Revisiting an old "friend"

Anybody remember my barrel refurbish project? (Dec 06 and Jan 07)

Well here are the links to the blog entries.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

The barrel has been sitting in place for over a year and a half. Because it no longer holds fluid and has been opened up to air inside, the staves have shrunk in that time. Barrel hoops are normally held in place with pressure, not nails, screws, or rivets. To add any of those could compromise its ability to hold liquid. SO the hoops started falling off after about a year.

I lived with it, but finally decided to do something about it. So this past weekend I drilled a bunch of holes in the hoops, put them back in place, and added screws. Each stave has a screw in the top hoop. I felt that was critical. Then about half of the bottom has screws. Finally, each of the 4 middle hoops have 4 screws each. Now the barrel is rock solid again.

The only tough thing about this was drilling the holes in the metal. I had to experiment with drill speed and amount of force to use. It took several hours, but the end result is so pleasing. Should never have to do it again. Now the question is, should I paint the screw heads black or leave them as they are? If you want to see better, click on the picture to enlarge it.