Manufacturing of tubs. Barrel manufacturing technology. Self-preparation of rivets for tubs

For the construction of a bath room, you can choose traditional version- cut down a small one or build a steam room frame technology. A bathhouse looks much more attractive and original - a barrel made with your own hands from specially prepared boards. Since many homeowners are interested in the method of assembling a house adjoining structure, we suggest considering the manufacturing procedure in this article.

Choice of design and dimensions

The building is similar to a barrel, not only externally, but also constructively. The building consists of the following elements:

• end walls round shape, knocked together from tightly fitted boards - analogues of the bottom and lid of the barrel;
• side walls assembled from longitudinally laid thick boards with special recesses (following the example of a log house);
• external ties of steel strip or cable, reminiscent of barrel iron hoops;
• supports for horizontal installation of the assembled body on the ground;
• elements of internal arrangement - oven, shelves, partitions with doors (if necessary).

Steam room, washing room and dressing room in the form of a classic round barrel

Reference. There are also more complex designs, made in the form of a rectangle with rounded corners or an oval, shown below in the photo.

First of all, it is necessary to decide on the design and layout of the bath rooms - the future dimensions and basis of the structure depend on this. Please note important point: the side walls are recruited from solid boards made specifically for the bath, so the length of the structure directly depends on the length of the lumber.

The design and internal layout of the barrel is developed depending on the type of bath chosen and other wishes of the homeowner as follows:

A beginner who decides to independently build a bath in the form of a barrel is not recommended to start with large structures equipped with several internal partitions. Make a one-room sauna 2 m long - if desired, it can be loaded onto a trailer passenger car and take to a place of rest near the reservoir.

Lumber harvesting

Bars and boards for a bath, made in the form of a barrel, must be sawn from hardwood- aspen, linden and so on. Of conifers, it is allowed to use cedar and larch, which are resistant to temperature extremes and moisture. Pine and spruce, when heated strongly, release resin, whose drops can burn people in the steam room.

Advice. If the choice of wood is limited only to conifers, select boards without knots, which are sources of tar secretions, for the lining of the upper part of the hull.

To make a bath-type "barrel", purchase the following timber:

• timber with a minimum section of 10 x 10 cm for supports;
• a board 45-50 mm thick and 10 cm wide is used to assemble end and side walls;
• a wooden door 0.7 x 1.8 m with a box (you can buy a ready-made one or make it yourself from a 50 x 50 mm timber and 2.5 cm thick boards);
• lumber for the manufacture of shelves and a lattice pallet.

The number of boards on the end walls of the barrel is calculated as follows: the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe circle is determined, the resulting value is divided by the width of the product and multiplied by a safety factor of 1.2. Do not forget to add the bars - power jumpers that connect the boards to each other in the process of panel assembly.

The timber of the side sheathing is calculated by the circumference divided by the width of the board. Use a safety factor as the wood must go through tongue and groove trimming on the woodworking machine.

Note. On sale it is not difficult to find ready-made kits for assembling baths - barrels of various sizes and layouts. But often the quality of these products does not match their cost.

What else is needed in the process of building a round bath:

• metal ties - steel cables or strips;
• fasteners - galvanized screws and nails;
• compositions for external and internal processing of wood - antiseptics, varnishes;
• materials for the manufacture of the roof - shingles, plywood, beams and roofing (common options are shingles or corrugated board);
• bath stove of appropriate power, calculated according to the volume of the steam room;
• chimney pipes - sandwich;
• special lamps and switches for saunas, non-flammable cables.

If you intend to use the barrel year-round, it is worth making external insulation. A suitable heat-insulating material is mineral wool, polymers are not recommended.

Wood processing

Since the walls of the bathhouse are joined in a special way - like log cabins, all boards need machining cutters on the machine, it is unrealistic to manually cut semicircular grooves. The developer needs to contact the woodworking workshop and provide sketches with the parameters of the blanks. The exact dimensions of the ridges, grooves and profile of the cutter are indicated in the drawing.

To facilitate further construction works, past the trimming of the workpiece, process in advance according to the instructions:

Advice. The surfaces of the blanks that go outside and inside the barrel, cover with different protective compounds. From the inside, apply a special product for baths and steam rooms.

After painting, stack the boards to dry in a stack, laying thin strips between the tiers. How to lead preparatory work, look at the video:

End wall production

As mentioned above, a barrel - a bath is made by hand from two (at least) round edge elements connected by profiled sheathing boards. Therefore, construction begins with the assembly of the ends of the barrel using panel technology.

Lay 2 support beams on a flat area and begin to assemble the back blank wall in the following sequence:

Advice. It is not necessary to tie the blanks into a shield with two long jumpers. Put 4 crossbars shorter and closer to the edge - the product will look more aesthetically pleasing.

When assembling, the groove of each subsequent beam is put on the crest of the previous one, as builders of log houses do. This connection method prevents precipitation from entering the joint. Adjust the boards tightly, if necessary, use clamps and wedging.

The front wall is made in a similar way, only the base is door frame. Twist it with self-tapping screws from the bars, after fixing it on the supports with clamps and aligning the diagonals with a tape measure. To draw a circle, nail a temporary board to the box, on which the center is located.

After sawing off the excess, sand the ends of both products and install the door. It does not hurt to additionally fix the extreme boards of the wall with long furniture screws screwed into adjacent shield bars. How the round walls of the barrel - baths are made, look at the video:

Sauna Assembly Instructions

The structure needs to be assembled locally - it is quite cumbersome to move. But first you need to make stands - legs located under the extreme walls and partitions. For manufacturing, make the most of the scraps of materials left after assembling the front and back walls. One of the design options is shown in the photo.

Installation of a bath barrel is carried out in the following order:

An important point. A variant of the traditional Russian bathhouse with a sink is installed at a slight slope towards the back wall. A hole is drilled at the bottom of the floor to drain water.

The finished body of the barrel should be protected from precipitation so that the upper part of the bath gets less wet. Here it is recommended to apply the budget method:

1. Stuff flexible wooden planks across the body with nails at intervals of 0.5-0.6 m.
2. Pin sheets of thin plywood to the top of the planks.
3. Cover the improvised base of the roof with shingles.

If it is necessary to make insulation, the shingle is nailed to the body in several layers - the gap between the plywood and the outer surface of the barrel will increase. There you can put mineral wool covered with a diffusion membrane. The procedure for assembling the bath is shown in detail in the next video:

Arrangement works

After installation is complete, go to interior arrangement barrels. In the bath, the following work remains to be done:

1. Make a ventilation hole in the back end, closed with a lid.
2. Install the oven using the metal stand. Protect the wall section behind the stove with fireproof materials - roofing steel or mineralite slabs.
3. Arrange a chimney from a sandwich pipe by making a hole in the ceiling. How to properly install chimney pipes, read.
4. Make shelves and a floor drain (lattice tray), attach the elements to the walls.
5. Lay the wiring, install a bath lamp and a switch.

Under the barrel - a Russian bath, it is advisable to dig a pit in advance to drain water through a hole in the floor. There is another way to drain - connect a flexible pipe to the drain, laid to the storm drain or other place.

Conclusion

If you have decided to independent production baths - barrels, please be patient and have plenty of free time. The author of the videos presented here spent about 1 month building from scratch. Add time to deal with unexpected delays and inexperience issues. There is a way to reduce the construction time - to order a ready-made kit to the masters, and to do only the installation yourself.

Structural engineer with over 8 years experience in construction.
Graduated from East Ukrainian National University. Vladimir Dal with a degree in Electronic Industry Equipment in 2011.

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The main outer dimensions of the barrel are:

• height;
• bunch diameter;
• head diameter. The internal dimensions of the barrel are:
• the height between the bottoms in the center;
• bunch diameter;
• bottom diameter. Between the height of the barrel and its diameter in the bunch and between the diameters in the bunch and at the bottoms, there are certain and regular relationships, the observance of which guarantees the strength and impermeability of the product. The shape of the barrel depends on the choice of these ratios: the smaller the difference in diameters, the closer the shape of the barrel to the cylinder; the greater the difference between the diameters at the bottoms and in the bunch, the more convex the barrel. In cylindrical barrels intended for the transport of fish products, the height is less than the diameter.

  If we take the head diameter as a unit, then the recommended ratios, proven by many years of practice, for the main sizes of barrels will be as follows:

• head diameter d = 1.0
• bunch diameter D = from 1.10 to 1.25
• height h \u003d from 1.10 to 1.50 For liquids such as beer, wine, etc., the most convex barrels are used, in which the greatest draft of the hoops and the screed of the core are possible, which is especially important when the barrel dries up and the hoops re-settle .

  For the manufacture of a barrel of a certain capacity, the following are used external and internal dimensions (mm).

• For the manufacture of barrels, rivets of the following dimensions are required (mm) Filler holes are drilled or cut out before the dona is inserted. In a bulk barrel intended for drinks, in the widest riveting, a hole is drilled with a flat drill with side edges beveled by 1 - 2 degrees. Flat drills various sizes can be made from a saw blade with a thickness of 1.5 - 2 mm. To obtain plates of the desired size, deep risks are applied to the saw blade along the ruler with a scraper or file. You can also use a hard steel cutter - a claw. A holder is machined from a bar with a diameter of 8 mm. From one of the ends of the rod, a cut is made along the axis to a depth of 14 mm. At a distance of 7 mm from the edge, a through hole is drilled perpendicular to the plane of the cut. The same hole at the appropriate distance is drilled on the plate. The plate is connected to the holder with a rivet or screw, for which the thread is cut. The drill is sharpened and inserted into the drill chuck.

  Due to the beveled edges of the drill, the hole in the riveting is conical. Drilling is stopped when the cutting part of the drill comes out on the opposite side of the riveting.

  A cork or plug is usually cut out of linden. Linden wood is soft, homogeneous, does not swell or shrink. These are the properties that are needed for a wooden plug, since it must not only securely close the drain hole, but also be easily removed from the sleeve.

  Water is poured into the finished barrel and checked to see if it is flowing. Water can seep only the first minutes. Then the wood will swell and tightly close the cracks. Most often, water seeps between the bottom and the rivets. If the barrel flows for more than 30 minutes, it is necessary to caulk it with barrel grass.

  Barrels made of linden, aspen, alder or spruce are enough to scald with boiling water. Oak barrels contain a lot of tannins. Therefore, it is specially processed. First, they are poured for three weeks cold water. After a day, the water is changed and its color is observed. In the first days, the water will turn light brown, then it will become lighter. When the water becomes clear and clean, it is replaced with a warm aqueous solution of baking soda. To prepare a solution, 20 g of baking soda is dissolved in 1 liter of water. After 30 minutes, the barrel is washed first hot water, then cold. After such processing, any liquids can be stored in it.

  If you need to measure the volume of a non-standard barrel, you need to take glass or metal utensils, for example, a 12-liter bucket or 1-2 three-liter jars, and pour water into the barrel with certain utensils. In addition, quite often, in the manufacture of cooperage utensils, a formula is used according to which the volume of the barrel = 3.2 hRr, where h is the height, R is the radius in the widest part and r is the radius in the narrowest part of the barrel.

  Knowing the relationship between the main dimensions of the barrel and the formula for determining its internal volume (capacity), it is possible to set the dimensions of the barrel for a given capacity and to determine its capacity by the size of the barrel.

  According to the same data, it is possible to determine the volume of wood in the barrel, which is equal to the volume of wood in the skeleton of the barrel plus the volume of wood from both bottoms. In barrels for food products it is not allowed to use pine wood for barrels for melted butter, frozen berries, fruits, dairy products, margarine, cooking fats and canned fruit and vegetable products to protect these products from possible transmission of a specific resinous odor to them.

  For foodstuffs that can be processed, washed, boiled or steamed before being eaten, such as corned beef, intestines, etc., pine barrels are allowed.

  Pine barrels made as container products are fired on the inside with steaming and washing or coated with enamel before bottling. Any barrel must be made of wood of the same species, since in this case the riveting of the core and bottoms works under the same conditions, resisting the forces acting on them for compression, bending, as well as shrinkage and swelling of the wood.

  The assembled barrel must have the correct shape - without distortions, depressions and bulges. Donya should be inserted so that the chamfers fit snugly into the morning groove all around along its entire depth. The rivets of the upper and lower bottoms must be located in the same direction. End hoops must be filled in level with the ends of the riveting; the locks of all hoops must be located on the same frame riveting.

  To pack liquid products in barrels, 1 - 2 filling holes are drilled - cylindrical or conical. For example, in an oak barrel for beer, a filling hole with a diameter of 50 mm is drilled in one of the staves, into which a metal sleeve is screwed flush with the stave, into which a conical wooden cork is inserted. Another hole with a diameter of 25 mm is drilled and burned in the middle of the length of the extreme riveting of the bottom at a distance of 50 mm from the core. Holes are drilled in rivets with a width of at least 100 mm, corks are made of soft wood.

  In the manufacture of food barrels with filling holes, the outer diameter of one hole should be 40 mm, the second - 20 mm, the inner diameter of the conical holes should be 5 - 7 mm less than the outer one. Cork should be 40 mm long, straight-grained softwood, free of knots, chips and cracks. The outer diameter of the plugs should be 5 mm larger than the hole diameter, the inner diameter should be 2 mm smaller than the hole diameter.

  A barrel made for food products must not have an extraneous odor that is not characteristic of the type of wood from which it is made. Inner surface must be clean.

  The barrel is checked for leaks by filling it with water through the spigot or through the open bottom. Fully filled with water, the barrel rolls in different directions.

  Barrels with a capacity of 15 liters or more are produced. For example, for fish 15 l, 30 l, 50 l, 100 l, 120 l, 150 l, 250 l, 300 l; for grape wines with a capacity of 50 l, 100 l, 150 l, 200 l, 250 l, 300 l, 350 l, 400 l, 450 l, 520 l, 600 l, etc.

A do-it-yourself wooden barrel made will allow not only to save money, but also to get a high-quality elegant product. Barrels made of wood were used by our ancestors for pickles, making alcoholic beverages and storing water, which proved their versatility. Therefore, they are still successfully used today. 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 refine the product to the desired state, then you can make your dream come true and make a wooden barrel yourself. Cooper is a difficult profession that came to us from past centuries. Today, there are few masters of this craft, and there are even fewer high-class specialists in the manufacture of barrels, so free-selling barrels are a rarity, 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 necessary for making a barrel with your own hands, you need to purchase cooperage devices:

• carpenter's workbench, fitted for the manufacture of barrels;
• long jointer and circular humpback planer;
• a device for planing edges on the boards, a barrel will be assembled from them;
• equipment for tightening rivets (pillar gate, chain coupler and frame gate machine);
• skobelya, plow, bracket;
• templates and patterns of own production;
• clamps made of wood, metal (for assembling the skeleton of the barrel);
• morning time - a device that allows you to cut the morning groove, where the bottom part is inserted.

You need to understand that it is quite difficult to purchase these tools, wood and fixtures on the market, since almost all coopers make machines and layouts on their own, taking into account their height. This is done by trial, no instruction will help.

What you need to know

The main difference between cooperage products is the assembly from pre-prepared wooden planks(stave). The size and shape of the barrel is completely dependent on pre-prepared boards, the configuration of which is set by the cooper. And the initial quality of wooden barrels depends entirely on the chosen wood. For this reason, it is not enough for the master to have a thorough knowledge of the instrument. You need to know the subtleties of each type of wood from which wooden products will be made.

An experienced master will not make a barrel for honey from oak blanks, because he knows that in such a container, honey will quickly acquire a completely different flavor 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 pulls together 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 from metal or wood. As the experience of the craftsmen shows, metal hoops are much stronger, and less time is spent on manufacturing than wooden hoops. But some masters still prefer a wooden hoop, giving the barrel a more beautiful look.

Details and the principle of manufacturing products

Many people think that becoming an amateur cooper is very difficult, and dreams never come true. But if you are not used to backing down from your decisions, then you need to decide which option will be your first job.

In total there are 3 types of products: conical, cylindrical and parabolic. Each corresponds to a certain type of rivets:

1. Products made in the form of a quadrangle, the long sides of which look like a parabola, are used for dishes with convex edges: barrels or barrels.
2. The circuit in the form of a cylinder is simple. It is easy to make and connect it with hoops of the same diameter, but when the wood dries out in this design, the riveting ceases to perform its functions. This is the main reason why such containers are practically not manufactured.
3. The shape of an elongated trapezoid makes it possible to obtain durable dishes when stuffing staves. Therefore, this type of product is often suitable for the manufacture of tubs, tubs and other utensils.

As an experimental sample, it is better to stay on a simple small barrel.

Many are interested in how an ordinary tub is made. The barrel is the simplest cooperage product, having achieved a result in its manufacture, you can switch to more complex types dishes, for example, make a wooden barrel with your own hands.

The principle of creating a product consists of the following steps:

• production of blanks;
• assembly of dishes;
• Finishing work.

The reliability of the structure will depend on the quality of the riveting blank, therefore the most suitable are blanks from logs of sawn wood, gouged out with an ax. For barrels, the most common wood option is oak, as it splits easily in the radial direction. The process of making rivets from different breeds trees practically does not differ, single-row or double-row punching method is used. For large decks, a two-row method is used, and for thin chocks, only a single-row method is used.

The procedure for punching out rivets is as follows:

1. The ridge must be carefully split in half so that the split line runs strictly along the center of the workpiece.
2. Each chopping block must be split in two to get 4 equal parts.
3. Next, you need to split the wood for harvesting in half again to get 8 equal parts. Usually for small logs this is quite enough. It is 1/8 of the part that will become the riveting blank.
4. If the ridge is thick, a two-row knockout is used, i.e. each of the 8 parts splits into 2 equal parts along the growth rings.
5. The resulting logs must be split in the radial direction. The result will be 1-2 smaller blanks and 2-5 for larger blanks.
6. Next, you need to cut off the wedge-shaped protrusions and young wood from the side of the bark. Only after that it is possible to dry the workpiece in an open area or resort to artificial drying.

Making staves

In order to make rivets from the prepared material, you must first prepare the drawings and a template for a specific product in accordance with the desired shape. To get ready-made rivets, you will need:

1. Run markup.
2. Make a rough processing of each of the blanks. Namely, round the outer surface, bevel the edges with an ax.
3. Perform finishing with a planer, constantly monitoring the result with a template.
4. Plane the inside of the workpiece with a humpback staple.
5. Trim narrow edges, then level their surface with a jointer.

In the process of making barrels, the cooper has to make tightening hoops on his own. The easiest way to get a hoop is from steel tape. To do this, you need to determine the diameter of the container and add double the strip width to the resulting figure. Next, using a hammer, you need to bend the tape into a ring, drill 2 holes and fix 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

1. Plane the edges of the boards, fix on a workbench and divide the radius into 6 parts.
2. Within the circle, mark the places for installing the studs.
3. Pull out the boards. Drill holes in the edges, drive wooden or metal studs into them.
4. Dock all the elements tightly and secure with studs, after which you can cut the bottom.
5. Cut out the bottom, leaving a small margin.
6. Chamfer with a straight plow and knock down the hoop, loosening the fastening of the rivets.
7. Insert the bottom into the chime and turn the tub upside down.
8. Drop the hoop.

It remains to make a lid on the tub and, after checking the design for strength, proceed to use the container. If the work done was to your liking, it makes sense to continue working on the manufacture of barrels.

Preparation of moonshine and alcohol for personal use
absolutely legal!

After the demise of the USSR, the new government stopped the fight against moonshine. Criminal liability and fines were abolished, and an article prohibiting the production of alcohol-containing products at home was removed from the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. To this day, there is not a single law that prohibits you and me from engaging in our favorite hobby - making alcohol at home. This is evidenced by the Federal Law of July 8, 1999 No. 143-FZ “On Administrative Responsibility legal entities(organizations) and individual entrepreneurs for offenses in the field of production and circulation of ethyl alcohol, alcoholic and alcohol-containing products” (Collection of Legislation Russian Federation, 1999, N 28, art. 3476).

Extract from federal law RF:

"The effect of this Federal Law does not apply to the activities of citizens (individuals) who do not produce products containing ethyl alcohol for the purpose of marketing."

Moonshine in other countries:

In Kazakhstan in accordance with the Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan On Administrative Offenses dated January 30, 2001 N 155, the following liability is provided. Thus, according to article 335 “Manufacture and sale of home-made alcoholic beverages”, illegal production for the purpose of selling moonshine, chacha, mulberry vodka, mash and other alcoholic beverages, as well as the sale of these alcoholic beverages, entails a fine in the amount of thirty monthly calculation indices with confiscation of alcoholic beverages , apparatus, raw materials and equipment for their manufacture, as well as money and other valuables received from their sale. However, the law does not prohibit the preparation of alcohol for personal purposes.

In Ukraine and Belarus things are different. Articles No. 176 and No. 177 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of Ukraine provide for the imposition of fines in the amount of three to ten tax-free minimum wages for the manufacture and storage of moonshine without the purpose of sale, for the storage without the purpose of sale of apparatus * for its production.

Article 12.43 repeats this information practically word for word. “Production or purchase of strong alcoholic beverages (moonshine), semi-finished products for their production (mash), storage of devices for their production” in the Code of the Republic of Belarus on Administrative Offenses. Item number 1 says: "Manufacturing individuals strong alcoholic beverages (moonshine), semi-finished products for their manufacture (mash), as well as storage of devices * used for their manufacture - entails a warning or a fine in the amount of up to five basic units with confiscation of these drinks, semi-finished products and devices.

* It is still possible to purchase moonshine stills for home use, since their second purpose is to distill water and obtain components for natural cosmetics and perfumes.

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 control quality, wholesale supply. 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 my own hands, nothing to win. 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 pulled together 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 cut off the core and soft "white" fabric on 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, 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. For the tree to get used to its new form, 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, just a little large sizes. 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? ..