Wooden bucket with metal bands

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

I recently acquired a old ice cream maker, with a tongue and groove banded bucket.

This leaks and the 3mm round rings are not recoverable.



My questions are.

The wood has dried out. Plus I need to dismantle it. The reason is in the past repairs have used putty or silicon based sealant. Cleaning that is easy.

But all the information on swelling the wood is different.




Some say soak in hot water, some say cold.
Some say add salt, some say don't.
Some say leave outside for weeks.
Some say make new bands and use the force of fitting them to seal the bucket.

The bands are metal bars at 3mm.
They can be replaced like for like.
But google has shown other versions using flat bars.


Has any one got real life experience of sealing barrels or buckets?

If so can you share your knowledge please.

 

[frank horton]

make new bands if u wish....esp if it will tighten the vessel...
then drop the whole thing in another bucket to soak.....this will swell the wood.....

in the old days of wooden boats they leaked like a seive untill they got wet....
caulking helped of course but the wood swelling did the grunt work........
somewhere in the memory banks watched a prog about making an Egyption barge by hand useing old methods.....
it almost sunk on the first dip....thats untill the wood swelled....

but REMEMBER the wood must always be kept wet to maintain the swelling...

 

[Seadog]

That reminds me of an old joke. "Doctor, take away the pain, but keep the swelling."

 

[James1979]

A barrel. I made one into an apparatus for making vinegar. It’s got stainless guts inside and out and a 16mm stainless plate grafted into the bottom to support the motor. Can’t show much but some pics here. The one on the temp stand gives an idea of the size of the thing.

it leaked like a leaky thing. Just filled it up, sat it over a kids paddling pool and put a submersible pump in the pool and left it. Took 3 days to stop leaking.

Worked great for a good while. Guy I built it for cleaned it out and left it sit for a week or so. Dried out again. He lost interest in it after that so I stripped all the workings off and put them into a stainless tank I made. Not as nice to look at but it’s a better solution for him.

 

[MattF]

Aren't the hoops supposed to be heated before fitting, so that they then contract & pull the slats in tight?

 

[Seadog]

 

[James1979]

You can see on my first pic where the bands have moved when it shrunk. I don’t know how long it was dry before I got it.

I found I had to keep checking on it and knocking the bands about as the wood swelled. I used a big chunk of alu as a drift.

 

[nickk]

Very skilled how they make the bands,two different diameters on the same piece.

 

[Bobupndown]

That would be lovely restored with a couple of brass bands (not the musical variety before the comedians start ) holding it together.

 

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

That would be lovely restored with a couple of brass bands (not the musical variety before the comedians start ) holding it together.

There are plans afoot.
The head debate this morning, well one of them is:
Brass/copper bands, round bar or flat.
Replace like for like.

 

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

Aren't the hoops supposed to be heated before fitting, so that they then contract & pull the slats in tight?

What I have seen not.

 

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

make new bands if u wish....esp if it will tighten the vessel...
then drop the whole thing in another bucket to soak.....this will swell the wood.....

in the old days of wooden boats they leaked like a seive untill they got wet....
caulking helped of course but the wood swelling did the grunt work........
somewhere in the memory banks watched a prog about making an Egyption barge by hand useing old methods.....
it almost sunk on the first dip....thats untill the wood swelled....

but REMEMBER the wood must always be kept wet to maintain the swelling...

Yes, but warm cold slated or not kind of watwer.
The WWW has many views on that.

I am gathering information before I start.
Well that and finishing other things.

 

[colnerov]

but REMEMBER the wood must always be kept wet to maintain the swelling...

I don't think that only applies to buckets.

 

[Blobber]

I guess it doesnt need to be water tight as it would have ice in it, the dairy product would be in the inner bucket?

Whatever you do with it will be fine, all your other stuff turns out nice!

 

[Agroshield]

This leaks and the 3mm round rings are not recoverable.

Well, fix it dear Henry, dear Henry.

I went looking and found out there are wet coopers, dry coopers and white coopers. You need a white cooper, the wet one only deals in barrels used to retain liquids; the dry one in barrels to retain solids.

It may be worth looking at some European-oriented sites as the tongue and groove construction seems less common in the US, for example.

 

[Arc Tourist]

........................... It may be worth looking at some European-oriented sites as the tongue and groove construction seems less common in the US, for example.

My wife mentioned she saved our ice-cream maker from the charity donation when we downsized. Its dated 1923, and does not have tongue and grove construction, and there seems to be a bit of horsehide glue showing in one small spot.

 

[TechnicAl]

Well, fix it dear Henry, dear Henry.

I went looking and found out there are wet coopers, dry coopers and white coopers. You need a white cooper, the wet one only deals in barrels used to retain liquids; the dry one in barrels to retain solids.

It may be worth looking at some European-oriented sites as the tongue and groove construction seems less common in the US, for example.

Go on then continue........what does a white cooper do?

 

[mike os]

Om not sure youcan t and g a coopered barrel, usually plain staves that fit together very well

 

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

what does a white cooper do

The "white" cooper made straight-staved containers like washtubs, buckets, and butter churns.

 

[TechnicAl]

I was given a lesson in coopering by the head cooper of Theakstons brewery in Masham.....about 25 years ago.........I was then offered a tray full of silver table stuff if I could rebuild a barrel on my own........by this time Id had 4 or 5 pints of old peculiar........I was very confident I could do it (it was the beer) but my confidence was misplaced, in fact anyone nearby looked like getting injured........I bet theyve still got the tray full of silver..........the cooper did it in about 30 seconds