This is pretty interesting. A barrel maker would probably use an inshave to recoup so this may be the magic tool. They are hard to find and I don't want to drop the big bucks on one but I wonder if a regular flexcut draw knife would work as well.
Oak Barrel Plunge
- Thread starter Garagista
- Start date
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You don't need a special tool. I did it successfully with stuff I already had. Read some articles on it. It's definitely not rocket science.
https://www.morebeer.com/articles/Recooping_Barrel
You need to number the staves and mark what head belongs to which end before you disassemble. Not sure about the wavy line someone mentioned. Awful suggestion. I'd rather do a 10k piece jigsaw puzzle blindfolded. Sorry but since I already did this once, I'm confident that this line method will not work on a 30 stave barrel. Finding the right piece to mate up with the next would take forever.
Use a belt sander with heavy grit paper and an orbital sander for the more sensitive areas. I think I used around 60 grit. Because my barrel was so old and previously moldy, I had a bunch of pits in some of the staves. I used a small chisel to clean them out and then sanded to smooth. Be careful to NOT sand in any of the grooves (croze) or the stave edges.
You need a way to clamp/hold the staves in place while sanding. I used a Jawhorse but a table and some clamps would also work.
It probably took me less than 3 hours to sand everything down. This was the easy but messy part. You can toast it with a propane torch or a charcoal fire in a metal waste basket.
Reassembly is not easy but not impossible. Just assemble following the number pattern. I screwed a small metal strap (same stuff used for securing plumbing) in the face of the last barrel head so I could hold it in place and manipulate its position. The first time I assembled it, I did not use this strap and I was super irritated by the time I got it assembled. Using the stap took 1/10th of the time.
I'm sure there are people that would struggle to successfully do this but if you have any sort of DIY capabilities in your DNA, you'll be fine. The question is whether the work is worth the time. Having done it, I'd sooner spend $350 and buy a new barrel. Since I got my barrels for free, it was more of a fun project to see if I could do it. One of the barrels I received was too far gone and could not be salvaged.
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There's lots of good stuff in here, thx. I was avoiding a belt sander since staves are curvy. I did not want to flatten out the curve and impact the seal. As I think about it, maybe it doesn't matter to the seal.
There is some curve but it's possible to sand without taking too much off the sides. It's how you run the tool. If you blindly just lay into the stave then, yes, you will take a bunch off the edges. There obviously some finesse required. It's like running a chainsaw. Some people can make ice sculptures with it while other people struggle to not kill themselves. You're running the belt sander on most of the stave surface, not all of it. Look at the pictures i posted in the link I provided the other day. I'm not trying to convince you of anything, I'm just telling you some fancy curved hand tool is not required and is probably less efficient than a sander. If u need to spend a bunch of money on tools, it probably makes sense to just buy a new barrel and be done with it.
I have never used one of those, but flap discs on an angle grinder eat wood. They are better at grinding welds than grinding disks, so you can imagine what they do to wood.
Just a thought for anyone else interested in having a go at this.
You can get different grits, 40 makes dust REAL quick.
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Ok, so I have had much better luck with my second barrel. It was easy to remove the rings and the staves just fell apart.
I followed @Brant s guidance here and used a belt sander with extremely low grit. I also used a pull knife to remove the big chunks of char to make my sanding belts go further.
The draw knife did a good job of getting down to the wood quickly. It is curved so it fit the curve of the staves without cutting the edges.
I grabbed the most aggressive grit I could find for my belt sander which ended up being 36. It did a good job of removing down to fresh wood.
I am much more optimistic than last time. The croz is in much better shape than the last barrel. The quality of the oak is better and thicker. I would say that the lesson I learned is that it is better to take it apart and sand each piece individually. Sanding the barrel in situ was much more difficult and messy. We will see how much it leaks when I put it back together.
I followed @Brant s guidance here and used a belt sander with extremely low grit. I also used a pull knife to remove the big chunks of char to make my sanding belts go further.
The draw knife did a good job of getting down to the wood quickly. It is curved so it fit the curve of the staves without cutting the edges.
I grabbed the most aggressive grit I could find for my belt sander which ended up being 36. It did a good job of removing down to fresh wood.
I am much more optimistic than last time. The croz is in much better shape than the last barrel. The quality of the oak is better and thicker. I would say that the lesson I learned is that it is better to take it apart and sand each piece individually. Sanding the barrel in situ was much more difficult and messy. We will see how much it leaks when I put it back together.
Looks great! It should seal up fine. Have fun putting it back together. 
Try not to throw staves in frustration.
How do u plan on toasting it?
Try not to throw staves in frustration. How do u plan on toasting it?
I'm undecided. What do you think? Propane torch with fan tip or the traditional "light a fire inside and stand by with a bucket of water" approach.Looks great! It should seal up fine. Have fun putting it back together.
How do u plan on toasting it?
I made a holder for the staves so I could put them together, I also numbered them so they went together easy. I haven’t tested the barrel yet but every contact point looks tight and it held air when I lightly pressurized it.
good question... i suppose it depends on what you have available. i had heavy duty torch and i felt more in control using it than having a fire. however, i feel like a fire is a more traditional method. just depends on what you feel comfortable doing.
very good idea!
Very clever idea!
Awesome @wood1954 ! I'm going to have to steal this idea.
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Where did it leak on the heads? Between the staves and the head? From the segments of the head? I'm curious.
From the staves at the head. It's almost like I had to lessen the diameter of the head to make them seal. It was only a 23 liter barrel that @Boatboy24 gave me to try. Trying to tighten the hoops to get it to seal I broke one and gave up on it. I can't get a video to load but here's a photo of it being toasted.
Attachments
I assume we should avoid galvanized containers for the fire since it releases toxic fumes from the zinc coating. I think maybe stainless bucket would be better.
I used a large propane weed burning torch to retoast.
Did you convert a freezer into a wine cooler?
