2 Tiki Bar questions, 1 finish, 2 bamboo trim,

OK,

1. Does Spar ever fully dry and harden enough to use as a counter/bar top?

and

2. when connecting bamboo trim/coping what method do you all use to most attractively attach it to the bar itself? I'm very workied about splitting and would like to hide the screw heads if possible...
   I'm on my way to check out some of the pics that you have so graciously posted to see if I can help answer my second question but I really hope that I don't need to take 7 layers of spar off of my bar top...

Thanks in advance!
TampaTiki

These are just some suggestions for ya, hope they help. For your counter top, bamboo curtains, like for a door, can be cut and pushed closer together to cover your counter. To get them to stay, simply use a glue gun very lightly just to get them to stick. After they are on there, use a decent amount of shellac to coat. For a flatter surface, you might want to lightly sand it down before shellacing. As for the bamboo, the best way to do this is to take a dremel tool and use the round bit to make a semi deep hole. once the hole is in, u can screw the bamboo with no worries of splitting and the screws will almost be invisible to the eye. To make them even more invisible, simple paint the tips of the screw the color of the bamboo after screwing them in. Hope this helped!

Toad

Thanks Toad, Good plan to countersink the screws on the bamboo. As for the top of the bar...I have so much work (and money) into this spar crap on the advice of a friend tht I don't want to cover the beautiful tongue and groove, stained action that I have going. Hopefully baking in the sun will help.

Thanks again!
-TampaTiki

No problem, I did a tiki bar a couple summers ago and we had the same problem with the bamboo. Another pretty good trick if you don't want to screw them in is to use nautical rope. Just sick the hole and then pull the rope through and around and make sure it is really tight. Gives it a nice Thor Heyerdahl look :)

Without seeing a pic of the bar it is hard to give good advice. For the bar I built a few months ago I drilled small holes all the way through the bamboo and nailed it to the bar using finishing nails so that there was no nail head showing.

As for the top, I used spar and it did harden however given the chance t redo it I would do the top with EZPour since it dries clear. Check out LakeSufers bar top in the tiki bar thread.

This stuff rules!

The best for bar tops.

http://www.eti-usa.com/consum/envtex/envlite.htm

Awesome! Thanks a million for the link! Pics will be posted soon of what I have so far.

Thanks to all again!

-TampaTiki

you can also use sanding resin - like they use on surfboards for the counter top. As for your spar - did you wait long enough for every coat to completely dry? (depending on the variety it can sometimes take over 24-48 hours) If coats are applied while it is still wet or even semi-wet, it'll take forever for it to dry. moisture will aslo effect drying time and tampa can be pretty moist.

For bamboo - always countersink if you're drilling or hand nailing. Or use a nail gun or powerfull stapler/mini nail gun and you don't need to countersink.

I tend to split the bamboo into 4ths. I get more out of the bamboo that way and the thinner pieces are easier to get flush with your supporting structure.

[ Edited by: Polynesiac 2007-02-19 10:31 ]