Handmade Gift: Tea Light Candle Holder
Christian Becksvoort shows you how to empty out that scrap bin by making a beautiful handmade candle holder
Sep 08, 2017
The following is an excerpt from an upcoming article entitled “Handmade Gifts” by Christian Becksvoort (Issue #264 Nov/Dec 2017).
Here is a great chance to use scraps, no matter the species. It’s also a chance to get creative. Although my tea light candle holders are all tidily rectilinear, feel free to offset the parts and expand the sizes, numbers, shapes, and layouts. If you’re a turner, turn a disk and drill holes in it. If you’re a carver, shape and carve a nice slab and drill holes to suit. Most tea lights will fit into a 1-1⁄2-in.-dia. hole. If you want to get fancier (and safer, in my opinion), use glass inserts. You can turn out a bunch of these gifts in a morning.
For my holders, I milled a stick 1-7⁄8 in. square by about 12 in. to 16 in. long, and cut it into short lengths on the tablesaw. I drilled one end of each piece with a 1-1⁄2-in. Forstner bit. Then I glued three together with a hand-screw clamp, keeping them aligned during glue-up by holding them in a bench vise. When the glue was dry, I sanded the sides and planed the bottoms to get the unit perfectly flat. Then I glued the sub-assemblies together, and finally rabbeted around the bottom to create a foot.
Cut and Drill:
Glue up in two stages:
Adding a rabbet creates a base:
From Fine Woodworking #264
More on FineWoodworking.com:
- Pens Make Great Gifts – With a few specialty tools, you can turn your nicest scraps into keepsakes
- Shaker Oval Boxes – Reproductions make fine gifts or storage
- Smart, Stylish Cutting Boards – Consider the cargo when orienting the grain and shaping the board
Fine Woodworking Recommended Products
Suizan Japanese Pull Saw
Comments
The is great Carpentry skills and knowledge
For once, someone actually publishes a gift ideas articles prior to Thanksgiving leaving enough time to actually make something. Thank you!!
Where did you buy long shank Forstner bits?
Is there any concern with what type of finish you put on this, considering the proximity to flames?
I wouldn't worry about it. Once any finish is cured it wouldn't be any more combustible than say, wood.
With 1 piece at 3”, 4 @ 2.5”, and 4 @ 2”, I don’t know how he made these from “a stick 12-16” long.”
This was great timing! I made one from walnut, and another from padauk. I finished them with Danish Oil, and they look great! I'm giving them to my daughter for Christmas. She's going to love them! Thanks for the great article. I have to admit though. I didn't use scraps. I bought 8/4 stock specifically for this project.
Good looking, but an absolute no no, from a fire hazard point of view. Only to be used with LED lights.
Thanks for the creativity!
Realy good article! When I started learning everything about woodworking from free ebook https://bit.ly/2KplzH2 this candle was on the start of my wood work. And want to say the first thing is like difficult but it even funny when you learn right!
This is a great design for a quick Christmas gift but I had difficulty drilling into end grain even with pieces clamped against the drill press fence, kept kicking out or stalling out the drilling press. Went much fast with these pieces clamped into a Nova couch and drilled with the Forstner bit in a a chuck in the tailstock. Cut drill time in half and much less frustrating.
I made one with 2" square cherry and walnut. I'd recommend making the candle hole 1-5/8" to accommodate many different tea candles. I regret only making the hole 1-1/2" - there are many tea candles that claim to be 1-1/2, but are actually slightly larger. Especially the ones that are not in tin cups, but rather in clear plastic and look classier.
buckie- very hard to find but forstner extension rods are what I use, gotta get good ones so ther isn't any run out.
very nice candle holder, I'm going to make one. photos to come.
Seems safe...
Thank you for the article! Here’s a great collection of woodworking plans that I found https://bit.ly/2YwVrEm. It really helped me with my own projects, I beleive it will help you too. Please reply if you find this helpful.
Seems that you would want to have the tea lights in a glass votive. Putting them directly into the bores is going to result in melted paraffin wax all over the item and built up in the bore holes.
Really cool idea, but definitely not safe. I made one, and used it with tea light candles. It seemed ok, but on the third time I used it, it suddenly caught fire. One of the flames in a lower holder was flickering too close to one of the upper sides. If I hadn't been sitting in front of it at the time, it could have led to extensive damage. So, if you're going to make and use this as a gift, stipulate LED candles only, as its definitely a fire risk with real candles.
I was considering making one, but it's a little small for a centerpiece. Also, I didn't want to hide all of that nice face grain inside a glue joint.
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