On day 1, I built the frame… or so I thought!
What’s the most important part of any structure??? That’s right, the foundation! I want a 400 pound drunkard to be able to stumble straight into my bar and have it not move any more than the wall of my house! How do I accomplish that? Reinforce WAY more than necessary! Is there really “too much” when it comes to this stage? My opinion is NO!
So a ton of this bar’s strength is going to come from it being anchored to the wall. When the wall is made of gunite (see yesterday’s post), it is a real b%&ch to drill through it. But, as with everything else, when you’ve got the right tools, you’ve got the right tools. In this case, it was a 3/4″ masonry drill bit that chewed through the gunite like I didn’t think was possible after attempting it with all the wrong drill bits.
After anchoring it to the wall, I wanted more stability. I basically didn’t want it to wobble at all! Even if there were no other anchors in place. As you can tell from the pictures, I went nuts on placing extra pieces of 2x4s, metal braces, and screws to strengthen this bar. Something else I learned was the POWER of a reinforcement that takes advantage of a 45 degree angle! Add some 1/4″ Tapcons into the concrete underneath and now we’re talking STRENGTH!!
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- Two parts of the frame
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- Various drill bits used
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- HOLEY GUNITE, BATMAN!
Running total: $200