New Project - Temporary Bar

[jonny round boy]

Got a nice project to do for an event management company. They supply equipment for corporate events, exhibitions, and they also do the big boat shows.

The company owner has had a couple of temporary bar/reception desks made from stainless steel. Here they are at a boat launch, the first one used as a reception desk:

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And the second as a model stand, though it's got a banner on the front & you can't see much:

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He's asked me to make a prototype of a wooden version. This will be used with the top off the stainless steel one, or with a new wooden top. The final dimensions need to match the stainless version.

It's going to be approx. 2000mm wide, 1100mm high, and just under 750mm deep. It's made from Balau decking - the same timber used for the decks at the boatshows (see my previous thread on identifying the timber - thanks to everyone who helped!).

Originally, the client wanted the front & sides to be solid, but I suggested framed panels to mirror the stainless version. That will also make it lighter. The centre panels are a semi-opaque 5mm perspex, and will be backlit.

Here's the SketchUp model, with the stainless top:

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And the same with the timber top:

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The centre panel on this is 20mm perspex, again frosted & lit from underneath.

For transportation, the 2 shelves will slide out, the top will lift off, and the sides are hinged to the front & fold behind it.

The frames are made from the deck boards, ripped down to 70mm on the outside, with the 2 centre stiles the full board width of 145mm. Here's a detail of the junction between the top rails & centre stiles, with the top not shown:

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The mitred joints will need to be very strong, so I've used this project to finally buy a Domino. The boards are around 21mm thick, so I'm going to use 2x 8x50mm tennons in each joint.

So far all I've done is prepare some of the boards & cut some sample pieces; the main issue I've found is the quality of the timber. It's great for decking, but not so good for making furniture. The moisture content of the timber is relatively high, so the boards have been drying out a bit in the workshop. Quite a few have twisted or cupped, and there's some watermarks/staining on some of them too.

I also found that the sample pieces I cut are now innacurate - I cut them as soon as I got the timber, with the 45 degree mitres. They've since shrunk across the width, meaning that the 45 degree angles are now less than 45 degrees!

I'm starting the build tomorrow, so I'll post pictures & updates over the coming days!

 

[jonny round boy]

For all the front & side pieces (except the two centre rails) I need to rip down the boards to just under 1/2 their size.

To do this, I made a quick jig from 18mm ply. This is the exact width of the Festool rail, minus the dimension I want (in this case 70mm):

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Since all the boards came to me pre-cut to 1200mm long, that's the length of the jig. There's a pocket screw in each end to hold the board against the jig during cutting. Bacause the boards are just under 22mm, and the ply jig is 18mm, the jig is supported on laminate swatches to bring it up to the correct height:

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Each board is butted up to the jig, and secured with the screws. Since the boards are 1200 long, and the maximum length I need from any board is around 900mm, the screw holes will both be in offcuts:

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The jig is pushed tight against the bench dogs (20mm conduit) and the rail placed on top, also tight against the dogs:

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The cut is then made. As you can see here, the offcut is slightly wider than the main piece:

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So once the screws are removed the offcut can be screwed in & trimmed down to the same size as the first piece.

I mentioned in my first post that the boards have shrunk quite a bit since I first got them delivered. This is one of the test pieces, which I cut down and mitred at 45 degrees. Due to the shrinkage, it's no longer 45 degrees, but nearer 43 or 44:

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And lastly, my new toy:

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[big grin] [big grin] [big grin]

 

[jonny round boy]

Having ripped all the boards down, it's time to cut them to length & join them.

I needed to be able to reapeatedly and accurately cut them, and having the Kapex extensions & stops would have been ideal, but unfortunately I don't have them. So I came up with another way.

First, I clamped the Kapex to the bench (something I've never been bothered with before) to make sure it wouldn't move. Then I cut the 45 degree angle on the left-hand end of all the pieces. I measured the required length on one piece, set it up & clamped it onto the saw, and then set up an end stop, also clamped to the bench (in this case, I used the fence off the router table I just built):

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This allowed me to quickly cut multiple pieces to the same length. Here are all the pieces for the front & side frames:

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The joints are held together with 2x 8x50mm Domino tennons in each. I decided to cut the mortices in the rails at the smallest setting, and the ones in the stiles at the medium settings. This meant that there was a bit of play in each joint to help with assembling the frames. It also meant that I didn't need to mark any of the cuts - I just referenced them off the edges of the ridges in the boards:

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When it came to the assembly, I started with the centre frame (with the two full-width stiles) first:

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Once this was glued up & had dried for a few hours, I was then able to add on the extra rails & stiles to make up the two panels either side:

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Next I sanded the back of the panel. Because of the varying thickness of the boards, plus the general 'uneveness' of them, the joints were out sometimes by as much as one millimetre. I flattened these out with the ETS150/3 and 50 grit Rubin.

On the rear of this front panel are 2 softwood battons. These strengthen the whole assembly, as well as providing the rebates that carry the perspex centre panels. These were glued & screwed onto the back, and once these were on it was a lot easier to handle the frame (it was a bit flimsy without).

I then sanded the front (again starting with 50 grit to flatten it) and then the outside & inside edges:

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Here's one of the intersections:

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Lastly (for the time being) a full-width board was cut down to length & sanded up, before being Dominoed onto the bottom edge, set back 15mm to act as the plinth:

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This frame is now ready for oiling, before adding the perspex, hinges, etc.

I then pretty much repeated the above process for the two side panels. More to come in the next few days!!!

 

[speed]

looking good so far, good jig making [big grin]

 

[jonny round boy]

Here's the front & side frames, finished & ready for oiling. Just clamped together ath the moment, as I don't have the hinges yet...

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As you can see, it pretty much fills my work area so I think I'm going to oil this & get it completely finished & out of the way before I start on the top!

 

[jonny round boy]

I oiled the frames with Danish oil, applied with a brush & then the excess wiped off with kitchen towels:

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I like oiled finishes - they're very easy to apply & very hard to get wrong!

The only problem I encountered was the plinth on the front frame. The piece of timber I used had a darker area on it, which initially didn't look too bad. The oil however darkened it significantly. This colouring is not a water mark or anything applied - it goes right through the piece:

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If necessary, it would be quite easy to trim the plinth off & replace it; I'll wait & see what the client thinks about it, and whether he feels it needs replacing (I can't at the moment as I don't have enough timber).

The hinges arrived this morning (2 1/2" uncranked backflap hinges) and I assembled the frame and fitted the perspex panels. There are also some steel blocks screwed into the top edges which fit into a groove on the underside of the stainless steel top.

The shelves are comprised of a 2x1" PSE frame, with 9mm WBP ply screwed & glued to it. One sits on the bottom rail, and the other to blocks screwed to the back of the stiles. Both shelves are identical & interchangeable.

Here's the final piece, with the stainless steel top fitted:

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I encountered a problem with the boards I had for the timber top - I only had 5 long boards to start with - one was used for the plinth, and I needed all the remaining 4 for the top. Unfortunately none of the four are useable - 2 are badly warped & twisted, and 2 aseem to be comprised entirely of sapwood, and are far, far too light in colour to match in with the rest. Due to this, the timber top is on hold until the client can bring me some useable timber!