I was planning on using some old whiskey barrels as a means of collecting water draining off of my house for irrigation to my garden and flower beds. However, I cannot find what I am looking for. Lowes and Home Depot have half barrels. Online I found where I can buy them, but that is a little out of my range. Ebay, I don’t even want to go there. Is there any other places I should look. Online or otherwise.
I even thought about building them. Any idea where I can get some plans. I’ve done the google thing, but keep getting the same sites I looked up before.
Thanks,
-J
Being a cooper is not something one can just pick up from a book. Ask around some of the local nurseries if they know of places that deal in barrels for planters. Or find a local winery and try to score one of their old barrels.
ETA: Are you sure you don’t want to try eBay? Here’s one that is quite reasonable.
It looks like most actual rain barrels are plastic nowadays. Is that just too tacky?
One of the Foxfire books has a section on making barrels. I’ve not read it in years, but my dad used it and another book as a guide to make some wooden buckets.
All I remember was it was very time consuming. Making barrels and charring the inside is on my list of things to do someday, though.
Another thing to consider, if part of the wood gets dry, it will skrink and likely leak until it soaks up water again. I think that’s why the distillers have to turn their barrels periodically. So, for rain water barrels, they may not be the best solution.
You can get a rain barrel with a hand-oumo & hose, for watering a garden. I’ve seen em online.
Plastic, though.
The ads at the bottom of this thread actully look as if they might be useful.
I’ve thought about using the plastic ones, but they all look a little tacky. I’ve thought of making slats to go around them, but I don’t want it to look like I have a bunch of trash barrels around my house. Do they have plastic ones that look like wood?
I will need at least five, maybe six. at least in the 30+ gallon range. Hope that helps with what I’m looking for.
silenus, thanks for the link. I’ve not ruled out ebay yet. More likely a last resort if anything. Besides the one in the link looked something I would want to put in my house as a cool little table.
Again any help is appreciated.
Thanks,
-j
Try these–
http://www.composters.com/product.php?pid=162
Best of all!
The last is just what you are looking for! 
thanks, but way out of my range. My thinking is I can get the half barrels from Lowes or Home Depot for $20 to $30. $40 to $60 a barrel is more what I’m looking to spend.
If there are any wineries in your area, try giving them a call. Most wineries are happy to get rid of used barrels. (They only last about 4 years before they are considered ‘neutral’)
I can get used wine barrels from any winery in this area for 5 bucks each.
I am getting:
Home Colon Irrigation
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Maybe that’s what the OP needs to become a cooper, a good colon cleansing to empower him.
You have to keep liquid in a wood barrel or the staves will dry out, shrink and the barrel will no longer hold water (Until enough has soaked into the wood to swell it. back up)
The cheap wooden half-barrels I’ve seen at HD, etc., are intended as planting pots & are not watertight. That would limit their usefulness as rainwater containers.
An open-topped rain barrel is another term for a mosquito breeding facility. I hear that skeeters are not unknown in the Great State of Louisiana, so you might want to consider how you’ll handle the appropriate countermeasures.
I’ve thought of that.The top end would not have enough of an opening warrant much concern. Just an opening big enough to pipe in the water. During the mosquito season a faucet will be attached close to the bottom where it will feed into a hose that will irrigate the garden and flower bed like a soker hose, just less water pressure. During the winter months, even though I don’t have to worry about much freezing in my neck of the woods, a different hose will be attached to allow drainage from the barrel.
I can assure you that the half barrels sold at hardware stores are not intended as planting pots when they are coopered, they are intended to hold wine or whiskey and should be fairly watertight.
The hardware stores don’t buy those planters from a cooperage, they buy them used from wineries and distilleries, for about 5 bucks each. (By contrast a new barrel can cost anywhere from $500 to $1000.)
Hmmm - I get 2 links to “Rain Barrels” and one to “Whiskey Barrels”.
If you get good used whisky barrels, you can use them as a means of collecting whisky. Seriously. Had a friend, who is a brewer and chemist, do that. He bought some from a very fine vintage and essentially used some water to sweat the alchohol back out of the wood. Don’t know the exact process, although I could find out for you. The stuff tasted fantastic.