Resurfacing a 20L Barrel

[RandyMarshCT]

I have a 20 liter (5.3 gal) barrel I purchased from 1000oaksbarrel.com about a year and a half ago that I resurfaced last night. This barrel had been used 3 times and the third use was a very strong flavored imperial stout. I wanted to recondition the barrel to use for my upcoming rum project, but decided I'd use it for the S3 triple malt whiskey I'll be running in the next few weeks. I had been told that the barrels from this source have thin staves and some people had leaking problems (on the ADI forum). I figured this would be a good reason to investigate and share my experience with the forum members here.

I started out by letting the barrel dry out for 2 weeks with the bung out. Once the spigot slid out easily, I figured it was dry enough to get started. The first thing I did was number the staves (1 through 25) starting with the bung stave, using a sharpie.

I also numbered the hoops (1 through 4) so I could re-assemble everything exactly as it was. I marked the heads so I would know how they should be oriented, and drew a line on the inside edge of the inner hoops so I would know how far to hammer them back on.

Now I could hammer off the top two hoops with a mallet and chisel and take off the spigot head. The char was a lot more substantial than I expected.

Now I was able to tap the bottom hoops off and let the whole thing fall apart. I ran the heads through my dad's big planer. They cleaned up very quickly, right down to bare wood.

Once the heads were done I started with the staves. I didn't clean the staves right down to bare wood because I was afraid of compromising the integrity of the barrel. Surprisingly, the stave thicknesses varied from almost 3/4" to just over 3/8"... on the same stave. I'm an idiot and forgot to take profile pictures of the staves, which probably would have been the best thing to take away from this endeavor (other than a fresh barrel to use).

(continued...)

[woodshed]

This is cool to watch. Thanks.

[RandyMarshCT]

This is the belt sander I used to sand the staves. I used the round end to try and get inside the radius of the staves... it worked okay.

Here are the staves themselves. The lighter ones on the left are sanded already, the dark ones on the right have the original char.

Getting the barrel back together afterwards was much more difficult than I had anticipated. It was a 2-man job for sure. We ended up using a round planter with circles of plywood in the bottom to put all the staves in (tipped outward) and I bear-hugged them while my father lined them all up with one another. Once he placed the head in, I held them until we could place a hoop on to hold them all together. I wasn't able to take a picture of this because we both had our hands full.


I then proceeded to char the inside of the barrel and the inside of the head with a map gas torch. This pic was halfway through the char.

This was also more difficult than I anticipated. I was outside (about 29*F) with the torch trying to balance charring the wood with removing the torch so I didn't burn my hand. Picture yourself charring the inside of a barrel with a torch that has the gas cylinder attached... I was feeling like a Darwin award candidate. However, I lived without any injuries... it just took about 45 minutes of charring, waiting, and going back to charring. When I charred the head I had placed it on the (freezing) ground to do so and it warped. I don't know if you can see in this pic, but it was about 1/4" out of flat. That made things nice and easy to reassemble (not).

When I finally got it all together, I put it in the bathtub and filled it with water to swell it back up.

The spigot was very loose, almost to the point of being pushed out by the water. Luckily, I left it alone all night and this morning before work I only had to add 1 pint of water. It had completely swelled back up and didn't even have a wet spot on the outside, let alone any leaks.

So, I guess I can say this was a success. I had a plan B of cutting it up and using the staves to carboy-age, but that won't be necessary. I'm not sure why the user from the ADI forum said he could never get these barrels to stop leaking... I didn't even have a problem with this one. After 8 hours, it was completely water-tight.

[RandyMarshCT]

Thanks Woodshed! I hope it makes a good product to share at the S3 gathering.

[MichiganCornhusker]

Great post, very nice work!
Do you think charring the wood before reassembling would have distorted the staves too much, or charred their edges too much?
Must feel good to have your own freshly charred barrel ready to fill.

[RandyMarshCT]

MC, I thought about that, but the mating surfaces (part of the stave that connects to the next stave) needed to be preserved as best as possible. I was afraid that the mating surfaces would get burned and make the barrel leak if it wasn't assembled during the charring process. Also, the staves likely could have warped from the heat like the head did, preventing me from being able to re-assemble it.

Thanks RC!

[bonehead]

that is cool. you put new life into something and showed others what had how it worked.

[Halfbaked]

Good thread. I wonder how it would work if you used a banjo burner to char it?

[MichiganCornhusker]

...or one of those weed burners, safe enough to use in sandals. Does seem better than sticking my hairy arm in a barrel with fire.

weed burner.jpg (10.94 KiB) Viewed 4799 times

[woodshed]

We use them here MC for ice dam removal on metal roofs. Shingle if your careful.

[RandyMarshCT]

Either of those options would have been much better (banjo & week killer), I bet. I read today (on artscraftsofmexico's ebay listings) that a lot of small barrels are charred by putting a pile of oak chips in the barrel and lighting them. I guess you let them burn right out. I can tell you that a propane or map gas torch is not the best way... at all.

[Halfbaked]

I like the weed burner better than the banjo. Randy thanks for posting this. If I don't learn some thing every time I do something diff I feel like why did I even do it. That don't mean either of our ideas are better. The new idea might be easier with the wood in the barrel might be the answer and a new answer to what to do with fores.

[acfixer69]

Good thread RandyMarshCT. I have been wanting to take apart a pair of used Corsair 5 gal barrels that let me down last winter. Leaked 5 gals rum and 5 gals UJ while I had them hiding out of sight. Seems your success has given me new hope. I like you, figured the worst that can happen is they get cut to oak sticks. Good pics very helpful.

AC

[RandyMarshCT]

Oh man... that's some serious loss, AC. Knowing how much work it takes to fill a 5 gallon barrel.... ouch!

I was talking about this endeavor at work yesterday and whaddaya know, one of the guys pulls this thing out of the storage area

I guess we bought it about 15 years ago for some reason and never even opened it. Looks like I'm taking this thing home for the next attempt. Also, shameless plug for one of my favorite guns.

(Disclaimer: This picture was taken in the state of Rhode Island, NOT CT.)

[DAD300]

Beauty post Randy...

[varocketry]

Randy:

Is that PS90 thing a heater element? I can't make it out in the picture?

[acfixer69]

Randy:

Is that PS90 thing a heater element? I can't make it out in the picture?

Some may call it a heater LOL. Certainly can blaze a trail. google it for a chuckle.

AC

[MichiganCornhusker]

Thanks for the inspiration and guidance, Randy. A friend gave me this 5 gallon barrel. He had used it to age some white wine, but it has no char, so....

[RandyMarshCT]

Best of luck with the project! Putting it back together is the tricky part... you have to get creative.

[MichiganCornhusker]

I respectfully submit... Barrel Porn:
After getting the barrel apart, I lightly sanded the interior surfaces of all the parts and pieces.
Then I sort of reassembled one half of the barrel staves with a spreader stick and some wire to hold it all together.
It looks like this barrel might have had some light toasting at the ends of the staves.

Then I started charring the inside of the barrel. I tried to only torch the inside edge of the two end staves to avoid burning the mating surfaces of the end pieces.
By having the 1/2 barrel assembled, the other mating surfaces were pretty well protected from the fire.

And more fire...

I torched the bottom half of the staves, then flipped the whole thing and burned the bottom again. That way I didn't have too much fire up at the top, burning the outside ends of the staves and the groove where the ends fit in.

Then I assembled the other half of the barrel, using the 1/2 charred end staves as the outside ends again. That way I could char the other half of those staves, still staying away from the outside edges and burning the mating surfaces.

I think you can see here that the mating surfaces were pretty well protected from the inferno. The char is about 1/8" deep.

[MichiganCornhusker]

Then I rinsed all of the parts, knocking off any loose ash or char.
I'm not sure how I forgot to photograph it, but I did char the inside of the ends of the barrel as well.

I needed more hands to get this thing back together for sure. I wound up using a bunch of these little spring clamps to assist.

The way that worked for me was to sort of get about half the barrel clamped together around the top with these spring clamps, and then start to lower one of the larger hoops over the top to keep things from falling all apart.
At the same time working to keep the bottoms close together and fitting to the bottom end plate. Then I used Randy's suggested bear-hug method and hugged the whole thing and lifted it and set in down into another hoop to keep the staves tight to the end plate that I had already fit. Then you can let the top open up a little bit, enough to work the top end plate into its groove, then drop another hoop over the top.
Then it's just a matter of tapping the hoops down evenly and nailing them back in place. Everything seems nice and tight.
Sorry there aren't more reassembly shots, but once you get into it there is no good place to let go of things to run a camera!

All in all, I would say I spent about 2 hours on it last night, taking it apart and sanding/torching, and the another 2 hours today, cleaning & reassembly.
I'm going to start soaking it tonight, wish me luck with swelling and (hopefully) sealing!
Many thanks to RandyMarshCT for posting the how-to!!

[dtuna]

Good Luck, MC! Great job and post as well. I was gifted a well used Gibb's Bros 2gallon barrel and this is really opening my eyes to what is possible. Thanks!

[acfixer69]

Very nice work there Mich. Been procrastinating my barrel rebuild, but you and Randy are about to get me up and just do it. I hate to fail so if I don't do anything I don't do it wrong. Need to start thinking like I did when I I was younger. Keep up the good work it looks like you got it beat.

AC

[DFitz]

MC, maybe we can swing a deal on some barrels I need re-charred.

[MichiganCornhusker]

MC, maybe we can swing a deal on some barrels I need re-charred.

Well, let me get through the "let's see if this leaks now" stage first. But if this turns out to be a success, sure I'd be happy to help.
When I had this all apart, I thought about putting in all in the oven at 380 for a couple hours to toast the oak through. I was worried about what this might do to the breathability of the barrel, it's ability to swell again, not to mention the potential for warping or cupping. But, I keep wondering about all that potential toasty goodness that could be had. Anyone ever done that with a barrel?

[RandyMarshCT]

Excellent idea for charring the barrel halves! I've never tried to toast, only char. It looks like you got a much better char than I did. I'm stealing your idea next time I do this.

Swell that sucker up, but do it in the bathtub or sink. The black stains from the char can get the significant other pretty angry... but with enough elbow grease, they'll come out. I'm lucky to have a very understanding wife.

[bellybuster]

I may try this with a cheap 10L barrel. I never was happy with the level of char or lack of it. It is in its second use and barely imparting anything to the likker.

[MichiganCornhusker]

I was working with some epoxy on an unrelated project, and between the epoxy and the black char I have stains on my hands that are taking a while to go away.
I tried filling up the barrel and I'm getting some water coming out where the barrel ends fit into their grooves. The staves all seem to have sealed up well.
I did notice some wax melt out of those end grooves when I torched it. No wax anywhere else, but some white colored stuff on the edges of the end pieces. Looked to me like something done when the barrel was made, not something added later to fix a leak.
I've searched around, and it seems like beeswax is the thing to try to get the ends to seal. I'm going to see if I can locate some 100% stuff and try melting some of that into those joints from outside the barrel. Probably won't take much.

[skow69]

Your problem, Mich, is that you think about shit before you start doing it. That's not fair! How are we supposed to compete with that?

[MichiganCornhusker]

Your problem, Mich, is that you think about shit before you start doing it.

Lol, oh if that were true! I just wait and watch, and then copy. It's the safest way to go. Like this, it would have never occurred to be that I could take a barrel apart and get it back together until I saw this post.
The power contained in this forum is endless.