How to make a Concrete Coffee Table

Today, I'm going to show you how to make this coffee table for under $55 in one day, or you could buy one for $400 at Pottery Barn. It's going to be a fun, cheap, and easy project, so let's make something cool. All you're going to need to buy for this project is a bag of RapidSet Concrete Mix, one 8-foot 2x4, a water heater pan, RapidSet Flexible Construction Adhesive, two and a half inch screws, and a pint of stain. That's it. We're going to start off our project by using a water heater pan, and these make for great molds because they're made out of plastic, and concrete doesn't like to stick to plastic. Just make sure that you tape this big gaping hole on the side with some duct tape before you pour. Now, of course, we're going to be using the good stuff for this project. Can you use regular stuff? Absolutely not, because you're going to turn this one-day project into a seven-day project, so don't bother. As per usual, we're going to start off with five quarts of water. Oh, nice. My new jeans and my new boots. Not going to bother putting any WD-40 this time. Bucket scraper. If you haven't gotten one yet, get one. All right, we're going to let that cook for about five minutes, but no more. While that's cooking, we're going to come over here. We're going to cut our 2x4. We're going to cut two pieces at 20 inches. Two pieces at 21 inches. And we're going to take our pieces over the table saw and rip them. Now, before we rip our pieces, I can already tell that this is starting to set up already. Now, we're going to take our finishing trowel and finish the top before that sets up. All right, we're just going to let this cook for about one hour. We'll be able to flip this over, demold it, and this will be ready for installation. But do not forget to water cure while this is setting up. This is going to get very hot and this will avoid surface cracks. Now, we're going to rip all of our pieces. But before we rip these to final width, I want to rip off these radiuses that 2x4s all come with. I want nice square edges. Now that we have a nice flat edge and nice square corners, time to rip these to final width. But one thing I want to make sure is that I want to make sure that our nice new edge is up against the fence when we do that. We should be able to get two pieces out of one piece. Now we have eight quality 2x2s that are ready to be made into a really cool base. Before we stand these guys, we are going to put two pocket holes on each end of only four of these guys. All right, we're going to take two of the pieces that have pocket holes in them and we're going to put some rabbets in them. Right now, I've got both my pieces with the pocket holes facing up. Take one of those, face the pocket holes down. Set your blade height to three quarters of an inch. Then using our square, we are going to run these perpendicular through the saw. Start by establishing both of your sides first, then plow out everything else in the middle. Now, you should be able to flip them over and they fit together like a glove. I love wood joints! All right, now we're going to take all of our pieces and sand them down with an orbital sander, except for the corners. With the corners, I want to hit them with a block sand because I just want to break those corners. I don't want to put a chamfer on them or anything like that or round them over. And then we're ready for assembly. Oh yeah, that's ready. And I know what you're thinking, and no, we didn't use any metal reinforcement. With a project this small, with this much support underneath, and we're using the rabbet set, I'm not going to bother. All right, time for some assembly. All right, so find your piece that has the pocket holes on top and the rabbet on top. Put that down. Grab some wood glue, put it in the rabbet, smear it around, maybe put some more glue. Then take your other rabbeted piece with the pocket holes on back. Drill two pilot holes and screw two one-inch coarse-threaded screws in there. Now, yes, you are going to see some materials that are not on the shopping list, but there are just certain things that if you are a DIYer, you just need to already have. Like wood glue and a bucket of drywall screws. Okay, that's our first cross brace. Now, grab your other two pieces with the pocket holes in it. We're going to assemble our second cross brace. Now, I'm going to start by finding the center and marking it with a square. Another couple of pilot holes, two and a half inch screws. Then take it apart and put a dab of glue on that you forgot in that order. Now, your bottom cross brace is done. Set that aside. Now, take your top brace, the one that is the two pieces are flush with each other. Make sure that the pocket holes are facing, well, what's going to be upwards. We're going to attach the legs just like this. That way, when we put our top on, you're never going to see those pocket holes. Two and a half inch screws. Do that four times. All right, now our base is upside down and we're going to put the bottom brace on. Make sure that the pocket holes are facing up, which are going to be facing down when we flip this over. But I find it very helpful to cut some scrap pieces to help us place our cross brace. And for these two, I've cut a scrap piece that's one and a half inches shorter than the last. Let's try clamping it up this way instead. All right, now she's ready for stain. Staining couldn't be simpler. You simply wipe the stuff on, leave it for about 15 minutes, and then you wipe off the excess. If you want it to be darker, you leave it on for longer. Simple as that. But a very good tip. Do not throw out your old socks with the holes in them. I saved my socks. I put them in this container and now I've got a bunch of rags for staining, polyurethane and all that other good stuff. This is fantastic to have and it saves you a bit of money. So is that the stain or the socks? Now, I just happen to have a full court on hand, but all you need is those little pint sizes for something this size. This is a dark walnut by Minwax. But while I have you here, if you found this video helpful, please consider hitting the like button down below afterwards. And if you want to see more content like this, hit the subscribe button. Promise you won't regret it. Then, depending on what you're going to do with this, if this is going to be for outdoors, you definitely want to clear coat this with an outdoor polyurethane. I like satin myself. Now, I'm just going to apply some construction adhesive. Specifically, Rapid Set Flexible Construction Adhesive. I put this **** on everything. What do you think? Built this table in one day. How long is it going to take you?