Hello good wood workers of North America

hello Mark and welcome to the forums...

let's get you started on the how to's..
we put together a touch of education over here at this link...

enjoy...

as for buying tools.. we are old pros at helping you spend your money for such acquisitions...

now for the barrel (coopering)...
style and size matter...

or you could cheat and save money at the same time and build a vaulted style barrel ceiling...
one right side up and the another inverted all from WRC.. (western red cedar)...
got any base plans or size ideas???

Welcome to the forum, Mark! We do like photos of shops, tools, projects, etc. so whenever you're ready start posting photos.

Here are some photo posting tips if you’re using your phone or iPad – the best way for proper orientation is to shoot landscape (widescreen). Rotate your phone or iPad CCW for proper orientation. If you want your photos to be portrait then open the photo in a viewer on your computer, rotate it to the orientation you want, then save it in that orientation. It will be correct when you upload it to the servers here. If you’re shooting video please shoot widescreen like our monitors, not portrait.

The best way to post photos in line with your text is to use Go Advanced below the Quick Reply window. If you’re starting a new thread then you’re automatically in the Advanced editor. Click on the Paper Clip on the ribbon bar and that will bring up a dialogue box where you can browse to your photos. Upload them and then put your cursor where you want a photo, hit the dropdown beside the Paper Clip, and choose the photo you want inserted. If you have several photos and just want them at the end of your text then put your cursor at the end and hit the Insert All on the dropdown list of photos.

David

Amazing. A new member who actually know what New Member Introductions is for. A rare thing anymore. Welcome aboard.

This barrel sauna doesn't look too difficult to duplicate. And here is a cheap hot tub. One thing about it, a good hot tub is useful year round.

Glad you decided to join the fun. The 2.25 routers will handle all but the heaviest of tasks. Are you using some sort of ship lap or tongue in groove? Getting the boards perfectly straight or at straight at the specific angle needed to make a full, circular tub. There are a number of ways to do that, but the easiest way to put a straight edge on is with a table saw jig like the one below. Prettyobvious how it works. You first determine the circumference of the circle, then the size of each of the pieces you're making to build it, then you compute the number of pieces you will need to cover that circumference, then divide that number into 360 to get the total angle per piece, divide it by two and that will be the blade angle you will use when using this jig.

You will want to make sure all the pieces are uniform. Are you going to use steel rings around the "barrel" to hold everything tight? Water will swell the joints slightly to seal the seams, but not if they're not flat and parallel on each edge.

If you are making a wood bottom, you will use very similar methods, but you'll glue up pieces into a large enough slab to cut a circular piece out that fits in the groove you'll cut into the ends of each of your side pieces. You can cut that with your router as well, using a circle cutting jig (which is easy to make). Pix if of a commercial model circle cutting jig.

Looking forward to seeing your project(s). I also attached a pdf of the 18 things that helped speed up my woodworking learning curve. It's 10 pages, but there are pictures, and maybe it will help you avoid a few mistakes and bad buys I made. Do take some time to review the pdfs Stick linked to, better than a commercial book on using a router.

Pretty might not be the important thing in a hot tub.