A better canning jar lid?? Maybe!

[Billy Hill Tucky]

I haven’t seen this on the site, or anywhere else. With such a vast amount of info it may be lurking somewhere.

I had an old ceramic flip top bourbon bottle that I was going to use for some juice I couldn’t wait to fully season on oak. I filled it and all was well until some of the juice came in contact with the gasket after pouring. Started to soften it up quick, I guess the age of it did not help either. This was an anniversary bottle from a big distiller. I have read many post about the plastic in jar lids, cork etc. And try to keep it free as possible (this really got under my skin). Made the plastic on jar lids unusable for me
So, I made some wood lids for jars out of red oak which is readily available at any big chain hardware store. Need to source some ¼” white oak. Testing them now before I get several put away for aging

Initial test look good,should serve well, tested upside down half full, and my thoughts:

• Swells to a nice fit, no contact with any foreign substances.
• Will not leak upside down with consistent temperatures. Will leak from warm to cold. This was tested upside down. Two hour test, room temp to freezer.
• Looks nice…no benefit to the taste buds
• Found the acid in the oak turned the contact surface black on lid. It was wet from the upside down test. I don’t think any will be introduced to the juice.
• Jar ring was difficult to remove from swelling when stored upside down for testing. Put it in the freezer for 30 min and it came right off.
• This may provide some needed breathing room for aging outdoors with the temperature changes.
• Lid seemed to seal itself after wetting; however, it did shrink in the freezer, and was leaking when upside down.

Put it all in a nut shell, seems to work pretty good. I will be storing a qt pretty soon outside and measuring for loss, or angel share,…don’t want to give too much.
Tool, products- Drill press, 2 ¾ hole saw, router table, various simple jigs, sandpaper, 1 piece of 6” x 24” x ¼” Red Oak, 14 lids out of this board. Only one lid chipped. Straight knotless grain. Ideas, and suggestions more than welcome.
Billy

[heartcut]

Nice. You should open a side business.

[Frosteecat]

Looks great! Hell, start making WHITE OAK JARS!!!

[ginjo]

Seen em on this or the other site before. Couple years back.

[ginjo]

http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... s&start=15

[Billy Hill Tucky]

http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... s&start=15

Thanks Ginjo, read the thread, and it looks like they were on the idea back in 09. Thread went dead after the first try. It would have been nice to hear about some long term storage on a lid 1/4" or thicker. I will re read to see if some additional points can be found. Idea was the same, but somewhat different design.
Billy

[frozenthunderbolt]

try dipping the non-contact side in beeswax

[HolyBear]

Can you better describe how you cut the ring around the outside edge please???

[Billy Hill Tucky]

try dipping the non-contact side in beeswax

Thanks, would have never thought of that. Would probably make a air tight seal.

Great idea!
Billy

[Billy Hill Tucky]

Can you better describe how you cut the ring around the outside edge please???

Be glad to!

I have a small drill press, screwed a wooden base to it, with a back stop (fence). Used a bar clap to secure the 1/4" stock to base. Removed the pilot bit from a 2 3/4" hole saw( 70mm) Drilled each blank with board clamped. Wants to wander without the centering bit.

Used a small router table with fence. Clamped a pine board to fence. Installed bit, raised bit into fence with amout of cut needed exposed. With grain, started running lids to make lip. Used my hands to feed lids, not to difficult with a small amount of bit exposed. Used a straight bit 1/2"

Lid will do a bit of jumping if started on end grain. I used two passes per lid to keep smooth and reduce kick.

If you have anymore questions, just ask and I will try to answer as best as I can.
Billy

[cob]

try dipping the non-contact side in beeswax

Thanks, would have never thought of that. Would probably make a air tight seal.

Great idea!
Billy

white oak is closed grain wood, one of the reasons it is used for barrels. red oak is open grain

[Billy Hill Tucky]

Lids seem to be working fine for the time being. They have swelled tight to jar, but have not warped, raised, or cracked. I thought they possibly coud break the jars, but no problems so far. I find the ring that is left on the lid by the jar ring aggervating. Will be looing for a very thin spacer to cut for the jar rings.

I have three qts stored above door height, on oak, and all hearts. Two jars of heads stored on bench, and the bench jars get shook from time to time. No loss of product so far. The weather has been blistering hot, 90's to 100's + with a good amount of humidity
Billy

[imakehooch]

I've made the same type of lids with the same results. I'm working on an alternative design. Will let you know how it goes.

Have you made any out of white oak? Did you get better results?

[just-a-sip]

so now there have been two threads with this design and of course both went dead before any real info or results were found. is this because it dosent have the desired effect or what???

[Durace11]

If I had the equipment to cut perfect wood circles I would like to give this a try but I don't so I watch and wait.

[bcboyz86]

So you cut the circles with just a simple hole saw and then router out the lip so they fit into the jar? Seems simple enough... And just toast/char them the same as you would the chips or oak staves... This sounds actually like a really good idea. Since its been a while, have you tried anything that has been sitting in those jars to see if it was worth it using the oak lid instead of a regual jar setup with oak inside?

[bellybuster]

this is cool. I'm using the standard jar lid upside down and it works but I'm worried about the finish and paint on the lid. 3weeks so far and no degrading of the lid, but I'd like something better/safer all the same

I'm gonna make some of these as soon as we get some warmish weather. -20C and windy as hell right now

[frozenthunderbolt]

So you cut the circles with just a simple hole saw and then router out the lip so they fit into the jar? Seems simple enough... And just toast/char them the same as you would the chips or oak staves... This sounds actually like a really good idea. Since its been a while, have you tried anything that has been sitting in those jars to see if it was worth it using the oak lid instead of a regual jar setup with oak inside?

If you do this can i suggest that you leave the toasted/charred lids for a week or so to equalize to the ambient humidity and then fit them to your jars.
When i turned stoppers for some bottles and toasted them - they shrank and fitted perfectly, but then when they absorbed some moisture from the booze they expanded and shattered the necks of the bottles.

[bcboyz86]

What about toasting and charing the whole board and then just cut out the circles? And maybe going one step further and use end cuts and put the ends together so you get end grain instead of using the side grain of the wood for better flow. Is there any approved glue type for wood stuffs? Or will the flour/water glue work?

[yakattack]

What about toasting and charing the whole board and then just cut out the circles? And maybe going one step further and use end cuts and put the ends together so you get end grain instead of using the side grain of the wood for better flow. Is there any approved glue type for wood stuffs? Or will the flour/water glue work?

I know this is a dead thread and at the risk of some back lash, being a carpenter I can speak a little to this subject.

As far as I know there are no glues that are alcohol safe except simple sugar glues but that would defeat the purpose in this instance. However through wood joinery you can make a better, stronger, tighter fitting board than with glue.

A simple locking miter joint or for that matter a dove tail joint for joining boards will work wonders.

I am currently designing and building some oak barrels up to 5 gallons using just jointery and banding the outside. I will be running the boards through birdsmouth bit on the router. 16 point in order to get as close to a circle to begin with. When I have a design that works I will be updating here with a plan for all members to use through just wood joinery.

But as for any other glues. None that I am aware of.

[ShineRunnah]

Tried to make some "barrels" at one point. Being a rather skilled woodworker, it didn't seem all that difficult.
I even took a cooperage class to learn how to properly make barrels.

It all taught me one thing. I am a woodworker, not a cooper. I will gladly pay a cooper to make my barrels for me.

I found I can spend less time earning the money with my woodworking skills to purchase a barrel, or multiple barrels, than I can actually making a barrel.
An even cheaper option, charred oak lids on 1/2-gallon mason jars. They simulate a barrel good enough for my needs, cost little and take 3 minutes to make.

If you want to invest all kinds of time into it, you can surely design and build a decent barrel. Good luck to you. Keep us posted.