TheDucks Posted October 17, 2019 Share Posted October 17, 2019 WM makes money by NOT having much left over at the end of the season. To be honest, running out in October means they DID lose some sales. This is one of the issues with 'what to stock' being done remotely. No Local context. This happened last year. I went for more of what I got in Oct, only to find there were none (undamaged) left. ( I did grab a dozen candy-canes early last year 👍) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tlogan Posted October 17, 2019 Share Posted October 17, 2019 The thing is, these JUST went out in the last week or so, so I don't think they've already run out. I just think they never had them. Since it's on my way home, I may check in occasionally to see if they EVER get them. I don't know about where the rest of you are, but around here, I try to avoid WM like the plague. ESPECIALLY close to Christmas. Two years ago we had one of the Black Friday rushes in the door where people got hurt. One woman actually grabbed a TV of out one of my neighbor's hands. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MichRX7 Posted October 18, 2019 Author Share Posted October 18, 2019 I'm to busy triple checking everything on Black Friday to go anywhere, and that's a good thing. We used to do it when the kiddo's were young, but now glad we don't. Well, unless someone has a huge sale on lights, lol... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MichRX7 Posted October 18, 2019 Author Share Posted October 18, 2019 #!$%%$% my stupid Walmart still has nothing on the shelves! I'm going to a more populated Walmart tomorrow to see if it's the whole area or just my stupid Walmart. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tlogan Posted October 21, 2019 Share Posted October 21, 2019 So, is it just your stupid Walmart? I'd wager YES. Sorry, just responding now. I was busy ALL FREAKING DAY Friday working on new props, had an out of town overnight trip on Saturday and on Sunday finished up some of the, you know, new prop work that I didn't get done on Friday. I'm just sayin'. It's taking. like, 10 times longer to make these than I thought it would. I AM making 10 of them, so, yeah, never mind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DLH lites Posted October 21, 2019 Share Posted October 21, 2019 Went back to my Walmart yesterday , picked up 12 sets blue led nets , $12.96 a set is a steal !!!!! there were a few left, none of the red or green had sold. If they go on discount I will get some of those . But then if I do I will need more channels , what have I gotten myself into, golly . David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tlogan Posted October 21, 2019 Share Posted October 21, 2019 4 minutes ago, DLH lites said: Went back to my Walmart yesterday , picked up 12 sets blue led nets , $12.96 a set is a steal !!!!! there were a few left, none of the red or green had sold. If they go on discount I will get some of those . But then if I do I will need more channels , what have I gotten myself into, golly . David Tell them to ship some north! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MichRX7 Posted October 21, 2019 Author Share Posted October 21, 2019 59 minutes ago, tlogan said: So, is it just your stupid Walmart? I'd wager YES. Sorry, just responding now. I was busy ALL FREAKING DAY Friday working on new props, had an out of town overnight trip on Saturday and on Sunday finished up some of the, you know, new prop work that I didn't get done on Friday. I'm just sayin'. It's taking. like, 10 times longer to make these than I thought it would. I AM making 10 of them, so, yeah, never mind. Get to work! 🤣 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MichRX7 Posted October 21, 2019 Author Share Posted October 21, 2019 (edited) 59 minutes ago, tlogan said: Tell them to ship some north! Or at least to my Walmart. Finally broke down and drove up to Flint. The Walmart up there had an amazing amount of lights. The whole lawn/garden room was full of lights, ornaments, props, trees, etc... The cashier just started laughing when I pulled my cart up and she commented that someone's electric bill was going to through the roof. I said, naw they are all LED's. Now to get them into the props... Edited October 21, 2019 by MichRX7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tlogan Posted October 21, 2019 Share Posted October 21, 2019 1 hour ago, MichRX7 said: 1 hour ago, MichRX7 said: Or at least to my Walmart. Finally broke down and drove up to Flint. The Walmart up there had an amazing amount of lights. The whole lawn/garden room was full of lights, ornaments, props, trees, etc... The cashier just started laughing when I pulled my cart up and she commented that someone's electric bill was going to through the roof. I said, naw they are all LED's. Now to get them into the props... Nice! Tell them to ship some east. I'm running out of Walmarts around here! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MichRX7 Posted October 21, 2019 Author Share Posted October 21, 2019 3 hours ago, tlogan said: Nice! Tell them to ship some east. I'm running out of Walmarts around here! Oh hell no, you can have all the incan's. The LED's are mine ALL MINE! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MichRX7 Posted October 23, 2019 Author Share Posted October 23, 2019 I had Candy Canes (and string lights) for my lunch break... how about you? 🤣 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DLH lites Posted October 23, 2019 Share Posted October 23, 2019 which lites did you use, I relit 12 canes last year but had to use incans couldn't fine led's to fit. They looked great but rather they be led. David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tlogan Posted October 23, 2019 Share Posted October 23, 2019 37 minutes ago, DLH lites said: which lites did you use, I relit 12 canes last year but had to use incans couldn't fine led's to fit. They looked great but rather they be led. David I got my LED strings at Christmas-LEDs.com. They have several sizes and lengths. I got the 20 light strings (at 2.5 inch spacing) but should have gotten shorter strings. The last 3 o4 stick out he bottom, but it's nothing a couple of blackout caps doesn't fix. I have the candy canes that Walmart is currently selling, so whatever size they are (I think MichRX7's might be, ummm, bigger. Not that I would know. I'm just sayin') I know there are also bigger ones out there. The 20 light string would probably be perfect for the bigger ones. My canes have red wide stripes with thinner white and wide white with thinner red, so they appear to be red and white. The mostly red had red incans and the white had white incans. I ordered all warm white LEDS thinking I could add caps to make the red. Turns out, the plain white lights look great in both the red and the white ones, no caps needed. They still appear to be red and white. This was good news to me since I can't find the white canes any more (mine are pretty beat up after at least 10 years of use!) and if I need to go to the green that Walmart is now selling I can reuse the white lights and they should look green. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MichRX7 Posted October 23, 2019 Author Share Posted October 23, 2019 My Candy Canes were bought through Party City's website ($2/each). They are 32" tall and 42" from the bottom to the end of the cane curve. I bought Walmart's 50 light strings and have been counting out 25 lights and cutting at the halfway mark between light 25 and 26. You will notice that between lights 25 and 26 these go from 3 wire back to two wire. Coming out of light 26 it goes back to 3-wire. Each 25 string fills one Party City candy cane (with a little cramming). Here is what I am doing to "string" them: 1. Cut the light string in half like described above. 2. Clean any rough edges on the ends of the candy cane. 3. Drop a string down one end of the candy cane (I have something like kite string) 3a. If I'm going to string the male plug end I drop the string into the short end of the candy cane 3b. If the female plug end I drop the string down the long straight end of the candy cane (reason later) 4. Feed the string through the candy cane (you may need some suction to assist, lol) 5. Tie the string to the last light on the "cut end" not the plug end and feed the lights through with gentle persuasion by pulling the string when necessary to clear jams. 5a. I tie the string between to two wires going into the last light 5b. I also have a long skinny dowel if the jam needs some additional persuasion to move along 6. Find old incan light strings that I no longer use and cut the ends off those leaving plenty of extra to strip the wires. Mine have the same fuse as the LED's if this matters. 7. Strip light strings and attach appropriate end, heat shrink over them and jam inside candy cane. 7a. On male end I leave hanging because this is where I'll plug my extension cord. 7b. On female end I stuff the end into the end of the candy cane (fits quite snug on mine). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheDucks Posted October 23, 2019 Share Posted October 23, 2019 2 hours ago, DLH lites said: which lites did you use, I relit 12 canes last year but had to use incans couldn't fine led's to fit. They looked great but rather they be led. David I just used 12V White LED strips 30/M. I drive them with a CMB24 output (degrouped RGB port) A 5M strip did 6 typical (Walmart and others) canes You can easily power ~8 canes from a singl CMB24 output. BTW I just push the strips into the cane, LED facing UP over the hook. Plenty of light to the sides. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MichRX7 Posted October 23, 2019 Author Share Posted October 23, 2019 Now that I've just finished my 24th candy cane stringing I'll add a few things I've noted. (Yep, 24 means two clocks. One on each side of the house).. 1. The more you can keep the string from untwisting the easier it is to run through the candy cane. 2. The more you clean the ends, the easier the string (kite) and string lights will go through. I just run my fingers around to get rid of the rough spots. 3. The "encouragement" dowel is a must-have. 4. Stretching out the light string (but keeping it wound) helps push the string through. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MichRX7 Posted October 23, 2019 Author Share Posted October 23, 2019 2 minutes ago, TheDucks said: I just used 12V White LED strips 30/M. I drive them with a CMB24 output (degrouped RGB port) A 5M strip did 6 typical (Walmart and others) canes You can easily power ~8 canes from a singl CMB24 output. BTW I just push the strips into the cane, LED facing UP over the hook. Plenty of light to the sides. Yep, my candy canes are powered by a CTB16, so I need the plug ends. I did the same type of things with strips and vinyl tubing for creating my dumb rgb trees wrapped around tomato cages. I used a vacuum to suck the string through, then my wife stood at one end with the string end I had attached to the strips and I stood at the other (the straighter the vinyl tubing the better for pulling) and fed the strip in while she pulled on the string. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MichRX7 Posted October 23, 2019 Author Share Posted October 23, 2019 (edited) My next plan is to get two 4x8 sheets of 1/4" plywood and stain it the color of the house. I'll draw out the angles of the clock which should be each cane at 30 degrees (12*30=360, right?) I will then drill holes and zip-tie the canes in place. This will create an open circle in the middle where the ends touch each other. I am going to cut out that circle, number my cords 1-12 based on their "time" location and run them through the circle so I can run all my extension cords on the back side. I am leaning mounting it to the house (my house is a lot of wood if you look at the profile picture) with hooks at the top corners and posts on the bottom for easy setup/removal. My wife can use the hooks in the spring for her hanging flowers (and it keeps her happy, lol) Also, I'm putting a small hole in the bottom of the clock canes so if they do get water it'll drop out there. Edited October 23, 2019 by MichRX7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tlogan Posted October 23, 2019 Share Posted October 23, 2019 Now Why I didn't I think of cutting a string 50? But, that would leave a bunch more hanging out the bottom. I couldn't get the lights any further into the cane. I nipped the plugs off one of the old light strings and used it to pull the new one through. I'd pull out the old string, thread in the one I was using to pull and clip the last light of the old string to the wire near the first light of the new string. I'm using an AC controller for them, too, so I need the plugs. I nipped off the female and pulled it through. It did take a little push and pull, but I was able to do 10 of them in about an hour. Yes, stretching out the string a bit helped. I just don't understand why no one makes them with LEDs in the first place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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