My wife has a counter-top (as opposed to under-the-cabinet-mounted) paper towel dispenser like this. The material in the base has all crumbled to pieces, which wouldn’t be a big deal except the thing is very prone to tip-over now.
The last time the landlord’s handyman was by to fix the tile in the bathroom, he left a mostly-full bag of grout mix behind.
Could I mix up some grout and fill the base of the dispenser and would it add some heft?
Would adding a few fistfuls of small pebbles to the grout help with stability (providing #1 is possible)?
Do you think I could convince my wife to just buy another? (The answer is “No.”)
Other cheap options you can think of? (my wife thought of buying a LARGE magnet and sticking it to the inside of the base. The cost? $445.00 :eek: :smack: )
The grout will crumble over time. Where time = pretty much right from the get-go.
Better to get a bunch pieces of lead (or other heavy metalic material and glue them to the underside. Keep in mind that it’s unlikely you could cram enough of anything into that base such that it wouldn’t still be easy to tip over.
So I gather the base of this thing is hollow and you are wanting to add weight? Is the stem hollow as well? It might be overkill but if I were wanting to do that I would get some two-part epoxy and some BB’s. Here’s how:
Have some way to hold it upside down. where it is as close to level as possible
From the underside, block off the stem (that is if it is hollow)
Fill the base with BB’s but not all the way to the rim.
Mix and pour in the epoxy over the BB’s. Fill enough to cover the BB’s but not where it spills out.
What was the magnet supposed to stick to? That’s some big magnet if it costs $445, and unless that’s a steel countertop it’s just a big weight, and your paper towel holder will have a collection of kitchen utensils stuck to it.
Use epoxy to glue in weights. The grout may not even stick to the base and could fall out in one big chunk before it crumbles.
I think the third option is your best bet … when your wife says “No” it really means “maybe, buy me another drink sailorboy” … booze her up and wrap the new towel dispenser in an emerald and pearl necklace … flowers … chocolate … tickets to the ballet … two kittens … and the keys to her new Tesla …
The epoxy/BBs/pie weights is a great idea. The bulb part screws right off and I can invert the dispenser and the roll of paper towels will keep it level.
The base is nickel-plated and the magnet would stick to the underside–I really just mentioned it to show I realize how silly it is to repair an $18 “family heirloom.” :rolleyes: You did give me an amusing Carrie-ish image of utensils flying across the kitchen to stick to the towel dispenser.
If you wanted to get really froggy, you could go find some old wheel weights, melt them with a blowtorch and cast a ring weight* that you could epoxy up under there. It would be balanced and uniform, and you wouldn’t have to cast a zillion little sinkers or something up underneath.
Homemade play-doh makes a surprisingly good casting medium for blowtorched lead stuff.
Get out a bunch of tools, drink several beers, then when she’s out of earshot beat the ever loving shit out of it with a hammer. Confess, half way, that you were trying to repair it and things went awry. Think of the saddest thing you’ve ever known when you tell her it’s time to consider a replacement. Clarify “for the paper towel holder” if she starts cruising tinder.
If it’s going to stay in one place, you might look into museum wax. It’s sticky and pliable; they use it to keep priceless objects from falling off the shelf in an earthquake, or when a museum-goer bumps into a display. It pretty much stays put until you want to move it.
Yeah, I keep having the feeling that unless the OP has a bunch of stuff laying around to solve his problem with, the solution may be more expensive than just replacing the paper towel holder outright.
I’m kind of liking the magnet idea. One big enough that your wife can’t move the thing at all. Or you can just glue it down and tell her you put the giant magnet in there.
I was thinking Roger Rabbit, but then I’m not married to her
My wife had a very similar one, but it never had anything in the base (as far as I can tell). I tried to get a heavy piece of steel to glue to the bottom. Glue didn’t stick. I tried using magnets (strong ones) to hold the steel to the base. Didn’t work. Then, one day, I was in a sporting goods store and I was thinking of lead shot, as mentioned above. I didn’t find any, but I did find some lead weights used to hold floating duck decoys in place. Lead strips about 1/8" thick by 3/8" wide by 3 or 4 inches long. I glued those to the bottom with contact cement and they did great! Glue stayed stuck and it doesn’t tip over. If I recall, it was something like $6 for the weights and I didn’t even use half of them; the rest are still in the drawer.
yes.
You can put fibre, such as hessian, wool, course wood fibre (paper towels ) into the grout to make it a composite material…
No need for pebbles, in fact they make it weak as the grout won’t stick so well and the pebbles are large compared to the thickness.
Can’t hurt to try grout since you have the extra grout that will go off if you don’t use it.
