Would a wood threading tool help here?

Hello,

My wife now has a cake decorating business - bear with me while I bring this thread back to woodwork.

Before Christmas she made a cake based on a Christmas decoration - pic below.

For the base, she used three cake boards (which are sort of like MDF) giving a base thickness of around 12mm. She then made a hole in these and inserted a large diameter dowel (the dowel supports the whole cake), attached to the base by being screwed through a 4th cake board.

The cake had a little wobble to it, which isn't a problem, but caused a worry during delivery....

I'm thinking a better way of doing this would be to use a round piece of 19mm pine, and use one of these screw kits to better attach the dowel to the base. Would this be the best way? Would it substantially reduce the amount of 'sway' in the finished piece?

Thanks,
Nathan.

Definitely. Especially if you glued the dowel into the hole when you're done. That'd make it permanent though.
If you just wanted to take it apart then don't glue.
Lyle.

Any excuse for a new tool :U

Seriously though, gluing as well as screwing into a thicker base should stop any wobbles.

You could get rid of the wobble more easily by simply drilling an appropriately sized hole in all but one of the bottom boards. Then simply push the dowel thought the holes in the boards. If you size it right, you wouldn't even need to screw it, but it would give you peace of mind!

The jig you showed would work too, but would be overkill. But if you could buy a new tool and charge it to your wife's business, then I would be buying a drill press to go with it. And a new table saw to cut the boards. And a new...

Trav

I'd be more inclined to get yourself a good quality 3/4" Forstner that will cut a nice clean hole (e.g. Colt)

Cut yourself a sample hole in a small scrap of MDF (or whatever), then stick this in your pocket and head off down to Bunnies.

Find their short lengths of 3/4 dowel (Tas Oak or Pine), then test fit the pieces until you find enough lengths that are an interference fit in the calibrated hole. I've found quite a lot of variability on their nominal 3/4" dowel, but never fail to find some bits that are a really good tight fit for my 3/4" Colt Forstner.

Awesome looking cake by the way Nathan - that's one very talented wife you have there :2tsup:

Nathan seems the workshop clean up has had its benefits :U:2tsup: possible new tools already and on going work.

When I made the cake stands I used a threaded 6mm connector with heads cut off and epoxy into the columns and the bases had Threaded inserts this link is McJings I got mine through Bunnings.

Either way your screwed if you come home with more than you went shopping for.:;

Thanks everyone. All good ideas!

For starters, I will try Mr Brush's idea of firm fitting the dowel first - it will be the quickest/cheapest to try before going down the new tool route. Although, Trav's suggestion of spending up big and claiming it on the wife's business has lots of merit! :U

Nathan.

I made a multi tiered cup cake stand for a wedding a few years ago, the whole thing was held together by a single length of allthread projecting from the finial through four tiers and central columns. The base had a single "Tee nut" embedded in it from below and counterbored so that the base sat flush. The whole stand was fairly heavy but rock solid; no wobbling even when fully loaded with cakes.

The best bit about it? The hardware only costs a few pennies and the most expensivey tool you need is a spade bit for counterboring.

Those wood threading tools are just Whitworth taps and dies, available cheaply from any flea market or car boot sale.