A while back I posted that I thought you could do a living hinge by just cutting on one side… Well I was thinking that Inkscape would be needed to layout the cuts but then I see that engrave can do both 10 Lpi and 35 Lpi and my estimate was that 35 Lpi would be needed in any case so I just do a deep engrave at 35Lpi and then cut out the design. (2 passes at 800zips, full power)
Already it is very flexible but by soaking it in alcohol hand cleaner all the burn fumes are quickly dissolved but it gets a lot more flexible! Then I wrapped it tightly around an old spice jar, even using an 1\8 cup measuring cup to press the top very tight and let it dry.
The rest was relatively straight forward except that I wanted a twist lock for the part that held the candle so I cut a circle with ears and did an engrave a bit over half the thickness. Then when all was cut out I just flipped the inner part and the ears that were at the bottom became ears at the top so I glued that to the piece that was the inner circle at the top, and made engraved holes to hold the legs.! That locking piece and the candle bottom piece is all the glue used as everything else is very tight.
You will notice it is an LED candle. Which addresses my major concerns with the general concept and bought a lot of LED candles for future projects.
In any case that alcohol evaporates quickly and the aloe to keep the hands moist does good things for the wood as well, but any possible extra fire danger beyond the fact it is wood has long ceased to exist before the piece can even be assembled.
I also sprayed it with matt acrylic for protection from greasy fingers etc.
It not only dissolves the brown stain, but it also dissolves the adhesive used on the tape etc so makes a weeding killer as well, and since it is designed to evaporate from your hands without a towel it does the same on all that you use it on as well. the only thing to not use it on would be MDF as it can dissolve the glue that holds that together too!