Project Information
Hello everyone. This is my first official project on LJs (and first non-shop project that I've ever done since starting woodworking in October 2011). My sister-in-law is a baker and she makes cake pops, basically lollipops made of cake for those that aren't aware. She was making some for a wedding that was being held on May 5th and asked me to make some stands for the cake pops to sit in while drying (after being made) as well as for presentation at the wedding and other upcoming events. She sent over some pictures of cake pop stands from "professional" cake pop stand makers and I got to brainstorming and designing my own version.
I was originally going to use plywood for the top/bottom but after speaking with a few LJs in the finishing forum I thought it best to use MDF instead. The top and bottom are made of 1/2" MDF (top is about 10" x 12", bottom is about 14" x 16") and the sides are made of 3 1/4" pre-primed pine moldings. Each stand holds 30 cake pops (the holes are 2" OC). They were finished with an Earlex HVLP 5500 (awesome sprayer, my first time using it). There are 2 coats of Zinsser BIN shellac based primer followed by 3 coats of General Finishes Enduro Pigmented Poly (white gloss). I sanded in between coats with 220 grit (between the primer coats) and 320 (after first top coat) and later 400 (after second top coat). They are very smooth to the touch which was exactly what I was going after.
I used bondo to fill gaps in the miters as well as where the top/bottom sits with the moldings. After sanding some of the bondo started to come off (it wasn't too easy for me to work with, my first time using bondo, kind of a rude awakening) so after the first top coat I decided to reinforce where the top/bottom meet the moldings with paintable silicone caulk. This probably would have been the better solution from the start as it made the transition nice and smooth and almost seamless which was the desired effect.
The inside of each unit has 2×4s around the edges to help it all come together (don't have a picture of this, unfortunately, but they basically lean up against the inside edges as well as give me a place to glue to the bottom MDF portion) and some styrofoam on top of the 2×4s which the top portion of MDF sits on. This not only allows me to space the MDF properly to sit inside of the top but also puts a kind of stop to the cake pops sliding down through the holes (although the holes fit the sticks perfectly and they probably aren't going anywhere anyway).
The first image shows the bondo applied to the miter before sanding. This actually worked out better than I expected and you can't really tell there were gaps in the miters on the finished product.
The second shows all five of the moldings completed (I made five stands for a total of 150 cake pops to be made at once).
The third shows the stands put together before glue up.
The fourth shows one completed stand.
The fifth is a close up of one of the mitered corners. The reflections of the glossy paint job kind of make it look a bit odd but trust that they are very smooth and come together very nicely. You can, however, see a bit of the silicone caulk that was kind of applied last second and some very very small holes in it (at this zoomed in size, normally when looking at them not this close with a camera those aren't visible, really).
The sixth image shows the stands in use as they were intended.
I'm very happy with how these turned out. Unfortunately they ended up not being used in the wedding as there was a last second change of plans to the theme of baked goods but I'm sure they'll be useful in the long run. Total time to build these was way longer than expected (about two months time-wise, but actually probably about 4 days actual work time), probably due to the fact that I've never worked with Bondo before and that I've never sprayed anything before.
I'd like to thank a couple of people who helped me along the way here on LJ:
Everyone in my original "Help with finishing decision on plywood" thread.
From that thread, Kenny, for all the help you offered not only in that thread but in private messages as well. Your responses and thorough explanations really helped me along in my journey on this project.
Earlextech (Sam Hamory) for not only answering my questions in the thread but also putting up with me in emails when I emailed, oddly enough, Earlex tech
Didn't realize you'd be the one to help me there as well.
Thanks everyone and I'm happy to finally be able to post my first project here on LJ. I've got some of my shop projects nearing completion (don't we all always have "just a bit more" to finish on the shop stuff?) which I hope to post shortly.
I was originally going to use plywood for the top/bottom but after speaking with a few LJs in the finishing forum I thought it best to use MDF instead. The top and bottom are made of 1/2" MDF (top is about 10" x 12", bottom is about 14" x 16") and the sides are made of 3 1/4" pre-primed pine moldings. Each stand holds 30 cake pops (the holes are 2" OC). They were finished with an Earlex HVLP 5500 (awesome sprayer, my first time using it). There are 2 coats of Zinsser BIN shellac based primer followed by 3 coats of General Finishes Enduro Pigmented Poly (white gloss). I sanded in between coats with 220 grit (between the primer coats) and 320 (after first top coat) and later 400 (after second top coat). They are very smooth to the touch which was exactly what I was going after.
I used bondo to fill gaps in the miters as well as where the top/bottom sits with the moldings. After sanding some of the bondo started to come off (it wasn't too easy for me to work with, my first time using bondo, kind of a rude awakening) so after the first top coat I decided to reinforce where the top/bottom meet the moldings with paintable silicone caulk. This probably would have been the better solution from the start as it made the transition nice and smooth and almost seamless which was the desired effect.
The inside of each unit has 2×4s around the edges to help it all come together (don't have a picture of this, unfortunately, but they basically lean up against the inside edges as well as give me a place to glue to the bottom MDF portion) and some styrofoam on top of the 2×4s which the top portion of MDF sits on. This not only allows me to space the MDF properly to sit inside of the top but also puts a kind of stop to the cake pops sliding down through the holes (although the holes fit the sticks perfectly and they probably aren't going anywhere anyway).
The first image shows the bondo applied to the miter before sanding. This actually worked out better than I expected and you can't really tell there were gaps in the miters on the finished product.
The second shows all five of the moldings completed (I made five stands for a total of 150 cake pops to be made at once).
The third shows the stands put together before glue up.
The fourth shows one completed stand.
The fifth is a close up of one of the mitered corners. The reflections of the glossy paint job kind of make it look a bit odd but trust that they are very smooth and come together very nicely. You can, however, see a bit of the silicone caulk that was kind of applied last second and some very very small holes in it (at this zoomed in size, normally when looking at them not this close with a camera those aren't visible, really).
The sixth image shows the stands in use as they were intended.
I'm very happy with how these turned out. Unfortunately they ended up not being used in the wedding as there was a last second change of plans to the theme of baked goods but I'm sure they'll be useful in the long run. Total time to build these was way longer than expected (about two months time-wise, but actually probably about 4 days actual work time), probably due to the fact that I've never worked with Bondo before and that I've never sprayed anything before.
I'd like to thank a couple of people who helped me along the way here on LJ:
Everyone in my original "Help with finishing decision on plywood" thread.
From that thread, Kenny, for all the help you offered not only in that thread but in private messages as well. Your responses and thorough explanations really helped me along in my journey on this project.
Earlextech (Sam Hamory) for not only answering my questions in the thread but also putting up with me in emails when I emailed, oddly enough, Earlex tech
Didn't realize you'd be the one to help me there as well.Thanks everyone and I'm happy to finally be able to post my first project here on LJ. I've got some of my shop projects nearing completion (don't we all always have "just a bit more" to finish on the shop stuff?) which I hope to post shortly.
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