Caddy for Wine Bottle Tiki Torches

I needed to replace old rusted tiki torches and so went to eBay and got some beautiful cobalt blue 750 ml wine bottles. I bought 12 for 37.50. On Amazon, I got wicks with ceramic stoppers (2/$6.72). These burned well and the bottle, with the light shining thru was really beautiful.

I wanted to make a carrier so that I was not carrying them in a cardboard box. This is what I came up with.

It's really just a simple box, much like an old toolbox. It's made of 1/2 inch oak and oak plywood with a dowel on the top tied to the top using some paracord. The joinery is simple butt joints. There is a 2 inch hole in each side for decoration.

I place the bottles on top of a piece of plywood to get the needed dimensions and added 1/4 inch all around.

The sides were made of oak plywood scraps. I joined them to the base with glue and brads. I made top spacers while the glue was drying so that the sides would stay perpendicular to the base. Finally I cut a 1/16" veneer from oak for the top of the plywood so that it would look like solid oak.

The sides were made from a piece of solid oak scrap. I drilled a 2 inch hole for decoration and then drilled a 1/2 inch hole that I was originally going to put the rod through. However, the rod was about 1/2 inch too low and it made access to the bottles too difficult so I cut slots in the top of the carrier and then lashed the top rod to the carrier using the original hole and some paracord.

Here are some more pictures of the finished project with another picture of a lit torch. It's sturdy and I really enjoy the ease of transporting the bottle torches in it.

Thanks for looking!