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Step 7: You'll use a glass votive cup to hold the candle on this sconce. To keep the cup from slipping off the bracket, we'll make a recessed wooden base to hold it. You can mill the recessed area with a trim router equipped with a rub collar and a 1/4-in.-diameter straight bit. The Base Pattern is sized for a standard 2-in.-diameter votive cup. Mount the paper pattern to a piece of 1/2-in.-thick stock, and cut a 2 1/2-in.-diameter hole through another piece of scrap to serve as a template for your router. Make both of these parts from stock that's at least 5 in. wide and about a foot long so you'll have plenty of room for clamping as well as guiding the router. Drill a screw pilot hole through the center of the base where indicated on the pattern.
Step 8: Align and clamp your router template over the Base Pattern. Install a 1/4-in. straight bit and a 3/4-in. O.D. rub collar in your router, and set the bit for a 1/8-in.-deep cut. Rout around the inside of the template in a series of clockwise circles to remove the waste. Then, reset the cutting depth to 1/4 in., and make a second pass to complete the cup recess (see Photo 5).
Step 9: Unclamp the template and workpiece, and cut out the base on your scroll saw (see Photo 6). Refine and clean up the base's shape on a disc sander or by hand sanding.
Step 10: Ease the bottom edge of the base with a 1/8-in.-diameter roundover bit in your trim router. Hold the base securely for routing by sticking it to a larger piece of scrap with a few dabs of hot-melt glue (see Photo 7). When you're finished routing, tap the base free with a rubber mallet, and peel off the glue. If you're not comfortable routing a workpiece this small, just soften the edge with a file or sandpaper.
Step 11: Use a detail sander and a sanding block to smooth the surfaces of the three project parts up to 180-grit (see Photo 8). Sand the leaf carefully, especially near the pointed tips, to prevent chipping them.
Step 12: Apply a few coats of finish to the sconce parts. Aerosol varnish, shellac or lacquer are good choices for reaching all the crevices and contours of the leaf. When the finish dries, fasten the base to the bracket with a #6 x 3/4-in. countersunk flathead wood screw. Glue the bracket tenon into the leaf mortise (see Photo 9), and the project is ready for hanging. Use a long, thin trim nail to hold the project on the wall. Tap the nail into the wall, then hang the sconce over the nail from inside the top vein cutout.
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