New Donut Stand with Assembly Guide.

 This is a new donut stand I built for Richard.  He needed 2 of them to face opposite ways and display the donuts in a staggered arrangement.

I used regular sized donuts from Dunkin Donuts to figure out the peg height and spacing.

Side View

I shipped it unassembled with two uprights, 3 shelves with 6 pegs, and 3 shelves with 5 pegs.  Screws for assembly were also included.

The back of the shelves are beveled and face towards the rear of the stand.

Start with the bottom shelf with 6 pegs.  Note how the screw goes in vertically.

Put the screw through the hole in the shelf so it pokes out as shown.  This makes it easier to align it with the hole in the upright.

Another view of me aligning the screw with the hole in the upright.

Once you have located the hole and have the point on the screw started into it, rotate the shelf to it's horizontal position as shown above.  Turn the screw by hand or with a Phillips screwdriver gently until you are sure it's going into the hole properly.

VERY IMPORTANT!

Leave all the screws loose (leave the screw head sticking up about 1/8 of an inch) in each shelf until you have all of them started into their respective holes.  You need to do this just in case the uprights need to be wiggled a little bit to line up some of the screws with the holes.

Alternate the shelves starting with the 6 peg, then a 5 peg, and so on all the way to the top.

After all the shelves are on, tighten the screws.  Turn them just enough to make them snug.  It's not necessary to crank down on them!

NOTE.

If you don't plan on taking it apart and want a permanent assembly, you can apply some wood glue to the area around the screw holes.

Putting decorations on my stands.

So you want to wrap the edges with ribbon?  What about jewels or other decorations?

You could use double sided sticky tape, but this is what usually happens with the paint when you pull it off.

I may have found a solution that won't harm the paint.  It's called Museum Wax  (click on the red link to see it on Amazon).  This big tub will probably last you forever.

My mother told me about it a while back.  She used it to hold down some very thin walled mercury glass candlesticks on her coffee table.  She has a cat that likes to play around them for some reason.  It's not supposed to damage the surfaces you put it on.

I got a bit to try it.  It reminds me of a thick, sticky chapstick.  It is softer when it's warm, so if you can, roll it around in your palm and warm it up first.

I made a few little balls of it about the size of a BB  (like this) o, and "smooshed" it on the corners.

I put the end of the ribbon on one of them and pressed it into the wax.

I stretched the ribbon tight to the other corner and pressed it into the wax again.  The stuff holds incredibly well.  I continued doing this all the way around.

The ribbon pulled right back off leaving the wax on the stand.  When I first tried to remove the wax, it smeared a bit with my fingers, so I'd recommend using a paper towel.  Don't be alarmed about the sticky residue.  I took a cloth and wiped it right off.  I couldn't even tell it was ever there!

I tried it on some old paint, some week old paint, and something I painted yesterday.  It didn't hurt the paint at all

I think this may be the answer!

Ladder Stand Assembly Instructions

Each side has 2 uprights and 3 cross braces.  Match the letters marked on each piece as shown.

Place the wide legs on top of the cross braces.  The legs have countersunk holes for the screws.  The holes close to the bottom are for the rope which is installed later.

Start all the screws by hand to make sure they get in the holes correctly.  Once you have them all in, tighten them up.  It's not necessary to over tighten them.  If you are going to leave it assembled, you can use some wood glue, but it's not required.

Position the 2 upright pieces end to end as shown and install the hinges.  Make sure they are positioned as shown with the "bump" in the center of the hinge facing up.  If you don't, they won't open properly.  You can take them back off and flip them over if this happens.

The rope has a knot already on one end.  Thread the end without the knot through the hole on one leg, then straight across to the other side.  You'll find that twisting the end of the rope as you are pushing it through the hole helps.

Once the rope is threaded through the uprights, tie a knot in the other end.  Try to make the knot so it ends up next to the line I marked on the rope.  This will keep the uprights at the proper width when opened up.  Trim off the excess rope.

Install the shelves.  They just lay across the cross braces.  No screws are needed.

Projects during slow time

Eventually going to be a cake pop stand.

Hot Wheels case in progress.

How Much Weight Can Your Stands Hold?

I'm asked frequently whether my stands will hold a cake on top, and if so, how much weight?

I've always been quite comfortable letting people know my stands are very strong and I have full confidence they can handle cakes quite easily on the tops.  I've never done an official test, so today I did!

These are not Department of Weights and Measures approved test, but it gets my point across.

Since I don't have any cakes laying around the shop to test with, I grabbed this big chunk of steel I use from time to time for specific gluing operations.  As you can see below, it's pretty heavy.

This particular cupcake stand below was the test subject.  Most of my cupcake, cake pop, and push pop stands are built the same way.

As you can see, it handles 35 pounds.  I can't imagine a small cake on top would weigh  anything close to that much.

Still not convinced?  Check out the last picture.

Below is my friend  and shop neighbor Joshua Bartlett, owner, designer and builder of  Imagine That Playhouses .  He was kind enough to be my "crash test dummy" (no offense Josh) and accepted the challenge I presented him with.  Take note that no safety equipment was used in this risky endeavor!

DO NOT ATTEMPT AT HOME!

As you can see the stand fully supports his weight (162 pounds).

Thank you again Josh.

Please visit his website Imagine That Playhouses  for truly original, quality playhouses and more...

One Happy Lady!

Remember the stand I gave away to Samantha at The New York Cakepopery for being my 1000th sale?  Here's what she had to say:

"OMG this is so crazy. I'm in complete shock. Wow. Thank you is not even enough that I can say. I can't wait to share this all over my insta account once I get it. And I know you don't expect me to do that but it's what I do also. Wow!!!' Thank you thank you thank you! I'm beyond excited!!!!! 
-Sam"

Made my day!  If I didn't have to pay bills, this would be payment enough.

She also passed along a couple of pictures of it in use.

You guys really need to check out her Cake Pops .  She does fantastic work.

1000th Sale!

Samantha from the New York Cakepopery had no clue what my plans were when she purchased a custom made stand from me yesterday.

She turned out to be my 1000^th sale on Etsy!  As a token of my appreciation and to mark this milestone I am giving her the stand for FREE! 

It’s taken me 4 years to get here and I’m grateful to all of you who have done business with me.  It’s still fun and always a challenge to see what I can do with the ideas that get presented to me.  The majority of the things I sell are inspired by my customers who have very specific needs that can’t be fulfilled by off the shelf products.  I love doing custom work!

Speaking of custom work, I want you to take a minute and browse her Etsy shop.  She does things with cake pops I’ve not seen before.   This one is my favorite Lalaloopsy Cake Pops

Thank you Samantha, and enjoy!

Surprise in store for # 1000 !

Well, it's been 4 years since I opened my Etsy shop and as of today I'm sitting at 999 sales.  I have a special surprise for number 1000, and what a great time of year for it to happen.  I can't wait.

Spiral Cake Pop Stand Video.

World Premier Video!

My new spiral cake pop stand.  See it in my Etsy shop here Mikes Amazing Stands in the "cake pop stand" section.

Just because I could!

More about it to come.....

Margot's Christmas Tree Cupcake Stand

I received a wonderful email that I had to share.  Margot had me build this stand for her so she could surprise her Aunt.  Thanks Margot for letting me be a small part of the wonderful thing you did.  Below is her message.

The attached snap shows what I did over Christmas.  It's a picture of Kevin (my husband, the elf) next to your custom 'tree' created for my Aunt Connie, who has been bed ridden the last few years.

Every year, I try to come up with a new trick.  So this year, I decided that I would make her custom stockings (that's what you see in the picture in red and white) to hand out to all those confined in her "assisted living facility", along with big mugs filled with cocoa, cups of candy and cupcakes.  That's what you see on the tree.  It was a huge success!  You'd have thought we'd given them a $1M.  Goes to show, it doesn't take a lot to brighten someone's day. 

Kevin and I were the elves denoted on the custom stockings.  And Connie became 'Connie Claus' by way of a "Santa snuggie".   It was perfect!  Then we had jiggle bells to alert each resident that Connie Claus was in the house. 

In fact, it went so well, we might do this every year, cuz it made so many lonely people happy.   

 

Thanks again, your tree really made all the difference!  And Kevin was impressed with how easy it was to assemble, as well as how well made it is.  And it enabled me to put the heavy stockings and mugs on the tree, so I didn't have to figure out how to tote them separately!  What a life saver!!!

 

Of course, feel free to use for your marketing purposes! Hugs!

m

This is the picture of it in my shop.  I made it with a 1" thick base which made it 5 feet tall, instead of the 10" thick base which makes it close to 6 feet tall. .  I have the 10" base version listed on Etsy here Christmas tree stand