How to Build a 4 Hour Table

4 Hour Table

On Thursday morning I woke to the realization that we needed a table in our guest bedroom for a visiting friend. Brandy and I talked about the options and after browsing around the internet, decided to make our own. I have been a big fan of the hipster “paid $1000 dollars for furniture resembling something fabricated from recycled, industrial parts” look. After spying this, this, and this, I headed off to Home Depot for a couple of hours of inspiration and followed that with a couple of hours of construction.

Shopping

After stalking about Home Depot, the following items were gathered:

  • (1) 2 x 10 x 10 Board
  • (1) 2 x 3 x 8 Board
  • (4) 1/2 in. x 18 in. Black Malleable Iron Threaded Pipe
  • (4) 1/2 in. x 10 in. Black Malleable Iron Threaded Pipe
  • (2) 1/2 in. x 12 in. Black Malleable Iron Threaded Pipe
  • (4) 1/2 in. Black Malleable Iron Threaded Tee
  • (8) 1/2 in. Black Iron Floor Flange
  • (16) 3 in. drywall screws
  • (8) 1/4 in. 1 in. long Lag Screws
  • Sheet of sand paper

I already had the sand paper and the drywall screws and my bill came in at $115.

Tools You’ll Need

  • Circular Saw
  • Drill
  • Drill Bits
  • Channellock Pliers (optional but helpful)
  • Socket Set for the Lag Screws

Construction

I saved myself some time by having Home Depot cut the 2 x 10 into (2) 4 foot pieces. You can get two cuts for free. Sand these two pieces for wood and then cut (2) 18 inch sections from the 2 x 3 board. Sand them as well. Cut the 18 in sections on an angle and you get the following:

Two four foot boards and supports.Next, take the small, 2 x 3 boards and screw them into the back of the 2 x 10 boards as shown below. Put the two small boards 4 1/2 inches from the edge. I put in some pilot holes and used 3 inch screws.

Two four foot boards and supports attached.Table top done! Now it’s time for the legs and supports. What you want to do is take all these pieces…

Pieces and Partsand make this…

Support for the table top.

There is not much to the supports. Just twist everything together. What is exciting to me is that I actually got to use a pair of channellock pliers for its intended purpose. The pliers will help get things nice and tight.  Finally, attach the supports to the table top using the lag screws.

The Final Product

One thing that is a nice bonus with this type of table is that you always have the ability to adjust the leg length on each individual leg. The floor flanges are threaded and have the limited ability to adjust up and down the pipe. Our apartment is old and the floors are far from level. After putting the table in place, we were able to play with the flanges to get everything perfectly balanced.

4 Hour Table

We may decide to stain it later but for now I still like the rough wood look.

4 Hour TableGot a project you’re working on? Want to share it? Write me and we’ll see about featuring it.

4 thoughts on “How to Build a 4 Hour Table”

  1. great job, now could you take a ride to Ga. and build us some kitchen cabinets. not that we need any kitchen cabinets, it’s just a way to get y’all to come see us and the cabinets should take a lot longer than four hours.

  2. Did you have any trouble find quality flanges? I bought 16 at Lowe’s (Mueller Proline) and at least 3/4 of them were not ‘true’; when you screw a pipe into them and stand them on the floor, the pipe leans a couple of degrees to the side. Not suitable at all for furniture use.

    1. Jason Baird

      I had no trouble at all. I bought mine at Home Depot. Everything was straight and true. I’ve never used any Lowe’s iron pipe so I have no experience there. I’m not sure why the flanges would be doing that unless there was a bad batch.

  3. Very nice table. Mine is similar with a length of pipe + T connectors to join the two ends. It’s more aesthetic than structural. Thanks for sharing.

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