Help with my tiki bar, please

Now that we have finally replaced and reinstalled our hardwood floors, I need some help with my tiki bar! The bar itself is in great shape and I love it the way it is, but my wife wants me to replace the missing foot rail on before I get to move it back into the living room. Any help or suggestions for finding or making a new foot rail would be greatly appreciated and would help speed up my redecoration of the living room and ensuing party once completed. Here is a picture

Thanks for your kind assistance!

Psycho Tiki D (I know I am and I'm anxious to get my boxed tiki back out)!

Also, any recommendations to fix a couple of areas where the rattan is slightly unravling? Please?

Thanks,

PTD

Mahalo,

1. Local craft stores OR stores dealing with chair caning supplies
   are a good source for replacing your rattan. Do it yourself & $$$$.

2. Since your Tiki bar foot rest appears curved don't have an answere???

Thortiki

I am not a builder, but my bamboo bar is curved and it has supports built at each curve then short bamboo sections tacked onto those supports. You are welcome to come by and look closely at it if you think it will help. Just send me a pm and we can coordinate a time to meet. You can google bamboo and rattan supplies (and maybe pm Bamboo Ben, he is the expert). Best of luck on the project. :)

Thortiki,

You are correct, the foot rest is a half-moon shape to match the outer contour of the bar...I am not sure how to bend the rail if I use wood. I would imagine I would at least a 2" round diameter piece of wood to hold the weight.

Anyone familiar with the process of bending or curving in the wood working process?

Thanks again,

PTD

Rattan is flexible and bends nicely. You can soak it in warm water to soften it up...the trouble is it discolors a bit from the moisture and you have to use a form of some type to hold it in place when it dries. Do you have the original brackets?

[ Edited by: tikihai 2007-03-15 06:47 ]

http://www.bamboocraft.net/forums/showthread.php?s=f87421b4450d0129bd09db361c327d13&t=1489

This doesn't look difficult.

tikihai,

No brackets, can't tell how this was orginally held in place? I see some holes in the slots, don't know if the rail was nailed or screwed into place?

Thanks 5446 for the link to bending bamboo. I'm not sure if bamboo would work, do you think rattan would bend the same way?

PTD

5446 Thanks for that great website! I will be there a lot.
Don't use bamboo. Use rattan. You can boil rattan and it
bends easy. You will need to burn/ stain rattan after.
You can get all sizes of rattan at.
http://www.franksupply.com
Ask them for info on bending rattan.