In article ,
(Jack Grube) wrote:

I am a high school wood working/turning teacher and have some students
interested in turning candleholders. Other than trial and error are there
any
suggestions on how I can get a novice to make the tapered hole the correct
size
so the candle sits straight?

Jack Grube

You could follow most of the drill-based suggestions that were in the
wine-cork holder thread. This is good if you want to get the
candleholders made with minimum fuss, but it deskills the job. There are
also inserts.

You could have the candlestickmakers spend a few class periods doing
nothing but mounting up scrap, putting candle-holes in it, and seeing
how the candles fit. This is good for progessing from novice to
beyond-novice. More "practice makes perfect" than "trial and error" -
screwing up on scrap is practice - no agony, toss it back where it came
from - practicing on the finished piece is trial and (if you screw up
there) error.

A middle ground is to decide what top and bottom diameters and depth you
want, chuck up a drill (I'd use a Forstner) in the tailstock that is the
bigger size, drilling just enough to mark the surface, swapping to the
smaller size, setting a depth stop or mark and drill to depth, then the
taper is just opening the smaller hole to the larger mark at the top.

--
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