Whiskey Barrel Planters

Finally!

In late January, we purchased 8 Whiskey Barrels from an ad on Craig's List for $25 each.When my husband brought them home they were dirty and in bad shape. All I thought was "Boy, that's gonna be a lot of work!". They sat on the driveway for about a week or so before we decided to pressure wash them. Here's what they looked like after washing:

After they dried a bit I scrubbed the rings with a large wire brush:

Then into the garage they went, where they stayed until this month (May). Husband threatened to turn them into burning barrels if I didn't get them out of the garage where, as you can imagine, were taking up quite a bit of room. I just thought of them as extra table top space, ha. Regardless, with MDR's  encouragement, I decided to get off my butt and work on them.

It was obvious that the wire brush method wasn't going to work good enough so we decided to break out the power equipment. Here are the tools used, plus safety glasses that I forgot to take off my head, when I took the pic (lol):

The round disks are the sanding pads - before and after. Each pad would sand 3-4 rings, depending on the amount of rust. Here's a pic after using the power sander. Looking bettter but I still have my doubts.

I then taped the rings off. Please don't chastise me for using the tape but I am somewhat addicted to it. Each roll did three barrels so only an additional $8.

Some of the rings moved a bit as I was sanding so had to use a punch and hammer to move them to be tight again. We started worrying that they might move around after planting stuff in them so husband added a few stainless screws in each ring.

Here's an after shot with the tape removed:

Out of 8 barrels, 6 were good enough to use as planters, which will make 12 planters total. Will keep 2 or 3 for our city house and the other 9 or 10 will go to the country house. One whole barrel that wasn't planter worthy will be used as a planting table at our country house. That is, after adding a mosaic top (later project). The other one completely fell apart:

One had a stamp on the top. Heaven Hill Distilleries Inc. They are actually still in business, will buy a bottle to try.

Now it's time to cut. Husband was worried but not me. He can do anything! (More about him later.)

He measured from the top of the barrel since the rings are NOT level. While I held the tape measure at the top of the barrel he placed marks along where to cut. He then powered up the DeWalt circular saw (with new blade intact) and started cutting while I tried to keep the barrel steady. His words ... After making the cut all the way around the barrel he said "Damn that wood is hard". Seasoned oak.

It has also been charred inside (couldn't get a good enough pic to show). I guess that's what they do before putting the bourbon inside. Guess I should have paid more attention during my tour of the Woodford Distillary last year. Below is the after cut. Notice the silver screws. I did touch them up w/black paint before next step.

As lovely as it looked, we decided to put a couple of layers of polyurethene, because most all of them will be on a deck in direct Southern Sunshine.

Sorry, the picture isn't the best. It's late in the day and it's threatening rain. We got three completely finished (6 planters!) and the other three are in various stages of paint, waiting to have screws put in and then cut.

All in all, I am pleased with the results. Not sure I would tackle again. It's a LOT of work, but I'm glad. They are huge. Have to hit the in-laws compost pile (mine isn't 'cooked' yet) to fill it. Hope to get plants in two of them this week. I've got a couple of extra tomato plants and herbs that are just waiting to go in.

Estimated cost per 25 gal planter = $13.50. I don't think that's a bad price.

I think I'll go make me a Maker's on the rocks to celebrate! Husband's excellent pork ribs and Mrs. Szostek's potato salad on the menu tonight.

b-t-w - Rain missed us, it went to the Westside of town, dangit.