Tiki Bar - Done!

[Brent Dowell]

Well, Sharon said she wanted a tiki bar a while ago. I have no problems with the idea, so decided why not start on it. Fortunately, I have most of the materials around.

This isn't going to be any kind of fine woodworking, but really just more of some rough outside furniture, not outside outside, but under a roof outside.

I could have gone with something simple and rectangular, but decided that I'd do a curved one, just for grins. It'll be about 7' wide, by 41" tall. Figure I'll get 5 barstools for it, 1 for the bartender and 4 for the guests.

Heres the basic design. It's just a rough design, I'll have more timber on the inside for support, but you get the idea.



I ordered a bamboo panel off of amazon that I'll wrap around the front of it. I'll put some rgb leds along the top and bottom that will shine through the bamboo paneling. I'll probably put some on the inside a bit as well.



Today I cut out all of the plywood pieces. I explored a bunch of different ideas on how to draw/cut out the parts and settled on making this temporary jig with my panel cutting setup.

Basically screwed a piece of ply to the table I use that goes perpendicular to the board and mounted my little milwaukee battery powered router to one end. The other end I would put at specific radius to cut out the parts. Worked great!

And I put all my tools and supplies away and did not end up with any extra screws in a miscellaneous screw bucket.

 

[bill kaminski]

waiting on the WIP of your making 5 bar stools

 

[Brent Dowell]

waiting on the WIP of your making 5 bar stools

Pretty sure I'm going to buy those instead of build, but we'll see. I'm not going full gilligan on this, lol.

 

[Don Baer]

I can hardly wait until Brent gets to the part about carving the 10 foot Tiki out of a palm tree with a machete.

 

[bill kaminski]

Too dangerous

 

[Ryan Mooney]

Too dangerous

Pocket knife? Seems slow..

 

[Brent Dowell]

I can hardly wait until Brent gets to the part about carving the 10 foot Tiki out of a palm tree with a machete.

I've got a cnc that I can probably do a 5' tall tiki head on, lol. Maybe tile it in 2's

 

[Robert Horky]

I've got a cnc that I can probably do a 5' tall tiki head on, lol. Maybe tile it in 2's

This I want to see!!

 

[Brent Dowell]

Got a start on it today. My only fear is if you lean on that very front part, it wants to lean over forward a little bit. I may add an additional bottom curve that sticks out on the bottom to alleviate that issue.

Going to take a break for a while and give it a think, but so far it's exceeding sharons expectations.

 

[Don Baer]

I may add an additional bottom curve that sticks out

add a curved brass rail

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[Robert Horky]

consider some weight in the bottom .. sand bags? other? Don't want to interfere with the stools you are going to build !!!!

 

[Brent Dowell]

I do think some sandbags on the bottom shelf would provide enough stability. I made the overhang a bit smaller than I really wanted cause I could see that this issue could crop up. I bet with a few bags of play sand on the bottom shelf it will stay steady.

Sharon is in charge of buying the barstools. I do have some pretty substantial bamboo I might try and make one out of, but I not sure how sturdy I could really make them. I'd be more comfortable having something pre-engineered and pre-made.

 

[Brent Dowell]

add a curved brass rail

Curved Bar Foot Rail - Custom Bends and Radius

Looking for Custom Bar Foot Rails? We offer custom rolls, lengths and finishes with ultra-fast turnaround times. Speak to a Bar Rail Specialist today.

content.kegworks.com

Might be a little expensive for what I'm trying to get away with. but I wonder if I could bend up some kind of foot rail out of wood?

 

[Don Baer]

1.5" OD - Polished Brass Tubing

1.5" OD Polished Brass tubing for construction of brass bar shelves for back bars & wet bars. Sturdy & beautiful brass piping for shelves & top rail

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$180 for an 8 foot piece of 1 1/2" @ the price of wood it may not be that bad.....lol

 

[Brent Dowell]

That's not a bad price. I'll have to think about it.

 

[Darren Wright]

Sand bags was my first thought, but what about maybe some 1/4” flat bar stock, even stainless, screwed to the base extending out to match the overhang?

Might keep it lighter to move.

 

[allen levine]

I made a tiki bar a while ago, I also used the bamboo fencing for the front....no led light, I put a back in, and used a flourescent bulb with colored cover to light it up. not that fancy, but it got plenty of use and on wheels so it was moved easy enough

 

[Brent Dowell]

I made a tiki bar a while ago, I also used the bamboo fencing for the front....no led light, I put a back in, and used a flourescent bulb with colored cover to light it up. not that fancy, but it got plenty of use and on wheels so it was moved easy enough

Thats so cool! I hope mine turns out half as good. I might need some of that 'roofing'

 

[allen levine]

we didnt have a mini fridge for it yet so I made a wooden box lined with a insulated platic cooler. keept ice and some beer cold. now in my sons yard there is a small mini fridge underneath but I think he kept the box for ice.

 

[allen levine]

this was the first one I made, I dont recall exactly but it was built in a few hours and needed for a block p;arty...the girl behind the counter was a good friend of my son and asked if I could make it and use, we got it back, but i took it apart and used the wood for adirondack chairs, kept the sign. simple as can be, but everyone loved it at the block party.

whenever my son has his new deck installed we are going to build a huge tiki bar....with a sink, running water, and an clear glass door fridge for chilled beverages. I believe we will go with the led lighting also. only the person tending bar needs a couple of decent lights above so they can see what they are doing and mixing.