Sometimes you need to take some scrap wood and turn it into something that is more than destined to the burn pile. In this case it is left over oak, maple, hickory, and alder slats that were left over from a few cutting board projects.

All it took was a little glue, a few hours in the clamps, and a few passes through the planer to even things out and to square everything up a bit. From there it was time to cut some blocks to size and scale.

Then start shaping up the parts that will some together the form the final square, while making sure there is enough space for the central match storage area, while making sure that there will be room for the candles themselves.

After that it was time to bring all the blocks together in the final form. of course it seems like you can never have enough clamps to make sure everything stays together properly.

Then it’s time to bore the holes for the tea light candles, and the little lip that surrounds the opening to make easy to swap out the candles with use. Overall the final design has a nice simple but sturdy feel to it.

Then a few passes through the router table and everything is rounded over to add a little bit of a fiished look to the pieces; then it was time put some time into sanding everything to make it nice and smooth before applying the finish.

Then it was time to add some spar poly to the candle blocks to seal them up, add some protection to them, and to protect them from wax spilling on them. These ended up being great items to give away to friends and colleagues for special occasions and other events.