Antique Wooden Ice Bucket

[Tennessee Tony]

I have an antique ice crusher that attaches to a wooden barrel like bucket. It's like a miniture wine or whiskey barrel cut in half, the problem is that when it dries out, it falls apart.

In my one attempt at a fix, I let it soak for over a week, long after the wood was swelled and it was holding itself together with the steel bands around the outside very tight. I let it dry for a day then sealed the inside with parafin and becasue of all the moisture in the wood, I used a water based polyurethane for the outside. (3 or 4 coats)

It still dried out and fell apart. Any ideas? Should I let it dry and glue it? I'd actually like to use it if that makes any difference.

Thanks, Tony

[bridger]

get it good and dry and tighten the bands.

[Tennessee Tony]

Then it would leak. But I guess if I do like you suggest, then give the inside a good coat of melted parafin that would be good enough to hold some melting ice. I'll keep after it and tighen the bands every day or two as it dries out. I have a feeling the top will end up being too large for the shrunken "barrel" and I may have to make some modifications.

Thanks, Tony

[Andy Dingley]

OK expert, it's your bucket, you go fix it.

But round here we make barrels dry, then we fit the bands, then we get them wet. We're not the ones complaining of leaks.

[Tennessee Tony]

Ah, a barrel expert! (with such a wonderful attitude :-)) What I need is a bucket expert! If I let it dry and tighten the bands, the top ice crusher part will not fit. The top of the bucket will be too small.

Any more idea's. (Snot nosed barrel experts need not reply)

Tony

[Doug Miller]

Then you need a bigger bucket.

Andy gave you good advice. Not his fault if you don't like it. But he's right: barrels (or buckets) should be tight when dry. Getting them wet makes them tighter, and eliminates leaks. If yours isn't at least reasonably close to being tight when it's dry, then it needs repair.

Is it possible that what you have is not an ice crusher and bucket at all, but perhaps a cider press and its basket? If that's the case, you won't *ever* get it tight, because it isn't *supposed* to be. Can you post a picture of the whole thing on ABPW (alt.binaries.pictures.woodworking) or on a personal web space somewhere?

-- Regards, Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

Nobody ever left footprints in the sands of time by sitting on his butt. And who wants to leave buttprints in the sands of time?

[no(SPAM)vasys]

Most of the wooden ice buckets that I've seen have a removable plastic bucket inside. Did you loose yours?

[Tennessee Tony]

I would guess this never had one, it is fairly old. Also it seemed to be coated with wax on the inside (before I gave it another coat). So no, I don't think I lost the inside, however I can't say the same for my marbles.

Tony

[Paul Kierstead]

Nonetheless, it was good advice. Look, it is pretty simple: Wood swells when wet. If you hold (tightly) two (or more) pieces of wood togather whilst they get wet, they will swell sufficiently to make water tight seal (actually works for titanium on spy aircrafy wings too..). If they don't start out tight, they will never swell enough to make a seal. So your bucket is either the wrong one or made very badly in the first place or the wood has shrunk enormous amounts.

Otherwise, maybe line it with fiberglass and use resin like you would for certain kinds of "wooden" sinks. You could also rebate the top so the lid still fitted. But what you should do is get a proper bucket.

[fredfighter]

Then keep it wet.

Or soak it a day or two befor use.

[fredfighter]

They are called coopers without regard to being snot nosed or not.