Hello,
First of all I’d like to thank everybody for the compliments. And now I‘ll try to answer the questions, but I’m sorry to say I have no WIP pictures, but on the other hand it’s quite straight forward. I had tried some square turning before, but wasn‘t satisfied with the results. Then the idea to do a triangular piece entered my head. I don’t know what insprired me, but I think I saw some kind of triangular piece somewhere. But I think I can say it was my idea and design. How to do it? First mark and cut out a equilateral triangle, decide which is to be the top side and mark the centre. All this has to be done as precise as possible, especially the marking of the centre. If this isn’t spot on you won’t get an equal thickness on the sides. Then screw a mini faceplate ring onto the topside ( the screws are where the hole for the candle is going to be ). Mount it on the lathe and turn a dovetailed spigot on the underside. Turn the piece around and turn the top side. Use the highest possible speed for this size of workpiece ( The noise closely resembles that of a little turbo prop, but you get used to it. Just keep your fingers on your side of the toolrest and everything is safe ). I used a 40 mm Forstner bit to drill the hole for the candle and enlarged it with a bedan till it was big enough to take the glass insert for the candle. Sand the top side with the lathe stopped. Reverse the piece and rechuck it using the candlehole. If you don’t have steel jaws of the appropriate size make a set of jaws out of some hardwood. Turn the underside. Make sure to check the sidewallthickness near the bottom of the candlehole ( I hope somebody knows what I mean ) because it’s easy to turn away to much and the bottom will drop out. Sand the underside. I did it with a velcro pad in a powerdrill, workpiece still mounted on the lathe with the spindle fixed.
This may not be the only way to do it, but it worked fine for me. Walnut is an ideal wood for doing it the way I described it. With other woods it is advisable to glue strips of wood to the sides of the blank to prevent tearout or even keep the tips from flying across the workshop. If hotmelt glue is used it will be easy to remove.