Post #782800 by Prikli Pear on Sun, Dec 31, 2017 7:50 PM

Next up is a project I began back in the spring--a rum shelf for the back bar. I built the frame from scrap wood handy, but I wanted it clad with bamboo segments. That meant harvesting, burning, cutting and drying all the bamboo. That proved somewhat time-consuming. But, with the holiday break upon me, I had time to finish the project. I marked a reference line on the shelf frame, and a matching line on the bamboo segments. I drilled holes in the bamboo and matching holes in the plywood of the frame. I threaded 22 gauge jewelry wire through the holes in the bamboo, which involved a bit of trial-and-error before I got the knack of it.

I then threaded the wires through the corresponding holes in the plywood frame. Simply tying them didn't give enough stability, so I cut a wooden dowel to length and inserted this before tying. This made the tie much tighter (although 22 gauge wire was still too thin to tie very tight lest it snap.

If you're thinking this looks like too much work, you'd be correct. Once I got all the bamboo tied on, I ran a bead of Titebond II glue where the bamboo met the wood, just of a little added stability. It won't take any kind of stress, but stabilized the whole setup a bit. For the open ends of the bamboo segments, I repeated the process I used on the bamboo gate above--fill the cavities with Good Stuff foam, trim the excess and fill with wood putty, finishing up with a spar urethane seal.

I attached the shelf to the back bar using a couple of galvanized mending plates. Simple and effective. See those routered grooves in the cross-supports? My initial intent was to run LED lighting through there, so as to illuminate the bottles from below, through a translucent plexiglass shelf, not entirely dissimilar to what ProgrockTV has done with his home bar. Alas, the appropriate plexiglass is not cheap and not lying around my garage in sufficient scrap quantities to make this happen at the moment. Rather than wait until I had sufficient surplus funds, I cut out a piece of the same laminate flooring I've used for the bar top to serve as the shelf. It actually looks pretty good, blending in with the existing bar for now.

Once everything was back in place, I gave it a test drive, so to speak, with a variety of liquors and liqueurs handy. I think it turned out pretty well. Now, all that remains to do is install the sink and faucet (and plumbing, duh) and the back bar will be completed. I look back at the first page of this thread and amazed at how far I've come in less than a year. Crazy!

As always, I have a more detailed writeup posted on my blog for those who just can't get enough build-along!