Table top for Jack Daniels Barrel

We were asked to build a table/bar top for a Jack Daniels whiskey Barrel. The customer wanted something that had a complex curve, and looks a lot like a poker table top or a bean. We haven’t done many round projects prior to this so it took a lot of planning and drawing. We ended up doing drawings to find the best radii and drawing them on a square table top. We then rough cut the circles with a jig saw and cleaned them up with a circle cutting router jig. The customer wanted as natural a finish as possible so we used 2 coats of satin water based poly. The top was made with reclaimed 1” thick pine. Worst thing about the project was smelling the whiskey and not having any to drink.

-- Jeff Burke, Calhoun Ga, www.therustednail.com