So I was cleaning some things up and found a piece of plexiglass that had been cast aside from the failed attempt at making a vacuum chamber our of a pot used for canning. Remember that epic fail? I set it aside, thinking there was something I could do with it later and kept cleaning. A few minutes later, I found a small piece of maple that I had roughed out when it was really wet, but since I stored it incorrectly, it had warped to the point I thought it would only be good for firewood. When I went to put it in the burn pile, I saw the plexiglass and had an idea. I turned the maple into the only shape the wood would allow, then cut it into pieces, then glued it back together, with the plexiglass where the cuts were made. Two things were learned. First, I used CA glue (super glue) to hold it together. If I ever make another one, I think some kind of epoxy would be much better, since the glue joints failed about 5 times while I was turning this. Took quite awhile to sand the damage marks out of the piece each time it went flying off the lathe. Luckily, none of the pieces shattered! Second, plexiglass doesn’t really “cut”, it just kinda heats up, melts, and then gums up your chisels. Pretty messy project! Can’t argue with the final results, though. This turned out WAY better than I expected it to!
Got me thinking, though. I wonder if I could cut the bottom off of a wine bottle, turn a base to hold the candle, then put the wine bottle over the candle like a chimney? There’s a crappy brand of Riesling that comes in a pretty blue bottle that might look kinda nice…
