ShaggySS Posted November 15, 2011 Share Posted November 15, 2011 I bought lots of lights at 75% off last year and until recently I had no idea what to do with them so I decided to create mini trees. I picked up some tomato cages and chicken wire and went to town. I figured I could knock the 8 trees out in just a few hours. After a few hours I was still on my first tree. Either I am very anal wanting every light to be facing out or it’s just time consuming to wrap 200 feet of Christmas lights around a tree because its taking me about 2.5 hours per tree from tomato cage to finished product. So my mini trees plans went from 8 trees to 6. They are all LED and super bright.So for all the other newbies thinking of creating a mini tree my 3 foot mini tree took about 800 lights and 2.5 hours per tree. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noelb Posted November 15, 2011 Share Posted November 15, 2011 I have 12 using tomato cages. I built them last year, so my memory might be slightly fuzzy. But I seem to remember mine taking 90mins to 2 hours each too. The light facing directions, plus zip ties, etc.....Mine are 4 colors, 3 strands of each color. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caniac Posted November 15, 2011 Share Posted November 15, 2011 ShaggySS wrote: I bought lots of lights at 75% off last year and until recently I had no idea what to do with them so I decided to create mini trees. I picked up some tomato cages and chicken wire and went to town. I figured I could knock the 8 trees out in just a few hours. After a few hours I was still on my first tree. Either I am very anal wanting every light to be facing out or it’s just time consuming to wrap 200 feet of Christmas lights around a tree because its taking me about 2.5 hours per tree from tomato cage to finished product. So my mini trees plans went from 8 trees to 6. They are all LED and super bright.So for all the other newbies thinking of creating a mini tree my 3 foot mini tree took about 800 lights and 2.5 hours per tree.welcome to what was my hell this spring, took three times as long per each and I used half as many lights. No sooner than I would finish one I would look over and say "WTF, there are still more tomato cages!! are these things reproducing!!". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted November 15, 2011 Share Posted November 15, 2011 I used plastic chicken wire last year, that definitely added time, going with two cages per tree this year and skipping the chicken wire.Total cages for this year will be 22, an increase of 12 from last year, all RGB, depending on size of cage, anywhere from 100 lights/color to 300 lights/color.For whatever reason, as much as I like the look of them, I hate the task of making them...I feel your pain.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beeiilll Posted November 15, 2011 Share Posted November 15, 2011 Yes it does take a long time to do them.Mine take me almost 3 hours each to wrap the frames with garland and then 560 lights ( 4 strings of 140 lights each of G12 LEDs in red, green, blue, white) so I feel your pain believe me.One thing which made it easier for me was to make a turntable to work on them. I cut a 24" diameter circle of 1/2" plywood and fastened it to a standard turntable bearing that I got off eBay.Now I can sit on a bar stool and just rotate the tree as I put the thing together. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Rise Posted November 15, 2011 Share Posted November 15, 2011 I went through 6 versions before I got one that I liked. Took me about maybe 2 hours for the first one. but the rest went quick.480 lights per tree, 6 3ft trees.Next year I'm adding 2 7ft spiral trees and maybe a few more mini trees. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bdeditch Posted November 15, 2011 Share Posted November 15, 2011 I did the tomato cage one the first year, I finally built my own with 1/4 inch rod. Each one holds 600 lights and have not failed me yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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