We have all been there: the gift exchange is days away and nothing is bought. This build answers that. dk builds turned a single eight-foot pine 2x4 into forty small tea light holders, each with a slot in the base that holds a matchbox. The intent was simple Christmas presents and stocking stuffers for family and friends, and the whole batch came together in just a few hours. That is about as friendly a project as gifting gets.
The layout is worth a close look. The stud is cut in half, then jointed and planed square. A long groove is run down the stock with repeated table saw passes, sized for a friction fit on a matchbox. From there the grooved board is sliced into forty little blocks on a crosscut sled with a stop block and a clamped fence, with a featherboard helping hold things steady. Each block then gets a shallow recess bored on the drill press with a 1.5-inch Forstner bit. Edges get a light touch on a 4x36 belt and disc sander, a custom branding iron marks the wood, and the blocks are dipped in Watco Danish Oil in Natural. An awl and needle-nose pliers pull leftover staples during prep, and the oiled pieces cure on an elevated wooden drying rack.
One detail stands out to me: the matches stored in each holder can be struck right off the side of the wood itself. Giving a candle and its fire source as one small object seems a genuinely tidy idea.
The honest wrinkle is that the table saw gave out partway through, so crosscutting moved to the miter saw. dk builds suspects rewiring it to 220V without buying the extra contactor assembly hardware, but the exact cause was still to be determined.
Project by dk builds. Watch it on their YouTube channel: