Bar build finally begins

At long last I’m finally on to the build of the heart and soul of the cave, the bar. It has been a long time coming, but after inviting my dad down to spend a week, I cleared some time to get the bar build underway. Using some plans from http://www.barplan.com, I settled on a 45 degree bar.

Following the bouncing ball with the plans from the internet, I started knocking together the base for the bar out of 4×2 and 12mm plywood.

I salvaged a double sink from the old house that we demolished prior to building the new one with the shed for the cave. Using a cutting disc on an angle grinder I cut one of the sinks out with a small border around it to seat it nicely in some 12mm ply. I then fitted the sink and ply into one side of the bar.

Using the same recycled Jarrah floorboards that I used for the floor, I filled in the top of the counter top of the bar. I used a jigsaw to cut out the surround of the sink, and used some pine for the boarders of the benches to provide some contrast and continue the Jarrah / Pine theme of the floor.

The next step was to hit the counter top with a belt sander to get it all level and also to bring out the distinctive red colour of the aged Jarrah. Once I was happy with this, I used some of the sanding dust, collected from the sander and added to lacquer, as colour matched filler for the gaps in the surfaces.

After drying, I gave the counter top another good sand with the belt sander and also hit all the corners with a router. This was my first time using a router, and for anyone who hasn’t given it a go I highly recommend getting your hands on one. Whilst my skills with the router were minimum, and if you look closely you can tell, it was a great way to finish off the square edges and turn an agricultural finish into a rustic one!

To seal off the counter top I went with a satin-finish lacquer.

Off to a good start with the counter I think, next will be turning my attention to the bar back and the actual bar top surface. Thanks for looking. Cheers, dan.