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Bar top and butt of log, this was a last minute project dumped in my lap, with a three-week deadline. The client has a really large finished basement that was built by a fly by night hack. A builder friend of mine got the contract to redo the place in a rustic theme. The only restrictions I had was the counter had to seat 14 people and it had to be finished for the big game last weekend.
I decided on using fieldstone for part of the base and a cedar stump to hold up the far side of the top, the center is a clear span. The core for the top is 1 ¾ Baltic birch plywood with a 1/8 in veneer of bark pocket maple. This is a rare mutant of the hard maple tree, for some reason the outer bark becomes captured by the new growth and is imbedded in the solid wood. The photos do not do this wood justice, in addition to the ingrown bark the wood is mixed with curl and burl figure, I call it a polished rustic look. The round end of the top has a sunburst design; the edge is 12/4 hard maple.
We have about 2 feet of snow in the woods so finding a stump here was out of the question. My dad lives 200 miles farther south and as of last week did not have any snow. I raided his wood lot and manhandled this big butt out of the woods (reminded me of dancing with my ex 30 years ago).
Once I got it back to the shop I did a root canal to lighted the load as well as bored out the center to help minimize checking.
Replies
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another view
*Hey I like it. Did you make the deadline? How did you fasten the stump base to the floor? Cool project.
*Matt, Yes we finished Friday afternoon, the stump just sits on the floor, it weighs about 200 lbs and the top another 200 lbs, it is anchored to the stone wall with steel plates, unless some drunk takes a running leap at it I don't think it will be a problem. The slab has heating coils in it so I was reluctant to drill into it and fasten a bases plate to the concrete.
*WOW! That's awesome. It's been a long time since I got to do anything creative for pay. BTW: How much did you lose, er, make?
*damn, armin.. and all this time i thot u were just another pretty face...sure would like to bend an elbow on that bar
*Armin: That is very sharp.
*Rich, My part of the project was limited to the bar top and stump, I charged $3675 labor and materials, netted me about 28 bucks/hr I would have done better than that but finding the stump this time of year proved difficult. Thanks for the compliments guys, when I go pick up my check this afternoon I'll buy you all a cold one.
*Armin,great look. Can you elaborate on how you cut the base perpendicular with the axis of the stump? With the roots sweeping out like that, I imagine it's a challenge to make that cut flat and true.do you somehow scribe a line around the uneven roots and chainsaw to that line? clean up w/ power plane? Inquireing minds what to know!
*Stray, I turned the stump upside down and plumbed the trunk and braced it to my shop floor. Next I rough cut the roots by eyeline with a chainsaw to within 2 inches of flat. For the finish trim job I built a 3 sided box out of 1/2 in. OSB the height of the root system and screwed the box to the floor. Since my shop floor is wood, flat and level the top of the box was used as a guide for a router rail jig. The router jig consists of two L shaped sections (Like a steel angle iron)that are long enough to span the box edges. The router is mounted on a plywood plate that slides between the wooden angles and cuts the roots off to a uniform height. I used a 1 in.dia. carbide bit and took a 3/8 deep cut each pass until the base was flat.
*A closeup picture of the curly grain in the sunburst section.
*Armin- Thanks for the closeup, beautiful work. Seeing the wood pattern, it probably deserves as much credit as you...LOL...Tell us more about the joint work on that top! Ken
*Armin, I'm drinking a beer just looking at it. How did you do the sunburst top? How did you bend the 12/4? Thanks for the inspiration to have another beer.
*Ken & Dustin, Don't spill any beer on my top.The 12/4 is not bent, the edging is made up of segments, I was able to get all the curved sections out of one plank for a very close grain match. I cut the radius of the top with a router and trammel bar, then using a 1/2 inch straight cutter I decreased the radius of the trammel bar by 1/2 inch and made a template for the mating curved segment which I tacked to the piece of 12/4, rough cut on the band saw and finished cut on the shaper with a rub collar and straight bit. If carefully done produces a perfect fit. The sections were joined together with loose tenons. The sunburst was made using 1/8 thick veneer, 4 slices to the board yielding 4 book matched sections per board. The veneer was pre-fitted, edge glued and cleaned up on a wide belt sander. The veneer was glued and pressed in a vaccume bag.
*beauty Armin-nothing else to add...