# Bobbles for the wife



## Chipmaker (Sep 16, 2003)

Here is an image of a candle holder I made for the wife. She like most women are candle fanatics. Making one lead to making two which eventually lead to making over 20 of these for her and others that just had to have em. While its not really landscape material it could be used on the patio etc.

Its made of what is called a filament basket typically used in decorative wrought iron work. Its been modified so one filament can be untwisted, and a candle installed and the filament reinserted and held together with thew top cap. Cheap and easy to make and gets in some brownie points with the better half to justify buying more tools etc. Its all either cast iron components and wrought iron (actual filament basket is wrought iron) cap and base is cast iron.

Overall height is approx 10" and its approximnately 4" in diameter


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## Chris (Sep 15, 2003)

Beautiful piece there, Chippy. Wouldn't mind one of those myself for my garden. Can you signed and number one for me?


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## Argee (Sep 17, 2003)

Nice work Chip!:thumbsup:


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## guest (Sep 16, 2003)

very nice


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## Chipmaker (Sep 16, 2003)

> _Originally posted by admin _
> *Beautiful piece there, Chippy. Wouldn't mind one of those myself for my garden. Can you signed and number one for me?
> 
> *



You can easily make one of these things as when you get right down to it, its premade from available parts. Since you livein Louisana your really close to a major supplier of decorative wrought iron parts and castings. Lawler Foundry in New Orleans has these parts needed to make them. ALl it takes is a die grinder with a cutoff wheel or you can use a hacksaw. The only other thing is a tiny weld to tack it all in the base to hold it together. Really simple and looks like more work than it actually is. 

Ask for a 1" shank 4 filament basket, a 1" short slipon low profile cap and a 1" roman collar for a picket. Take the basket, and mark one filament at both ends. Cut or grind away thew weld (usually just a small tack weld on the ends) that secures the four ends together just enough to allow one filament to be removed. File or grind up cut area so replacing the removed filament is easy and it has room for removal, put it in the base collar, turn upside down and make sure its straight and in align with each other and tack the section of the basket with the original 3 filaments to the collar on the indie of the collar at the bottom, making it out of sight and hidden. Turn it back upright insert remaining filament and top with just setting on the cap...paint to suit! Simple. Takes about 15 minutes start to finish. The basket can be welded to the collar with a common welding rod in any stick welder or just use a MIG and regualr carbon steel wire por even stainless wire will work to secure it all. I guess my interestingpart of life is taking one item meant for one thing and using it in another application, such as my constant scrouging of junk and scrap and turning them into pieces tooling and machines etc. I never look at things as they are supposed to be, but what else I may be able to do with that item. This was just one of those things that happened to turn out pretty decent and usefull. Another thing the wife has been doing with these filament baskets is instead of placing a candle in them, she puts bromelaids in them )Bromelaides in case your not aware what they are, is plants that grow in the air and require no soils (spanish moss etc are bomelaides. There are all kinds of bromelaides that you can find, and most will thrive in the north country inside in the winter and outside in summer, of course here in the hot and humid south they live just about all year long outside just fine.

Priced some shepherd hooks at HD, and they wanted $39.99 for one 67" tall with 4 limbs and a top finial, made with 1" square steel tube. I picked up a stick of 1" tube and a couple of different cast iron finials and a length of 3/8" square solid bar stock and put together 4 shepherd hooks for under $20.00............that make those $39 hooks sold at HD look like Wal MArts $7 shepherd hooks. I do have an advantage though as I can cast my own parts in aluminum, bronze or cast iron so I normally only buy one of any piece that is a casting ansd use it as a pattern to cast more like items, out of accumulated scrap, so all I have invested is mainly time. But even if you have to buy the castings you need they are really pretty darn cheap considering the work that went into them to make em. You would be surprised what $10.00 will buy you in the line of a nice neat even largish cast iron or aluminum castings. And really all you need to fabricate most things using these catings is a welder (stick or mig or tig will do, nothing exotic), and a hacksaw. Little things like the candle holders mean a lot to my wife as it was a total surprise when I gave them to her. Unlike most males that have to have nice shineyt new L & G tractors etc etc to make em happy most women get more out of simple things hand made by their husband or SO's that shows that they are not forgotten.


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## Chris (Sep 15, 2003)

Good point --- maybe I can drop by for a weekend primer course.
I will take ya'll out to dinner for some good welding, casting and molding instruction.


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