Remember those candlesticks for Christmas?

[waaytoomuchintothis]

[ListerStormGT]

Those look great Rob, very cool idea!

[HomeRacingWorld]

Back row...are those black with gold trim? :)

Looks great sir, all of them.

[waaytoomuchintothis]

Damn, you have good eyes, Harry. Yes, the back row was made for my eldest- black, silver, black with silver accents, and a brass ring at the top painted silver.

I should have done one set black with gold above for Smokey!

[Ember]

They look great!

[waaytoomuchintothis]

I had a bunch of maple turning blanks in a box of scraps and decided to do this with them. My wife thought they would make good Christmas gifts, so I turned out a bunch of them, largely governed by how many blanks I had in a size. We were going to paint them together, then she got all wound up with her quilted presents, and I wound up doing all of them myself. So, I guess I'll give them next year. I found out that there are maple turnings that are very similar to mine (its actually a classic design that has been around for many years), available in raw form, so yeah, maybe I will start selling them. I can save a lot of time by buying the raw turnings and sanding, sealing, painting and lacquering them. Theoretically, the end product would be the exact same.

[FootScoot]

Very nice Rob. Those would make excellent Christmas gifts, and they're pretty too. :)

[dreinecke]

VERY nice work Sir! I like all the colors! Just make sure you scrawl a #13 on Harry's...!

[waaytoomuchintothis]

Okay, ya got me. My wife just looked around the doorway to see what I was laughing at. Glad you guys like them. Thinking it up was the hardest part.

I could do theme candlesticks, though. Smokey for Harry, Jeep for you, something frilly and cupcake-ish for Jenny, a crown for Kurt, etc. Of course, there's 1000 of us here, so that could get out of hand pretty quick. Better re-think that.

[Ember]

But you'd only need one of each and they could be done as sets. I think HRW headquarters is in need. Slotter spirit candlesticks.

[Ember]

Perpetual trophies. Hmmm..... Really tiny one for the Autograss Minis. Big ones for the trucks and zippertops. One with the top missing for the affordable sports cars. And the box for one for the Crystal Case Proxy.

[waaytoomuchintothis]

I've been looking at Ebay, Etsy, Pinterest and some other places, and people are just plain crazy. I think I always suspected it, but now I know. Really junky looking painted wooden candlesticks I would be embarrassed to say I made are going for $20-$25 each. I figured it out, and at $20, I would average over 100% profit. Ridiculous. I haven't decided about this thing yet, but if done in quantity, assuming I pay myself $20/hour, the net profit goes past 140%. People are crazy.

Meanwhile, I like the idea of making permanent trophies for HRW. Something truly goofy, able to take some abuse being shipped all over, lightweight, compact, and yet truly useless and silly. I can do that. We could avoid the shipping costs by having a photo of this icon of toy car play that gets posted when the win is determined. Actually, that means the size and weight would be unimportant. Big potential for silliness.

[Ember]

You KNOW we all love silliness. :D

And I'd say Xmas is 11.5 months away. Plenty of time. Get those babies on eBay and see what happens. If you're embarrassed to take the money you can always send it to me. :D

[waaytoomuchintothis]

Oh yeah! The REAL world. I forgot. Okay, maybe I'll ripoff the fools with money, just like- well, just like some others.

I suppose this could go the way some woodworking projects I made for a charity many years ago went. About 6 months after I made some hand-painted picture frames (grandchildren, anniversary, birth announcement, etc.) to be sold at a church sponsored sale for a homeless shelter, I got one of them as a baby present when we announced the birth of our eldest boy. Of course, the giver never knew it came from my basement, and I didn't tell her, but I still have it, with a picture of him when he was about 5 minutes old. That was 34 years ago, incredibly.