Good evening Chaps, I hope you're enjoying this fine weather.
I've now made a start on this interesting project. The first task was to make up the bar's top, consisting of 5 pieces of 25x150 PAR at 3.6M in length. I decided to use a jointing cutter I bought last year and as I've never used one before, I found the setting up to be time consuming.
Here it is in action...
With all edges profiled, I glue assembled.
The top turned out very nice but there were a few bumps where a couple of the boards had previously cupped. I flattened these out with a sharp trying plane. I've also made a short video of this procedure but not published it yet - tis on the list of many tings to do...
The photos below were taken before the flattening process - just thought I'd mention it just in case you're thinking, "Eh up Pinch, you're slacking a bit 'ere chap."
I was now ready to form the curvature of the top which will also be the datum line for the hull - front of the bar. I've done this by eye and you can probably see a pencil line from the previous mark up - I tweaked it slightly. But this is now good.
I was trying to find the best solution because the bow will always be dead centre to the stern and wider to what I've done. But, this hull isn't a wide-ass and I can't make it so due to restricted space, so with a few ummms and urrrs, I went with below.
Once cut, the top was secured in to the bench vice and I cleaned up the edge using a smoothing & block plane.
I also formed a nice profile to the lower edge, with a subtle removal of the arris on the upper edge.
With the top now made, I started to make the internals of the bar, using 18mm hardwood ply. This bit is the main part and will have two adjustable shelves each side.
With that made, I marked and cut for where the bar will wrap around the reveals of the bar's actual opening.
The bar is also secured to a few timber bearers as shown, and as my workbench-to-upstairs' ceiling joists is 1M, I've now made the overall height of the bar at 990mm so I can make the complete project on the bench instead of at floor level - so much better for my knee joints.
This element is for the far end where the bar wraps around two reveals.
And now attached to the bar.
Bar side.
Next stage was to start forming the curved plinth. As a guide, I plumbed down from the bar top's outer edge and made a pencil mark on the bearers. I then marked back 110mm and secured the marking stick.
But I wasn't happy with this, so I marked back another 20mm - 130 in total from the bar top's edge. Much happier with this...
With all the bearers marked for cutting, I had to disassemble some of the work to manoeuvre the bar to the edge of the bench so I could freely cut the bearers - bit tight going.
Now these were cut and the bar back in position on the bench, I marked up and made the first length of the curved plinth - from the bow to the bar's door, or thereabouts.
I put in a few kerfs to the inner surface to help ease bending the 18mm ply.
Bow end...
And temporarily clamped in position...
Once this part of the plinth is screw fixed, I shall be moving in to some interesting territory with the door and stern - looking forward to this bit.
Comments welcome.
Report back soon.
Cheers,
In my previous life, I was a tree.