My bucket making plan.

[Jay Pique]

I'm going to make a new bucket for an old White Mountain ice-cream maker I came upon. What I'd like to do is make a 12 side polygon, with staves 2.95 inces wide on the outside, beveled at 15d to give me an approximate 11" outside "diameter" of the finished vessel. I think I've done the math right... IAE, to keep them together I'm going to use stainless steel hose clamps that seat in a shallow dado I'll put in each piece. What I'm stuck on is how to make the bottom. I think I'd like to try and cut a round rabbet around the inside and fit a circular piece of wood into it. Question is, how do I cut the rabbet?

JP

[Gooey TARBALLS]

Could you dry assemble it, set it on the bench with the bottom side up and use a router to cut the necessary groove.

[Swingman]

If you really want to do it that way, think along the lines of jigging up by using the cutout for the bottom as a template for a bearing bit (slot cutter) after assembly.

But why circular? For all practical purposes, a 12 sided bottom, fit into dadoes routed into the individual staves before assembly, will give you exactly the same look and function.

Been a long time, but IIRC, didn't the bottoms of many of these things have a friction fit with ledger strips?

In any event, it sounds like a good project ... home made peach ice cream, eaten while swatting mosquitoes on a hot, cricket filled Southern evening. Been a while ...

[Jay Pique]

I could make a slightly smaller disc, support it in the center of the opening, and use that to guide the cut.

I was only thinking circular because I thought it would be a pain to get the 12 sided bottom to fit snugly with in the opening.

The existing bucket is tapered, which makes for a good friction fit. I could use ledger strips too, but I hadn't planned on tapering mine.

That's the plan!

JP

[Leon]

While yours may be old, I have a NEW White Mountain ice cream maker. 2 years old. IIRC the bucket is redwood and everything fits loosely. Leaks badly until water has stood in it for 30 or so minutes. It has to be refilled often until the wood swells. They are not built to fit tightly when they are dry.

[Jay Pique]

Huh. I didn't know that. Mine is very old, with a spongy bottom that has a gap of 3/32nds in the middle of it. The sides aren't horrible. I'll try filling it with water today to see if it will swell tight. I'll probably make one anyways, because it's to be a gift and I would prefer it to be water tight from the get-go if possible. I might glue it.

JP

[Leon]

Actually what I do is partially fill a plastic bucket with water and set my wooden bucket in side of it when I make ice cream. Because it takes the wood so long to swell and stop leaking I leave it in there while I make the ice cream. Later I set the wooden bucket out and it will hold water for days. The instructions indicate to fill the bucket a few hours before adding the container, salt, and ice. I wonder if glue might prevent natural shrinking when it dries out and possibly cause cracking.

Either way, good luck.

[else24]

Same story with an old cider press a neighbor of mine had. The first time we used it we figured out that we should have first soaked the big wooden bucket with the garden hose and THEN pressed the cider. Good thing we had plenty of apples. :-)

Once it was wet it stayed watertight for days and it only took a few minutes but before that, it leaked like a sieve. Which is pretty much what it was when it was dry.