Making a trough for chopping cabbage with your own hands

Today I received an order from my mother: to make a trough for chopping cabbage. My parents used to have, I remember, a special trough for this, about two meters long. As soon as the frosts began, the cabbage was cut and rubbed into small crumbs for several hours in a row, until all the tubs and barrels intended for it were filled. Then we ate this sauerkraut all winter. Yummy, my mouth is watering.

Then somehow they stopped fermenting cabbage in large quantities. Nowadays you can go buy fresh cabbage at the supermarket. It is not expensive, you can buy one or two heads of cabbage and chop it up a little with a knife. In this case, a trough is not required. So over the years it disappeared somewhere, maybe it rotted, or maybe it was used for firewood.
But history, as we know, goes in circles. The family is growing, grandchildren are multiplying, great-grandchildren are already starting to walk. Mom decided to ferment cabbage for her large family. And so I make a special trough.

Making a trough

To begin with, we need a 50x50 mm beam approximately 70 centimeters long. First, the timber must be planed on a planer and cut out two pieces in the form of a trapezoid with sides of 30 and 34 centimeters.

This is how we got two legs of the trough.
Next, we take a floorboard with a tongue and groove 10.5 cm wide. For the trough, we need three pieces one meter long. We assemble three pieces of this board into a tongue and groove, and fasten everything through the legs with self-tapping screws approximately 65 mm long. And now we have the bottom of the trough ready.


We make the side walls of the trough from boards 20 cm wide. For the entire trough, we need a board 270 cm long, which we also first run with a plane. To begin, we cut out the end trapezoidal walls with trapezoid bases of 28 and 34 cm, respectively.

Next, using self-tapping screws approximately 65 mm long, we screw these walls to the bottom of the trough (three self-tapping screws per wall). And now the profile of the future trough emerges.


Now from the remaining board 20 cm wide, cut out two pieces of one meter each for the side walls. At one end of the side wall, use a plane to make a bevel. This bevel is needed for a tighter connection between the side wall and the bottom of the trough.

Now, using the same self-tapping screws 65 mm long, we screw these side walls to the bottom of the trough (4-5 pieces) and to the end walls (2 pieces). And now we have an almost finished trough.

To make the trough more durable, I cut out four corners from tin (about 12x12 cm in size) and used them to strengthen the connection between the side walls and the end walls. Self-tapping screws for this were used with a length of 19 mm. Even at the junction of the side walls and the end walls, there was a height difference of 2-3 millimeters. We take a plane and smooth out these differences. And now the trough for chopping cabbage is ready.


I sweep the accumulated shavings inside the trough, wipe off the dust and dirt, and run to take it to my mother. I already want to try the sauerkraut from the new trough.