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!

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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

Finally finished the new hexagon cupcake stand!

           This is another one of those stands that presents many unique challenges, especially for me!  It seems simple enough, but throw in the fact that it had to be left unfinished, every little detail was going to show.

It's easy enough to tell a potential customer what you plan on doing, but visuals can help a lot.  I have been playing around with Google SketchUp for a little while, and it sure does help with design work.  The way you can see your drawing in 3D and have the ability to rotate it at any angle keeps you from making a lot of mistakes.  Sometimes what sounds good in theory doesn't work out so well in reality.

The original drawing using Google SketchUp

The first challenge was cutting the hexagons.  Layout on the wood was fairly straightforward, just a little geometry.  Now, how to cut them?  The only thing that would cut a perfectly straight line was my table saw. Since I had to cut from the straight line where it intersects the circle, to the one next to it (6 times for each board) and on top of that cut 6 different sized tiers, I had to make an adjustable sled for the saw.  That's a whole nother story. 

Hexagon layout

Rough stack of cut tiers without molding

           

Next part to make was the base.  It was basically 2 24" hexagons sitting on top and bottom of a 22" hexagon box.  Ever tried gluing and clamping a hexagon without using nails?

The next challenge was the molding.  My customer chose this molding.  The first thing I had to do was make sure that no matter what direction you looked at the stand from, the peaks and valleys of the molding had to match on all sides.  The second was the joints.  She was very particular about them being as invisible as possible.  I told her that since we are using two different woods, a seam was going to be visible, but I would get the joints as tight as possible.  

I had to cut, fit, cut fit, cut fit, 36 individual pieces to get the joints to look like this.  No matter how carefully I cut the hexagons, there were variations of 1/16 to 1/8" on every side.  At the bottom edge of the molding there were also slight variations where the points met.  Lots of filing and sanding to get them to meet.

Molding joints

Finally, I got to put the finish on.  We went with just a tung oil finish.  Brushed on and buffed off, twice.  It came out beautiful.  I would have loved to have taken better pictures, but I'm so afraid of handling big projects anymore than I have to.  I once dropped a piece taking it to a better locale for pictures.    This was a really nice piece and took a lot of time.

New hexagon shaped cupcake stand

This is a new design for me.  It's a 6 tier hexagon shaped cupcake stand being made out of aspen and pine.  The tiers are 24,23, 19,15,11, and 8 inches from point to point.  This particular stand has been sold, and is going to be left au naturel!  No stain, just a tung oil finish.  The pictures are just rough stacks, so if it looks crooked that's why.