Why I made this table?

I made this wedding present for my friend, as I know she is going to start a new family, so I think it will be a good idea to get her some new DIY furniture. She can also assemble the furniture with her husband :)

That's why I want to make it the IKEA way: bring the package home, open box, follow instruction to assemble, enjoy a cup of coffee!

We also map out our "customer journey" x)

Step 1: Materials and Tools

Materials:

~3m 1" (outside diameter) PVC pipe

4 90-degree PVC connector

4 Tee PVC connector

4 1" pipe clip

24 Thick spacing washer (optional)

8 20mm flat head wood screw (not longer than the thickness of your table top)

4 Rubber cap

1 2 1/2" long bolt and nut

1 Black spray paint

1 IDOPA Cherry Brown wood dye

1 Cloth

Tools for making PVC table legs:

Tube cutter

Mallet

Tools for making wooden table top:

Jigsaw

Wood router (Optional)

Orbital sander

pipe clamps/ F clamps

Wood glue

Drill + drill bit

Impact driver/ Philip screw driver

Step 2: Design Sketch

We decide the height of the table to be 60cm. And we also worked out other dimensions.

Step 3: Joining Pine Boards With Glue

Picked 3 scrap pine boards found in the workshop.
Straighten the edge using table saw
Apply glue on edges
Tighten the clamps
Wait for it to dry overnight

Step 4: Cutting the Table Top and Sanding

1. Cut a circle of radius 21.5cm out freehand. But if you want to cut a perfect circle, you can also make a jig for your jigsaw or router.

2. Round the edge using a wood router.3. After cutting, I do sanding. Since I joined the boards with glue, so there are some dry glue mark on the surface. I need to do sanding to remove them.

This is my first time joining boards, I did not really know which grit of sandpaper should I use and how many rounds of sanding is needed.From my common sense, I first use 120 grit to sand once, followed by 240 grit. I found that the it is quite difficult to see whether all glue mark is removed completely or not as the wood color is as light as the glue. Any ideas that can help noticing the marks before it's too late?

[I found that I did not sand out all glue mark when I do wood staining :( ]

Step 5: Measure and Cut PVC Pipes

measure and cut the PVC pipes using tube cutter
Joining the pipes with connectors (can use mallet to help fit in the pipe)
Drilling a hole in the middle of the intersection point
Tighten the intersection with nut and bolt

Step 6: Spray Painting Table Legs

Set up spray painting station in a well ventilated area
Wear a face mask!
Wait for it to dry

Step 7: Staining the Pine Table Top

After sanding the wood surface, we use a piece of cloth (can be old t-shirt or towel) to soak the wood stain, apply stain by rub the wood surface.

We pick the Cherry Brown color (IN300) from IDOPA wood dye, they also provide a instructions diagram to teach you how to use their wood stain. (in Chinese) The reason why we do wood staining instead of painting is wood staining can keep and enhance the grain pattern, which is what we want.

We put the first layer and found that the color is not dark enough, so we let the table top is set for drying for around 10-15 mins. Then we put on another 3-4 layers of stain to get the satisfying vintage style we like.

Step 8: Assemble

Mark the position of the legs
Drill pilot holes on the under side of the table top
Attach the legs to the table board using pipe clip and screws. (We found that there is a gap between the pipe clip and the table, so we put 3 washers to fill the gap)
Take a break after hard work :)