the Making of our flickering PVC candles

We started with various sizes of PVC irrigation and vacuum pipe and shaped it by cutting it at various angles on the top, then using multiple sanding tools to create organic curves - most of the sanding was done on my bench belt sander, but any sanding tool could be used. To further the effect, we then heated the pipes with a heat gun and squeezed, pulled, and shaped the PVC to emulate old melted candles.

Next we used our trusty hot glue gun and a LOT of glue sticks to create drips, runs and really capture the old used candle look.

A quick coat of white spray paint and they were really taking shape. Do yourself a favor here, use a spray paint that is specifically designed for plastics, it'll really help the paint bond to the plastic and seal the glue onto the pipes.

With the candles all plain and white, they did not look old.  So, I put on my nitrile gloves, opened a can of dark wood stain and covered the each candle entirely in stain.  This was left to sit for a few minutes, then rubbed off - and it highlighted the melting drips wonderfully - it also took the bright white and aged it considerably. 

Now we just had to let these sit in the garage for a bit so the stain could cure.

Now it's time to start soldering up the LEDs.  We ordered a 50 pack from Lighthouse LEDs.

This is the specific product we used; 5mm 12v Pre-wired flickering/candle yellow/gold LED - ultra bright.  That and a lot of scrap wire I had from some old Christmas lights.

Here is our first working candle.  The LEDs were soldered to individual scraps of wire to lengthen the pre-fab strands, then hot glued into each candle.  Sometimes both at the base and at the top, sometimes just at the base (depended if we had access to the top or not).

The first batch glued up and  ready for extensions.

Here the individual wires were bundled into groups, then the groups were again bundled together - eventually all this was ran as one feed wire from the 12v  source.