Building a Bar Cart with Dowels & Epoxy

hey guys Alan's here for mr. bilder and in today's video I'll show you how I made this excellent bar cart that it's perfect for entertaining so without wasting your time let me show how I built it in let's get into the video let's go neppy boost our buildings beautiful Barker let's talk with the sponsors today's video Squarespace lessons day-long is what we do here in the workshop when it comes to my website Squarespace makes it easy for me to do it myself if you're scheduling classes booking consultations or even setting up appointments with your customers Squarespace has the necessary tools for those clients to see your availability schedule those appointments with you and even reschedule them if need be Squarespace has those tools that take the hassle out of coordinating any busy calendar out of your hands or maybe have your own e-commerce business maybe you build something and sell them all online check it out I want to show you something come here Squarespace has the tools you need to get your business off the ground including ecommerce templates inventory management a simple checkout process secure payments whatever you are selling whatever you got Squarespace has merchandising features to make your products look their best online so do yourself a favor head over to Squarespace calm for your free trial and when you're ready to launch go to squarespace.com forward slash mr. bilder to get 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain now in the meantime let's go build this cart let's go all right boys and girls rainy day it's a rainy rainy day so a lot of you have been asking me to create some kind of DIY thing that is easier for like a beginner to get into and I got just the idea the perfect thing that we need for the backyard is a bar cart overall it's a fairly simple design including if you don't weld some fairly simple techniques but if we do our job right we're gonna make sure we compensate all right let's go to our dresser so we have a unique approach here we're gonna have these dowels are going to use these are your classic closet stuff these are inch and three-eighths these are one inch thick and that's gonna be one way making it complicated so because it's raining frenzy with me and they barely fit i sir man I gotta stop going to the hardware store when it's raining I drew up a rough sketch of what I kind of want this car to be very simple design what I'm gonna do is create miters put them together wood glue and then screw it in and then cap it off with some kind of wood filler or maybe some caps for this I'm gonna do the top shelf the bottom shelf and then we're gonna try to reinforce it down the middle hopefully it'll work out let's say we're gonna [Music] I'm trying to set my miters on these dowels and if you place it against the back of this fence and try to create a miter it'll work but then as soon as you rotate it just a little bit your next miter is gonna be off meaning we're not gonna have a nice parallel section if we use something to place this in place this has a little groove in it so it works just fine and then tape it and set this and put that against the wall tape this up create my miter rotate it create another miter and then this section will be done [Music] now what we're gonna do is we're gonna use some wood glue and a brad nail just to set it in place let the wood glue do its thing first because securing it at an angle ends up doing a push-pull thing it's kind of awkward and after it's all dry I'm gonna take this dowel that I got kind of Desai's for at a hole with a drill bit and then puncture that in with glue that is gonna be basically a tenant's like a mortise and tenon it's gonna tremendously improve the strength of the structure that way our cart won't fall apart after a pusher too [Music] we now need to consider the legs on this thing originally I was going to mount it to the top here and kind of sandwich it below but then I thought weight distribution when you push it that might be that might kind of rip this joint out so I think they're gonna go all the way through this is gonna be spaced and we're gonna secure it from the side now here's the kicker in order to have a nice groove fitting because look how these are these are radius we're gonna use this is our Jimmy rig version of a hole saw and we're gonna create a groove like a half way through it maybe even a third and from that groove you're gonna hug it like a seat throw some wood glue and a screw and I think it should be okay so let's give a try [Music] I'll be completely honest a this is the probably the first part of this project that I'm not stressed out I was encountering problems I didn't even anticipate like the circular part and crazy miters and how difficult that would be if you have a mite or two that's off a little bit no problem what I like to do is I'll take the sadhus that I'll find in the area here that's problem this would species which is poplar and I'll mix it with wood glue it not too much just because the wood glue will prevent the stain to come in that we'll need later on so what I'll do is I'll start packing it in and then once it's all packed in and dried you can then start sailing it and take stain that we're gonna apply to this and it'll actually do a far better job absorbing as opposed to like wood filler [Music] let's talk handle here obviously cut this part off I'm thinking we got to make it really clean I have to create a 45-degree angle miter the same way we did this out here and then miter it and wish me luck [Music] we have our handle on our car it's tilted sideways I don't know if you guys can tell now would you start considering that while this drives to the top and the bottom I'm gonna make my own glass shaped thing by using epoxy so we'll see how we can make this let's go we need to build a mold and the mold will basically be what we're gonna pour the epoxy and the most important part is that it's waterproof so this stuff doesn't leak out to do that we're gonna use melamine we're gonna create two moles that are the size of the top and the bottom we're gonna secure it with inch and a quarter scoots from the sides and then you need some 100 cent epoxy to waterproof it I'm using black you can also use brown reason why is a clear stuff you won't see where you missed it what the black stuff you could actually see where you've missed it start making our rolls let's go [Music] here is the resin meet a partner here's a partner we need some color we have our epoxy this is stuff from total boat it's a two to one part resin getting the glass-like effect meaning nice and clear no bubbles because there will be a ton of bubbles in there as you're pouring it in the way to get them out is using a heat source we're gonna use a torch this is a Burns O Matic propane gas along with the birds o matic TS 8000 torch and the way it works is once you turn it on lock it in place we'll turn the flow down and then what we'll do is after tonnes being poured we're gonna gently hover over our epoxy that's poured allowing for the air bubbles to rise to the top and evaporate leaving us with a nice clear glass like effect let's start mixing and see where we get we clearly need a bigger bucket than this uh we're gonna throw some of these flakes in here as we're mixing it we're gonna wanna Chiva it's like a turquoise kind of look I'm just kind of I'm gonna eyeball it for a little bit see where we get [Music] too many consistent variables of coloring I'm gonna try to pour this into a bucket mix it and put her back here easy and away you go first time doing this so we're freaking this thing out all right that's gonna get glued to my table I already know that [Applause] [Music] all right I saved you guys the boredom of watching me stay on this thing for the stain some of the popular stuff that the missus approves is the fruit wood from Minwax so I'm going to put a coat on here see how that goes then we'll start throwing up some my wheels on this thing by the way if you're like hey what happened to the the epoxy you poured its drying if you wanted to have a nice clear crystal kind of looked you kind of have to let it sit for a few days that just looks so cool it almost has this like uh like a vintage retro kind of look it's gave me ideas because later down the road I want to build a really nice like a record credenza a record player to vinyl holder and stuff like that cool discovery hope you guys find this useful I bought these inch and 5/8 little casters where throw them on that with the screws that are included in here and then we'll get to swiveling on it and then we'll start thinking of how to secure the actual epoxy countertops while I curious the epoxy is dry we're ready to take it out we're gonna start unscrewing the backs of this and then hopefully nothing breaks off once it comes out old you know it'd be helpful using like a stiff putty knife and breaking the melamine off and I wouldn't be surprised if some melamine got glue to this okay hey Alex how's it going over there not good not good at all the melamine is glued to my epoxy so we're going back to the Stone Age and I'm gonna as an artist I'm gonna try to find the beauty that's the thing you can get all this particle board add this sucks back in alive this sucks folks but what do we do if we embrace the suck all right we embrace the suck okay so this is the best I could do it's so ugly I have two options option one that it's soaked and water released but before I do that I'm gonna take the old hand planer and run it through I have a feeling this will be fine we're gonna try it what's the worst that can happen we ruin this that's what that's what's gonna happen [Music] [Applause] [Music] okay so I got everything sanded down to 300 degrees it's a blazing 91 degrees that's high to have a tiny little box fan going here have it had he chucked yet I think if this video doesn't come out for another week send somebody to check up on me because I probably die I'm gonna start wet sanding this thing down we're gonna use 400 grit and then jump to 600 grit it's foam little foam pad kind of stuff we're gonna use a little spray bottle spray this down and then start squirting away not squared-away scrubbing away and then told you the heat but there is an opportunity if we hold this just right though it's not a hook and loop it's not a hope but it has a little adhesive in this there so we'll just we'll just do that so let's back to Sandy yeah [Music] our POC is all done up we're not shooting clearcoat on as soon as we put clear coat on it's gonna actually become far more translucent looks so nice and you don't wanna do it yet because I start to make my cut gonna be a little difficult to install these tops I think I'm gonna do it is maybe kind of flip it over on top and do my best way of sketching it out just to get this thing sitting right in the middle of once it's the middle I'm gonna use metal pins kind of like you'll have those adjustable shelves and secure them with glue and just kind of have this thing rested on it kind in my head but I think we're gonna just figure it out and just have a good can-do attitude now the hardest part of this hurdle is to create these round I don't know spacings for these dowels for this to sit flush inside of it what we're gonna start doing is making my markings and then once that's done I'm gonna take it out and take my dowel set it here trace it around and then see if I could find like a drill bit to create this one just perfectly one-inch radius so I hope you guys are enjoying these kind of difficult project please enjoy seeing me be miserable but courage and sweat guys right embrace the suck we're gonna take something away from this trust me we're gonna be better builders after this project [Music] this is a bit that's called a Forstner bit now you're on during wondering why is this called a Forstner bit great question so it was invented by a guy named William Forstner he's a Scottish drill maker in the 70s on I don't know I'm just kidding I don't google it I don't know why they call it a Fortuner bit I'm just a guy with a YouTube channel another roadblock guys I used my Fortuner bit and it drilled through what these began drilling pretty good and then once it hits the bottom of the last little bit of piece because how I don't of course these teeth are it straight up ripped a chunk of our epoxy off we're just going to use this as practice so here's what we're gonna do we're just gonna take our circular saw and just cut off almost like a bevel these angles that way it'll sit it won't be a perfect round flush piece but you know what it'll look nice it'll be recessed I think will look really nice so that's our alternative it's okay it happens and that's what we're gonna do [Music] I love it I love it so much and you know what these miters these beveled edges they look they actually look they look good they don't they don't look bad at all so I mean it's a man we made it work so let's get the second tray part up there and then we'll start securing it all right what I'm gonna do is they're gonna be secured two different ways the top and bottom based off the condition so the top I am going to secure them just flush underneath this you go only see the side profile you won't see the harsh fullness of them to the you know the face of them and in the bottom I make it a little different I'm gonna flatten this out and then secure this at the bottom so it would be basically like a thing like a flat bar going across that's the best way I found to conceal it the most and the same time give me the structural support that I need so let's throw this on there then we'll get ready to start assembling everything and putting the clear coat on to make sure this whole thing starts radiating with all its glory and beauty alright folks got a couple of coats of polyurethane or clear coat on it in basic terms let's get some light in here so a lot of people gonna ask me what I used to spray I use a water-based polyurethane it's easiest to work with it's a satin Sheen so it's not too glossy and I spread it with an HVLP sprayer and a choking sprayers basically with sense for high volume low pressure basically the venturi principle how it sucks it up or basically how a carburetor works that's very basic that's a lot of basics sorry but basically yeah anywho I just put the red and heop put sprayer give it a couple of coats usually three to five codes is what every project ends up being and I'm gonna let it dry for I don't know maybe an hour or so before we start bringing in the house all right can't you the full reveal [Music] thank you so much for watching another one of my videos it means the world to me this project here it was definitely a lot of frustration a lot of lessons that I learned the hard way but you know what that's the curtain sweat that we believe in we need the courage to try these difficult projects that we've never tried before and we need the sweat to get us through all the frustrations endure the hard work and be better builders in the end as well as better people most importantly if you've written the channel you like videos like this make sure you hit the subscribe button and tap the notification Bell that way you'll be alerted every time we put a video out make sure you follow me on my social media all the links will be down description below as well as my merch section and my patreon account where I put out extra of videos walking through these projects showing the things that I would have done differently that maybe will help set you guys up for success later as well as all the sneak peeks that behind the scenes that a lot of people don't get make sure you like comment and share this video with your friends tune out this week we'll see you guys on the next one see ya bye [Music]