The final gift I made in my Christmas present series was a set of hexagon tealight candle holders – perfect for someone who likes the option of organising their candles into a range of different shapes!
I cut a pine 2×4 into pieces slightly larger than the final dimensions I wanted and then used an angled stop block on my mitre saw sled on my table saw to take cuts at a 60 degree angle to turn each block into a hexagon, turning the workpiece after each cut. I marked the centre of each newly-formed hexagon and then used a Forstner bit to drill the hole for the tealight in the centre of each tealight. This would have been much quicker with a drill press/pillar drill so I definitely need to add one to my list of tools to get at some point!
Once each hexagon had the hole drilled, I spent a while thoroughly sanding each hexagon with my random orbit sander to get a nice smooth surface on all the faces and checking all the hexagons tessellated together nicely. I applied some oak wood stain to the surfaces, making sure to wipe off the excess to allow the stain to dry without any blotches. After leaving the holders for a couple of days to make sure they were fully dry, they were all finished and ready to be wrapped!
This was a nice, simple but effective project that yielded a fun and different take on tealight holders and means the new owner can now arrange their candles in quite a few different patterns! 🔨
The Woodworking Scientist 