Advice needed for joining split bamboo

Greetings all,

I am getting into "tiki" I have a bar in my house already that I built. I will post a picture of it (http://img391.imageshack.us/img391/7018/dscf14229af.jpg) and the rest of the room during the Bar build(http://img431.imageshack.us/img431/9301/dscf14141mz.jpg). I am working on the rest of the room now. I have the cabana matting wainscot on the walls and I wanted to do a bamboo chair rail to hide the top of the matting and the seams. The problem that bothers me is that when I lay the rail out and I butt joint to a a vertical piece there are gaps and it looks unfinished. Any suggestions of how to make the mating of these poles look more finished?
And as I am a visual person pics are always appreciated.

-Lingam

On 2006-06-23 12:59, Lingam wrote:
Greetings all,

I am getting into "tiki" I have a bar in my house already that I built. I will post a picture of it (http://img391.imageshack.us/img391/7018/dscf14229af.jpg) and the rest of the room during the Bar build(http://img431.imageshack.us/img431/9301/dscf14141mz.jpg). I am working on the rest of the room now. I have the cabana matting wainscot on the walls and I wanted to do a bamboo chair rail to hide the top of the matting and the seams. The problem that bothers me is that when I lay the rail out and I butt joint to a a vertical piece there are gaps and it looks unfinished. Any suggestions of how to make the mating of these poles look more finished?
And as I am a visual person pics are always appreciated.

-Lingam

there are NO rules with tiki.

I liked the rope edging on the shelves.
Maybe I´ll do the same thing.

"there are NO rules with tiki."

chuckles from some of the others on here it would seem there are rules, but that is a different debate.

Ben, I know you are the bamboo god here. How do you join perpendicular split halves of bamboo, and make it look sexy?

Lingam

On 2006-06-24 03:49, tikidreams wrote:
I liked the rope edging on the shelves.
Maybe I´ll do the same thing.

Glad you liked it. I will post some more pics of the rest of the room as soon as I get some time to take the pics. (after the bamboo is up)

Lingam

If you are thinking you need to perfectly round the edge to meet the other bamboo, you are being maybe too uptight about it. Bamboo Ben doesn't. Are we talking 2 1/2" here or 5" or what. Makes a big difference. Just cut it at a 22 degree mark and see how it looks.

Nice bar! Looking forward to seeing the rest of the room come up as well!

As to your joinery, try this idea:

Where your vertical sections meet, take a larger piece of bamboo and go to the floor it Then you can tie off the verticals to the newly placed horizontal and it looks like you meant to do it instead of just where two pieces of bamboo came together.

Or, the same thing minus the larger horizontal.... Simply wrap your joins with some small rope to cover the gap between the two.

Remember, when you get the room finished, no one is going to see the gap in the bamboo that you see. You are seeing during construction and notice things like that. When everyone else sees it they are going to have some music, low lighting, a cocktail in their hand, etc... They are going to love it!

That's a lot of booze. You could be my new best friend. Sweet bar to hold it all too.

I agree with Swanky. Here are the pics of my bar: http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=17692&forum=2&hilite=leeward%20lounge There is lots and lots of bamboo, and it looks OK, but if you look close at where the pieces meet it's almost laughable. As a whole, though, it looks really nice. Our Mai Tais don't taste any less wonderful! :) :drink: