Building Prop Wine Barrels

For my recent build A Tale of Two Cities for Gallery 7 Theatre, we needed three barrels. One was to be carried and ‘spilled’ and the other two were to set the scene for the Defarge’s wine shop.

I found a helpful spreadsheet on Popular Machinist (link here) that helped me to know what size to cut the staves. I was able to plug in my dimensions (height, radius, etc) and it plotted out accurate numbers. I then transferred those measurements to a piece of 3/16 mahogany plywood to make a template; then cut all the curved staves with a table saw set at a small angle (please do not attempt to do this unless you are comfortable with power tools).

I cut the head,foot and middle circles out of 3/4 plywood, then stapled the staves on with some help from my assistant. After the first one, I added some extra interior structure before I stapled the staves on, and it was much easier to keep everything even.

There were some small gaps – these would be difficult to make perfect unless cutting everything with a CNC. My solution was 2-inch painters tape to cover the seams and give some structural support.

To protect the top and bottom and also to look more realistic, I added a ring of plywood as well.

My assistant did a great job of painting them and even added some Parisian stamps for realism. The final touch was a few rings of duct tape to simulate metal bands. I also added a few “bung holes” to the prop barrel. One of the larger barrels had a shelf inside so wasn’t completely enclosed, as well.

Overall, they worked really well. They are lightweight, reasonably sturdy, and (I think) realistic. And cheap – I was able to make them for the cost of a couple rolls of tape, since I had plenty of scrap plywood.