Post #138650 by JimTandem on Tue, Feb 1, 2005 12:54 AM

I built a bar recently and went with a 6" overhang to go along with a 30" bar depth for total of 36". It is 60" wide. See my pics in my post furthur down this forum. I found the table top at a tent sale, it had no legs and a few scratches and they were practically giving it away. I had to cut 6 inches off the back side to fit my bar. It was a dark cherry stain and I fired up the ol' palm sander and took it down to bare wood, which also took out all the scratches. What a beautiful butcher block surface appeared! Then a coat of honey oak stain to get the color more in tune with the bamboo and 3 coats of marine spar varnish. Also what turned out to be a big help was that the table was split in the middle and made for adding a leaf. So when transporting it to my brother in laws house, it was easy to unbolt from the bamboo frame and separate the two pieces for easy transport. I only had to take off the sliders from underneath and use 2 smaller pieces attached across both pieces for support. The stock latches underneath stayed intact. I'm pretty sure tho, that when I build my next bar for me it'll be a one piece top.
My advice is to check out some local furniture stores or warehouses and see if they have any blem tabletops in the back room or something that they want to get rid of. Good luck!