Need some major help

[christmasfrenzy]

Im going to be setting up (2) 10 foot arches this year, last yeah just had a walkway arch filled with all 4 colors which was cool. but i want to do just arches this year. so this is what i have, im going to be dedicating one 16 channel controller to the (2) arches. can i still wrap the lights if i dont know how to solder and put different ends on, is it gona look stupid with extension cords hanging, because i have no electrical incline when it comes to this stuff. and im going to be using 100 count mini light sets, how do i go about wrapping them, and how would i go about if i wanted to use say 8 red, 4 white and 4 green. any insight would be great.

[RaceMedic]

christmasfrenzy wrote:

Im going to be setting up (2) 10 foot arches this year, last yeah just had a walkway arch filled with all 4 colors which was cool. but i want to do just arches this year. so this is what i have, im going to be dedicating one 16 channel controller to the (2) arches. can i still wrap the lights if i dont know how to solder and put different ends on, is it gona look stupid with extension cords hanging, because i have no electrical incline when it comes to this stuff. and im going to be using 100 count mini light sets, how do i go about wrapping them, and how would i go about if i wanted to use say 8 red, 4 white and 4 green. any insight would be great.

I assume you are looking at 8 channels per arch ....

I have done 2 arches ... 6 channels each ... ran out of channels.

You can search for other threads on here as far as doing the sleeves .. that is what I did and should be able to run the wires inside the sleeve.

Take a look here at a few pics ... http://www.pbase.com/dgeall/arches

As far as different color lights ... all depends on what you wanted to do as far as layout.

Hope that helps a bit !

Dave

[George Simmons]

I don't mean to be unhelpful, but it sounds like what you need most at this point isn't an answer or two - you need a tutorial. A lot of folks have posted tutorials on their websites and that's the place I'd direct you for the most information in the shortest time. Naturally, I can't think of any right this minute, but you can get a ton of leads from searching "Leaping arches" both here and on Planet Christmas. Good luck.

[Surfing4Dough]

Here is the arch sleeve thread: http://forums.planetchristmas.com/showthread.php/39647-Arch-Sleeves

http://forums.planetchristmas.com/showthread.php/36584-Easy-way-to-make-arches!!!

Also instead of the extension cords hanging down, you could zip tie them along the back side of the arch (either under or on top of the lights), so they are "hidden".

I am using the sleeve method, and plan to run home-made cords using spt1 wire under the sleeves.

Holdman has some arch tutorial videos on his site: http://www.holdman.com/christmas/projects.asp

Another here: http://www.lauderdalechristmas.com/how-to.htm

[Bob Wingert]

christmasfrenzy wrote:

can i still wrap the lights if i dont know how to solder and put different ends on, is it gona look stupid with extension cords hanging, because i have no electrical incline when it comes to this stuff.

Ditto on that sentiment. I am doing what you are thinking. I've set them up and they look fine. You cannot see the cords. Well thanks to some zip ties. I tied the obvious one's creatively to the arch and without dangling cords. Mess around with it, it should be fine. Daytime you can kinda see what I did, but who cares in the day. At night its all concealed.

[morganinaboat]

Slightly off topic, but RaceMedic, did you make your mini-trees out of tomato cages & chicken wire? Brilliant! I may have to keep that in mind for next year.