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Author: Joe_Majury, Contributing Editor
| Next, I used a pair of pliers; 2.4mm wire, and some old washers to create patterns. I then stuck these onto the CD's using Superglue.
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 | My first MAJOR hurdle was cutting the holes into the CD's.I didn't want the hole to be in the center because of fire risks; which I'll explain later. I wanted the holes right near the edge, and they had to be big enough to slide over the 22cm pole.
I tried drilling the holes, and broke more CD's than I can say. I started out using a VERY small drill bit, then tried working my way up to a larger bit, but in the end they all shattered. A word of warning; if you ever try to cut CD's PLEASE wear protective safety glasses and gloves. I think I would have been blinded if I hadn't had mine on. A few days later a soldering iron arrived at my door by post. I had ordered one to help me with a metal sculpture. I wondered for a second.... if I could MELT a hole big enough to go over the pole..... Sure enough! It DID work, but it was VERY messy. I put 5 CD's together to give it strength when holding the tea-lights, and the CD's melted into each other where the hole was. This was a good thing, but the excess plastic ran everywhere, and took a LOT of cleaning up. If anyone knows how to drill holes in CD's, I would be more than interested to get some tips! I also stuck a few metal washers, nuts, and bolts onto the CD, again using Superglue. |
| I drilled a hole in the wooden base large enough to insert the thinner 4 ft. 22mm chrome pole. Again, I made sure of a tight fit, and applied Superglue.
I started off by putting a 4" spacer over the central pole; then fitted on a CD. |  |
 | Then another spacer, another CD, and so on until I had placed all 9 spacers, and CDs on the central pole. At this point, I should point out, that for safety reasons, I HAD to use a spiral effect. Don't forget, CD's are made of plastic, and although tea-lights don't give out much heat, they WILL burn through a CD that is only 4" above it.
So, add your first CD, glue it into place; then, add your second spacer. Add your second CD, making sure it is over to the right of the flame below. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT.. I continued all the way up to the top, gluing each spacer, and CD in place as I went along. Oh! another piece I almost forgot. You MUST put something on the CD to separate the tea-light from the CD. In close-ups later on, you will see that I made a small wire frame to fit them into. This serves 2 purposes. First, this keeps the heat off of the CD, and secondly, just as important, this keeps the tea-light in place if the Sculpture is moved. I then added some wire from the bottom of the CD's to the wooden base, which gave the Sculpture more strength. |
| Here was my 2nd biggest problem. The first piece of wood I used was softwood. When I had all the pieces on the Sculpture, I found that the softwood had buckled since I had it cut. It was too late to dismantle the Sculpture, and start again, so I got a solid piece of hardwood; 13" circle (of Mahogany) painted this Chrome, then placed an old 12" LP over it. Using a compound hardener I placed the whole sculpture onto the mahogany base, and set it level using a spirit level.
The fix worked out fine, but at this point, there was a gap between the softwood base, and the hardwood base, so I just filled it with layers of CD's |  |
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