Building Arches

[danmar2]

I want to make the Arches from Ply wood and staple the lights to the 8 sections. Does any one have a plan for this. It just seems the plans I have seem are flimsy using the 1 1/2 ' PVC and wrapping the lights.
Please help or advise me here..It's not that I don have enough time to put it together. Thanks

Mayor Dan

[Donny M. Carter]

I think you will find most of the arches built are using PVC. I have two this year and I'm building four more for 2011. I use 3/4 PVC In 10 ft lengths with 7 channels. They work great for me.

[George Simmons]

Hi Dan. Welcome. I'll be watching this thread out of curiosity because I've never personally heard of anyone making plywood arches. Maybe this is something you'll have to invent, in which case I can say I knew you when...

[danmar2]

What is the thickest PVC you would recommend. I have seen up to 1 1/2".
The plywood arches are made they are 8' x 4'high x 5"
I broke the arch at the center and added hinges for easy storage. I was wondering if anyone has plans or instructions for the PVC style. I just can't seem to find where

Mayor Dan

[George Simmons]

I'm not quite sure what you're referring to as "flimsy". I've made my arches out of 10' long 3/4" grey electrical PVC and I can assure you that they are nowhere near flimsy.

[Donny M. Carter]

I think you would have a hard time bending 1 1/2 pipe. I use 3/4 pipe. The lights are basically wrapped around the pipe in sections. If you go to youtube.com and type in arch you will find tons of videos to give you an idea of how its done. There are also several threads here that explain ways of making great looking arches.

[shfr26]

I made my five using the sleeve method this year. 1/2 gray PVC 10 feet long, 1and 1/2 black irragation pipe sleeves about 16 inches long, 7 sleeves per arch. fast to make, if one goes out, slide sleeve off slide a new one on. takes about 3 minutes to do.

[Surfing4Dough]

shfr26 wrote:

I made my five using the sleeve method this year. 1/2 gray PVC 10 feet long, 1and 1/2 black irragation pipe sleeves about 16 inches long, 7 sleeves per arch. fast to make, if one goes out, slide sleeve off slide a new one on. takes about 3 minutes to do.

Used the sleeve method myself this year. I definitely wouldn't consider them flimsy. Very easy to make, and going to be easy to store. I was very pleased with the results. They survived feet of snow, blizzards, and 50mph gusts, with the only attachment to the ground being the rebar the pvc slides onto (no guy wires or tie downs).

Here is where talks of this method started:

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

http://forums.planetchristmas.com/showthread.php/39647-Arch-Sleeves

[Rick Hughes]

Dan, I also was going to do arches from plywood - mostly because I could obsessively ensure that the curve was precise and that lights would be compulsively aligned. I had one design done, then expanded it and changed it and redesigned it and ... well ... so it went.

However, after hauling other plywood pieces I have out to the yard and dealing with storage and such, I've reconsidered and am doing the "sleeve" method. It really is easy and I wouldn't consider "flimsy" to apply in any sense.

Before you invest in plywood you may want to get a bit of the PVC (I used 1/2") and polyethylene (100 psi - 1") and try the sleeve approach. It really is the better choice.