times with steam and fire.
“For a wine barrel, you need dense wood,” explains Vladimir Sysoev, general director of the company. - The lower the density, the more permeable the barrel to the environment, the more intense the gas exchange, and this can lead to premature deterioration of the wine. The ideal raw material available in our country is Caucasian oak. This tree grows in difficult conditions of rocky ground, puts down deep roots and has a very small annual growth. The width of the growth ring for the tree from which the wine barrel will be made should be no more than 2 mm. But there is one more subtlety: the so-called modular rays go from the core to the outer side of the trunk. These are channels through which tree sap moves, and if such a channel crosses the wooden wall of the barrel from the inside out, then over time the barrel may leak - in any case, the permeability of the wall for gases will increase, which is undesirable.
Freshly assembled skeletons of barrels still look rough. Only after the final processing (sanding, impregnation with wax) will these cooperage products take on a truly noble appearance.
Therefore, not sawn wood material, but chopped wood is taken as blanks for riveting. It is prepared so that the channels do not cross the strips in thickness, but remain mainly inside them. Chipped planks withstand three to five years in the air for high-quality natural drying - however, in our fast-paced times, there are ways to significantly speed up the drying of raw materials.
roasted flower
Then the usual carpentry work begins: with the help of tools and on machines, the planks are given the desired (and rather complex) shape. In the middle, the riveting is thinner and wider than at the ends: the narrower ends, after tightening, will form a narrow top and bottom of the vessel. In cross section, the riveting is not flat, but slightly curved, with bevelled corners, because it is to become a section of the cylindrical frame. As soon as the rivets are ready, installation begins. The ends of all staves prepared for one barrel are assembled into a circle and pulled together with a rough hoop. It turns out a “socket”, so named not in honor of an electrical outlet, but because of a distant resemblance to a flower with divergent petals. To make the socket look like a barrel, the rivets must be pulled off. For this, a loop of a metal cable is used, which is thrown onto the ends of the rivets.
4. Creation of the bottom. The bottoms of the barrels are sawn from a package of flat section staves. While the bottom is not inserted into the barrel, it is temporarily fastened (even adhesive tape is suitable for a small bottom). The edges of the bottom are processed under the morning groove.
The machine gradually tightens the frame, and at the same time bends the rivets (otherwise they will not converge). So the tree does not break for long, and therefore the contraction occurs in three stages, which alternate with the processing of the future barrel on fire or a steam bath. This softens the wood fibers and releases stresses in them. After completing these operations, the frame is fastened with draft hoops and once again warmed up on the grill, then leveled on the machine. Now the rivets finally take the required slightly curved shape.
5. Preparation of the groove under the bottom. The assembled skeleton of the barrel is subjected to two important operations: firstly, chime seams under the bottoms are milled in the walls, and secondly, a chamfer is removed from the edges of the skeleton to avoid cracking of the rivets.
Another crucial step is cutting out the so-called chime grooves for the bottom in the inside of the walls of the barrel (they are also made of rivets). If the bottom enters the morning groove loosely, the barrel will leak. If the groove is not bored enough, the bottom will not allow the rivets to close tightly (after all, this is an oak, not a linden - it is poorly pressed), which means that it will leak again. When the structure is finally assembled, its surface is scraped, and carefully fitted finishing stainless steel hoops are put on the barrel and tightly upset using a special machine. It remains to make a hole for the tap and treat the surface of the barrel with beeswax - for greater tightness and beauty.
6. Installation of permanent hoops. Rough hoops are being replaced by finishing hoops, which are usually made of stainless steel or galvanized iron. The tight fit of the hoops to the tree is the key to the strength of the vessel. Upsetting can be done manually or on a machine.
“Assembling a barrel according to a book is unrealistic,” says Vladimir Sysoev. “The possibility of a mistake lurks at every step. He gave more heat when tightening the barrel - the barrel was charred, gave little - did not relieve tension. The barrel stood for a couple of months and fell apart. If the staves are placed arbitrarily, and not alternating planks with the opposite direction of the fibers, the barrel is also unlikely to live for a long time. There are many technological subtleties here that can only be comprehended by experience.”
The best brands of cognac, wine, liquor, rum, whiskey are aged in wooden containers. In the household, barrels, 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 the aging of products, while giving them original aromatic and taste properties. An oak barrel can be made with your own hands, if you carefully read the step-by-step guide for making this necessary product.
There are only a few high-level professionals, but this does not mean that the work cannot be done. Requirements for the manufacture of the desired container at home are different. It is enough to make a design that can withstand moderate loads during operation. The cooperator must have skills and knowledge in the following areas of activity:
- Joinery. The main operations are performed by the techniques, tools used in this business;
- 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: riveting, bottom, hoop;
- General concepts of wood heat treatment. In cooperage, it is important to choose the correct hot working mode during assembly (if the riveting has a significant bend), and then fire the finished product.
In the classical production of wooden containers, glues and metal fasteners are not used, with the exception of external hoops. All connections are made by precise fitting of parts. Slots, gaps that make the product unsuitable for solving the tasks are not allowed. A well-made barrel, tub after assembly without soaking should have the necessary tightness. In some cases, small leaks are allowed if the wood dries out, which are easily eliminated by moistening and swelling of the natural fiber.
The principle of manufacture and details of cooperage products
The technology for the production of wooden containers requires precise, step-by-step operations, from the selection of raw materials to the decorative finish of the outer side of the product. To make an oak barrel with your own hands, you need to know what it consists of:
- Frame. It is assembled from prepared wooden blanks - rivets:
- Hoops. Made from metal strip. The exact diameter is determined in each 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 detail is made by a set of wooden blanks assembled in a single plane, then a circle cut out according to a template with the necessary tolerance for a snug fit to the barrel body.
It is important to follow the exact recommendations of professionals at each stage of work. A cooperage product of satisfactory quality cannot be made by violating even one point of technology. The step-by-step production process is as follows:
- The choice of wood for riveting, bottom;
- Drying, testing for suitability, rejection of low-quality blanks;
- Making staves, bottom, hoops;
- barrel assembly;
- Burning;
- Finishing grinding, decorative finishing of the front part (if necessary).
The geometric dimensions of the riveting in each case are original, depending on the height of the barrel, the degree of bending of the workpiece, its width, the bevel angle of the end part for a tight fit with the neighboring element. You should exactly repeat the dimensions indicated in the existing drawings, or, having knowledge of the spatial construction of complex figures, independently determine the necessary 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, because in addition to strength, 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, give pickles, alcoholic beverages unique taste and aromatic features.
Experienced coopers choose raw materials when the tree is still in the vine. It is specially cut down and subsequently cut into the necessary blanks. The lower part of the trunk comes into play, on which there should be no branches, visible bumps and bends. Usually it is 4-5 meters from the root, with a plant age of at least 100 years. It is difficult to fulfill these conditions at home if the master is not a native forest dweller. Therefore, the visible qualities of the fiber become the criterion for choosing wood for riveting. The requirements are:
- No knots:
- The inadmissibility of the oblique layer;
- Cracks, natural defects, voids;
- Variety.
The barrel in our time not only has a practical function. Today, for storing liquids or something else, they are used in warehouses, in wine cellars and so on. For decorative purposes, they began to be made relatively recently. With skillful processing, they can be used to decorate a garden plot, as well as in the form of furniture: chairs, tables, bar counters, etc.
Even a well-worn barrel can be restored and used for other purposes. For this, of course, you need a fair amount of imagination. You also need to take into account its condition so that the material is not too dry from time to time, otherwise all efforts will come to naught in the very first time of its operation. There are actually quite a few ideas on how to turn such a container into something more functional or beautiful. For example, in the garden you can break a mini-flower bed on it, and on several levels. Or make an interesting table or bench. You can even organize a fountain in them, only it will not last long if the wood is not properly processed: under the influence of water, it can quickly lose both its aesthetic appearance and strength. Some craftsmen adapt the barrel for a washbasin: for this, a sink is inserted into the upper part, and a pipe is installed inside the barrel.
How to make a wooden barrel with your own hands
Before you start making a barrel with your own hands, you need to decide on the material. Usually used for this purpose? do-it-yourself barrel
Before you mount the barrel, you must first make the frets. These are wooden boards that are sawn from a tree trunk. They can also be made by splitting wooden blocks. Sawn, as a rule, are stronger than chipped because it is not always possible to split the log correctly, and because of this, part of the strength may be lost.
It has long been customary to fasten the frets into a single structure using metal hoops, which are made of durable sheet steel. To make the barrel even more durable, you can additionally nail them. The number of hoops depends on the height of the barrel, but, as a rule, there are at least three of them.
The last stage is the installation of the bottom. After it is installed on the owl, a hoop is put on for fixing, which is also additionally nailed for greater strength.
How to make a bar at home from an old wooden barrel
In fact, there are a lot of options for barrel minibars. It can be a variant with a front door, and opening from the top, and with an open interior space with shelves for storing drinks. Which one is considered the best is hard to say. It all depends on taste preferences.
barrel bar Before proceeding with the manufacture of a bar from a barrel, it is necessary to clean the old wood. This must be done both inside and out. Before that, you need to remove all hoops, except for the one that holds the bottom. They then put on quite simply, and you can move them down to the desired level with a hammer. Then the edges are aligned on the side of the bottom, on the other side. We leave one part open for now. Further, the hoops are treated with a special compound so that subsequently the metal does not rust. If you need a front hole, mark the location and cut it out.
