For Chanukah this year my girlfriend realized that she had forgotten her menorah back home at her parent's house. Not one to let something like that get her down she decided she'd like to make her own. With a little help from me she built her own this year and we were thrilled by it. This instructable covers how to build your own menorah should you find yourself in the same predicament yourself over the holidays.

Step 1: Prepare the Base

The base for this project was made from some leftover wood I had from a previous project. You can use whatever material you have available, but for us it was a 10 inch piece of wood that was about 1.5" x .75" in dimension. Clamp down your piece of wood, measure it carefully and cut it with whatever tool you have handy.

The next thing you'll want to do is mark out the positions where each of the candle holders will be placed. With a 10 inch piece of wood we were able to place each candle holder at 1 inch intervals across the base. Use a ruler and pen and mark it up right.

Step 2: Cut Holes in the Base

Each of the candle holders is a bolt that is going to sit in a hole cut out of the base. To cut these holes you're going to need to find yourself a set of drill bits or routers and a power drill is definitely recommended. Each bolt is 3/8" and therefore you'll probably use a 5/8" cutting piece to make the hole for the top of the bolt.

Clamp down the wood base and begin drilling out each of the holes. Make sure you don't drill too deep. I put a piece of tape on the bit I was using so I could clearly see how deep I was going. Once I was done I passed the base on to my girlfriend to put the candle holders in place.

Step 3: Install the Candle Holders

The best tool you can probably have on hand is a glue gun. They come in handy for everything. My girlfriend used a hot glue gun to put the bolts into the base. The glue not only filled in the empty space in the hole but definitely secured the bolts tightly.

In case I haven't mentioned, the candle holders are 9 3/8" bolts. There are eight 3" bolts and one 4" bolt that goes in the center. Each one is then capped with a 3/8" hex nut that is threaded on and then glued in place. She glued the 9 bolts in place and then the hex nuts.

That's pretty much it! If you follow these instructions you'll have a complete menorah in no time. I think the entire project took less than an hour.