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So here's what I've added this year.

Dan C

By Dan C
in My Christmas Display

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Dan C Member

Dan C

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I figured it was time I sat down and uploaded a lot of pictures on what I've been working on since Jan. of this year.

I'll try and go in chronological order.

First off, here are some of the lights I bought at an after Christmas sale last year.

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Then I built eight, 2 color mini trees out of some tomato cages. Then I wrapped one white and one Blue set around each cage.

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Repeated 8 times!

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Next up was Three 9 channel light arches. I picked up 36, 100 white incan. lights from Walmart last year for about 38 Cents a set~

I setup a jig on my workbench.

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Then I used two toilet flanges and wrapped the lights into a coil. Then I just wire tied the end to 3/4" pvc and spun the flanges rather than spinning the whole arch. Made it much easier to wrap lights!

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Here are the three that I finished.

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Next up was a radio Station sign. I would like to give a very large Thank you to Donny Carter for letting me use his design. I added a few small changes to it and had it printed out on Backlit film.

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Then I welded a steel frame out of an old Queen size bed frame. I built a box and painted it for the back. I forgot to take a picture of the rope light I used inside. I used about 25' of 5/8" commercial grade rope light. Its about 7 watts/ft. So I roughly 175 watts of light behind it. Its pretty bright and even!

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I also welded a bracket out of the leftover bed frame to mount two controllers back to back for the side of my garage.

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Next up were RGB Floods, I hadn't originally planned on adding these this year, but since I was a Try For Free Winner, I figured the least I could do was put that money toward some more stuff. I bought 3 RGB floods initially, I've since bought 2 more. Mounted them in some outdoor enclosures with a galv. pole I can mount in the ground.

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I ran the wire inside the pole and drilled a hole with a grommet near where the ground will be.

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I had to build a small enclosure for the controller and Power supply, so I grabbed a small Rubber maid box and added a few weatherproof connectors.

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Thats about it for Christmas stuff. Since I was able to get all that done. I had a little money left over and figured I'd do something for Halloween as well. So I borrowed the layout of the singing pumpkin as everyone else seems to have done.

I built a frame out of 3/4" PVC. I made it 6' tall with an additional 1' section at the top for a stem. So overall its 7 ft. tall.

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I built it in a top/bot sections with 3 screw type couplers to take it part for storage, and to be able to get it through doors.

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Here are some shots with the orange rope light. I'll be using the rgb floods in addition to some strobe lights.

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So that pretty much brings me up to date. I still have a lot of sequencing to do. I'm going from 16 channels last year to 80 this year. I also have a lot of wire harness to make for the trees and arches.

Sorry for the long post, but I figured one was easier than a bunch of smaller ones.

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George Simmons Member

George Simmons

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Jeez Dan, those work areas are just a bit too clean, don't you think? I always get nervous about someone when I see a clean, empty workspace... the way I see it, if you've got the time to clean up after yourself and put things away when you're done with them, then you haven't been accomplishing anywhere near as much as you could have if you'd have been doing something useful with all that time you wasted. Quit slacking and get your butt in gear man, it's October already!

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wglyons Member

wglyons

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"Then I built eight, 2 color mini trees out of some tomato cages. Then I wrapped one white and one Blue set around each cage.

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is exactly what I was looking for!!!!

I just looked up "tomato" cages on HomeDepot.com. Do you just flip these upside down and cut off the bottom to make these work???

This will be a huge money saver for me!!!

Greg

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shfr26 Member

shfr26

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Don't know about Dan, but yes, that is the way I did mine. I did not cut the bottom off due to the way I will use them. I used 400 multi mini's on each tree.

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PaulXmas Member

PaulXmas

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Hey nice!



What are you using for the legs on your mini trees.

1/2 of mine get covered by snow, and I see you have some kind of "legs" on yours.

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shfr26 Member

shfr26

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PaulXmas wrote:

Hey nice!



What are you using for the legs on your mini trees.

1/2 of mine get covered by snow, and I see you have some kind of "legs" on yours.




Hey PAulXmas,

Not sure but it looks like he just cut the top ring off. I think.
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Dan C Member

Dan C

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Thanks you guys.

Lenny, I bought some for last years display and the seemed to dim ok. So I assume these will dim too. I haven't really done much sequencing for them yet, so we will see.

Paul, They aren't really legs. I bought large Tomato cages so I was able to cut off the top ring. that kinda gave me the "legs". I know what you mean about being buried in the snow. This year I'm make sure everything is at least 9" above ground. but I'm sure that probably won't be enough. I'd like to find a way to mount them to pvc poles, just not sure how yet. If you figure something out, Let me know.

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scubado Member

scubado

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Nice work Dan. I'm curious about the room that the pumpkin is in, is it a basement rec room? I like the arches on the wall. Is it part of your handy work as well?

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Dan C Member

Dan C

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scubado wrote:

Nice work Dan. I'm curious about the room that the pumpkin is in, is it a basement rec room? I like the arches on the wall. Is it part of your handy work as well?


You are correct. That room is my basement. When I moved in, it was nothing but bare concrete. I added a large storage room (where my workbench is), 1/2 bath, a home theater, Wetbar and that area where the pumking is, is for a pool/game table.

I did most of the work myself. the framing, Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing, and about 1/2 of the drywall and painting/millwork.

I had to hire the drywall on the ceiling out as I was not able to do that by myself.

All I need is carpet and its done.

You guys will really get a kick out of this. Its obvious we all love to control lights. Well, this started for me a few years ago when I installed a 6 channel Lutron Graphik Eye to control the lights in the basement. I have 6 "zones". The Home theater, Pool table area, Sconce lights in both of those areas, Cove lighting above the theater, and lastly small puk lights in the tops the arches. I can set scenes and control all the lights via my home theater remote. :)
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scubado Member

scubado

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Dan C wrote:

scubado wrote:
Nice work Dan. I'm curious about the room that the pumpkin is in, is it a basement rec room? I like the arches on the wall. Is it part of your handy work as well?


You are correct. That room is my basement. When I moved in, it was nothing but bare concrete. I added a large storage room (where my workbench is), 1/2 bath, a home theater, Wetbar and that area where the pumking is, is for a pool/game table.

I did most of the work myself. the framing, Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing, and about 1/2 of the drywall and painting/millwork.

I had to hire the drywall on the ceiling out as I was not able to do that by myself.

All I need is carpet and its done.

You guys will really get a kick out of this. Its obvious we all love to control lights. Well, this started for me a few years ago when I installed a 6 channel Lutron Graphik Eye to control the lights in the basement. I have 6 "zones". The Home theater, Pool table area, Sconce lights in both of those areas, Cove lighting above the theater, and lastly small puk lights in the tops the arches. I can set scenes and control all the lights via my home theater remote. :)


I'd love to see more pics of it when you're done. I have a theater room in basement as well, but the basement isn't big enough to build out the walls to do the fancy woodworking and drywall.
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PaulXmas Member

PaulXmas

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Dan C wrote:

Thanks you guys.

Lenny, I bought some for last years display and the seemed to dim ok. So I assume these will dim too. I haven't really done much sequencing for them yet, so we will see.

Paul, They aren't really legs. I bought large Tomato cages so I was able to cut off the top ring. that kinda gave me the "legs". I know what you mean about being buried in the snow. This year I'm make sure everything is at least 9" above ground. but I'm sure that probably won't be enough. I'd like to find a way to mount them to pvc poles, just not sure how yet. If you figure something out, Let me know.


Well I am going to use some pipe that they use for chain link fence.

Getting 5 foot peices punding 1 foot into the ground.

That should leave about 4 feet above ground and give the trees over a foot clearance.
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