Tips for Preparing the Top
Using a shop made beam compass to mark the outside diameter of the Shaker style candle stand top.
I turned the top while it was mounted on a faceplate. First, after mounting the faceplate to what would eventually be the upper side of the top, I cleaned up the bottom surface of the top, turned the filet under the lip on the top’s edge, and then shaped — by scraping — the bottom half of the lip itself. I then removed the top from the lathe, took off the faceplate, and remounted it on the bottom side of the top to complete the lip turning and to dish out the excavation. This last process removed the material containing the screw holes made by the first mounting on the faceplate.
Note: After you’ve done your shaping on the bottom surface of the candlestand top, and before you remove the work from the lathe, use a pencil on your tool-rest to create a couple of concentric circles on the bottom of the candlestand top. These circles should be just a bit larger than the diameter of your faceplate. Then, after removing the faceplate from the upper side of the candlestand top, use these concentric circles to align the faceplate on the bottom of the candlestand top. When you’re mounting the faceplate on the bottom side, it must center on the same axis of rotation you established with the faceplate on the upper side.
I actually made two tops for this candlestand. The first one, which I turned from a blank of kiln-dried 5/4 curly maple in one long session at the lathe, transformed itself into the buckled shape of a potato chip after one day in our heated home.
I took a more cautious approach to making the second top. First, I planed the 5/4 blank flat, removing perhaps a 1/4″ of thickness, and placed it under the couch in our heated living room for a week. Next, I mounted it on my lathe and removed another 1/4″ of thickness and gave it a second week under the couch. Then I reduced it to its final thickness, leaving it fatter than the the first top. The combination of approaches — reducing the thickness in stages so I could turn away any deformation that occurred, and leaving a greater final thickness — resulted in a more stable top. But I know that nothing can completely prevent an unsupported top like this one from curling a bit over time.
Using a lathe set on a low speed to turn the table top for the Shaker style candle stand.
A slow lathe speed is very important when turning an object with a diameter as large as the top of this candlestand. That’s because the rim speed — the speed at which the work passes the tool — is determined not only by the lathe’s rpm, but also by the diameter of the object mounted in the lathe. For example, an object two inches in diameter mounted in a lathe with a speed of 400 rpm will have a rim speed of 209.4 feet per minute. A 12-inch object spinning at 400 rpm will have a rim speed of an astonishing 1256.6 feet per minute, almost six times as fast. And that speed has real consequences at the work/tool interface. A careless move with a gouge that might be a minor event at 200 feet per minute could be disastrous at 1,200 feet per minute.
That’s why I’m going to make two recommendations in regard to turning the top. First, turn that top at the slowest possible speed. A speed of 100 rpm would not be too slow. Second, unless you’re a great technician at the lathe, use a timid approach to turning the outside edge where the speed is greatest.
I’m not a great technician on the lathe, so I embrace the timid approach. Although I use tools that cut when I’m spindle turning, when I’m turning the outside diameter of something mounted on a faceplate, I simply scrape — very carefully — until I’ve rounded the entire outside diameter. Then I shape it by pushing little nibbles with the tip of my skew until I’ve created the shape I want. It’s not an elegant technique, but it works, and I’ve never had an accident when turning on a faceplate.
Using a spindle gouge reground with a long tip to hollow out the inside lip on the Shaker style candle stand top.
The actual excavation of the top’s interior I achieved with a spindle gouge I’ve reshaped so that most of its tip is ground to a bevel. I then feed the tool to the work, from the center out, so only one short section of the radius on the end of that ground tip is in contact with the work at any one time. It gives me long shavings and solid control.
Finishing Touches
There’s a 6″-diameter support under the candlestand top that I turned on a faceplate. I then attached the top support to the underside of the top using four 1-1⁄4″ #8 drywall screws. I aligned the grain on this support so that it was perpendicular to the grain direction in the top itself. That provides a small bit of resistance to the top’s inclination to curl across the grain. I then bored the 1″-diameter hole that receives the tenon at the top of the pedestal.
Finally, there is a small disk with a radiused edge on the bottom of the pedestal. I made the radius with a carving gouge and a rasp, although I could have turned it on the lathe like the other pedestal components.
Give the project a final sanding, add finish, and you’ll have an elegant candlestand that wears its blended styling and traditions proudly.
