Stems are brass, tops and bottoms ally. I used the gear I put together to mill helical gears for the stems. First I turned a 2.5 degree (5 inclusive) taper using the taper turning attachment.

Then set up a gear train with a lead of about 3 inches.

I reduced the taper to 1.5 degrees and set up the milling spindle to follow the taper and used direct indexing to mill 4 helical facets.

The curves on the ally top and bottom were done with a hand graver.

The top is held on with a screw and the bottom with Araldite.

Of course, I could have made the pair with opposite helices, but that wouldn't fulfill the brief

That was fun

Rod

Wasted a couple of hours experimenting with fans taking into account David's advice. The original design in 0.6mm thick Aluminium sheet is too heavy at nearly 3g. Kitchen foil is too floppy. A very thin foil fan spins well but it wins no prizes for appearance and suffers from severe over-heating!

Most annoying I don't I have any thicker Aluminium Foil. A bit of old pie dish would do the job, but there's none in my recycling bin. It seems I have crashed in flames!

I like Rod's elegant solution and the way he made it.

Dave

PS post crossed with Nick.  Agreed.

Edited By SillyOldDuffer on 09/11/2017 17:29:42

Hi, yes, Rod's look good. Well! I have finished one of mine, although it needs a bit of polishing around the edges and I still don't know if I'll get them both done in time. However here's a cold run of my first one, first photo is with a small pillar candle.

Next photo is with a Tealight type.

The last one is of a large pillar candle, which by a shear fluke in design, can be held by inverting the candlestick and using what was originally designed to be the base, the candlestick can be tilted over nearly as much as a double-decker bus, before it starts to topple, with this big candle in it.

Regards Nick.

Edited By Nicholas Farr on 09/11/2017 22:53:14

Bet that made your eyes water! I thought they were purely decorative…

Dave

Lol, I walked into that, didn't I? (so to speak )

Never post when you've had half a bottle of Rioja

I did have a conversation in the gun shop about it yesterday and the subject of butt plugs came up, but that's another line of conversation we had probably better leave right there!

So Neil, when is the winner going to be announced?

It shouldn't take you long to judge the entries

We wait with bated breath

This is my candlestick. Couldn't be bothered to make one so I stuck a candle in a short tube spanner. Its been like that for years, occasionally useful in the workshop when a gentle heat is needed. Please note the christmassy background!

Neil

So, what do you think of the Christmas competition so far?

Never mind Michael, you could get a head start on Neil's Easter challenge, just substitute and egg for the candle

Now that is the word of the week!

Hi, well hears my effort in all there blazing glory.

Probably not as good as Rod's, but I like them and I've finally found a use for this industrial scrap that I've had for the last 15 t0 20 years, I knew they would come in handy one day. Might even make a couple more one day, but they would have to be shorter as I haven't got enough of the stainless steel splined rod left to make them the same height.

Here's a couple of photos of the main parts before reworking them, although the base on the top right had already  been machined when I took the photo, so it looks much the same only cleaner.

Regards Nick.

Edited By Nicholas Farr on 10/11/2017 23:22:01