Playing with Pipes

The first excursion during our foray into table-making was a trip to Lowes. We had drawn up a number of potential leg designs for the base of our table, and figured we'd sit in the Plumbing aisle at the store to figure out which design actually looked best. First, we thought about doing a simple four-leg frame.

Then, we considered adding a cross-beam for extra stability.

We even got crazy enough to think about forming the pipes into two Y-shaped supports. Unfortunately, I can't find a picture of this design, so you'll just have to trust me. It looks cool! After considering all of our options, we ended up going with the second. We thought that four legs might be too plain, and the Y-design required too many parts, adding to the cost of the table. Option #2 was a nice compromise.

So, back to the aisle at Lowes. It was quite the scene - the two of us sprawled out on the concrete floor, debating which T-bar, union joint, or cap to place where. Unfortunately, I did not have the foresight to bring a camera to snap pictures of the hilarity/mess.

Hopefully, at this point, I've made buying pipes sound somewhat fun, because it really was. However, I do caution you that this phase of the process was not without its bumps. A table base made of pipes requires many pieces, and most hardware stores, even the big ones like Lowes, do not keep numerous pipes in stock for such projects. While we did get most of the pieces we needed on the first trip, we were missing several key components. Therefore, over about a week and half, T and I made 4 or 5 additional trips to Lowes to pick up the appropriate pieces. Grrrrrrrr.

TIP: Make a special order for the pieces that you are missing the first time. This will save you a bunch of gas and time.  =)

***Next Up: Preparing the Pipes.