Wood-stave Grain Bin Question

Wilberton

Member
I acquired this old wooden grain bin and finally got it down and to my place last week. It was put up with steel rods running around the inside with the boards wired to it. It is put up this way and then the bands are put around the outside. I was wondering if anyone knew if these rods had to be rigid, or if I could put it back up using a steel cable?
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It most likely started it life as a water tank and was converted to a grain bin. The wood is most likely cypris (wrong spelling) and each board is numbered to fit together properly. The rings are put on the outside to hold it tight so it dose not leek when it was a tank. It would hold together better if the rings were on the outside and would hold its shape better and be more ridged. Using cables on the outside will let the tank or bin flex its shape and will likely fail that's why they use the heavy steel rings to hold them together, They don't flex. Bandit
 
Are you using it for grain or filling it? If it will only have to support its own wait plus snow, etc., you could use cable. Get something with a good strength to it. I would imagine swapping over with the right stuff wouldn't be cheap. If the rods were in good shape I would just keep them. They have found their level and curve by now anyway.

If you are filling it I would sure use the rods. Those folks used really good lumber and materials ages ago. They knew what they were doing and didn't cut corners. That's why she's still standing.
 
Nope, I'm mainly using it just to store small-square bales of hay in. I'm going to use the rods on the outside to band it back together with, but it was put up using a top and bottom pieces of rod on the inside to erect it with. There were several pieces of steel rod, and steel bands wired up to hold the boards in place until they could put the steel rods around the outside. I was just wondering if I could do the preliminary work with steel cable around the inside to hold it up until I could get the bands back on.
 
It started out as a 20 ft silo that held silage. The owner told me that his dad replaced it with a concrete silo back in the 60's. Him and his dad cut it in two and made two "corn cribs" out of it. This one is 10ft high and 15 ft in diameter. I live on a vintage 1886 farm and this would fit in just fine with my barn and machine shed. I'm mainly using it for show, and hay storage.
 
My main question is; couldn't I just use even rope to stand the boards up, then put the steel rings on around the outside of the barrel.

The land owner said there was a wire they used to stand the boards up and wire them to it. The "wire" turned out to be old silo bands placed around the inside (you can see one in the photo. I have it clamped and braced between two 2x4s.) I'll figure it out, but just wanted to check here and see what you guys thought. Thanks.
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