Replies

1. 
   TINK | Jul 23, 2005 02:23am | #1

   Stormin cherry stained a dark red mahogany looks very good & you don't have to fill the grain..    11days of 1oo+degrees  here in Reno Nevada.... Hope this might help.Drew 

2. 
   Steinmetz | Jul 23, 2005 05:37am | #2

   Hey! Stormin', sweet job on that bar. Years ago, I built a bar for a friends basement 'wreck' room.
   Having had plenty of experience at bars, I wracked my brain to 'design' the bar's moulding.
   While perusing some moulding samples at a fine builders supply
   (And coming up short,) I glanced at a length of mahogany hand rail
   (about 4-1/2"deep)... BINGO!

   I snapped it up, brought it home, sliced off a cross section and studied it six ways to Sunday.
   Finally, I excised a goodly part of unnecessary 'meat' and applied the'custom mold' on the edge of the bar .The tenant loved it so I applied the mould to three edges.

   Didn.t have Poly those days, but used several coats of varnish.

   Recently met members of that family and they fondly remembered that basement rec room and recalled having had many many great parties down there. Steinmetz.

3. 
   WillGeorge | Jul 23, 2005 02:59pm | #3

   I have never made one but see if this helps..

   I hope the link is good...

   http://www.woodshopdemos.com/ss-p3-11.htm

   Have FUN!

4. 
   notDusty | Jul 24, 2005 05:45am | #4

               Steve ,

                                 I have built several bars that looked a lot like the one in the photo , I have used a standard 10 " blade to cove cut on the TS in conjunction with router bits and such . A little bit of scraping a lot of sanding and you can do a great job of it . I have also made base molding coved in a similar look for a heavy molding.

                     good       luck                   dusty

5. 
   jackplane | Jul 25, 2005 11:32pm | #5

   It's called bar rail, and that size is readily available from a good lumber yard in mahogany or oak.

   If you actually want to make this, well, the Tour de France is probably less grueling.

    

1. 
   jptenberg | Jul 26, 2005 01:05am | #6

   Making that rail out of a nice piece of mahogany shouldn't be all that bad.  I've made lots of custom cove mouldings on the table saw.  I just clamp one of those straightegdes at the angle to the blade and start hogging away.  Mahogany works beautifully and will hold an edge well in my experience.

   As for the rounded edges around cove, one could easily "knock off " the corners at e table saw, and then use hand tools to shape the final profile.  To me at least, that soudns like more fun than the router...

   I did a bar some years ago, that was roughly the same "u" shape, but laminated purpleheart between 2 8/4 peices of maple.  Then, rather than have a round profile, i cut it on the bandsaw at a steep angle--maybe 10 degrees or so--.  Anyway, that resulted in a very interesting stripe in the rail.  My clients were very pleased.

   Just a couple of  thoughts...Peter

   jpswoodworking.com

1. 
   jackplane | Jul 26, 2005 02:09pm | #7

   Perhaps we approach this from different viewpoints. As a professional, my job is to reduce labor-intensive processes in order to put food on the table. If you work wood for sheer pleasure(nothing wrong with that), then spending all day hogging out waste to make this bar rail with hand tools is no problem.

   I've made custom molding on the tablesaw; the handwork even with a full compliment of router bits, was extensive. I'll not do it again without using a shaper, the best tool for making wide moldings such as this bar rail.

   Edited 7/26/2005 7:14 am ET by jackplane

1. 
   jptenberg | Jul 26, 2005 04:44pm | #8

   I would not argue w/ you about the shaper--definately the best tool for the job if you have one, and if you are doing miles of mouldings.  However, I can cut the 10 feet or so of mouldings for a small bar in about 90 min.

   Surely, not as productive as a shaper, but I am still billing the client at $50+/hr.  Don't get me wrong, if I had the shaper and the cutters, I would probably be using that for sure...

    Peter

   jpswoodworking.com

6. 
   Vikingvood | Jul 26, 2005 07:18pm | #9

   O.B. Williams co. in Seattle  makes & stocks the profile you are looking for, I have purchased some mahogany bar rail in the past from them & the quality was very good. Here is the link, http://obwilliams.com/catalog/pdf/pdfcatalog.php just click on the bar rail prfile  & it will bring up a pdf file link with the measurements of the profiles.