Make: Projects – Concrete Candleholder

When we were brainstorming content for concrete month, our thoughts went immediately to Ray Alderman, aka Whamodyne, whose method for using a burned-out light bulb as a sacrificial mold for concrete is one of the most popular Instructables of all time.  We contacted Ray, who’s a mensch if ever there were one, and asked if he wanted to write something for us to go with the theme.   He agreed, and just now published this most excellent tutorial over on Make: Projects. Snip:

I’ve been wanting to try out some new ideas for simpler projects that can be done over a weekend, kind of a rainy day thing for parents with kids or just some friends hanging out together. This project uses anchoring cement as the concrete element. This cement is great for smaller projects like this, as it cures quickly (overnight to be safe) and can be mixed with water to the point where it is pourable.  For most small scale concrete work the water to dry mix ratio is extremely important and having too much or too little can mess up everything. For my concrete lightbulbs I measure it out to the gram and even then there is variations per batch. Anchoring cement is far more for giving and allows you to use kitchen measuring cups and spoons and semi-close is good enough. Having pourable cement means that it will fill your mold completely.

Ray’s work, as always, is very carefully planned and executed, and photographed and documented brilliantly.   This would be a great quick gift project, and his (literally) cookie-cutter method is easy to customize with whatever shape you want. [Thanks, Ray!]

Make: Projects — Concrete Tea Light Holder

In the Maker Shed:

The Best of Instructables Volume I

The Instructables staff, the editors of MAKE, and the Instructables community itself put together this collection of the best food, home and garden, technology, science, and crafts how-to’s from the site. The Best of Instructables includes full-color photographs, complete step-by-step instructions, and tips, tricks, and build techniques you won’t find anywhere else. Over 300 pages!