WINE BARREL PLANTER

When my neighbor tore down his deck, I salvaged the cedar main support beam. I used this for making this planter.

I needed 26 staves for this barrel.

Tape all the staves together with clear packaging tape or masking tape.

Then, flip them over and fill each joint with waterproof wood glue, such as Titebond III. Don’t use too much glue though. If there is too much ooze out, it may spread all over the inside of the staves.

Before I glued mine up, I lined the bottom of the staves with candle wax, so the staves wouldn’t stick to the cardboard that I put on the workbench.

Don’t be tempted to wipe up the glue that oozes out in the seams. If you do that, you will smear the glue on the cedar, which will make it look bad. Just let it drip down and settle on the cardboard.

To make the faux steel bands, I ripped some ¾” cedar in the bandsaw, about 1/16” thick. This thickness allowed the cedar to bend around the barrel without breaking. With the tapered staves, you need to match the angle of the taper. I set an 8” square against the barrel to see how far the bottom of the square came out. Mine measured 15/16”. I wanted to make about 3/16” thick bands, which meant I would stack three 1/16” strips together. That would mean I would want 5/16” tilt for each strip. For cutting the strips I made one cut, then flipped the board over, the long way to cut the next strip. This meant that there is an angle cut on both sides of the strips.

So for a total 5/16” tilt on the strip, I set the bandsaw blade to a 5/32” gap at the bottom of the square.

Before gluing the bands on, smooth off the edges of the staves a little, where the band will be.

The first band was easy to clamp as I glued it up. Make sure you don’t use too much glue, as it will look bad on the cedar if it oozes out. There’s no easy way to wipe or scrape off the excess glue without it soaking into the soft cedar.

I needed longer clamps for the inside bands.

I painted the bands with some flat black paint and cut a random edge on the open edge of the barrel. I traced the base of the barrel onto a wide section of cedar, and cut it at the matching angle of the barrel, for a snug fit for the barrel bottom.

I decided to play with my Lichtenberg burner on the bottom side of the barrel.

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