Pretty neat video-

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Lew Kauffman-
Wood Turners Forum Host

Time Traveler and Purveyor of the Universe's Finest Custom Rolling Pins!

Wow, what craftsmanship!

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Ron Dudelston
Site Administrator

Above and Beyond WoodWorks

Impressive

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Wayne Mahler
God bless and protect our troops that serve so we can be free.

Man-O-Man! What amazing workmanship. His job specific tools are wonderful, as is his mastery of them. His divider marking system is pure old school genius. And that anvil, no doubt made for this job, is pretty cool, too.

It's obvious that he's made a few of these. He's got it down to very minimal wasted motion. A pretty good model of efficiency.

Thanks, Lew. An inspiring 22 minutes to start the day.

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Gene
'The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him.' G. K. Chesterton

Lew,

Neat is an understatement!

The anvil looks to be made from a piece of railroad rail.

Wish I could understood what he was saying.

 

Larry

Old Woodworking Machinery Forum Host

I was fortunate enough to get a short piece of railroad rail and it does make a fine anvil.

Larry Buskirk said:

Lew,

Neat is an understatement!

The anvil looks to be made from a piece of railroad rail.

Wish I could understood what he was saying.

 

Larry

Old Woodworking Machinery Forum Host

Interesting, thanks for sharing. I noticed they did that without biscuits and glue.

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Somewhere in Kenya.... a village is missing its idiot!

Alaskans for Gobble Warming

I was really impressed with the precision marking chalk.

Richard McComas said:

Interesting, thanks for sharing. I noticed they did that without biscuits and glue.

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Somewhere in Kenya.... a village is missing its idiot!

Alaskans for Gobble Warming

Lew, 

I've got a couple of pieces myself one's about 10" long, and the other about 3'.

The 3' chunk probably weighs more than I do.

 

Larry

Old Woodworking Machinery Forum Host 
Lewis Kauffman said:

I was fortunate enough to get a short piece of railroad rail and it does make a fine anvil.

Larry Buskirk said:

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Lew Kauffman-
Wood Turners Forum Host

Time Traveler and Purveyor of the Universe's Finest Custom Rolling Pins!

Larry, I read from the bottom up. Your post about the 3' chunk was first. Then I scrolled to Lew's post about the precision chalk. For a minute I was quite impressed. I'm easily impressed and easier confused.

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Gene
'The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him.' G. K. Chesterton

I liked the4 way they found the diameter  of the grove for the top and  bottom.

They come  in all sizes

 Over the years I've  kept an eye out for cooperage on the web.

The sussing out of the top and bottom groves is a deep trade secret that has puzzled me.  I suppose were I any good at math I'd have gotten that the chord of a sixth of the circumference of a circle equaled the radius.

However another trade secret and I think it's the deepest of the cooper's trade is the geometry of the staves and how to make them.

Old school coopers fitted the last stave  last to accommodate the errors of the others but the staves all have to describe a sort of football shape when laying flat. The more the ends taper down the steeper the barrel will taper.

How do they figure this? 

I've seen oodles of things on the web and you tube that describe the glamorous process of heating the staves over fire and whacking the rings around them while  bending them together to form the barrel but never have I seen anything about how to make the staves.

All I can say is WOW - great to see how the "elder generation" does it without all the fancy computer aided tools.

Have a question, though.  What is the purpose of the burner when he is putting the barrel together??????????

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Fred
aka Pop's Shop
www.pops-shop.com
'Soooooo many patterns - sooooo little time'
Scroll Saw Forum Host

Fred, the burner heats the wood softening it enough to allow the staves to flex into shape.

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Round Barn WoodCrafts, Plymouth WI
roundbarnwoodcrafts@hotmail.com

What is the purpose of the burner when he is putting the barrel together??????????

The heat dries out the inside of the staves and makes squeezing them together enormously easier to  do as the drying wood  expresses a tendency to curl around the heat source. This latter because the wood fibers dry are smaller than  when wet

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Hey~!! It's a hobby~!! It's not supposed to make sense.

oh yeah  - I forgot to mention - and the heat softens the lignin.  When the lignin is softened at 160 F or so the wood is like  a mess of flexible straws in a wet glue matrix allowing you to flex it into some shape and when it cools it hardens up again like glue curing and retains that shape.