Mike Cole Posted August 16, 2011 Share Posted August 16, 2011 Here's a link to a video I made showing how I built a Spiral Tree for my 2011 show.......thanks, Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ralph D Posted August 16, 2011 Share Posted August 16, 2011 wow that is so great, awesome job! I sent you a PM:) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Rise Posted August 16, 2011 Share Posted August 16, 2011 AWESOME! Can't wait til I have enough lights and time to do stuff like this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Surfing4Dough Posted August 16, 2011 Share Posted August 16, 2011 Great job Mike! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimswinder Posted August 16, 2011 Share Posted August 16, 2011 Nice!!!I like how your guy wires attach to the mast... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
travis p Posted August 16, 2011 Share Posted August 16, 2011 looking good Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeH Posted August 16, 2011 Share Posted August 16, 2011 Great job! Looks like a very sturdy tree.MikeH Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melvin Stoddard Posted August 16, 2011 Share Posted August 16, 2011 Good job. Spiral trees have such a cool look. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Denise Brunner Posted August 16, 2011 Share Posted August 16, 2011 Great job....looks way cool. Just finished building mine, 20 feet tall. Any chance you would share the test sequence you made?? I like some of the effects and tried to duplicate but just cant seem to get it right.Thanks,Denise Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimswinder Posted August 16, 2011 Share Posted August 16, 2011 Denise Brunner wrote: Any chance you would share the test sequence you made?? Yes!! Please post!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Showalter Posted August 16, 2011 Share Posted August 16, 2011 Very nice! It looks like you are ahead of the game. You're going to love the Weber tree in your display. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven Posted August 16, 2011 Share Posted August 16, 2011 I just spent this last weekend, Friday included, to build my new mega tree. After seeing your video, I know that Mike's looks better than mine!But I have a consolation: Mine will use less power, and be more colorful!I started with 3/4" EMT. This 10' piece is connected to a 2' piece that slides into a piece of 1" PVC that is pounded into the lawn. No concrete, no rocks, just our clay soil:To make the wobbly junction a little stronger, a 5/8" wood dowel is inserted:I add another 2 feet of conduit to the end of the 10' section. The bottom ring is 2 10' lengths of 3/4" PVC conduit, softened in the sun.Here's what will be on top, giving a total height of a little under 15 feet:From the top come 8 lengths of 1/16" wire rope. They attach to the bottom ring with home-made split bolts:The ring is held to the ground with 8 2-foot pieces of re-bar, bent into 'U' shapes:This is California. The ground never freezes.Now for the good stuff. I stretch 8 5-meter lengths of RGB LED ribbon in a spiral. In order to keep the light shining toward the visitors, the ribbon is twisted (relative to the tree) as it spirals down:Here's the detail of the bottom. Note the DIN plugs I decided to use for the 12-volt LED strips and the way the split bolts hold the wire rope.After the spirals, I copied some of the idea from the old tree by wrapping 7 sections of multi LED strings, horizontally:Here's the finished product:... more of the up-close detail:... and the remnants of the old tree that was used for 4 years:(That's my Christmas shed (12' x 4'!) in the background.)If you want to zoom any of these photos to see the detail, click on the pictures to view them with Picasa. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimswinder Posted August 16, 2011 Share Posted August 16, 2011 Steven wrote: If you want to zoom any of these photos to see the detail, click on the pictures to view them with Picasa.No video of it in action?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven Posted August 16, 2011 Share Posted August 16, 2011 jimswinder wrote: No video of it in action??It hasn't been fully lit yet. To control 8 RGB ribbons, I need 2 DC controllers, but I only have 1 since I'm waiting for the Summer sale. Furthermore, I wanted to know the length of cable required before I started cutting and wiring the DC cables, so I built the tree first when I only had 1 cable. This was enough to test all the ribbons, but not to light them up all at once.Also, SWMBO (my wife) gave me a bad enough time about having a Christmas tree on our front lawn in August for 2 nights, so I figured I better take it down before Monday, while it was still light outside.The result is that not even I know what it looks like in action. I'll have to wait until November. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bdeditch Posted August 16, 2011 Share Posted August 16, 2011 Awesome Job!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Cole Posted August 16, 2011 Author Share Posted August 16, 2011 Thanks guys, it was a fun project. I got some PMs asking how I put the lights on the 16 wires staked to the ground. It was frustrating at first. I had about 12 strings done and it looked just awful. I tried using the "Spiral Tree calculator", but some how my calcs weren't coming out correctly. So I took it all off and started over. I started buy putting one string on the way that looks good to me. This will be my pattern for the rest. One thing that really goofed me up was, as you start at the topper, don't spiral right off the topper. Let the string come straight down 6" to a foot and then start your spiral. It got so tight at the topper when I twisted up close to the top, I had strings on top of each other after about 7 strings. At 13' tall, the calculator told me my spacing would be 5" to 7", (I don't remember for sure) so I just eyeballed them as I put them on. I put about 6 strings up from my pattern string, then I started putting them below my pattern string. As the tree started to fill up, I could measure the space left to see if it was parallel and if I had enough room for the rest of the strings. You can adjust things quite a bit as you go. Oh, and I used 4" wire-ties to secure the strings, about every third wire. I used a 6' ladder inside the tree just leaning against the center pole. My wife handed the string up to me with my 16' painter pole. I hooked them on and she walked them around as I tied them off. I tried really hard to make it perfect, but its not going to happen. But the cool thing about these trees is, if things are off, they still look good. Hope this helps...............Mike here's the sequence..... Attached files spiral sample 16 channels.las Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Denise Brunner Posted August 16, 2011 Share Posted August 16, 2011 Mike you need to attach it to the post Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Denise Brunner Posted August 16, 2011 Share Posted August 16, 2011 Thanks !! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Surfing4Dough Posted August 16, 2011 Share Posted August 16, 2011 Thanks Mike! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Slade Posted August 16, 2011 Share Posted August 16, 2011 Absolutely beautiful Weber!! That really turned out excellent!! Thanks for sharing the test sequence, you had some great effects in there that I'd like to attempt as well!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts