Coopering advice needed

[splinters]

Does any one have any coopering experience. i want to make a large 10 ft diameter vat to use as a cabin to get warm in when im out at my chain saw carving site. i have access to a woodmizer to mill the timber. i think i know what im doing but are there any secrets i should know.

[delabodge]

build a shelter,,far less effort! coopering is a dying trade, not many left, mainly in the whiskey trade,,,

[splinters]

the very fact that it is a dieing trade is the reason i want to learn it and as for a shelter been easyer thats no reason to build one.

[Goaty]

Got this off logosol website maybe give you ideas.Hot tub plans.pdf

[agg221]

No coopering experience, but some experience of heavy boatbuilding which may be relevant?

 

Creating uniform bevels is hard work! Best I came up with was chalking the faces and planing off where the chalk was rubbed. This worked quite well. I used children's big outdoor chalks, in different colours. That way I could swap around colours for marking faces vs. chalking faces and be sure I hadn't just smudged things over.

Coopering and boatbuilding rely on the wood swelling to seal the vessel. This means there are always slight gaps when dry. Not sure how you're planning on sealing these, but the point was you can't rely on the wood to do it, assuming you don't want to sit in a swimming pool!

The inner and outer faces never line up perfectly at the same time when first cut. On a boat, it's the inner edges that butt against the frames, so they form a smooth shape. This leaves the outside faces a bit random, and in need of planing up. In a barrel, they're pulled together from the outside, hence the need for an adze as you can't plane the internal curve (unless you have a compass plane).

One problem I can foresee is getting the rings on to a vat of that size. I've seen rings heated for wheels in a wood fire, built in the form of a ring. The iron rings are heated until a stick chars and smokes when rubbed on it (it feels greasy). Are the rings on barrels fitted hot or cold? If it's cold and just hammered down until they pull in then I can see it working. If it's hot, that's going to be very awkward to manhandle into place before it goes cold.

 

Be very interested to see some results.

 

Alec

[Mike Dempsey]

Why dont you take a run up to The speyside Cooperage who have a very good visitor centre? Very good visitor centre and the right people to ask questions. If you take up some drawings etc I bet they would help you out with any queries

[Arctostaphylos uva-ursi]

Why dont you take a run up to The speyside Cooperage who have a very good visitor centre? Very good visitor centre and the right people to ask questions. If you take up some drawings etc I bet they would help you out with any queries

 

I was going to suggest this myself. You could become a cooper's apprentice! (sorry I couldn't resist the Jabberwocky reference).

[delabodge]

the very fact that it is a dieing trade is the reason i want to learn it and as for a shelter been easyer thats no reason to build one.

 

in which case do what the others say, start on a small barrel to get the principal,then move on too grannder things, a course may be handy,,,

[splinters]

we have large vats at work made by a company up in the cairngorms, this is what gave me the idea of building one as a shelter. they dont have metal bands around them they are straight sided and are tensioned with steel cables with threaded ends.

 

My thought is to use 100 lengths of wood 100mm wide on what will be the inner face then angle the 2 edges to 108 degrees which when all put together will create a circle with a diameter of just over 10 ft.

i have access to a woodmizer and a multi cut industrial bandsaw thingy.

 

the finished construction is to be turned on its side and mounted onto a rack so it will sort of resemble a gypsey caravan.

[delabodge]

sounds interesting,look forward to the pics!!