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Mini Trees


Dave76

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1 minute ago, caniac said:

and best of all no minimum purchase requirements.

I wish they had some 30" heavy duty. For the boat in case of emergency. I used all of my emergency 30" boat ties for the singing faces this year since I had to have help and didn't want my friend to drive to store.

They do have great prices.

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3 minutes ago, ShayneT said:

Home Depot has some listed but they are pricey.  48" Black  Ties

Those are what I normally get, Walmart, HD and Lowes but I could get away with 30" though. Normally have plenty of excess.

Thanks for looking though, appreciated. Its what most of us here do, look out for one another.

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51 minutes ago, dibblejr said:

I wish they had some 30" heavy duty. For the boat in case of emergency. I used all of my emergency 30" boat ties for the singing faces this year since I had to have help and didn't want my friend to drive to store.

They do have great prices.

I buy all my zip ties HERE . Great prices

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On 1/29/2017 at 5:25 PM, caniac said:

... for zip ties you need to go to www.monoprice.com, I buy 10,000 zip ties for the price of two packages (100ct) at Harbor Freight.  and that is including the shipping!! 

I've been buying zip ties from Monoprice for 6 or 7 years.  Hands down the best value and excellent quality.

I ran out and stopped in at Harbor Freight and bought some of theirs.  I literally threw hundreds of them away.  The worst zip ties I've EVER bought - anywhere.

 

On 1/29/2017 at 6:54 PM, Darryl Lambert said:

I buy all my zip ties HERE . Great prices

Wow - those ARE some great prices.  Figures...  I've got 5000 from Monoprice being delivered tomorrow. 

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IMG_2087_zpselxdczoh.jpg
IMG_2088_zpsfkiuezsa.jpg



Tried to find online, no luck. Tomato Trellis is the product name? Any label to show who makes them? Thanks!


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6 hours ago, George Simmons said:

I ran out and stopped in at Harbor Freight and bought some of theirs.  I literally threw hundreds of them away.  The worst zip ties I've EVER bought - anywhere.

I ran into the same thing George. I bought some from there HF and they were junk. They would break as I cinched them tight. That was in mild weather too. So I chunked them as well.

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48 minutes ago, whitebuck said:

 

 


Tried to find online, no luck. Tomato Trellis is the product name? Any label to show who makes them? Thanks!


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you won't find them online, they are a WalMart brand and usually show up in the garden center of your local WalMart in the spring.

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33 minutes ago, caniac said:

you won't find them online, they are a WalMart brand and usually show up in the garden center of your local WalMart in the spring.

Im going to start looking today since it gets warmer here earlier our garden stuff comes out earlier. If I find them I will post up and willing to take orders for "exact amount plus actual S/H" to help you all out.

No extra fees. I will probably just buy them as I see them and post as I go

JR

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I think I might be taking a different approach to mini trees than most. After a lot of thought and planning, I decided to go with spiral mini trees, to mimic my spiral mega tree, (Maybe... we shall see...) However, what I thought was going to be an easy switch, has turned into an annoying headache. . . Like a lot of things do in this hobby... lol. So what I did:

1.) I went out and bought a lot of those old school plastic spiral Christmas trees: (Thought I had bought enough, but ended up going back and buying more.)

15697342_10158244530905643_7067122667812 

 

2.) I then took all of the traditional incandescent lights off of the tree: (bye bye lights)

16427610_10158456211455643_5408917213923

 

3.) And finally I zip-tied a strip of intelligent pixels to the remaining plastic structure:

16427465_10158456211430643_1794094004689

 

I still need to work on the star at the top of the tree. . . I'm trying to figure out how to open it to insert pixels into it. . . But it seems pretty sealed shut. Oh well, I'll find a way!!

I'm hoping that the trees turn out the way I want them to turn out. . . As you can see I bought a lot of them. I think it will be interesting to watch the lights spiral up and down the tree, and chase around the tree. . . I'm just hoping what I have in-visioned in my mind turns out to be as awesome as I am hoping!! Thankfully I'll know soon enough! My new controllers get delivered today!!

Is it to early to start testing lights?? :huh:

I know this might not be the exact mini trees you are looking for, but maybe an idea for future expansions! :) 

 

 

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5 minutes ago, DisneyMatt10 said:

I think I might be taking a different approach to mini trees than most. After a lot of thought and planning, I decided to go with spiral mini trees, to mimic my spiral mega tree, (Maybe... we shall see...) However, what I thought was going to be an easy switch, has turned into an annoying headache. . . Like a lot of things do in this hobby... lol. So what I did:

1.) I went out and bought a lot of those old school plastic spiral Christmas trees: (Thought I had bought enough, but ended up going back and buying more.)

15697342_10158244530905643_7067122667812 

 

2.) I then took all of the traditional incandescent lights off of the tree: (bye bye lights)

16427610_10158456211455643_5408917213923

 

3.) And finally I zip-tied a strip of intelligent pixels to the remaining plastic structure:

16427465_10158456211430643_1794094004689

 

I still need to work on the star at the top of the tree. . . I'm trying to figure out how to open it to insert pixels into it. . . But it seems pretty sealed shut. Oh well, I'll find a way!!

I'm hoping that the trees turn out the way I want them to turn out. . . As you can see I bought a lot of them. I think it will be interesting to watch the lights spiral up and down the tree, and chase around the tree. . . I'm just hoping what I have in-visioned in my mind turns out to be as awesome as I am hoping!! Thankfully I'll know soon enough! My new controllers get delivered today!!

Is it to early to start testing lights?? :huh:

I know this might not be the exact mini trees you are looking for, but maybe an idea for future expansions! :) 

 

 

You may be able to bake the star in the oven, about 300 degrees. I used to bake headlights apart for members of my car club. Just placed them on a cookie sheet for 15-30 mins. Just depends on how they put them together. Never hurts to try.

If you do get them apart just use silicone to put them together and place back in the oven for a few minutes.

Maybe a dremel with a very thib cutting wheel since the star must be hollow it shouldn't be very thick plastic. I prefer baking but just depends on how they molded them.

JR

Edited by dibblejr
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2 minutes ago, dibblejr said:

You may be able to bake the star in the oven, about 300 degrees. I used to bake headlights apart for members of my car club. Just placed them on a cookie sheet for 15-30 mins. Just depends on how they put them together. Never hurts to try.

If you do get them apart just use silicone to put them together and place back in the oven for a few minutes.

Maybe a dremel with a very thib cutting wheel since the star must be hollow it shouldn't be very thick plastic. I prefer baking but just depends on how they molded them.

JR

Thanks for the tips!! I'll try the oven idea. Never hurts to try!

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6 minutes ago, DisneyMatt10 said:

Thanks for the tips!! I'll try the oven idea. Never hurts to try!

Can you see how they are put together. Is it glue, silicone or plastic welded. (cant remember what the process is called)

Don't get impatient and ramp the heat up, last thing you want to do is melt the wiring or even worse the entire start. I have seen people burn their headlight up and then calling me to see if I could fix it. Nothing I can do with a blob of plastic with a light bulb and wires stuck to it.

300 is normally a safe temp, you may smell plastic just keep an eye on it. Use a good pair of gloaves or towel to try and pull apart.

Edited by dibblejr
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4 minutes ago, dibblejr said:

Can you see how they are put together. Is it glue, silicone or plastic welded. (cant remember what the process is called)

I have no idea how they are put together. I can see what looks like 2 little screw holes on each point of the star, but there doesn't appear to be a screw in the holes. I'm not seeing any silver that would indicate a screw. It's all clear.

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2 minutes ago, DisneyMatt10 said:

I have no idea how they are put together. I can see what looks like 2 little screw holes on each point of the star, but there doesn't appear to be a screw in the holes. I'm not seeing any silver that would indicate a screw. It's all clear.

That sounds like how they make them to move them around on the assembly line. I doubt they are useful. How about a seem around the edge?

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8 minutes ago, dibblejr said:

If you can take a good pic of the edge where the 2 halves meet. If its plastic welded then the oven wont work.

i think the photos looked better on my phone screen than they do on the computer. But either way, here they are:

 

Not sure what that cut out square is for, but there is one on each side of every point.

16299300_10158456564775643_7193361963765

 

Here are the holes I was talking about:

16473367_10158456564960643_5951574099222

 

One of the edges is already coming on done. . . 

16473195_10158456564955643_7919453240472

 

A full edge shot:

16427479_10158456564945643_2538975349958

 

Hope this helps explain it a little better!

 

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The only down side to using strip is that you wont be able to see the lights on the back quarter or so of the tree..  Let us all know how things work...

 

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5 minutes ago, k6ccc said:

The only down side to using strip is that you wont be able to see the lights on the back quarter or so of the tree..  Let us all know how things work...

 

Yeah... I thought about that. I've also considered adding lights to the inside of the spiral as well, depending on how it turns out. Still waiting for my controller to get here, then I can find out for sure! I'll let you all know how it goes!

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