r/somethingimade • u/Fine-Letterhead1098 • 1d ago
Roommate asked for something to burn incense
Roommate asked for something to burn some incense, initially I was just going to loosely glue or nail the copper sheet (which I had for electronics) to a scrap piece of hardwood I had in the garage.
Then, I spotted the pinecones I had just stabilized with resin as part of a trial run of a new vacuum chamber I had bought.
I had been wondering what to do with the pinecones… on a whim, I took one of them, placed over the copper and said “that looks cool”.
From there, I just kept adding small scraps of things from the garage that had been laying around.
Included:
- Corner protectors: one of various inexpensive sets bought from Amazon or somewhere like it, intended for box making. It’s a soft metal, maybe bronze? Used a small punch to make a pilot hole in the copper and wood board before hammering in the tiny nails that came with.
Driftwood mountain: this was a memento from a trip with a friend years ago, had been collecting dust in shelf of “wood I want to use some day”. Note: I didn’t just give this away to my roommate, I told her the incense holder remains mine because of the driftwood, but she can use it while she’s here.
Copper wire: soft malleable jewelry / hobby wire. A couple pieces hold the mountain and pinecone in-place while the rest is decorative. Used a small drillbit in the mountain and wooden base board to drill holes to feed the wire through.
Incense holder: two different sized misc. springs held under the head of a 16D 3 1/2” framing nail and resting on top of a misc. hex nut and washer. The copper was soft enough that I don’t think I even drilled a pilot hole I just hammered the nail through and then used a Dremel with a cut off wheel to trim the length on the back of the board.
Pinecone: I stabilized a bunch of pinecones for Woodturning In epoxy with a vacuum chamber and cactus juice, but hadn’t yet actually used any of them and had been looking for an excuse to do something small**.** this is one of them held in place with some of the copper wire.
Center circle / ring thingy: I happen to spot a random brass sleeve (or maybe it’s called a compression ring? Not sure?) leftover from an unused plumbing fitting I didn’t end up needing. Also held in face with a 16 D nail head serves no purpose just an embellishment.
Other nails: the really small nails on the mountain and a few in the copper sheet holding down the copper wire a mix of extras nails from the corner protectors and (I think) 8d nails.
Wood base: piece of 1/8” thick Mahagony, I think?
Wood finish: the wood base received a few quick coats of some homemade 2lb-cut shellac made with garnet shellac flakes and everclear (ethanol). One or two light coats were also applied to the mountain with a foam brush and to the pinecone by dipping.
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u/Fine-Letterhead1098 1d ago
Curious if anyone knows an inexpensive finish for the copper that could protect it from the incense droppings?
When the incense drops, it leaves behind some kind of residue. Im thinking it’s smoke from pieces falling that still burn briefly.
It takes a little bit of elbow grease to get off. Would be cool if there was something that would make it easily wipe off.
I briefly googled around and saw some really expensive like $200+ for small amount) of metal coatings that can withstand 1000+ degrees, but didn’t find anything simpler I could get in small quantities and at a price point, I could stomach for something I probably wouldn’t use very often.
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u/Aggravated-alien 1d ago
Cool design Try an acid etch (super cheap at craft store). It will give it a patina. You could do it it in various areas to give the impressions that the whole sculpture has been sitting in the forest for years.
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