Homemade Oak Barrel Dolly

Updated: Feb 12, 2020

How do you move an oak barrel around? A 30 gallon oak barrel full of wine weighs upwards of 300lbs. That is some serious weight to be moving around, and a barrel stand on wheels can make your life a lot easier! You make a barrel stand from scrap 2x4s and swiveling castor wheels, but for the price of four wheels you can get a fully assembled furniture dolly ($20). The dolly includes four castors, has a capacity of 1000lbs, and is a great starting point for a movable barrel dolly!

Barrel Dolly Instructions

1. Buy required materials:

1. 1000lb capacity furniture dolly

2. 2 inch drywall screws. You only need 4, so whatever you have laying around might work.

3. Scrap lumber. About 2 feet of 2x4 or 2x3 will work.

2. Remove carpet from dolly

3. Cut wedges at roughly 35° angle (Set miter saw to 55°). Length of wedge does not matter, but the total length of mine were around 5 inches. I used 2x3 scrap that I had laying around but you can use whatever you have. 2x4 would work fine. If you don't have a miter saw, you could use a miter box and a hand saw since there are only a few cuts.

4. Lay dolly against barrel and slide wedges in. Hold wedges in place, set dolly on ground, and measure spacing between wedges. The spacing for my 30 gallon barrel was 5.5 inches.

5. Mark center of cross member and mark a line where the inside edge of each wedge will go.

6. Drill pilot holes Near center of planned wedge location. I used a 3/16" drill bit. This will prevent the cross member from cracking when drilling.

7. Secure wedges with one 2 inch screw each. The wedges are just to keep the barrel from rolling off the dolly.

8. Enjoy your new barrel dolly and move that barrel around! Shout from the rooftops about how much your barrel dolly has changed your life and checkout my youtube video instructions below.

For video instructions, check out my youtube video.

Homemade Oak Barrel Dolly

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