Need advice on joint(s) to use to make a 9-foot bar top
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I’m building a bar top which will be mounted like a shelf on a wall near a pool table (so I’m trying to conserve space since the pool table needs a lot of room). I was given about 10-12 mahogany boards that are around 39″ long, 1 1/4″ thick (after planing) and 3 3/4″ wide. I want the bar to be about 9’7″ but it can be a few inches short of that if needed.
I was thinking of laminating the boards together in a manner similar to how bricks are stacked, but I’m unsure of what drawbacks I could run into. A friend told me the joints where the butts of the boards meet could split eventually and that I might want to use some kind of scarf joint to glue the end-to-end pieces together.
So I’m looking for ideas, including a completely different approach if necessary. Here are a few pictures to help illustrate what I mean. The white outline in the second picture is approximately where the bar would go.
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This topic was modified 1 year, 4 months ago by
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This topic was modified 1 year, 4 months ago by
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This topic was modified 1 year, 4 months ago by
The long glue joint is probably doing most of your heavy lifting there, but a half lap would help keep the end seams together i think. Thats probably what i would do. I wouldnt scarf it unless you have lots of material or have trouble with neat half laps.
You should stagger the front and back end joints though (the ends of that 39 measurement). Where they line up, the middle board is going to take most of the load right there.
Thanks! I see what you mean about staggering the ends. In any case I ended up just buying a new, single board to make it easier.
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This topic was modified 1 year, 4 months ago by
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