Make-your-own Chanukiah
Supplies:
- 1 set reusable Chanukah oil cups (size 7 - yes, there are sizes)
- 1 set Chanukah wicks (the long kind that reach all the way to the bottom of the cup - the ones you're supposed to put in the metal thing that sits on the bottom of the cup - only the store was out of those)
- 8 tealights (10 if you want a shamash)
- 8 paperclips - the thin gold ones (9 if you want a shamash)
- a pair of scissors
To actually light, you will also need:
- oil (in surprisingly small quantities)
- water (optional)
- a candle to light with
- some way to light the candle
- scissors
Cost: about $10
- oil cups: $6 at the local (expensive) Judaica store
- wicks: $2 (same store)
- tea lights: I want to say you can get 100 for $5 (which is to say we already own large quantities), which means 10 for 50 cents. Or buy a box of 10 for about $1 to $1.50
- paperclips: I already had them, but I am guessing $1? $1.50? Or scrounge around your home/school/office
Instructions:
Step 1: With one hand, hold a tea light by its metal holder. With the other hand, grab the wick and tug on it until the entire tea light comes out.
Step 2: Remove the wick from the tea light by pulling the little metal thing from the bottom of the tea light.
Step 3: Turn the tea light upside down and place it back inside the container. There should now be a shallow depression visible where the wick was.
Step 4: Take one of the oil cups and gently press it into the center of the tea light. Slowly continue to press and twist until the bit that sticks out on the bottom of the cup is completely pressed into the wax. The candle may crack. This is okay. The metal container will hold it.
Step 5: Make sure the holder isn't wobbling, and that the bottom is flush with the tea light. (This step is for safety purposes)
Step 6: This is a tricky one to describe. Take a paperclip. Unfold each end. You should have one bend left. Bend it further until you have a small loop. This is where you will put your wick.
Step 7: Make sure the rest of the paperclip is straight. Now, place it across the top of one of the oil cups so that the loop is suspended over the middle. Bend each side down around the cup. You may want to make the bits coming from the loop slightly concave so that the loop dips a bit below the surface of the cup.
Step 8: Now choose a random place to bend the long pieces going down the sides so that you can wrap them horizontally around the cup on the outside of the cup. Both ends should wrap in the same direction, either clockwise or counterclockwise as you choose.
Step 9: Loosen the loop a bit to thread a wick through. Don't tighten it just yet. You will do that later when you are ready to light.
Step 10: Repeat as necessary until you have enough candles for whatever night it is. (I have 3 right now. I will make a fourth tomorrow night, in theory)
Step 11: If you want a shamash, make it the same way, but place an extra tea light underneath for added height.
Lighting the Chanukiah:
Step 1: Optional: fill partway with water. For added prettiness, food coloring too.
Step 2: Fill the rest of the way with oil.
Step 3: Dip the top end of the wick in the oil.
Step 4: Adjust the wick to the size you want, and tighten the loop on the paperclip. (See? I told you that you'd do that later...)
Step 5: Trim the bottom of the wick so that it is not longer than the height of the cup.
Step 6; Place the wick in the holder and try to secure it as well as you can (which won't be so well, but it will work well enough)
Step 7: Say brachot. Light. Enjoy.
Some notes on how you can be less complicated than me (and why things got so complicated in the first place)
- If you can buy the metal thingies that hold the wicks (the wick draws in the oil from the bottom, and then the rest of the wick is in a metal thingie), it makes life much easier. The store was just out of them, so I couldn't.
- If you buy wider oil cups, you can use the floating cork wicks. I bought the narrow ones because I knew the wider ones wouldn't work in my chanukiah. Turns out the narrow ones didn't fit either... but I guessed right on there being room to put them all side by side - it was the bottom that was the issue. (Just an eensy bit too wide...)
- If you buy the wide, round oil cups, you can probably use the metal piece from the bottom of the tea light to hold your wick from the bottom (which is prettier than holding it at the top. Not sure whether this works in terms of the bottom of the flame being right up against the oil, but hey, why not try it.
- If you don't want to buy the holders, I have a feeling you could just use an empty tea light holder and the tea light wick. But my way is prettier. Also, you need something to replace the wicks with after you use them.
- For that matter, you could just use tea lights - but it adds up to a lot of tea lights.
And as for why I am so crazy...
So you know that wooden Chanukiah I own? The one that sometimes catches fire? Yeah, that one. Well, I need to replace it and there was nothing for less than $30 in the expensive local Judaica store, and nothing I liked for less than $60.
And you know those free Chanukah candles I got at Hebrew school? The ones that are supposed to burn for long enough? Well, that's all well and good - when there isn't a massive draft! So this left me with 3 options:
- light away from the window (and thus the draft) so that the candles actually make it past the 20 minute mark. Ideally, past the 30 minute mark, since that's how long they need to burn. But that would mean not lighting by a window, and I like lighting by a window.
- buy the fancy expensive candles that burn for an hour and a half. (I tried a new set of candle that turned out to be the same as my free ones. And uglier too. Silly waste of $6...) Plus, I am not sure the fancy expensive ones would have fared much better. They were burning so quickly I could see them getting shorter!
- try lighting with oil, since burning for longer just involves adding more oil.
And that was how all of this began...
Halfway full of water, my candles still made it to - and past - the 30 minute mark. In a weak draft, they made it to 40. (I am concerned that a stronger draft would have blown them out entirely, but I am hoping I don't get to find out.)
And so that is how you make your own Chanukiah for under $10.
Use at your own risk.
Happy Chanukah.
- 1 set reusable Chanukah oil cups (size 7 - yes, there are sizes)
- 1 set Chanukah wicks (the long kind that reach all the way to the bottom of the cup - the ones you're supposed to put in the metal thing that sits on the bottom of the cup - only the store was out of those)
- 8 tealights (10 if you want a shamash)
- 8 paperclips - the thin gold ones (9 if you want a shamash)
- a pair of scissors
To actually light, you will also need:
- oil (in surprisingly small quantities)
- water (optional)
- a candle to light with
- some way to light the candle
- scissors
Cost: about $10
- oil cups: $6 at the local (expensive) Judaica store
- wicks: $2 (same store)
- tea lights: I want to say you can get 100 for $5 (which is to say we already own large quantities), which means 10 for 50 cents. Or buy a box of 10 for about $1 to $1.50
- paperclips: I already had them, but I am guessing $1? $1.50? Or scrounge around your home/school/office
Instructions:
Step 1: With one hand, hold a tea light by its metal holder. With the other hand, grab the wick and tug on it until the entire tea light comes out.
Step 2: Remove the wick from the tea light by pulling the little metal thing from the bottom of the tea light.
Step 3: Turn the tea light upside down and place it back inside the container. There should now be a shallow depression visible where the wick was.
Step 4: Take one of the oil cups and gently press it into the center of the tea light. Slowly continue to press and twist until the bit that sticks out on the bottom of the cup is completely pressed into the wax. The candle may crack. This is okay. The metal container will hold it.
Step 5: Make sure the holder isn't wobbling, and that the bottom is flush with the tea light. (This step is for safety purposes)
Step 6: This is a tricky one to describe. Take a paperclip. Unfold each end. You should have one bend left. Bend it further until you have a small loop. This is where you will put your wick.
Step 7: Make sure the rest of the paperclip is straight. Now, place it across the top of one of the oil cups so that the loop is suspended over the middle. Bend each side down around the cup. You may want to make the bits coming from the loop slightly concave so that the loop dips a bit below the surface of the cup.
Step 8: Now choose a random place to bend the long pieces going down the sides so that you can wrap them horizontally around the cup on the outside of the cup. Both ends should wrap in the same direction, either clockwise or counterclockwise as you choose.
Step 9: Loosen the loop a bit to thread a wick through. Don't tighten it just yet. You will do that later when you are ready to light.
Step 10: Repeat as necessary until you have enough candles for whatever night it is. (I have 3 right now. I will make a fourth tomorrow night, in theory)
Step 11: If you want a shamash, make it the same way, but place an extra tea light underneath for added height.
Lighting the Chanukiah:
Step 1: Optional: fill partway with water. For added prettiness, food coloring too.
Step 2: Fill the rest of the way with oil.
Step 3: Dip the top end of the wick in the oil.
Step 4: Adjust the wick to the size you want, and tighten the loop on the paperclip. (See? I told you that you'd do that later...)
Step 5: Trim the bottom of the wick so that it is not longer than the height of the cup.
Step 6; Place the wick in the holder and try to secure it as well as you can (which won't be so well, but it will work well enough)
Step 7: Say brachot. Light. Enjoy.
Some notes on how you can be less complicated than me (and why things got so complicated in the first place)
- If you can buy the metal thingies that hold the wicks (the wick draws in the oil from the bottom, and then the rest of the wick is in a metal thingie), it makes life much easier. The store was just out of them, so I couldn't.
- If you buy wider oil cups, you can use the floating cork wicks. I bought the narrow ones because I knew the wider ones wouldn't work in my chanukiah. Turns out the narrow ones didn't fit either... but I guessed right on there being room to put them all side by side - it was the bottom that was the issue. (Just an eensy bit too wide...)
- If you buy the wide, round oil cups, you can probably use the metal piece from the bottom of the tea light to hold your wick from the bottom (which is prettier than holding it at the top. Not sure whether this works in terms of the bottom of the flame being right up against the oil, but hey, why not try it.
- If you don't want to buy the holders, I have a feeling you could just use an empty tea light holder and the tea light wick. But my way is prettier. Also, you need something to replace the wicks with after you use them.
- For that matter, you could just use tea lights - but it adds up to a lot of tea lights.
And as for why I am so crazy...
So you know that wooden Chanukiah I own? The one that sometimes catches fire? Yeah, that one. Well, I need to replace it and there was nothing for less than $30 in the expensive local Judaica store, and nothing I liked for less than $60.
And you know those free Chanukah candles I got at Hebrew school? The ones that are supposed to burn for long enough? Well, that's all well and good - when there isn't a massive draft! So this left me with 3 options:
- light away from the window (and thus the draft) so that the candles actually make it past the 20 minute mark. Ideally, past the 30 minute mark, since that's how long they need to burn. But that would mean not lighting by a window, and I like lighting by a window.
- buy the fancy expensive candles that burn for an hour and a half. (I tried a new set of candle that turned out to be the same as my free ones. And uglier too. Silly waste of $6...) Plus, I am not sure the fancy expensive ones would have fared much better. They were burning so quickly I could see them getting shorter!
- try lighting with oil, since burning for longer just involves adding more oil.
And that was how all of this began...
Halfway full of water, my candles still made it to - and past - the 30 minute mark. In a weak draft, they made it to 40. (I am concerned that a stronger draft would have blown them out entirely, but I am hoping I don't get to find out.)
And so that is how you make your own Chanukiah for under $10.
Use at your own risk.
Happy Chanukah.