Hot Wax on Vinyl

by fungus amungus

23K5616

Intro: Hot Wax on Vinyl

We don't have very many candle holders in our apartment, but we do have plenty of tall candles. Go figure. As long as I'm playing around with making a fruit bowl or lampshade I might as well continue with throwing records into the oven and reshaping them.

This time around there are no cuts to make. All you need is a record, an oven, some corks, a knife, and an apple.

The apple is very important.

STEP 1: Cut Some Cork

Looking around my apartment for cylindrical forms that are the same width as a tapered candle, I found that corks are perfect.

When you find four good specimens, cut off a half-inch or so, this part is up to you. Cut one first to use as a guide for the size of the others. Corks can have angled or rounded ends and the cut helps to flatten out one side.

STEP 2: Place the Corks

You can use a pan or something else that's flat and oven-safe. Now place the corks a little further out from where you want the final candle positions to be.

STEP 3: Place the Record

Put the record on top, being careful to position it so that the corks are all in the correct places.

Now drop it into the oven, which should be at 200F and wait.

STEP 4: Add the Apple

The ends will flop over, but the middle needs some convincing so place an apple in the middle. This will push the label down onto the surface.

As the record softens more, the corks will start to lean inward as the apple pulls the to the middle. Rotate the pan and nudge the bottoms of the corks so that they are straight again.

STEP 5: Remove and Shape

Recheck the corks. If they've moved again, correct them. If the record has settled as far as it will go, take the whole thing out of the oven and put it on the stove.

With both hands (one of mine was using the camera here), push the record around the corks as much as possible. This is the final shaping of the record and in less than a minute it will cool and harden.

STEP 6: Check the Shape

After it's all over, does it look good? If it is, you're done! If not, just throw it back into the oven and keep working it. You can always go back.

STEP 7: Add Some Candles

The shape here does a better job of accommodating the candles than really holding them. They're not going to stand there on their own, so help out a bit by dripping some hot wax into the spot and fixing a candle into place with it.

STEP 8: Light 'em Up

Candle meets flame.

Now sit and relax for a bit. Maybe drink a glass of wine. And activate your personalized playlist of digitized music from your personal computer.

17 Comments

DavidK60 8 years ago

Some music LPs are worth a fortune to the right person so make sure that they are not worth any thing before doing any of these projects as you might find out when it's too late that you have destroyed a collectable album.

Peter3D 16 years ago

Drill four holes in the record and fasten the corks with a screw so that they'll 'keep up' while the record softens. Remove the screws (and corks) as the record has herdened again.

kzaaaaa 16 years ago

except that the idea is to not drill holes in the record.

fair child 17 years ago

Oh about Rachel Ray... She is sooooo annoying... and wayyyyyy over-rated!

hethlee 17 years ago

this is too cool i LOVE the whole idea of melting records i've been wanting to do it for many years now... i think this has finally made me do it!

JakeTobak 17 years ago

Did you get your Vinyl ideas from Rachel Ray?

fungus amungus 17 years ago

You asked me that before. I've never heard of Rachel Ray before you mentioned her.

fungus amungus 17 years ago

OK. Now I know why this all looks so familiar to you. The air date was less than two months ago.

This idea has been bounced around for years, by the way.

Tool Using Animal 17 years ago

Rachel ray is a chunky chick with a scarily big mouth and a noisome voice and she's obsessed with EVOO, olive oil to the rest of us. BTW they've been selling record chip bowls in catalogs for years, but you've certainly taken this a step beyond.

Crash2108 17 years ago

Everyone loves her. I can't stand her.

JakeTobak 17 years ago

Sorry about that, last time I asked I didn't see my post show up and I didn't care enough to repost it, and it didn't show up this time until I logged in again. I'm not sure why though.

zachninme 17 years ago

Interesting... The next project will be a record player made from a few records :-P