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I Forge Iron

Steel cake plate for a wedding.


Michael

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The eldest daughter was just married  and the father of the bride (me) was tasked with:

'make a swoopy iron plate for the wedding cake,  lots of hooks to hold  the bling, and  strong, the cake is heavy!'.  
Yay, something substantial (for a wedding), requiring forge time!

Pen and napkin design and off  to the scrap yard. Didn't have much hope of finding 7 gauge  plate in a cake sized disk, but you never know (7/8 octagonal tool steel? Yup. Steel plate, not so much)
 

Supported a local business, Albany (California) Steel. They plasma cut a 16 inch disk on a phone call.

Money well spent as the wedding day was approaching.  
cakeplate1.thumb.jpg.c39823af89f30f830e6 
1/4 x 3/4 bar stock for the legs, fishtailed and scrolled on a jig from another smith's moving sale.  Used a

handful of rare earth magnets to temporarily attach the legs to the plate. cakeplate2.thumb.jpg.5b51a9e28575d800814 
 
Happy couple review:  "maybe a little shorter?"   They thought I'd have to remake the legs.

Re-bent the right angles at the tops of the legs, added another scroll and  drilled rivet holes to

temporarily  bolt it all together.  
 
Next were hooks around the rim to hold...stuff.  
The designers request  an odd number of hooks, spaced 'a napkin width' apart. Came up with 9 hooks,

and ended up making twice that many to get 9 that were close in size and shape.

cakeplate4.thumb.JPG.6c8224b833a84373815

Soft iron rivets for the legs, peened into countersunk holes.

Each hook was riveted with a cut off box nail, using a 3x3x12 inch block of steel on end as a bucking

block under the rivet head. The last few were a little complicated to get over the anvil.

And here it is in use!  cakeplate.thumb.jpg.191e959ead232f577eb3
 
It holds my 15 stone with no flex so the cake was fine. I understand the
happy couple have covered the plate with large candles that are melting into one
massive, multiwicked candle. I thought it would make a fine pizza platter.

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The subject line really got my attention, at first I read it as a steel plate cake. Nice piece of work it looks outstanding with the cake on it.

I do have one complaint though, were are the pictures of the BRIDE!? Must I berate you savagely for such a breach of IFI protocol!?

Frosty The Lucky.

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Apologies Frosty.  While I have an intense interest in the lovely bride and my new son in law, I didn't want to speak for everyone else.  11164676_996053427079523_30504940685246211026324_996053410412858_627487210584546

Monterey, CA  wedding on the beach

 

 

Edited by Michael
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  • 1 month later...

Nobody, you seem to know Monterey quite well, Better than me actually! We were on the beach "across from the paddle boats" or so I directed the guests before heading there myself.  I'll check with the bride, but aside from the cake plate my responsibilities mostly consisted of writing checks and not asking too many questions. ;-)

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