coopering-part 4 (almost the end!)
  We are almost done  I somehow failed to get pics of the hooping prosses, but when that was happening...DISASTER STRUCK!   While the hoops were being tightened, you had to go around the tub, smacking the staves with a rubber mallet in order to even them out. One of our staves Broke!  Apparently, we missed a knot when we were picking through our cut staves for duds  I dont know if you can tell from the pic, but the bit of broken stave has toothmarks...one of the shop dogs had immediately claimed it as a toy so...here's the guys doing the very, very difficult stave replacement...not that you can see much.  ...and then smacking it some more, as the hoops were re-tightened.  Here's our hot tub as it is now, with the sanding done (sorry, I decided the pics Scott took of me sanding it with an orbital sander made my butt look HUGE!  ) and the staining completed. all that's left now is installing the benches inside, building the stairs, and putting in the snorkle stove. The cool tapered tub in front of ours is a project one of our fellow students is doing. Its a rain-barrel, made of local Yellow Cedar...so lovely!  |
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| Just so cool. I am sure it is lovelier in person. One question - how much does it weigh? |
kerry wrote: Just so cool. I am sure it is lovelier in person. One question - how much does it weigh? Strangely, not much. Scott and I can lift and maneuver it pretty easily with just the 2 of us. An interesting fact we were told, is that the reason why barrels are shaped like they are (bowed out in the middle) is so that they can be easily tipped, balanced, and moved around by hand, even when full. Very important in the days before forklifts! Considering the difficulty level of making a traditional shaped barrel (your staves must be precisely tapered at both ends, as well as angled on the edges for a round shape) There had to be a good reason! It is prettier in person...but, I realized looking back at this that I mis-spoke...That last pic was taken before it was sanded and stained! I guess I need to download more pics! |
| NEATO! |
That is so cool!  How wide is the diameter? It looks like a heck of a lot of fun! |
| How will one empty the tub to clean it every so often? Is there a bung hole? Or will be bucket and bale time? |
| Dawn: Its 5' in diameter, and 4' tall. SheepieBoss: it will have a drain. we haven't done that part yet, but I'm guessing that actually is our next step. Heres Scott, sanding, sanding, sanding...that took multiple eternities  And here is the Tub after sanding and staining  Much better  |
| that's more ike it - it was pretty appparent the other one wasn't sanded - especially standing next to the rain barrel;) |
Did you measure the doorway out of the studio?  The instructor gets his best pieces that way... Wow, a stave replacement!!?!! |
| Your hot tub looks so cool. |
Ron wrote: Did you measure the doorway out of the studio? The instructor gets his best pieces that way... Wow, a stave replacement!!?!! The doors are plenty big Ron Our tub was actually the smallest one, aside from the rain barrel. We chose to go small, since we don't plan to ever have more than the two of us in it, at one time  , and the bigger you go with the wood-fired stove, the longer it will take to come up to heat. I cant remember the calculation right now, but there's a HUGE difference in heating time between a 5' and a 6' tub. There are actually 4 six-foot tubs in various states of being built in that studio, along with our 5 footer and the rain barrel. I couldn't get a pic that showed all of them at once, since there is also tons of equipment, stacks of wood, etc between them. Its a big shop! The stave replacement was tough! I think the instructor was happy that it happened to someone though, so he could have a chance to show us how to deal with it. Definitely highlighted the importance of choosing your wood carefully! |
| Very very cool! What a great project! |
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