Cake stand

[Munkul]

For our wedding in July (if the 'Rona allows it)

I've been keeping quiet about this, mainly because I was scared that it might turn out horribly. Now that I've got this far, I THINK it will turn out fine

I wanted to make my own wedding cake stand! To be different, and experiment a bit. So Copper it was. I also wanted a circular twist of some sort to it.


I started by experimenting with the TIG, with bits of copper brake tube, sheet offcuts, with electrical wire as filler, also tried silicon bronze but I wasn't confident of making a nice job with it.




I liked this - autogenous pulsed TIG. I went with this for the bases.




Marked out



In process




Bases done




Set the centres using a plum bob, and some "custom" spacing... oh well, at least it's level





Fitting up the side struts





The tubing and the sheet are quite different. The sheet is pure deoxidised copper, and after welding it's annealed so soft that it's almost like lead. It work hardens very fast, though, and it doesn't have to do very much work anyways. The tubing I THINK will be arsenical copper, for pressure rated strength, it's thinner, welds just fine, and doesn't barely anneal at all. Which is good - needs to have some strength about it. It's almost impossible to seal the tubing up, as it takes a bunch of amps to melt it and heats the whole thing up so fast, the escaping gas blows a huge hole. So I've left it unwelded on the insides.

[Munkul]

Sides tacked





That's as far as I've got with it. I'll weld them out tonight. It's been a bit of a slow project, because copper is expensive, and I really want it to look good and "as welded" so quite nerve racking to get the fits just right.

I MIGHT have to add a third strut to one side, depending on how stiff the two struts are on their own once I take the spacing out. ATM those two are equal and opposite so when done it will leave one side open for the cakes.

Obviously once I've finished the making, it will get a deep polish and let that lovely copper shine.

[jniolon]

Hi Munkul, I like your design and creativity. One idea I'll add.. as a husband of a professional cake decorator with 25 years of professional cake carrying... I've carried thousands of cakes for miles ( the caterers and flower people take the good close parking places !!) It's hard to judge size from the pictures, and Extra rich homemade wedding cakes can get heavy. Consider the weight that all three layers will add to the stand. Do a few tests to make sure your design will support what it needs.

The only thing worse than a leaning wedding cake is dealing with the mother of the bride with a leaning wedding cake...and another thing, let the decorator see the stand before she does the cake. as the tubes turn up to the next layer they cut down on the available diameter of the layer.. i.e. a 16" bottom going up to a 14" middle. Up toward the 14" plate you don't have a full 16" for the bottom cake..Lots of brides and decorators like tall layers... decorators size their cakes based on the number of servings they get from them. just some thoughts. And that piece polished is gonna be beautiful. Be sure and post some finish pics with and without the cake,

john

[Equilibrium]

Well, this is a first for WW. Your cake stand goes well beyond being just "fine". Amazing design... so simple yet elegant. It is really going to make a statement at your wedding. There's no chance of your bride to be not loving it the moment she sets eyes on it so put all those thoughts out of your mind. It's beautiful.
--
You just fabricated a piece that your children will use at their weddings. Something that can be passed down generation to generation.

[Munkul]

thanks John, your comments are very much appreciated.

You're absolutely on the money about the diameter of the spirals. In fact, just after I posted the thread this morning, it hit me! It's not a huge cake set - 12", 9" and 6" - but I will have to alter it if there isn't enough clearance. I'm glad I hadn't welded out the joints yet!

I probably will end up putting a 3rd spar in there for strength, because the design doesn't lend itself any strength.

Now i might end up cutting those spars off and making new, wider ones.

[BrooklynBravest]

mmm monster zero.

[manik]

That is going to look spectacular once polished. It looks fabulous as is. Very impressive..

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[HotRodTroy]

Very nice stand, and congrats on the nuptials.

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[WenValley]

Looking good! Plus, you can use that for a condenser for your copper still when the wedding over... Just sayin.....

[Lis2323]

Just too flippin’ AWESOME, Munkul!!

Can’t wait to see it polished up.

[robson1015]

Make sure to take it with you after the divorce......

[Capt B]

Very Nice! Congratulations!

[tapwelder]

'Tis nice.

Can you eat directly off copper?

[Bob]

That's going to be a sight to see with a cake on it. It looks just super and your wife(to be) will just love it.

[jniolon]

well just for decoration and a pretty cake a 12-9-6 will do... little small but you could get your baker to bake sheet cakes and serve from the kitchen... or if a small gathering what you have might be enough... good luck... biggest we ever dealt with was a 5 tier with an 18" bottom and proportioned on up.. and it was tiered not stacked . and in the center of a 6' round table on a stand that was nearly a foot tall itself. We couldn't stack it and move it in one piece, way too heavy and too shaky to try to move it to the center and lift it up on the stand My wife is 5'2" and had to stack and trim the top few layers leaning off a ladder with me holding her upright by the belt loops... it took two margaritas to get her settled down after that day !!!

[davec]

Looks really cool, but I am in the camp of potential structural concerns. Really not much holding that up and i think weight is going to make it want to twist and collapse - corkscrew style. Now the question is how much weight will be on it? A few ounces on the 2 upper tiers and you should be fine, but there will be a point where it is going to want to collapse...the question is how much? Might be worth testing with some weights before you get too far? Even a few tacks should give you an idea if it is sturdy enough or just waiting to fold up on you. Find out how much the cakes will weigh, roughly, and go up from there. Someone will be applying pressure to cut and probably not thinking about needing to be gentle as they are not wondering if it is on the edge of the cliff, so to speak.

[Munkul]

thanks all, some valid concerns. Don't worry, I'll be making sure it's plenty strong enough.

I realised last night it was no good in current form. I liked the design as-was, though, with the helix spars wrapping inwards, so what I'm doing is I've ordered some more sheet, and making a bigger base plate (18") and moving the 1st and 2nd levels up one, removing the small 7" top level.
So I chopped the helix spars off last night. 1 step forward, 2 steps backward, lol

The plates are currently 7", 10" and 14". I'm going to 18", 14", 10". The wrap-around design robs 4" of practical diameter. This will give plenty room for cutting, etc, which is what I should have started with.

I may have to do a double helix (opposite direction) to get the strength I need, but piecing in after the first two spars are done is relatively painless. Either way, I need to crack on with it now!

And yes, of course you can eat off copper, it used to be used all the time in food and water service

[tapwelder]

Every copper thing I have is zinc lined.

[mcspeed]

Potable water in my house is piped in copper so should be no worries as to safety.


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[Munkul]

Every copper thing I have is zinc lined.

Do you have copper water pipes? They won't be lined.

I'm not cooking off it and there will be a base to the cakes anyways!

Copper poisoning, as a potential problem, is so low down on the list that it's not even there.

[HotRodTroy]

Copper is gud for the artheritus. That and a little remitiz medicine. According to granny Clampet, anyway.

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[farmersammm]

Don't forget to account for some drunken lout of a wedding guest trying to cut a piece of cake using his whole weight on the knife blade

I went to a wedding once, when I was maybe about 21yrs old. A wild one it was.

They'd set up a grill outside (middle of Winter), and one of the dood's friends was doing the grillin'. (I don't recommend semi outdoor weddings in January...…..beer has a way of goin' thru your system FAST out in the cold)

Anyways...….you could go inside the house to warm up, but all the pot smokers were holed up in the house, and I'm thinkin' I got a contact high that night.

There was an open invite to all of the guests to sleep over, bein' as we were all knackered, and it was about maybe 12mi out of town. I wasn't about to sleep in that house...….you couldn't see across the room for all the pot smoke.

So, I headed home sometime around 3:00 AM. It was a Hellish drive, ice covered highway, and me with tunnel vision (had to be that dam pot smoke) Been a beer drinker all my life, and never before, or after, have I had tunnel vision.

I get home in one piece...…….THEN IT HIT ME. (Remember the dood runnin' the gril?)

I saw the sun come up that morning, sittin' on the toilet

The guy runnin' the grill was too dam drunk to be cookin', and I was too dam drunk to realize I was eating undercooked chicken

[Munkul]

new base level made, the small 7" level will be put to one side for now




two spars partly welded. It's not the easiest stuff to weld! Hard enough to get the heat into the mass now, without melting the tube to bits!
The third spar is just offered up but I need to start again with it, the bend radius isn't quite right and it doesn't match.





Not far off, now though. It'll be plenty strong enough with a 3rd spar, this copper tube has a lot more tensile strength than pure copper.

[psacustomcreations]

This is very nice looking and an interesting use of the materials.

It gives me ideas on how I can try to use them as well.

[scsmith42]

Very cool design and fabrication! Congrats on the upcoming nuptials too!