How To Build A Barrel Sauna

Update:If you're looking for a sauna and this projection looks a little daunting and so checkout the saunas I sell through www.nootkasaunas.com. We have installation bachelor if you live in British Columbia and nosotros too offer shipping all over Canada and USA.

Whether information technology'due south onsens in Nihon, sweat-lodges in North America or saunas in Scandinavia, the many health benefits of hot/cold therapy have been apparent for centuries. Recent studies support these beliefs, including a pretty shocking study showing that regular sauna use can lower all-cause bloodshed hazard by up to 40%. [source]

A couple years ago, I decided to build a Due west Coast inspired barrel sauna for a commercial shoot (videos below). Two of us built the sauna from start to finish in 2, fourteen-hr days for approximately $2500 USD. The sauna was quickly dubbed "The Apres Sauna".  As far as I know, this has become the well-nigh travelled sauna ever made. It's been setup at backcountry lakes, long-lined under helicopters up multiple mountains and trailered around the West Coast of Canada on surf trips. Here is a full breakdown of what was involved in the build, also as a list of things I will do differently on my side by side sauna build.

As with any DIY projects, there are inherent risks and I volition not be held responsible for any injuries that result from following this guide. Be careful and use your judgment.

Let's Become Started

To make things elementary, I've broken down the build into 6 components. I won't go into item on the interior function of the sauna (benches and stove), as making benches is quite straight forward you lot'll want to conform your seating based on how your stove fits into the sauna. The exploded CAD model shows the half dozen components we're going to construct.

Overall, it'southward a pretty straight forward build. At that place are 3 primary types of joints that you'll learn about in the build, all of which are very satisfying when it comes to the final assembly.

Photos Courtesy of Abby Dell Photography @abbydells

What You lot'll Need

Here'due south a pretty comprehensive listing of the tools and materials we used for the build. Some tools can be substituted just this should exist a solid starting indicate for anyone attempting this build.

Required Tools

• Jigsaw
• Drill
• Router Table
• 1-1/2″ Round Nose Bit
• 1-ane/2″ Balderdash Nose Radius Bit
• ane/ii″ Double Flute Directly Flake (or a tabular array saw with a dado blade)
• Cord or twine (~ 4-5ft) and a pencil
• Some standard carpentry tools… a trusty hammer/mallet, measuring record, level, etc.

Materials

• 89 – 2x6x8 cedar boards (51 pieces for the staves + 16 pieces for the front console + 16 pieces for the dorsum panel + 6 spares)
• 4 – 1x6x8 cedar boards (for benches)
• x – 2x4x8 cedar boards (for cross supports) and bench supports
• 200 – 2" woods screws
• 100 – 2.5" woods screws
• 2 or three Aluminum straps ~250"  (optional)
• 2 Door hinges
• Sauna stove, chimney and aluminum flashing (encounter recommendations in Pro Tips section

A Note on Wood: Some sauna purists claim that yous should only build saunas with wood that is completely clear of knots. I looked into doing the build with "clear" cedar, but the cost was 3x more expensive than using off-the-shelf cedar. Since the whole build is out of 2×6's, you actually don't take to worry about knots "popping" out of the wood, like you lot would with thinner natural language-and-groove. Since time was limited for this project, I got all our wood from Home Depot. I spent a solid 2-hours picking the straightest and clearest cedar they had.

1. Preparing the Staves

We designed our sauna to accept a 6.5' bore, which ended upward existence a perfect size. Based on that diameter, our build had a circumference of 245".

π x diameter = circumference

π 10 78" = 245"

The staves are all connected using bead and cove joints. Fig. 1 shows what the side contour of a stave.

Fig one. Side Contour of Stave

We did this entire build with planed lumber so our two×half-dozen's we're actually closer to 1.5"x5.five". Once we finished the bead and cove joints and connect the staves, the effective width of each stave will exist ~4.8". Based on that, we needed 51 staves to complete the barrel.

Circumference/effective length of board = number of staves needed

245" / four.viii" = 51 staves

For both the bead and cove joint cuts I recommend using two fences (1 on either side of the wood plank) then there is no move equally you feed the length through. I also advise using a table extension of some sort (i.due east.: a sawhorse) then the wood stays level to the tabular array summit for the whole cut.

It'due south important that you button the wood into the router bits in a direction that the flake pushes back confronting the wood, rather than pulling it through. Near router tables are setup so the router $.25 spin counter-clockwise, as such the feed direction will probable be to the left. Run across Fig 2. for clarification.

Fig ii. Direction of Router Cut. Courtesy of:http://world wide web.canadianwoodworking.com/

To route the cove joint, your planks will be passed through the router table vertically and for the bead articulation your planks will become passed through horizontally.

Fig three. Cove Cut on Stave

Important: On the cove side of the joint, don't make the initial fault I made of trying to cut the joint all the fashion to the edges. Trying to cut right to the edge makes for really weak edges of the boards that snap off during associates. As per Fig 3, recess the bull nose fleck slightly so you exit approximately .05" on either side of the cut.

Once you've routed all the dewdrop and cove joints, yous'll want to make dado cuts into the staves (see Fig iv). The front and finish caps of the sauna (which we'll cover next) will sit snuggly into these dado joints. The dado cuts should be .75" deep and 1.50+.05" wide (based on using planed lumber with a 1.5" width). Nosotros made the dado cuts with a dado blade. The dado blade is one of the most terrifying tools I've used in wood-working and if you enjoy having 10 fingers, I'd recommend using your router table with a 0.5" direct flute router chip instead. This will take iii passes (moving the argue 0.5" each fourth dimension, but is much safer than the dado blade, which requires you to take off the table saw's safety embrace and has a high potential for deadly kickback.

Fig iv. Dado Cuts on Staves

IMPORTANT: To ensure everything aligned correctly, we cutting the first dado joint iii" in from the stop of the stave and so for the second dado joint cut we measured exactly 90" from the start dado cut. This ensured that the front and back panels would all fit well even if there was a slight variation betwixt board lengths (which at that place was). If we had measured 3" in from each end of the lath and 1 board was, say .5" longer than another board, then when it came time to gather, some staves would take dado joints 90" apart while others might be 89.5" or 90.5" apart

2. & iii. End Caps (Front and Back)

To build the front end and back panels, nosotros routed natural language and groove joints into 2x6x8'south and built 2 square panels which we're 16 boards wide. These were then cut into circular panels. Nosotros used a .v″ double flute straight router fleck to make both the natural language and groove side of the joint. There are a ton of resources already available online for using a router tabular array to make natural language and groove joints and then I won't go into item hither, merely once once more, I recommend using ii fences to avert the wood globe-trotting around. I fabricated the depth of the groove joints 0.5″ and the depth of t he tongue joints 0.45″. This gave us 0.05" tolerance to ensure a seamless fit betwixt each plank.

One time all of the tongue and groove joints nosotros're cut, nosotros joined all of the pieces together and secured them with some 2×4's running perpendicular to the 2×half dozen's. We then partially screwed a screw into the centre of each panel, fastened a string (the length of the sauna'southward radius… 39") to this screw and tied a pencil to the other end. Then it was merely a matter of dragging the pencil around the console to draw a most-perfect guide for cut out the panel (see Fig. five). We used a reciprocating saw to cut the panels into circles. It worked pretty well, but the saw blades had some lateral flex, which lead to a slightly wavy cut. This was subconscious when we mounted the staves, just if I was doing information technology once again, I'd employ a jigsaw instead of a reciprocating saw for this step.

four. The Door

We made the door 25" wide and approximately 5'eight" high, utilise your own judgement here though. Leave at least 3-4" of cloth in the corners betwixt the door frame and the edge of the circle so you lot can have ii×4' cross braces to go along the end cap disc equally one piece. I found a slice of tinted fireplace glass at my local "Rebuild It Center" for 5 bucks and information technology served as a perfect window for the front door. We cut the hole for the door out of the circular end cap and used the cut out tongue & groove pieces as the door frame.

5. The Anxiety

Nosotros made 3 feet for this sauna and I cutting them out of 2×eight'due south and two×10's as per Fig half-dozen. If I retrieve correctly, we waited until assembly to mark out a rough bend for the feet based on a radius .75" larger than the end caps (because the staves have a .75" deep dado joint, the outside radius of the sauna will actually exist 39.75". We merely used 2.five" wood screws to connect the bottom viii or 9 staves to these feet.

Fig half dozen. Dimensions of Sauna Feet

half dozen. Straps

Nosotros screwed each stave into the end cap with 2x 2.5" screws and actually found the straps to be unnecessary, so they we're more than of a decorative piece. At the local hardware store they we're happy to give u.s.a. several feet of banding that they use to strap material to. Yous could also source ane or two" strapping from whatsoever metal supply shop.

Concluding Assembly

To gather the sauna, start by lining up the three feet, screwing every bit many staves into the curved cuts yous fabricated in the feet and employ this every bit your base. Then, go some extra hands, drop your stop discs right into the dado cuts on the staves.

Of import: tap on a couple staves on the top of the discs to continue the discs from moving around or potentially falling over while your assembling the remainder of the sauna.

Finally, it'south just a matter of assembling the sauna, stave-past-stave until you've gone around the unabridged circumference. We took one of the spare staves that we fabricated in Stride 1 and cut a few "chocks" that were half dozen" long, apartment on one side and had either a bead joint or cove articulation on the other side. Then using a mallet and brimming, nosotros could easily tap each stave into the previous ane.

What I'll Exercise Differently on the Next Build

• Professional person Stove. Rather than a home welded stove, I'll utilise a Harvia stove. Even an M1 which is their smaller stove will become this type of sauna upwards to 95^oC. Information technology's very hard to go the air menses efficient on home built wood stoves and the Finnish stove makers are experts at this.
• Alter Room. If you're in a common cold climate, consider building a 12' long sauna and having the first iv feet of the sauna setup every bit a change room. You lot'll substantially demand to make ii, forepart caps and 2 doors for this setup) This will keep the heat in when people come and go and will also make changing for the sauna more enjoyable.
• Higher benches. In an ideal sauna, to get the virtually oestrus, the sauna goer's anxiety should be at the same level every bit the stove's rocks. Our benches are merely about 1.v' above the flooring and it would be better to take them about 2' in a higher place the floor.
• Common cold Plunge. One of the best parts of saunaing is mixing the hot with the common cold. If y'all don't have access to a lake or river, consider making a water barrel shower or a bucket/string shower but outside the door of the sauna

Happy sauna building. Let me know if you have whatever questions or feedback most the build. I don't claim to exist an expert carpenter and am e'er learning so encourage suggestions.

Source: https://krisharris.ca/cedar-barrel-sauna/

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