Woodworking Tips from Pop…

Building a custom bar…..Page 6

 If you’re going to spend the big bucks on a bar, it better have some custom moldings!

No matter what kind of bar you’re building in order to have a true classic bar, you need to have some kind of moldings to finish off the details. Crown molding above the back bar, heavy molding along the bar front, and the moldings with keystones around the arched openings are a must if you’re looking to create depth in the overall appearance of the bar. Even the small bead molding we milled for the columns changes the appearance of the bar drastically. It is the moldings that add the touch of class that make the difference in having a real bar or a kitchenette.
The molding that makes the biggest difference is the 6 ½” bar molding along the front bar. This heavy molding creates an arm rest that I’m sure everybody that is interested in a bar has bellied up to a few times (except for Pop). This wide bar molding is the piece that will tie the front bar cabinets together and create that authentic bar experience. It can also be one of the most expensive components of the bar, if you can even find it. This was one of the determining factors when we purchased a William & Hussey molder. Although not a high production molder, it definitely has enough to handle what we’re doing. We’ll typically run enough of this molding for a few jobs (about 100′) and store it on racks until it’s time to build another bar.

If you’re looking for either a large quantity or long lengths of this molding, you might as well invest in your own molder and make it yourself. Although be prepared, buying any type of equipment like this is not like buying a car where you get in and drive away. In order to become efficient with this type of machinery, it takes experience through trial & error. So be patient, which is something I try and tell Pop when he’s trying to body slam a machine. The best way to learn about machinery is using the internet and connecting with woodworkers who have experience with these machines first hand through woodworking forums like Woodweb & W & H forum, or ask us and we’ll do our best to help.

Some of the other moldings we’re using for this bar are custom crown with a dental molding. The crown is 4 ½” wide and will be mounted on part of a 2 ½” dental molding to create an even larger two member crown. This process can be repeated multiple time to create an even larger crown. This is mainly done on extremely high ceilings. We milled the crown on another inexpensive molder, the jet planer / molder combo. This machine we dedicated strictly for moldings to save time switching from planer to molder, and it has paid off many times over. We not only make the crown profile, but we have cutters to make the back of the crown profile as well. If you’re in the business of doing custom millwork or furniture, a molder is one of the best tools for saving time and money. From the time we purchased these molders, not a scrap of wood over 1″wide has been wasted. It all goes to making custom moldings from shoe mold to several profiles of base cap.

The molder isn’t the only way to make moldings.

 A shaper or router table can also be used to make decorative moldings. The decorative edge on this dental molding was created with a classic roman ogee bit on a shaper. This edge will just add a little extra detail to the dental. I used a radial arm saw with a dado blade to cut the teeth for this molding. I only had about 30′ to mill up, so I just marked each stick with a pattern that I originally marked by hand, one tooth at a time. The whole process took a little over an hour and had the dental ready for install. I’ll have some finished photos on the crown with dental soon.

Another molding that we use a shaper for milling instead of a molder is what we call a baby crown. It’s just a 1 1/8″ X 1 1/8″ large cove that we use for that little extra detail on anything too small for regular crown.
This molding is made from the cutoffs of the bar molding to cut costs. 

Well, the bar should start to shape up in the next post or two. We still have to finish the bar tops and some corbels that we’ll post about next. Here are some photos of what’s to come.