Flaming Shots Menorah

Do you love Hanukkah parties? Put more "PARTY" in your Hanukkah with this Flaming Shots Menorah.

FLAMING SHOTS MENORAH = EXTREME HANUKKAH CELEBRATION!!

It's fairly simply to make with access to a basic wood shop tools and will be sure to impress holiday guests.

Check out these 3 Flaming Holiday Shots to add fun flaming shots to this menorah.

Materials

• Shot Glasses
• Wood Glue
• Wood: I used two types of wood in this menorah: walnut and cherry. Here are the size of the boards I raw cut. Follow these guides to get a similar sized menorah.
  • Walnut (x3 boards)
    • length = 24"
    • width = 4"
    • thickness > 1"
  • Cherry (x3 boards)
    • length = 24"
    • width = 6"
    • thickness > 1"

Tools: You need access to a basic woodshop to complete this project. Tools include:

• Chop Saw
• Jointer + Planer
• Table Saw
• Band Saw
• Sander
• Drill Press
• 1 3/8" Forstner Bit

Attached is the template I created in Illustrator with the menorah design. I added vertical lines in the template so when I printed the design (on 3 pages) I could cut it out and align the graphic. The horizontal line is if you decide to use two different types of wood like I did.

Using the template:

• Print on three 8.5" x 11" pages and tape together

(in STEP 6)

• Tape the layout to the wood using double sided tape
• Cut along the black line using a band saw.

This step is very important to getting the wood prepped for assembly.

The menorah is made up by paneling 3 boards together. The thickness of the entire menorah is 2 1/16" so each board will be planed down to 11/16".

For each of the 6 boards:

• Joint one edge of the board
• Joint one face of the board
• Plane each board to 11/16"

Make sure you do all 6 boards at the same time to assure they have the same specifications. If you plane boards in different runs you may be off by a hair.

Cut wood to width on the table saw

MAPLE WOOD: 2" final width

First cut off the non-jointed edge. You don't want to cut the full amount. I suggest cutting to 2 1/4". Cut jointed edge second to the final width of 2". This just assures you have perfectly straight edges.

CHERRY WOOD: 4" final width

Do the same as above but the final width will be 4"

Cut wood to length on chop saw

BOTH WOOD: 22" final length

Use chop saw to cut all boards to the final length of 22". Use the same technique as above. Cut boards to 23" on one end, then cut boards to the final 22" on the other end. This will assure perfectly even edges.

I didn't get greatest images of the glueing and clamping step so I've illustrated it. You want to glue the 3 maple panels together and the 3 cherry panels together to create a block.

Make sure you clean up the glue as best as possible while it is still tacky.

Once the pieces are done drying I cut about 1/16" of the edges that had glue coming out with a table saw. This was to get edges clean for the final glue up.

Follow these steps to cut out your menorah shape:

• Cut out the template from the 3rd step.
• Using double sided tape attach the bottom half of the design to the maple wood and the top half of the design to the cherry wood.
• Cut the curves using a band saw. I was able to get a pretty fluid curve by cutting off small amounts of wood at a time. Don't rush this step!
• Sand the curves using a spindle sander. You may need to sand some of the tight corners by hand.

Using a 1 3/8" forstner bit, drill 1" deep holes along the top of the cherry block. Use the template to find where each hole should be drilled. The centers of each hole will be 2" apart.

Glue:

Glue the final cherry and maple pieces together. Make sure edges are perfectly lined up.

Sand:

First round the short edges of the menorah using a belt sanding machine. You can also do this with a router.

Next, using a palm sander I started with 100 grit ---> 180 grit ---> 220 grit. I had to sand some of the corners and edges with my hands.

Stain:

I used a clear danish oil to finish the menorah. It brings out the natural color of both woods really well. Feel free to use what every finish you like, but make sure to test in on scrap wood first.

Fill the menorah with shots. Check out this flaming Hanukkah shot. It has an amazing effect!