5-sided Grill Lantern

A donor asked for help on a decorative tealight holder. His first idea was to create a simple square lantern, but I added a little cnc-ish flavor to it when advancing to a five-sided design. Then we worked out a concept to use small (40 mm diameter) tealights and big ones (59 mm). A prototype had an interchangeable part, then we came up with an adapter and simplified the whole thing further to the final stage. The upper part can be lifted to insert and light up the candle easily.

The design of the side panels is pretty interchangeable. I could think of bubble or leaf pattern like on my trivets, as well as some stars, hearts or any other geometrical forms you like.

My build was done on a desktop cnc-machine by Stepcraft 420 using a spiral-toothed 1.2 mm flute. I used 6 mm Baltic birch plywood for the horizontal parts and 4 mm pine for the panels. Because the side panels are so thin I made a chamfer on a disc sander. The parts went together without any glue. A coat of oil intensified the wood structure and color.

A word of warning to the usage of a fine cutter on pine: the wood resin gums up with the milling dust so badly, it's a real pain to clean it out afterward.