Small barrel with your own hands. How to make a wooden barrel with your own hands: choice of wood and stages of work. What wood is best to make a barrel from?

Do-it-yourself oak barrel, product drawings. Before you begin production, you need to familiarize yourself with GOST 8777-80, which establishes the basic dimensions and parameters for wooden barrels in jellied and dry containers.

Let's look at an example, manufacturing a 15-liter container, which will consist of twenty rivets.

Riveting.
Dontse.
Morning hoop.
Fart hoop.

The entire manufacturing process can be roughly divided into four stages.

Stage I. Dimensions and parameters of the barrel.

To do this, depending on the volume of the product:

From table No. 1, select the main parameters and dimensions

From table No. 2, select the sizes of the rivets

From table No. 3, select the number of metal hoops

Using simple geometric constructions, we draw the riveting.

The unbent length of the riveting is determined by the formula: l = 2πRα/360

We substitute the values and get l = 2 x 3.14 x 1282.04 x 15.69 / 360 = 350.9(mm)

We determined the dimensions of the blanks for riveting, which were 18 x 46 x 351(mm)

Stage II. Making the bottom.

We accept the sizes indicated in tables No. 1, No. 2.

Connection of riveting to the rail.
Marking and cutting out a circle.
Chamfering.

Stage III. Making a hoop.

Applying markings to sheet metal.
Uncover sheet metal thickness 1…2 (mm).
Connecting the hoop with rivets.
Forging a hoop.

Stage IV. Sequence of assembling an oak barrel.

Attaching three studs to the hoop and inserting the rest
Installation of a neck hoop.
Steaming the rivets.
Tightening the rivets with a collar.
Installation of the morning hoop.
Assembly of the frame.
Bottom insert.
Installation of the morning hoop.

An oak barrel, made with your own hands according to drawings, is an excellent vessel for aging alcoholic beverages for many years and storing pickles for the winter.

Wood species - which one to choose for making a barrel

Elasticity, flexibility in bending.
Easily processed with household tools.

When the temperature rises, it will resin abundantly.
A characteristic smell that will be constantly present inside the barrel.

Recommendation

Juniper

Strength combined with ease of processing.

It bends perfectly after the wood is well steamed.
Contains fungicides that protect structural elements barrels from rotting.

High cost of material. To make a high-quality barrel, you will have to use wood that is at least 80–100 years old.

According to reviews from those who have already made a wooden barrel with their own hands, you can also use such types of wood as linden, ash, aspen, and mulberry.

The choice of material is a rather specific issue. If a barrel is needed to store stocks of wine (cognac, vodka), sourdough (pickling) of cucumbers, watermelons, apples, and so on, then best tree for her - oak. This is undeniable. But it is hardly right to spend such wood (considering its cost) on making a container with your own hands in which you are supposed to store cement, sand, and bulk products. Other “simpler” breeds are also quite suitable for these purposes.

The procedure for calculating barrel parameters

Based on its purpose and installation location, dimensions and design features are selected. There is some confusion with the concepts in everyday life. In principle, both a tub and a barrel are containers of a certain capacity that are assembled by hand from separate boards (rivets, frets in the language of professionals). The only difference is in geometry. The pictures explain everything well.

What is defined for a drawing:

Barrel height
Diameters (large and small).
The bending angle of the rivets and their number.

To simplify calculations, it is advisable to focus on standard data that is used by specialists when drawing up drawings of barrels.

Do-it-yourself wooden barrel - instructions

The algorithm of actions is clear from the figures, which indicate the main stages of the work.

But some explanations will not be superfluous.

Staves can be made from logs or boards. The first option is preferable, although doing it yourself is much more difficult. The fact is that only the lower part of the tree trunk, from roots to branches, is used to make a barrel. You will have to chop the logs (blocks) yourself.

What's special?

The ax blade must hit exactly in the center, along the diametrical line. This will make the work somewhat easier and will allow you to get high-quality rivets in larger quantities (per each deck).

Boards are obtained by splitting and hewing lumps. Wood processing is always carried out along the grain, and not across it.

It is advisable to prepare at least 2 - 3 spare rivets.

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 approximately 0.2. That is, if you plan to assemble a barrel with your own hands from 10 mm boards, then they are trimmed so that in the lower and upper parts of the container their thickness is at least 12.

Drying staves

Various sources indicate periods that are measured in months, or even years (up to 3). On this point, it is necessary to focus on local conditions, the initial moisture content of the wood and its porosity. Recommendations for artificially accelerating this process when doing work yourself are not entirely useful. Without practice, it is difficult to determine the optimal mode for the same electrical cabinet and the time of exposure of wood in it. Experienced craftsmen It is advised to wait until the moisture evaporates from the wood naturally.

You just need 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 is not made “in one day,” and this must be understood.

If we're talking about about containers for household purposes, then you can dry the rivets even on the stove. But in any case, a barrel is not assembled from raw boards. Within a couple of weeks (due to wood shrinkage), cracks will begin to appear between them. Verified.

Cooperation Basics

In order to master the work of a cooper and make your first tub, you need not only desire, but also a room for work, the necessary materials and tools, and equipment.

Reviews from the network about oak barrel

beech. Less wear-resistant, but looks beautiful, and as an alternative, suitable

conifers trees (spruce, cedar, pine). They are soaked for a long time before use because they release a resin that affects the taste. But the soaking procedure does not always help. But they are great for swimming pools and baths. Spruce barrels are suitable for pickling mushrooms.

Types of cooper's utensils and corresponding types of staves

All dishes made by a cooper are made from special small boards of wood called staves. The dimensions and configuration of such dishes depend directly on the size of these rivets.

The following types of staves correspond to different types of cooperage utensils:

What tools are needed?

To make wooden barrels with your own hands, you need to purchase a certain list of tools and accessories:

workbench for carpentry,
cooper's jointer. You need to choose a longer one,
circular humpback plane,
devices for planing the edges of boards,
frame gate machine (for tightening rivets),
chain tie,
post gate,
plow,
stapler and stapler,
patterns and templates. Determine the shape and dimensions of the barrel being manufactured,
metal and wood clamps,
morning. Necessary for cutting the morning groove into which the bottom is inserted,
heels made of metal, wood or combinations,
tension for the hoop,
staples for cooperage,
planes and hatchets different sizes.

How to make a pickle jar

It is best to start working on cooperage products with a tub, since its manufacturing technology is simpler. The most common sizes of tubs (bottom diameter/height/top diameter in mm):

280x300x260 with a capacity of 12 liters (bucket),
360x390x340 for 36 liters,
420x460x400 for 42 liters,
440x500x420 for 72 liters,
460x560x440 for 96 liters,
540x570x520 for 120 liters,
600x700x580 for 180 liters.

For the first production it is better to choose a tub small size.

Preparation of rivets

It is best to make rivets from the lower part of old trees (river). Firewood will also be quite suitable. Raw straight-grain wood is most suitable for rivets.

When making rivets, the following steps are performed:

The chock is chosen 5-6 cm longer than the height of the rivets. Then they carefully chop it in half with an ax. Each half, in turn, is pricked in half again, and so on until they receive the blanks required thickness. During such splitting, it is important to hit the core and it is good if there are core rays along which you can make splits. Since you can’t just hit the core with an ax, it is installed at the end of the block in the desired direction and hit from above with a check mark ( wooden mallet large sizes). Thin lumps are usually split into eight pieces (single-row method). From thick lumps, rivets are prepared in two rows (two-row method). To do this, 1/8 of the part is pricked in half along the annual ring. From half of the smaller size, usually 1-2 pieces are obtained, and from the larger part, 5-6 pieces are obtained.
A wedge of wood is trimmed from the workpieces from the core side and bark with young wood from the outer part of the workpiece. As a result of such splitting, the boards should be rectangular in cross-section. Their thickness should be 2.5-3 cm, and width - 8-10 cm. For the bottom, planks 15 cm wide are needed.
The workpieces should be dried well. Usually 3 months of summer or a month in a room with good ventilation is enough for them.
Make a template, taking into account that the taper (ratio of bottom to top) of the shell is 1.08, but for greater decorativeness it is sometimes increased to 1.7-1.8. An old rivet from a tub can also serve as a template. The number of rivets for a tub or barrel is calculated using the formula 3.14*L/W, where D is the diameter of the bottom of the tub, and W is the width of the bottom of the stave. Since the width of the rivets may differ slightly, the easiest way is to calculate the perimeter of the bottom (3.14*L) and try them on to a piece of the appropriate length.
Make markings on the board.
The edges are beveled with an ax, and the outer surface is slightly rounded.
The outer side is processed on a cooper's bench using a straight plow. In the presence of carpentry workbench you can use a plane. During this process, you must constantly refer to the template.
Planing inner part fillet rivets. You can use a humpback skobel. The smaller the diameter of the product, the deeper the gutter.
Use an ax to cut off the narrow edges of the planks, controlling the dimensions using a template.
Align the same edges with a jointer. The precision of the jointing determines how tightly the rivets will fit together.

Frame assembly

Now we proceed to assembling the product in the following sequence:

They make the skeleton of the future tub by attaching three support rivets to a smaller hoop at an equal distance from each other.
Other rivets are inserted between them, filling the entire structure. If the last plank does not fit, it should be trimmed to the required size. If it is smaller than necessary, then you should use the supply of boards for rivets and make a rivet of the required size.
Using a heel and hammer, the hoop is pressed down so that all the rivets fit tightly together.
Pull the lower hoop onto the resulting structure, which has larger size. Perform the previous operation to close the elements.
The resulting frame is trimmed. To do this, mark a mark along the edges with a thicknesser to indicate the excess to be removed. Then, according to this risk, all excess is sawed off with a saw.
Using a special scraper, all irregularities inside the product are scraped out, paying special attention to the joints between the rivets.
The edges of the resulting product are planed with a humpback plane.
Straight plows are chamfered from the inner sides along the edges to prevent chipping of the ends and to facilitate the process of inserting the bottom.
Using a chisel, a special groove (morter) of approximately 3 mm is cut at the bottom from the inside, into which the bottom will be inserted. You can use a cutter.

Frame assembly

Barrel soaking

Before use, an oak barrel should be soaked to get rid of excess tannins, which can affect the taste too much. To do this, follow these steps:

The product is being filled hot water(about 80 °C).
The barrel rotates in different directions so that the entire interior wood soaked in hot water.
The water is drained.
Filled to the top cold water for a day.
The water is replaced with fresh water and this is repeated for two weeks.

Examples of creative ideas for using barrels

Nowadays eco-style is in fashion, so the use of wooden barrels in the interior is very important. Such cooperage products are often chosen when selling design ideas for the dacha. So you can make a mini-bar for alcoholic drinks from barrels. To do this, you can cut out part of the barrel from the side and attach a handle on top.

You can make a table for a living room or veranda from a wooden wine barrel. For this purpose, it is cut into two equal parts and filled with hay or other materials suitable for the design. Round glass is placed on top. Under the glass you can place various objects that suit the interior (corks, cones, shells, etc.). Instead of glass, you can use wood. It will also look very stylish.
You can use this product as a floor flowerpot for indoor plants, as well as for growing flowers on personal plot. If you lay the barrel on its side and place it on wooden supports, it can be used as a dog house. It will perfectly protect the watchdog from rain and cold.

You can make an unusual sink. To do this, you need to select the appropriate washbasin and place it on top of this cooperage. It will look good if the bathroom or kitchen is made of wood or materials that imitate it. If the barrel is cut into pieces (about 15-20 cm) and placed on the wall, and placed inside wooden partitions, you will get an interesting organizer for storing various items.

Musicians can transform a kick drum into a stylish drum by stringing the appropriate material. If you cut off part of the barrel from the side and hang it on ropes by the edges, you will get a cute cradle for your baby. Wooden products can also be converted into garden furniture- table, armchairs, chairs, etc.

If you decide to take up cooperage, you will be able to provide yourself with necessary and beautiful household items that can be used for various purposes (for pickles, wine, decoration). This matter may become profitable business, but it is quite complicated and should be started by a person who has certain skills in working with wood.

How to make a wooden barrel with your own hands, drawings and detailed description on production.

The figure shows a section of a barrel:

1. Lid.
2. Small hoop.
3. Boards (rivets).
4. Big hoop.
5. Bottom.

The manufacturing process of the product in question can be divided into several stages.

MATERIAL SELECTION

The most common material is oak. Oak barrels are good for aging alcohol and storing pickles for the winter. You can also use cherry, mulberry, linden, aspen or ash.

CALCULATION OF THE DESIGN

Any design is determined by the following dimensions:

Height (H) – 600 (mm)
small diameter (d) – 420 (mm)
large diameter (D) – 465 (mm)
number of rivets (n) – 20
angle of inclination of the side faces to the center of the regular polyhedron (φ) – 360/20/2 = 9°

Using geometric constructions we obtain the dimensions of the riveting.

Reference:
To significantly facilitate assembly, it is advisable to make the rivets at the top and bottom thicker than in the center by 1/5. If the thickness of the riveting in the center is 10 (mm), then at the edges it will be 10 + 10/5 = 12 (mm).

PREPARATION OF MATERIAL

The lower part of the trunk, sawn into logs, is well suited for blanks. Chocks of the required length must be split into boards in the direction of the grain. Send the prepared boards to dry in a ventilated area for a period of two months.

Reference:
To ensure that the boards are well-ventilated, it is better to fold them in a checkerboard pattern.

MANUFACTURING HOOPS

Hoops can be made from hot-rolled tool strip 3 x 30 (mm). Perfect option, if you bend the strip to , but you can also do it manually. Drill two holes and connect the ends of the hoop with rivets, as shown in the figure.

BOTTOM ASSEMBLY

We will assemble the bottom from boards and slats. We mill grooves in the boards along the entire length of the end surface. We will insert the planks into the grooves and press the boards together.

From the resulting shield, cut out the bottom of the estimated diameter.

We grind the end surface at a slight angle.

How to make a wooden barrel with your own hands, the drawings are at hand, all the parts are made, you can start assembling the product:

1. We assemble rivets around the perimeter of the small hoop, using small homemade clamps.
2. After inserting the last rivet, push the hoop as far as possible towards the center of the barrel length.
3. Reheat in hot water for 15...20 (min) lower rivets.
4. Place the prepared structure inside a large hoop, preferably on a flat surface.
5. We tighten the structure with twine and move the large ring to the center of the barrel.

6. We continue to tighten the structure with twine, after the rivets are completely pulled together, we put a small hoop on top of them.
7. The frame is assembled and must be burned from the inside using any of the proposed methods: gas-burner; blowtorch; small fire.
8. Align the edges of the barrel.
9. Loosen the lower metal ring, insert the bottom into the grooves of the rivets, and push the small metal hoop back to its original position.
10. Do the same this operation with lid.
11. Check the product for leaks and, if necessary, seal the cracks with barrel grass.
12. Sand the outer surface of the product and cover it with a thin layer of beeswax.
13. If the barrel is made of oak, it must be washed with water until the drained liquid becomes clear. This procedure can take up to two weeks.

As you can see, making a wooden barrel with your own hands is quite possible.

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(Last Updated On: 09.19.2017)

How to make a wooden barrel with your own hands modern society? Surely, today you won’t have to hollow out a product from a solid tree trunk, as it was before. The modern barrel is very different from its predecessors. The most important step towards its production was the appearance of metal hoops, which pulled the conical dishes very tightly together.

What wood is best to make a barrel from?

oak tree

It pricks perfectly and, when steamed, acquires extraordinary flexibility. It is this quality that is highly valued. But, most importantly, oak wood contains preservative substances called tills, which protect the wood from rotting. Therefore, products in oak barrels can retain their properties for many decades.

Cedar

Also used in the manufacture of barrels. Its properties are soft, flexible and lightweight. Previously, it was believed that cedar itself contained substances that destroy microbes. Therefore, you can make a cedar barrel with your own hands, in which drinks will be stored for a very long time. for a long time and not spoil.

Juniper

The inside of the trunk has red-brown wood, and the sapwood is much lighter, yellowish in color. The wood of this tree is characterized by density, strength and heavy weight, and is very easy to process - it cuts well and does not crack.

Pine wood

It has average characteristics - low hardness and average strength, high elasticity, bends well. Due to the specific tar odor, food products are not stored in pine barrels.

How to make a barrel at home

The question of how to make a wooden barrel with your own hands worries many craftsmen who would like to master new secrets of working with wood.

To make cooperage products, rivets or frets are used. These are rectangular wooden planks obtained by sawing the butt or trunk of a tree into separate parts. Another way is to split decks or logs.

Sawn frets are very durable. Chopped ones are more difficult to make. The most important thing is to be able to split the wood so that the rivets are clean and even, and there is little waste of wood chips left.

To make a wooden barrel with your own hands, you need to correctly split the wooden block in the direction of the radius, preferably getting into the core. If the ax hits slightly to the left or right of the core, then the chip line is called tangential. In this direction, almost all tree species split much harder.

Ordinary blocks will also be used to make rivets. Of these, you need to choose only those where the layers are located lengthwise and not across. The finished frets are dried and neatly folded.

How to make screed hoops

Iron hoops began to be used a very long time ago. Initially, they were used to tighten buckets consisting of sixteen rivets. Moreover, for strength, they were additionally pierced with nails.

Nowadays, hoops are cut from durable sheet steel, then blacksmiths decorate them with all sorts of stamped designs. The finished hoops are coated with bitumen varnish or drying oil. If the drying oil layer is dried blowtorch, you will get a beautiful light brown color.

How to assemble a conical barrel base

First, we will try to connect the prepared side rivets and temporarily tighten them with permanent hoops. To do this, attach two or three initial rivets to one of the hoops (it is better to take a small diameter one). Carefully holding each inserted board with your hand, we fill the entire space with the missing rivets. You need to insert the last rivet especially carefully. It may turn out that there is not enough space left for it. Take it and trim it a little, attaching it evenly to the rest of the rivets. This type of work is usually done with two or three assistants.

Barrel assembly diagram:

Using a hammer and a wooden drift, you need to hammer the hoop so that it sits tightly on the base of the barrel. A hoop of larger diameter is also settled.

The last operation is installing the bottom. It is carefully placed in the groove, the barrel is turned over and a large hoop is secured. If the connection is strong and reliable, then the temporary hoops are replaced with permanent ones.

Now you can imagine how to make a wooden barrel with your own hands, using only the material that everyone has on the farm.

Especially for the “Craftsmen” website, Vladimir Nikolaevich shares the “technology” for making a 25-liter oak barrel. Read on to learn how to make a barrel with your own hands.

How to make a barrel with your own hands

In the spring, I brought material from the forest, sawed it and covered it with sawdust in the basement, leaving it to dry out all summer. Soon we will have a wooden barrel with our own hands.

A block of wood d 50 and 42 cm high was carefully split into four parts. From quarters, carefully tapping the butt with a mallet (photo 1), pinned 14 blanks for rivets about 3 cm thick.

Important! The split should be radial so that the tree does not crack in the future.

I used homemade shavings to process the workpieces on all sides, making them slightly concave (photo 2). I used a plane to make it smooth, while simultaneously narrowing it at the top and bottom. (photo 3).

To ensure the uniformity of barrels of a given volume, the master made two mounting hoops (the middle one has a slightly larger diameter). There is also the main hoop-shutter, which Vladimir Nikolaevich guards like the apple of his eye: he does not hit it with a sledgehammer and constantly checks its evenness with a pattern drawn on the table, because the future “face” of the barrel depends on the correctness of the circle.

Three rivets were secured to the shutter using special brackets made of hoop iron. (photo 4). I continued assembling the barrel, filling the perimeter. Lightly tapping the hoop with a hammer, I brought it down and checked whether the edges of the rivets met tightly. Then I placed the middle hoop (photo 5).

On a note. To achieve contact between the rivets along the entire length of the side surface, you need to accurately calculate the width and number of blanks based on the future diameter of the homemade barrel.

After attaching two hoops, the remaining part of the barrel must be pulled together. Coopers have a special device for this - a yoke. But Vladimir Nikolaevich came up with his own original structure for the screed, which he calls “goat”.

I attached a winch to a U-shaped metal frame turned upside down. I placed the barrel on the crossbar, wrapped the loose part of the frame with a cable and carefully pulled it off with a winch. (photo 6).

Placed the third hoop on a wooden barrel (photo 7) and took her off the “goat”.

Use a special chisel with a groove on the flat end to lower the hoop as low as possible (photo 8).

I put the barrel in the barn to dry, heating the stove for no more than two hours every day.

Two weeks later I continued working. I cleaned the outer sides of the product with a straight plow. I made 4 hoops of two sizes from black painted steel. Having removed the middle mounting hoop, I filled the permanent hoop at a distance of 10 cm from the bottom. Trimmed both sides of the barrel with a jigsaw (photo 9). I installed two more hoops at the top. Leveled the inner surface with shaped plows (photo 10). Using a homemade chisel with four teeth from a saw, I cut a groove 5-6 mm deep inside around the circumference (photo 11).

I assembled the bottom for the barrel from prepared planks, connecting it with stainless steel galvanized nails without heads.

To prevent leakage, I pre-lined the ends with cattail strips (photo 12)- the first secret received from the craftsman Belov.

I calculated the size of the bottom as follows: I marked a point near the groove and, having estimated the approximate radius of the barrel in this place, used a compass to mark six radii along the groove, as if inscribing a hexagon in a circle. To start and finish exactly at the intended point, it is necessary to select the radius empirically. The size thus obtained was marked with a compass on a shield assembled from boards (photo 13). I cut it around the intended circumference using a circular saw. (photo 14).

Clamping the bottom in a homemade stand (a vice for suspended support), I used a plow to make a bevel along the entire perimeter (photo 15).

I put a soaked white bun in the groove - the second secret from Belov against leaks.

DIY oak barrels video

Isn't it an interesting evidence of the technology of storing beer in barrels?

How closely the cooperage industry was closely connected with the life of the people can be judged by proverbs and sayings. So, they said about the insufficient satisfaction of a person’s spiritual needs: “A person is not a barrel, you can’t fill it, but you can’t plug it with a nail.” Or about a dying person: “A man is not a barrel, you can’t put it together by frets, you can’t tie it with hoops.” At the same time, wanting to emphasize the spiritual poverty of someone’s human nature, emptiness, worthlessness, they said: “I ring a lot in an empty barrel”; “I’m overfed, I’m a barrel of a barrel”; “The devil go to hell” (an ugly drinking binge began).

In our time, the cooperage industry, which once flourished, in individual workshop few people do it, although the demand for cooperage utensils is considerable. Yes, this is understandable. Cooperage products, varied in shape and size, purpose and use, and even in artistic performance, finds the widest use. It is used for fermentation and pickling, for winemaking and brewing, for storing all kinds of food and non-food products.

From one old book on the cooperage craft, we present an excerpt indicating the spread of this business in our country at the beginning of the 20th century: “Cooperage is one of the largest branches of handicraft industry in Russia. It is difficult to find such a corner in provinces with forests, where the peasants were not engaged in the manufacture of one or another wooden utensils. Cooperage has been carried out since time immemorial and passes from generation to generation: from grandfather to father and from father to son, providing a fair income, which is a great help to the peasant in his farm.”
So, the reader has already guessed that cooperage is worth engaging in if there is a forest. But before we talk about raw materials, let's dwell on some general concepts.

Barrel and its components

Of all the cooperage products, the barrel was, is and remains the most common, which most often comes with a convex frame. To create a wooden barrel, stave boards, or frets, are used. Of these, in turn, three sets are formed. To make the first main set, intended for the side wall, or frame of the barrel, curved long and narrow stave boards are used. The other two sets are bottoms, or bottoms, of a flat shape, mostly round. In order for the bottoms to stay in the frets, a fold is chosen at both ends of the frets, called a morning groove, or simply a morning. It includes transverse boards that make up the bottom. The side boards themselves (rivets, frets) are smoothed along the side edges so evenly that they fit very tightly against each other. This tight fit is helped by hoops that tighten them - iron or wood.

A barrel, according to V.I. Dahl (from “barrel”, “boschisty”, “side”), is a knitted hoop wooden vessel consisting of frets, or rivets, two bottoms embedded in chimes, and hoops (Fig. 1) . It is clear that this wooden vessel got its name because of the sides that protrude to the sides. By the way, this design feature a barrel with a convex frame (as opposed to a straight one) gives it special strength. In large barrels, if necessary, a hole is drilled, a tap (screwdriver) is inserted into the hole or plugged with a so-called nail (plug).

Open cooperage products (tubs, buckets, tubs, vats, etc.) have one bottom. Their side frames are straight walls located at an acute, right or obtuse angle relative to the bottom plane.

Dimensions and volume of barrels

The length dimensions of staves and bottoms of barrels range from 60 to 180 cm. For staves 180 cm long, take a ridge of the appropriate length (with an increase of 4-5 cm), with a diameter of 40-50 cm. From such a ridge, 24 staves should come out with a width of 14-16 cm and 4 cm thick.

For rivets 150 cm long, take a ridge with a diameter of 36-40 cm. The number of rivets from such a ridge is 24, the width of each is 10 cm, the thickness is 4 cm.

For staves with a length of 120 cm and 90 cm, a ridge with a diameter of 28-36 cm is suitable. The width of the staves is 8 cm, thickness is 3 cm.
For rivets 60 cm long, a ridge with a diameter of 18-26 cm is taken. The width of the resulting rivets will be 6-8 cm and the thickness 1.5-2 cm.

The ridge is marked as shown in Fig. 2, o. Then every sixth part is divided by four. They are already making rivets from them required sizes, making sure that the sapwood and heartwood are chipped away. In the case when the ridge is larger than what we need to make the appropriate size of rivets, it can be marked in another way - two-row or three-row (Fig. 2.6."

For sawing logs into rivets, the following schemes can be proposed (Fig. 3,4,5,6).

For the bottoms of 180 cm barrels there is a ridge with a diameter of 56-60 cm and a length of 94 cm. The width of the boards is 30 cm, the thickness is 3-4 cm.

To make a 40-bucket oak barrel, you need staves 90-120 cm long, 8-14 cm wide, 2-3 cm thick.

For ordinary tubs, rivets are prepared 60-90 cm long, 8-12 cm wide. 4 cm thick.

For small barrels and buckets, staves are made 60-90 cm long, 10 cm wide and 2-3 cm thick.

The most popular barrels are those with a height of 50 and 70 cm. In order to more economically consume materials, it makes sense to make barrels in pairs. One is 50 cm high, the other is 70 cm high. In this case, waste from a larger barrel can serve as blanks for a smaller one.

Because of ovoid Calculating the volume of a barrel is difficult. However, in practice, coopers have found a way to quickly and fairly accurately calculate this volume. So, to calculate the volume of a barrel, it is necessary to measure its height from one mouth to the other, as well as the diameters in two places: in the central part and in the bottom. It is better to take measurements in decimeters (remember, 1 dm = 10 cm), since 1 dm3 is equal to 1 liter. Each measured diameter is then squared.

Next, the larger number obtained is doubled and added to the smaller one. The result is multiplied by the height of the barrel, and then multiplied again by 3.14. The product obtained from the multiplication is divided by 12 to obtain the volume of the barrel in liters. To find out how many buckets are contained in a barrel, its volume in liters is divided by 12 (the usual volume of one bucket in liters).

For example, let’s calculate the volume of a barrel with a height of 70 cm (7 dm), a large diameter of 60 cm (6 dm), and a small diameter (bottom diameter) of 50 cm (5 dm). Let's make the calculations:

1) 5x5 = 25 dm2;
2) 6x6 = 36 dm2;
3) 36 x2 = 72 dm2;
4) 72 + 25 = 97 dm2;
5) 97 dm2 x7 dm = 679 dm3;
6) 679 dm3x3,14 = = 2132 dm3;
7) 2132 dm3: 12 = 148 dm3 = = 148 l;
8) 148 l: 12 = 15 buckets.

In literal expression, the formula for calculating the volume of a barrel will look like this:

(d2 + 2D2) h - n
where: V is the capacity of the barrel in liters;
d is the diameter of the barrel bottom;
D - diameter of the central part of the barrel;
h - barrel height;
l - constant value 3.14.

What shape and how many rivets are needed?

To make it easier to find answers to the questions posed, the cooper draws circles around the center and bottom of the future barrel on a sheet of cardboard or paper (Fig. 7). Moreover, you can draw on a scale of 1:1. Then the calculations are simplified. Or you can draw with a corresponding reduction of 2, 4, 5 times, etc. And then when making calculations it is necessary to take this decrease into account.

So, we know that in our example the large diameter is 60 cm. The bottom diameter is 50 cm. We draw the corresponding diameters on the drawing. If we only know the diameter of the bottom, then without much difficulty (by adding 1/5 of the bottom diameter) we can obtain the diameter of the central part of the barrel (abdominal). And vice versa. If we know the large diameter, then we can calculate (subtracting 1/6 of the large diameter) the diameter of the bottom.

There are two ways to set the number of rivets. Or, knowing the width in the center of one given stave, we line it up in the drawing along a large circle required amount of this value. Or we divide this circle by a certain number of times (in our case by 16) and thus find out the width of the widest part of the riveting. Knowing the radius of the large circle (30 cm), using the well-known formula (2tcr) we find the length of this circle: 2x30x3.14 = 188.4 cm.

Now we divide this length by the number of rivets (16). We get 11.7 cm. Rounding this number, we get 12 cm. This will be the width of the central part of the riveting. If we draw the appropriate number of radial lines in the drawing (in our case 16), then here in the drawing we can measure the width of the end of the riveting. It will be approximately 10 cm. That is, the width of the end of the riveting will be less than the width of its central part by 1/6 of the last size.

In our drawing we can also establish the curvature (convexity) of the rivets and the amount of bevel of the side edges. We can increase or decrease the number of rivets. The dimensions of each individual rivet will change accordingly. Note that with a given barrel height of 70 cm from top to bottom, the actual length of the riveting should be approximately 84 cm (taking into account bending and trimming).

The thickness of the riveting in this example will be 2 cm (60-50 = 10 cm; 10:5 = 2 cm). Thicker V is the total volume of the cylindrical product; d - bottom diameter; i is a constant value equal to 3.14.

The internal volume of conical cooperage products is calculated using the truncated cone formula:

V = l h (D2 + d2 + Dd).

The letter designations in this formula are the same.
Making staves or frets
Let's talk about making rivets step by step.

1. Cutting rivets. Different types of trees are used to make staves. Depending on the purpose of the barrels, the appropriate wood is chosen. For example, oak barrels are considered the best. They are mainly intended for storing alcohol, cognac, beer, wine, etc. White oak is usually used to make staves for barrels used in winemaking.

By the way, the use of oak barrels in winemaking is very often a necessary technological condition for obtaining the appropriate drink. For example, the alcoholic drink rum (45% alcohol) is obtained from aged rum alcohol, which occurs as a result of the fermentation and distillation of sugar cane juice. Aging rum in oak barrels is an indispensable technology.
If they are going to store water in a barrel, then the staves for it are made of pine, aspen or spruce. To store milk and dairy products, juniper and linden are used in barrels.

There are certain requirements for the original wood. It must be dry and without defects: without dullness, wormholes, sprouts, curls, overgrown knots, without so-called shells. There is nothing to say about rotten and broken wood. It is clear that this is not suitable for making barrels.

To make rivets, it is best to use wood split along the core layers. Rivets made from such planks are the most resistant to bending. Usually they are hewn out with a special cooper's ax. But they also make rivets sawn. If extruded staves are intended for barrels, in which various liquids are then going to be stored, then sawn staves are used for barrels for bulk materials- sand, flour, etc.

It is best to make rivets from wood that has just been cut down. And the most suitable harvesting time is October and November. Trees are felled to the ground using a saw or an ax. And then they cut it into rivets (Fig. 10). That is, first the tree is cleared of branches, then sawn into ridges so that, according to Alina, they are 2-3 cm higher than the future rivets or even more. Next, the ridges are split into pieces along the core rays. Sometimes they also prick on growth rings. Then the riveting turns out to be convex-concave (Fig. 11). But it is easier to prick along the core rays. It is convenient to chop with a splitting axe, which has a thick butt and a sharp and wide wedge.

From Figure 10 you can see how this work is done and in what sequence. Depending on the thickness, the ridges are split first into halves, then into quarters, and into eighths. If possible, they also prick in sixteenths, etc. From the resulting minimal part of the ridge, the sapwood and core are chopped off - that is, the loosest layers of wood along with the bark using a wedge-shaped curved knife (see Fig. 11). Now the resulting middle part is pricked along the growth rings in two or three. The newly obtained parts are called gnatin-nik. In terms of width, they try to get it 1 cm larger than the width of the future riveting (Fig. 12). But now the gnatinnik is cut into rivets. It is clear that the thickness of the workpiece must exceed the thickness of the future riveting: after all, wet wood, when dried, will be reduced by 12-20%. The cooper knows from experience what size to make the blanks depending on the species and moisture content of the forest.

We have already seen schemes for single-row, double-row and three-row cutting of ridges. Note that the most waste is generated by single-row pruning. This is clearly visible in Fig. 13 when comparing it with Fig. 2,b,c.

Dry wood splits more easily. Naturally, it is easier to saw rivets from dry wood. The rivets are cut in such a way that they are wider in the middle than at the ends (more precisely, they are then trimmed off). But at the ends their thickness is slightly greater than in the middle part. Thickening at the ends is necessary for cutting out the chimney, that is, a groove for the bottom or bottom. For correct and faster cutting of rivets, use a template. The latter can be a ready-made riveting. You can also make a template from plywood in the form of a finished stave.

2. Drying staves. Before finishing the rivets, they are dried. The rivets are folded in twos crosswise. Natural drying can last up to a year. Therefore, the cooper usually makes himself a supply of staves for this time. You can also dry the rivets in a special dryer - indoors heated and with air circulation.

If a cooper makes barrels, as they say, for his own needs, then there is no need to build a special drying room. After all, to make one or two barrels, staves can be dried at home over a stove or without it, if the house is not rural or country house. When drying, make sure that the rivets do not crack, especially at the ends. To do this, the latter are smeared with clay or paint or even sealed with paper. Drying time can last from one day (for example, in a hot stove) to several days (in a warm room).

3. Processing of rivets. After drying, the boards of both staves and bottoms are processed, that is, they are given exactly the shape that is necessary for the manufacture of barrels.

Usually the rivets are made 2-3 cm longer than necessary, so after drying they are shortened at both ends bow saw. If a barrel is made with a concave bottom, then the rivets are not shortened, but cut down, leveled in the saddle, when the barrel is assembled, tied with hoops and a place for the bottom has already been marked.
Dried and shortened rivets are processed inside and outside. Each cooper processes them differently. As a result of processing, the rivets must be very precisely adjusted to each other.

At the beginning of processing, the stave is cut off from outside with a special cooper's ax (it is ground on one side). The cooper works on a block of wood (Fig. 15), holding the rivet with his left hand and chipping with his right. You can cut not only with an ax, but also with one of the plows or mowers on the cooper's bench (Fig. 16, 17). The cooper's movements during this work must be leisurely, very calculated, so as not to spoil the riveting with an excessive flake or cut. As a rule, the cooper uses mowers (Fig. 18), gentry (Fig. 19) and plows (Fig. 20) for subsequent finishing of the staves. The hewn stave outside and inside is checked against the template. When the planing is completed, they begin planing the rivets. For this purpose, first take a plane with a convex sole and an arc-shaped blade. They plan the rivets, and then slightly smooth the latter with a straight plane, removing small shavings. The final finishing and processing of the staves is carried out when they are already assembled in the barrel. In Fig. 21,c shows a riveting of the shape required for the manufacture of convex barrels. The form may be the same as shown in Fig. 21.6", This riveting in the middle is much wider than at the edges. Bevel the riveting towards the edges very carefully. This work can be done by eye, but it is better, all the time checking with the template, marking the irregularities with a pencil. In performing this work you need not only accuracy, but also great precision... If it is not there, then during assembly the sides of the rivets may not fit together, and then there will be no hassle in fitting.

About internal processing rivets Let's say a little more in detail. During this work, first of all, the thickness of the riveting is outlined over the entire surface, especially carefully in the necks, that is, at the ends. The thickness is marked using a template - a scriber (Fig. 22). The scriber is placed in the middle of the riveting so that the tip a is on the very edge of the riveting. Then the template is guided along the entire length of the riveting. The point b will mark the thickness of the neck. It is clear that when making barrels of different sizes, the thickness of the staves will also be different. And therefore, the cooper should have several scribers. A stave with a marked thickness is strengthened in a machine and all excess wood is trimmed off with an ax or plow.

The last operation for processing rivets is their jointing. As we have already said, the outlines of the future barrel are directly related to the shape of the stave. If the side lines of the riveting are straight, then the barrel will also be straight. The most durable and convenient shape of the barrel is convex. For it, the riveting is made as shown in Fig. 21. That is, its middle is wide, the ends are narrowed. The most common ratio of the middle and ends of the riveting, as we have already noted, is the following: at the end the riveting should be narrower or less than the middle by 1/6. For example, if the width of the stave in the middle is 12 cm, then at the ends it will be 10 cm. The ratio may be different. Note that the greater the difference between the width in the middle and at the end of the riveting, the steeper the barrel will be at the sides.

Plan and joint the marked ribs of the stave with a plane and jointer, securing it in the ladle (Fig. 23). You can also perform this operation on a large barrel plane (Fig. 24). When jointing, the ribs are not jointed closely, but a small gap is made. That is, the edges of the staves are slightly beveled inward. When you tighten the barrel with hoops, the existing gap will disappear: the rivets will press tightly against each other.

Bottoms

These parts of the barrel are made from boards that are slightly thicker than staves. The boards are first planed with a plane and then jointed tightly together. Depending on the width of the boards and the size of the barrel, the bottom can be made of four, five, six, etc. boards (Fig. 25). It is more convenient to cut the boards for the bottom from one board. Since the bottom of the barrel has a round shape, the composite planks are selected to such a length that later, when making the bottom round, there will be less waste (Fig. 26). Bottom boards are usually planed from the outside. The inside is either not planed at all, or only slightly planed.

Hoops

They are made either iron or wood. Iron ones are made from strip iron, the width of which depends on the size barrels. Most often, the width is 3-4 cm. The ends of the strip iron are placed on top of each other and riveted. It is advisable to use iron hoops for large barrels. For wooden hoops, maple, oak, elm, beech, and ash wood are used. Some other durable and flexible wood is also used for wooden hoops - juniper, bird cherry, spruce, etc. For hoops, a young tree is chosen, which is pruned every 10-12 years - it is the most flexible. When harvesting wood for hoops, the following tools are used: an axe, a knife, a planer, a hammer, splinter wedges, or a hammer. It is good to prepare wooden hoops in late autumn or early winter. The bark is not removed from young trees or twigs. Depending on the thickness, each rod is split lengthwise into two halves, three or four parts.

To split into two plates, it is convenient to use a knife. In other cases, they use a chipping wedge made of hard wood (Fig. 27). A cut is made in the rod with a knife into three or four parts. Insert a corresponding splinter wedge into the cut and pull the rod over it. The latter is split into the number of parts we need. Most often, hoops are made from halves of a rod, which are bent around stakes driven into the ground in a ring (Fig. 28). The ends of the hoops are tied behind the stakes. Having fixed the hoops in this way, they are allowed to dry. But it is more convenient to use a special cone-shaped blank for bending hoops (Fig. 29). The upper part of this blank corresponds to small hoops, the lower part to large ones. Sometimes the blanks are steamed before being bent into hoops. To make bending easier, use auxiliary tools - a hammer or a special bracket driven into the wall or wooden beam(Fig. 30).

Assembling rivets

After the rivets, bottoms, and hoops are prepared, begin assembling the barrel. First of all, of course, the rivets are collected. But, before assembling them, the rivets must, as the coopers say, be drawn to each other, that is, adjusted, pressed. Draw using a regular compass, surface planer or caliper. Find the middle at the ends of each stave and mark it. Next, find the middle along the length of the rivet and, placing the point of the fixed leg of the compass here, draw an arc at the ends of the rivet with the other end. Having completed this operation with all the rivets, the neck line is thus found. It is along this that the chimes will then be used to insert the bottoms.

After drawing, begin assembling the rivets. First, take the head or end hoop (the one with which the rivets are tightened at the ends) and attach the sleeve rivet to it. This is the name given to the riveting in which the barrel sleeve will be located, if it is planned. The sleeve or regular first rivet is attached to the hoop using a clamp or a clamp similar to a clothespin (Fig. 31).

Let’s make a reservation: in cooperage workshops they begin to collect the skeleton of the barrel using a special working hoop. It is a metal ring made of round or strip iron 10-15 mm thick. The diameter of the working hoop is usually slightly larger than the diameter of the permanent one - after all, it is then removed, replacing it with the latter. Depending on the size of the barrel, cooperage workshops have several working hoops that duplicate the permanent hoops (head hoops, also known as neck hoops or end hoops, middle hoops, or abdominal hoops). They also use a safety hoop, which is essentially the same working hoop (Fig. 32).

So, let's continue talking about assembling rivets into a frame. The widest or main rivet is placed directly opposite the first rivet, and one more is placed between them on the sides at the same distance. The rivets are also secured with clamps or clamps. Such an arrangement of rivets will help to firmly hold the head hoop as if on four legs. Next, the remaining rivets are placed in their places. Then the clamps are removed and the head hoop is slightly lowered downward, while at the same time one or two neck hoops and one middle hoop are pushed onto the frame (it is also called the abdominal or fart hoop). This initial work of assembling the rivets into the frame can be done differently. That is, placing two rivets opposite each other, apply a hoop and install other rivets one by one, attaching them with clamps. Of course it's hard to cook rivets, which would fit together, as they say, without a hitch.

It happens that the last riveting turns out to be wider than necessary. Then one or two adjacent rivets are reduced in width. Or one wide one is replaced with two narrow rivets. In the event that the diameters of the edges of the barrel do not match, that is, one edge is wider or narrower than the other, two, three or several rivets are moved with their ends in reverse side. In this way, equal diameters are achieved at the upper and lower bases of the barrel. When all the rivets are arranged, the neck and middle hoops are put on, the frame is turned over and the rivets are tightened using a collar (Fig. 34) or a rope (Fig. 35). However, you need to be careful when tightening the rivets so as not to break any of them. It is best to tighten pre-steamed rivets. There are several ways to heat and steam the latter. In large cooperage workshops they use a specially designed brazier stove with a fire hood (Fig. 36). The principle of its operation is clear from the figure. For smaller workshops, we can recommend an iron barbecue grill (Fig. 37). The rivets are steamed using an iron round oven with an extension pipe.

The hollow (as coopers call the half-assembled frame) is placed on this stove. It is heated, and the rivets on the inside are pre-moistened with water. When heated, the rivets are steamed. After this, they become more bendable and less brittle. If the diameter of the barrel is smaller than our round stove, then the hollow is put on the stove pipe, having first removed one of its elbows, and then (after placing the hollow) putting it in place. Now the stove pipe passing through the hollow of the barrel will do the steaming work we need. The hollow itself is placed on stands, covered with iron lids on top and bottom. Each of the covers is cut from sheet iron in the form of two semicircles with similar semicircular cutouts for passage chimney. Again, generously spray the hollow with water before steaming, and during it. The heat from the chimney heats up the water, turning it into steam. Well, the latter does his steaming job. Each cooper decides how much to steam the rivets by experience. Typically this operation lasts 1-2 hours. Over-steamed rivets become too soft to bend. Under-spread rivets burst when bent.

The duration of steaming also depends on how much the rivets need to be bent. If we are making a small barrel with a slight bend in the rivets, then it is not necessary to resort to using an iron round furnace. You can also use an iron barbecue grill. Wood is lit in the barbecue. When hot smoldering coals are formed, it is placed in the middle of the hollow and the rivets are steamed. Of course, this work is done in some non-residential premises where there is free exchange with outside air. The steamed rivets are pulled together. This is done, as already noted, with the help of puffs and a collar or with the help of a regular stick and rope (twist). A rope loop is thrown over the neck part of the frame and gradually tightened. If the existing rivets are thick (as a rule, in large barrels), then use not one, but two, or even three puffs. Tighten gradually. First, the middle part is tightened, then the cervical part. It is useful to twist the hollow of the barrel first one way or the other, turning it like steering wheel at the car. This helps to make the rivet tie uniform. Sometimes one or the other rivet sticks out from the general row. It is straightened using a wooden hammer - a mallet. When the ends of the rivets come together tightly enough, hoops begin to be pushed onto the hollow of the barrel. First the large one (abdominal), then the cervical and head ones. These hoops are considered to be working hoops. Permanent hoops are fitted onto the barrel after inserting the bottoms.

After the rivets are pulled together on one side of the hollow, it is turned over and the rivets on the other end are tightened. The resulting object with the rivets tightened is rightfully called the frame of a barrel, or a bottomless barrel. This frame with working hoops is dried for several days or one to two weeks (depending on the drying conditions: near the stove or on outdoors). Then it is hardened from the inside, that is, fired. To do this, shavings are ignited in the frame. Next, the frame is rolled, making sure that the wood is not charred, but only slightly heated, acquiring a golden hue. This is what the old masters did. But it’s easier to singe the frame with a blowtorch, observing, of course, the rules fire safety. Firing or hardening is carried out so that the rivets in the frame become significantly stable in shape. In industrial conditions, hardening is carried out on a manga oven. Small barrels do not need to be fired. It is enough to dry them at high temperature, for example, in a Russian oven.

Conical frames (with straight walls) are not hardened at all, since their rivets do not have a bend along their length. After hardening a bottomless barrel, its hoops are upset, since during firing the wood softened, some of its moisture evaporated, that is, the rivets dried out somewhat. The hoops are pressed using a hammer and heel (Fig. 38, 39, 40). During this operation, the rivets are pressed tightly against each other with their ribs, leaving no cracks or gaps. All irregularities are simply crushed. Then they begin to trim the protruding ends of the rivets with a bow saw, placing the frame in the saddle (Fig. 41) or on the bench (Fig. 42).

How this alignment is performed can be seen from the last figure. Let us only note that the cutting is carried out so that the cut surface is inclined somewhat inward to the frame. Next, the chamfers are removed using a cooper's knife, a plow or a barrel plane. Chamfers or cuts are removed to half the thickness of the ends. Thus, any chipping of the ends of the rivets, their splitting into inside skeleton The ends of the latter, after taking the chamfers, generally become neat and beautiful view. Here we are once again convinced that beauty and benefit are not separable, they are very closely interrelated.

We are not touching the outside edges of the ends yet. We leave their finishing for later, when we finish making the barrel. Before cutting out the chimes and inserting the bottoms, the frame of the barrel is planed from the inside and outside. The fact is that after firing and settling the hoops, the edges of adjacent rivets often form protrusions (coopers call them sags). It is these sags that need to be smoothed out using plows. For external planing, a concave plow, scraper or plane is used, for internal planing - a convex one.

When planing from the outside, the hoops are temporarily removed one at a time. First from one end of the frame, then from the other. The cervical surface of the frame is especially carefully aligned from the inside. Only in this case is it possible to select a groove that is even in circumference and depth. And therefore, the insertion of the bottoms will be dense and durable. Sometimes this is limited to stripping the neck part at a distance of 10-15 cm from the edge of the frame.

After finishing the stripping, they begin to excavate the morning groove. This operation is performed in the morning (Fig. 43). And if the cooperage product is small and cleanliness and correctness of the notch are not required, then the chisel groove is selected with a comb (Fig. 44). In both cases, 3-5 cm retreat from the edge.

The mouth groove is chosen only on one side if a barrel is being prepared that opens from the other end. If you plan to make a blank, double-bottomed (closed) barrel, then a chisel groove is selected at the two ends of the frame. To perform this operation, the frame of the barrel is placed in the saddle or on a workbench. When cutting out a groove, coopers use a simple rule. The depth of the groove should not be more than half the thickness of the ends of the rivets, and the width of the chimney should not exceed the thickness of the bottom boards. On the contrary, the width is made slightly narrower than the thickness of the bottom by about 3-5 mm. This is the only way to achieve a tight fit of the bottom in the barrel and prevent a possible leak.

Now let's start making the bottoms. Although this has already been discussed above, let us recall that the bottoms are made of rivets-planks, different in width, but identical in thickness, tightly fitted and jointed to each other. The thickness of the bottoms usually exceeds the thickness of the side rivets. Depending on the size of the cooperage, the bottoms may consist of 4-6 planks, united into one shield. Before joining the planks into a single shield, each of them is carefully planed with a planer, scraper, or planer.

They also carefully, and maybe even more carefully, foot side faces. After this, the planks are clamped in a pincer (Fig. 32). You can first consolidate them using spikes. On the shield formed from the planks, clamped in the jam, a circle of the future bottom is outlined (Fig. 26). Attention - its diameter must exceed the diameter of the barrel in the chime by twice the depth of the chimney groove.

Now the excess parts of the boards are sawed off with a bow saw according to the markings made. You can first disassemble the shield. Or you can file it directly in the nip. External side The bottoms are carefully planed again. On the inside, the edges are trimmed off at the bottom. A compass is used to outline the boundary of this sloping chamfer. Its width is usually 4-7 cm.

It is necessary to remove this chamfer because the thickness of the bottom boards is greater than the thickness of the carbon groove. At chamfered the bottom will go into the morning and as it goes down the density of its contact with the carbon oxide groove will increase. Sometimes the chamfer is also removed from the outside of the bottom. But this chamfer is made small. Its width should be less than the depth of the morning groove. Then, after inserting the bottom into the barrel, the chamfer will be completely hidden.

Boards making up bottom, each has its own name. In a bottom consisting of 4 boards, the middle two are called main, and the side ones are called cuts. In a bottom of 6 boards, the middle two are also called main, the next two are side, and the outer ones are still cuts. The prepared bottom is inserted into the morning. It is difficult to insert the entire bottom. More often it is inserted with disassembled planks. First, one or two hoops are removed from the end of the barrel frame.

The rivets will come apart. Insert the bottom, starting from the outer (side) planks. The last middle plank is the most difficult to insert. They are inserted approximately in this order. First, insert one end into the morning groove. On the other edge, one or two rivets are bent so that it is convenient to insert the other end of the board into the morning. When performing this work, they use auxiliary tool: with cap pliers (Fig. 32), tension (Fig. 45). The rivets will separate somewhat when the bottom is inserted.

They are driven into place with a wooden hammer. Having inserted the bottom at one end of the barrel, insert it similarly at the other. The second bottom is more difficult to insert, since it can no longer be supported from below.

Not one plank at a time, but the entire bottom is inserted in the following order. First, one end edge is inserted into the morning. Next, the rivets are spread wide and the entire bottom is inserted into the hole. Before insertion, the chimes are often coated with putty using a spatula (a mixture of red lead or chalk and boiled linseed oil - drying oil). For a tighter fit of the bottom, so-called barrel grass is also used: rush grass, reed, etc. This cooper grass is placed in the morning groove using caulk (Fig. 38). After both bottoms are inserted into the chimes, the rivets are adjusted again with a wooden hammer, and then they are tightened tightly using puffs. The work is completed by putting the hoops back on the ends of the barrel.

Sometimes, for greater strength, the bottom of the barrel is reinforced with an adjustment board (Fig. 46) - a heel. It is a board 15 cm wide and 3-4 cm thick. Its length corresponds to the diameter of the bottom. The heel is secured across the bottom boards with dowels. The latter are hammered into the ends of the rivets next to the morning groove. The dowels are made long enough so that the heel fastening is reliable. The shape of the dowels does not have to be round. It can be faceted, for example quadrangular. It’s even better if it is like this, since when the barrel dries out, the round pins sometimes fall out, and the faceted ones are retained. The number of dowels on each side of the heel varies from 4 to 6.

The last finishing operation for making barrels is stuffing the permanent hoops. Their number varies. Up to 18 wooden hoops or 6-8 iron hoops are stuffed onto a large barrel. For a medium-sized barrel, the usual number of wooden hoops is 14-16 pieces. Their gradation is as follows: 8 cervical (4 hoops on each edge), 6 abdominal (3 hoops in half of the barrel). Less commonly, 10 wooden hoops are mounted (6 neck, 4 abdominal; both neck and abdominal hoops are equally distributed on both halves of the barrel). Let us note right away that a barrel with 10 wooden hoops is less strong than one with 14.

Wooden hoops are made from hoop whips. These whips are used to encircle the barrel in the place where the hoop is supposed to be placed. Make appropriate marks on the whip and on the barrel. The places of notches for tying the lock are marked on the whip (Fig. 47). An allowance of 10-12 cm is left on the lock at both ends of the hoop. The ends themselves are cut obliquely in the form of pointed tongues. Where we marked the notches, make cuts half the width of the hoop whip. At one end of the hoop, an incision is made from above, at the other - from below. On the inside of the hoop, in the direction from the cuts to the middle, notches are made 4-5 cm long, gradually fading away. Now they are knitting a lock. Namely: the ends of the hoop are hooked onto each other with the protrusions of the cuts and placed in the corresponding recesses. That is, the ends are brought in and hidden on the inside of the hoop. Often the hoop at the place where the lock is knitted is braided with willow twigs for strength.

As the reader has already understood, the working hoops are removed from the barrel, replacing them with permanent ones. This must be done sequentially: first, the abdominal hoops are replaced in one half of the barrel, then the neck hoops are all in the same half, and only then the same is done with the second half of the barrel. The last neck hoops are especially difficult to pull onto the frame of the barrel. The hoop is placed on the rivets first from one edge.

Then from the other, helping yourself with tension and tightening. This is how they work by tension. The end of its handle is pressed against the side of the barrel, and the other end of the same handle is pressed with your hand. At this time, the hoop is slightly stretched by the tension grip and, grasping the ends of the rivets, pulls them together. The rivets are gradually driven deeper into the hoop one after another.

Sometimes the half-circle of the hoop is put on and the rivets slip off. To prevent this from happening, the worn half of the hoop is secured to the edges of the frame with small nails. They should be driven in no more than half the thickness of the ends of the rivets. After the wooden hoop is pulled over the barrel, it must be placed in its intended place.

They use a wooden hammer and a heel (Fig. 48). The heel is placed with the indentation of the sole on the edge of the hoop. By hitting the head of the heel with a hammer, the hoop is pushed into place. The latter must be stuffed onto the barrel without any distortions, to capacity, tightly covering its circumference.

Making iron hoops similar to making wood. The width and thickness of the iron hoops depend on the size of the barrel. Usually they take strip iron 3-4 cm wide. Here they also begin work by measuring the barrel. The strip iron is cut with allowances from both ends of the hoop into an overlay of 10-12 cm. The corners of the ends of the hoop are also cut off with scissors or a chisel. These ends are then either welded or riveted. Welding can be done the way coopers did in the old days without a welding machine.

In the forge, the ends of the hoop were red-hot. And then, without allowing it to cool, the ends were welded on an anvil, holding with tongs and hitting with a forge hammer. But more often than not, the ends are riveted together. They are placed on top of each other and at least two holes are drilled or punched, retreating from the edge along the length of the hoop by 2 and 6 cm. Using a hammer, the surface of the hoop is given a slope so that it fits more tightly around the circumference of the barrel.

Iron hoops are mounted in the same way as wooden hoops. Only in this case they use an iron hammer and a heel. To prevent rust, iron hoops are painted with black oil paint. Finished view wooden product with black stripes of hoops - a sight for sore eyes.

After fitting the permanent hoops, the barrel is finally finished. They pass with a plow or grinder along the bottoms and sides of the barrel. They cut off the ends of the barrel grass near the mornings and clean up the putty that has come out of them. The chamfers are corrected with a scraper. If planned, a bushing hole is drilled in the barrel. The walls of the hole are made either vertical or inclined.

Based on materials from the magazine: CAM