Wooden box for water?

[Jack Clay]

I have been asked to make a48inch x 10 inch box for a decorative water wheel. The box holds the water for the wheel so it would need to be water tight. I am going to make it out of cypress but was wondering if anybody has made any thing like this before. If anybody has made this did you do anything special to the inside of the box or joints?

[John Shuk]

You could line it with lead sheeting or even copper both are a bit expensive these days. You might be able to use the rubber membrane they use for ice shielding on roofs.

[Bill Huber]

I think I would just glass it, it is not hard to do and will last forever. I am sure there is a boat repair place you could get the fiberglass form in your area or you could just get it over the net.

[James Ashburn]

I have not done this before but if I were dooing one today I would check out flexible pond liners. Post some pix when the project is finished please. I'd like to see the setup.

James

[Mike Keers]

have been made for years boats with plywood and epoxy for diesel fuel, water, waste, and in industry for chemical tanks like plating and stripping. Nothing new there. If you want to go that route, check out some boatbuilding books or websites like The Gougeon Bros. and their WEST system of epoxy, or MAS or System Three or several others.

Fiberglass cloth and epoxy will do it, I've done it many times. Since you're not building a boat to keep water out, it doesn't have to be as purty as the outside of a boat.

Of course 'tanks' have been made from solid wood for centuries--they call them water troughs and barrels. And then there are solid wood hot tubs too.

Edited to add, if you go with epoxy and ply, the FG cloth really isn't necessary, it's generally added for abrasion resistance or to act as a screed to insure an adequate thickness of epoxy (at least three thick layers).

[Hank Knight]

Somebody, Frank Klaus or maybe Tage Frid, years ago explained how to make a water tight wooden box for sharpening stones. Whoever it was built the box with butt joints screwed together. Before he assembled the box, he took a piece of thick wire or a metal rod and pounded it with a hammer lengthwise along the center of edge of the sides that mate with the bottom, creating an indentation the length of the edge. Then he planed the edge down flush with the bottom of the indent. He assembled the box with screws and filled it with water. The compressed fibers along the indentation swelled when they got wet and sealed the box. I've never tried it, but I thought it was a neat trick.

[Matthew Hills]

Somebody, Frank Klaus or maybe Tage Frid, years ago explained how to make a water tight wooden box for sharpening stones. Whoever it was built the box with butt joints screwed together. Before he assembled the box, he took a piece of thick wire or a metal rod and pounded it with a hammer lengthwise along the center of edge of the sides that mate with the bottom, creating an indentation the length of the edge. Then he planed the edge down flush with the bottom of the indent. He assembled the box with screws and filled it with water. The compressed fibers along the indentation swelled when they got wet and sealed the box. I've never tried it, but I thought it was a neat trick.

Yeah, this was Frank Klausz in his DVD on hand tool maintenance. He was showing how he made the pond for his sharpening stones. Agree it was a pretty neat trick. He said it came from boatmaking.

I only recall him doing this trick for the butt joint between the sides and the bottom. I don't recall how he joined the sides so that they were water-tight.
(edit: just read somewhere else that he used sliding dovetails for the sides)

Matt

[Michael Faurot]

Yeah, this was Frank Klausz in his DVD on hand tool maintenance. He was showing how he made the pond for his sharpening stones.

I've not made this myself, but have seen the same video and Frank Klausz himself demonstrate this and talk about it at a wood working show. A couple of things Frank mentioned, that I don't believe are in the video:

• He makes the box out of pine. I believe part of the reason for that is that pine compresses better/easier and thus the seal made with the piece of wire swells nicely once it gets wet.
• Frank mentions that when the box is new or has dried out--it will leak at first. So it's necessary to fill it and then put it somewhere that it can be allowed to leak for awhile. After the wood has had a chance to adsorb some of the water and swell, then it'll stop leaking.

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

a coopered barrel.

[Peter Quinn]

White Oak. White Oak. White Oak. Skip the nasty marine resins and use white oak. Think wine or Whiskey barrels. Nature made it water proof, you just need to make tight joints.


White oak. White oak I say.

[Dave Rose]

http://www.custombuildingproducts.co...s/RedGard.aspx

[Gary Curtis]

Japanese society is filled with wood boxes made to hold liquid. From the small softwood Sake containers used at the local bar and Sushi shop. To rain troughs and basins outside of temples.

I guess for economy, most are of very soft pine or basswood. Corners seemed to meet either as butts, or in a simple Drawer Lock configuration. The wood is meant to swell and then seal the container when wet. Instead of trying to keep the liquid away from the wood, they employed the swelling as a built-in sealant.

I saw wooden Sake barrels being burst open with large wooden mallets. The sides looked like oak, the tops of a softer wood.

Look up the derivatives of some English words, and you'll learn that our term "Fire Plug" for a hydrant comes from the fact that after the Great London Fire in the 19th Century, the city fathers dug trenches along most roads in which they buried a wooden pipe. In front of every few houses, they bored a hole in the pipe and inserted a wood plug. When the need arose, firemen would simply remove the plug, attach a hose, and deal with the fire.

Gary Curtis

[Peter Quadarella]

There was an episode about crafting a watertight wooden box on The Woodwright's Shop. I remember there were sliding dovetails involved, but I can't remember the details. The water caused the pine to swell which sealed the box somehow.

[Jim Finn]

How about lining the box using parafin?