With our bare hands!

So we build a coffee table! By "we" I mean that I had an idea and Mike is handy so he built it with my supervision. Here's a step by step but first - here's the new coffee table!

#1: Buy the supplies. We bought 3/4" Mueller Streamline Galvanized Steel Piping from Home Depot but you can use whatever circumferance you prefer. Below shows a diagram of the table and a list of supplies

1. Two 10 in. steel pipes (one on each side of the Iron Tee connector) - 4 total
2. 8 in. steel pipe for legs (2 per leg) - 8 total
3. One 4 ft. steel pipe
4. Iron Tee (all 3/4 in/ openings) - 6 total
5. Iron Floor Flange (1 per leg) - 4 total
6. Iron cap (1 per leg) - 4 total

#2: Assemble brace bars (for between the legs). Use 2 of the 10" pipes and an Iron Tee (This is where Mike's muscle helped because we EXTRA tightened the connections)

#3: Connect the brace bars with 4 ft pipe. (Clearly it connects into the Iron Tees on each brace bar)

#4: At the end of each 10" pipes, add an Iron Tee. These are for attaching the legs of the coffee table.

#5: Attach the 8" steel pipes to the Iron Tees. These are the beginningins of the table's legs. Do this on all four of the brace bars.

#6: Attach the other 8" pipes (the otherside of the legs). To do this, we had to flip the table up omto its "hindlegs" for a lack of a better term. Also, did I mention Mike REALLY used his muscles to make sure everything was connected?

#7: Make sure it's all level. At this point, we got out the level and made sure everything was straight because at this point the legs are almost complete!

 

#8: Attach the floor flange and iron cap to each leg. The floor flanges (the top picture) is how the tabletop will attach to the legs. The iron caps (the bottom picture) are so my floors don't get scratched up!

 

 

#9: Spray paint the pipes now that they're all put together. Clearly we all know this spray painting was my favorite part. We chose black, but you could do a metallic spray paint too! I had to spray paint it once upside-down and once right side up. I also did thinner coats since it's good coverage (I used Rustoelm's Black Gloss spray paint) and I didn't want any drips!

 

 

#10: Measure the wood for the tabletop. We chose to do planks of wood since Mike was able to get his hands on some for free (and we love free)! Our table measuresurements are Mike measured the length and marked it; we have a miter saw so he used that to cut the boards.

 

 

#11: Sand. Sand. Sand. And more sanding. Mike sanded the wood down 4 times to make sure it was smooth. First with 80 grit, then 100, 150, and finally 240. You can use a hand sander, but since ours was lent out at the time Mike used his own hands (and muscles)!

 

 

#12: Brace the boards together. We did numerous braces for the boards. We had extra metal floor transition strips. Mike cut those and drilled holes in so he could attach the boards (those are the black strips). We also braced it with smaller pieces of wood that Mike screwed into each board (bottom, middle, and top).

#13: Lacquer the tabletop. We chose to stay with the original wood color but you could paint or stain it any under the sun. We ended up having to use 2 cans of lacquer. All that sanding resulted in the wood really soaking it up. Here we let it dry for 48 hours.

 (Before Lacquer)

(After Lacquer)

 

#13: Attach the tabletop to the legs. To do this, Mike just had to use the drill - worked like a charm!

 

 

#14: ENJOY!