Using The Whole Barrel!

I finally have been able to use the entire barrel! I went back and forth on what to make of the barrel heads. Since I only get two of those per barrel I wanted to make sure I knew what I was going to make and how I was going to make it!

I was a little surprised when I took my first barrel apart and the barrel head came apart as well. I don't know why I expected it to be in one piece of be glued together.

I did a lot of research on the best way to to glue together the barrel head and watched a video on the proper techniques for clamping the wood together after it was glued. I'm glad I did because I would have never known that the biggest mistake people make is clamping the wood to tight! Who knew you could clamp it to tight? When you clamp it to tight you press all the glue out of the middle and don't leave enough to make a proper bond.

After much research I decided that Gorilla Wood Glue was the best. I went to Lowes to get the wood glue, clamp and lazy susan bracket. What a mess! I went straight to the glues but couldn't find the Gorilla Wood Glue. I asked the associate that worked in the area and he claimed the they didn't make "Gorilla Wood Glue" just "Gorilla Glue." I looked around some more and above the glues I saw a box that said "Gorilla Wood Glue" I took it down and opened it to find a new display of Gorilla Wood Glue. Now that I had my glue I was off to get a clamp and the lazy susan bracket.

The clamp was easy to find but he lazy susan bracket was another search. It took two associates and going back and forth between hardware and the kitchen area to finally find what I was looking for. It was in a box on the bottom of a shelf hidden behind a floor display! What was going to be a quick run into Lowes turned out to be about 30 minutes. At least now I know where everything is for future purposes.

Now I had to pick out what barrel head I was going to use first. Only one barrel head has the stamp of where it came from burned into it. I decided to use one without the stamp for my first lazy susan. I glued it together and let it dry for about an hour. I then removed the excess glue and sanded the top, bottom and sides smoothing out the rough edges. I applied a Red Oak stain to the barrel head and let it dry in the sun.

Lowes offered two different lazy susan brackets. I choose the large 12" circle over the 9" square. It has a lower profile and with the barrel head being 23" across I figured the lower profile and larger bracket would make a more stable lazy susan. I attached the bracket and put some felt pads on the bottom of the bracket to prevent scratching if placed on a table top. I must admit I've happy with the end product!