guess its gonna be a bowl instead of a vase HAHA and yes I'm planning on making a vase, I guess an 11 foot long bored cut up into pieces didn't make enough for what I wanted lol but yea I always do that for some reason helps the thought train better.

Andrew,, being a retired fire fighter I have had some first hand experience fighting candle caused house fires....

  In the news a few days ago Brittney Spears, you might have heard of her has just told the world after a few of her houses burning down she is thinking about not burning candles in her house anymore for its getting expensive..... and I see you are making candle holders on your new lathe…. Some thing you can do to help control the fire hazards is put some kind of a metal protector cup type of thing in where the candle will sit and burn so if you happen to forget and let the candle burn too far down the wood will catch fire and then your will have to see if your insurance covers stupid things...and maybe others are not thinking about this also... Sorry if you are going to cover the hazard I'm talking about and forget what I said and carry on... 

I like to use the tea light candles.  You can buy the glass liners and make the holder big enough to fit.  The battery candles fit too.

Here is a couple I enhanced with a bell top for one and another with a duck which I call "On Golden Pond.

 

     

 

     

I notice you talk about going from 80 to 220. If you skipped the grits between that may be why you have to do so much sanding. As to turning pine no not fun but if you learn from it it can be good.

 

See if you can get some cherry or soft maple that is good turning. Also notice you are getting KD lumber. Look around for limbs people are trimming or whole trees down and then turning green wood is the real fun.