Reclaimed Maple & Stainless Steel Coffee Pour Over : 5 Steps

I love coffee. To be honest, it is my biggest vice. In my quest to take my coffee snobbery to new levels, I made myself a modern looking coffee pour over. Pretty straight forward and looks great, this is a great DIY project this is sure to impress your friends and family!

The Design:

Essentially, you are going to make a funnel holder out of the pipe. This will get made out of a few different pieces and then mounted on your wooden base. I didn't want to invest a ton of time or money so I decided to make it out of some scrap wood I had lying about. I had some nice pieces of scrap maple that were destined for a burn bin about so I decided to repurpose one of those. For the piping, I ordered some stainless steel plumbers pipe. A pyrex funnel was easily obtainable via the wonderful world of ebay.

There are a few ways to mount the funnel holder to the base, one common way is to simply get a flange attachment. This is super simple and just requires you to put four screws through to mount it. I don't really like this look though (it's not really clean IMO), so I got a coupler and an adapter fitting. Using these I can drill some holes in the base and essentially clamp the funnel holder to the wooden base. If that isn't clear, check the pictures out or my youtube video, it is pretty straight forward.

Shameless plug, check out my instagram @woodworkingnonsense . I document some of my other builds there, feel free to connect!

Materials:

- Wood for base, maple piece in my case (it was about 1.25" thick, thicker is fine just can't go to thin)

- Piping (1 each of the following)

- T-junction

- 90 degree angle

- Coupler

- Adapter

- 6" piece with threaded ends (this is a good height for most coffee cups)

- 2.5" piece with threaded ends

- Glass Funnel (Important, make sure the stem of this funnel will fit inside the T-junction).

Tools:

Table Saw (optional)

Jointer (optional)

Drill Press/Drill

Forstner Drill Bits (1.5" and 3/4" in my case)

Orbital Sander

Sand Paper

Danish Oil

Lint Free Rags

Honestly you can get away with just a circular saw or jig saw and a hand drill, just depends on how you want the wood base to look. Get creative!

Step 1: Trim the Base to Rough Shape

So I cut my base down to roughly 12 inches long and then hacked off a corner at a random angle, just to give it some unique shape. One edge had a bit of a live edge curve to it so I left that. You can make it as small or as large as you like just remember, to small and it might tip over. To big and it'll take up to much counter space. I usually got for the 8-12 inch length and around 6-7 inches wide range. This leaves enough room for another cup or small water kettle.

You should probably use your funnel and a mug and mock out where you want things to be positioned at this point.

Step 2: Drilling the Holes for the Funnel Mount

So here is what we need to do. Drill two holes direct in line with each other. One hole (from the bottom of the base) needs to be as large a diameter as you can go. This will be the hole that your adapter sits nested in. You need this hole to be deep enough for the adapter to be completely nested. The second hole will be just large enough for the threaded piece of the adapter to slide though (but not so large that the whole adapter can go through). Confused? Don't worry, look at the diagram I sketched out and watch the video I made, that will make things clear.

So....

First,

--- Mark where you want the pipe to come out of the wood on both sides (top and bottom). Measure carefully so your marks will line up. Also consider how long the horizontal piece of your pipe is and where your cup will have to be placed. Once you have thought that through, use a fine drill bit to drill a hole all the way though the piece in the center of the location you identified. This will be a guide for your forstner bits to keep everything lined up nicely.

--- Now, drill a 1.5" diameter hole on your mark in the bottom of the wood stand.

******Note: Only drill this hole about halfway through the piece.*********

--- Next, from the top, drill a hole using a forstner bit that is just large enough for the large threaded end of the adapter to fit through (for 1/2" diameter pipe this hole should be 3/4" or a hair smaller). t\Drill this until you penetrate the 1.5" diameter hole.

About 95% done now!

Step 3: Final Touches

At this point you should do any other fun touches you are considering.

I like to drill a big through hole at a different spot on the base, this makes it easier to grab and move it. Sometimes I will power carve a big taper on the bottom to make it look like it is floating a little.

Once you get all that fun stuff done, hit any edges with a router if that is your style. I like to put a nice chamfer on the edges (not the live edge though!). In addition, I put a chamfer on the big through hole and on the hole in the bottom of the base.

*****Do NOT put a chamfer on the smaller hole you drilled from the top. This will cause your pipe to not lay flush with the surface and tilt at a weird angle.******

Step 4: Final Assembly

At this point you should sand and finish the wood base however you want. Paint, Stain, Oil, etc.

I choose to sand down to 400 grit and then use a danish oil because I love its look.

Now, you can assemble your stand. It really can only go together one way, you just need to make sure you end up with a t-junction at some point that your funnel goes through.

Put your funnel through the t-junction and you're done!

Now go make a fancy cup of coffee, you earned it!