dknahoolewa 20 Posted July 10, 2012 Share Posted July 10, 2012 Hey not bad I think I paid like $5 each for mine. It's "FLAMEPROOF" & "TARNISHPROOF"So if your trees happen to catch on fire "YOUR GOOD" Link to post Share on other sites
Arnoldc 7 Posted July 10, 2012 Author Share Posted July 10, 2012 Lol with my luck this year, I may need that! Link to post Share on other sites
Max-Paul 282 Posted July 10, 2012 Share Posted July 10, 2012 Something for all of you to think about. You all know that every years there are several people going crazy cause their GFI is tripping. Now many of these people have the tomato cage mini trees. Some have learned to drive into the ground 3 or 4 pieces of PVC pipe and mount the trees on the pipe up off of the ground. Reason is that the wires for the lights are in contact with the wire cage. No, not shorted, but the plastic of the wire is in contact with the wire of the cage. This causes what is known as capassive coupling. It makes the GFI think that there is a current leakage. Enough of this capassive coupling will trip the GFI.Now, this design of the mini tree using PVC pipe will null in void any such capassive coupling. Reducing the chance that your GFI will trip and drive you crazy. There is still the wires laying on the ground that can cause this. Esp if the ground is wet. But I think that this PVC frame for mini trees is a great idea. Link to post Share on other sites
MikeyRo 2 Posted July 10, 2012 Share Posted July 10, 2012 Something for all of you to think about. You all know that every years there are several people going crazy cause their GFI is tripping. Now many of these people have the tomato cage mini trees. Some have learned to drive into the ground 3 or 4 pieces of PVC pipe and mount the trees on the pipe up off of the ground. Reason is that the wires for the lights are in contact with the wire cage. No, not shorted, but the plastic of the wire is in contact with the wire of the cage. This causes what is known as capassive coupling. It makes the GFI think that there is a current leakage. Enough of this capassive coupling will trip the GFI.Well dang.... I have 6 tomato cages in my basement waiting for garland and lights. But I do like the PVC in the ground idea... Guess I need to do that or just scrap the cages... Thanks for the heads up. Link to post Share on other sites
Max-Paul 282 Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 Micky,does not happen to everyone. But it does happen. Just like keeping your ethernet wires, aka communicaton wires seperate from the power aka 120v wires both the feeders that supply power to the controller and the wires going out to the lights. Some people have noted in the past that lights will blink turn on or fade or shimmer all by themselves without it being programmed into the sequence. Later to discover that by moving the comm wires away from the power wires that the problem goes away. And if you have to run the wire either parallel about 6 or more inches seperate or at right angles to each other.All kinds of little tricks we as a group have discovered and try to pass on to the newbies.Back to the GFI issues. Some have actually had to raise their wires up on stubs of PVC driven into the groud to keep the wires a few inches off of the ground. Depends on how many wires/light strings on a single GFI. Keep some of this in the back of your head. If you start having problems, start applying these and other little tricks. As for your tomato cages, you might not have any problems. But keep the above tip in mind that you might need to raise them off of the ground so that the metal of the cage does not touch the ground. Link to post Share on other sites
Aaron Maue 31 Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 Micky,does not happen to everyone. But it does happen. Just like keeping your ethernet wires, aka communicaton wires seperate from the power aka 120v wires both the feeders that supply power to the controller and the wires going out to the lights. Some people have noted in the past that lights will blink turn on or fade or shimmer all by themselves without it being programmed into the sequence. Later to discover that by moving the comm wires away from the power wires that the problem goes away. And if you have to run the wire either parallel about 6 or more inches seperate or at right angles to each other.All kinds of little tricks we as a group have discovered and try to pass on to the newbies.Back to the GFI issues. Some have actually had to raise their wires up on stubs of PVC driven into the groud to keep the wires a few inches off of the ground. Depends on how many wires/light strings on a single GFI. Keep some of this in the back of your head. If you start having problems, start applying these and other little tricks. As for your tomato cages, you might not have any problems. But keep the above tip in mind that you might need to raise them off of the ground so that the metal of the cage does not touch the ground.Max-Paul provides some great tips. With it being so warm here last year, we had a number of rain storms and it was then that I saw this problem with my tomato cage trees. As long as it was dry, we were OK and didn't have any GFCI trips I'm taking a couple of additional steps this year to try and avoid them, even if they're wet. I'm keeping the tomato cages, but I'm gonna elevate them off the ground a bit. And I'm also going to NOT use a metal landscape stake to stake them to the ground. Duh. Oh well, I usually learn more from my mistakes than my "victories." Hopefully, you can learn from some of ours, make some of your own, and then let us learn from you. Just don't let your lessons be of the electrocution or fire variety. Link to post Share on other sites
Arnoldc 7 Posted July 11, 2012 Author Share Posted July 11, 2012 The whole gfci thing was the 2nd reason I made these pvc trees. Last year, the 6 trees that these are replacing kept on tripping the gfci. It took awhile to find the main issue, but when the wind blew and knocked over the trees I had to refind the issue and fix it. Now, I am using tomato cages as well. But going to try to wrap it with a plastic mat so to speak. These guys have a lot of good advise. I absorbed as much as I could last year, and learned a few myself. Thank you all! Link to post Share on other sites
Arnoldc 7 Posted September 11, 2012 Author Share Posted September 11, 2012 Well I'm finally back to these darn trees! I picked up about 800 feet of garland last weekend.. Lastnight, I pulled 2 of the 6 trees out of the attic. The plan is to paint the PVC black and start wrapping this week. I want ato know how many feet I actually need to do each tree. I will take pictures as progress is made. I spent today glueing the remaining loose pieces that I thought I could keep loose, but in Texas heat, plus attic, most of them came loose.. Tomorrow, I will clean the trees and start painting! Link to post Share on other sites
Arnoldc 7 Posted September 15, 2012 Author Share Posted September 15, 2012 (edited) A few days late, but I finally got to these trees. The tree is 5' tall, 2 1/2' wide, used 163' of garland. This is one of six. I must say, it doesn't look bad. Edited September 15, 2012 by Arnoldc Link to post Share on other sites
Arnoldc 7 Posted September 15, 2012 Author Share Posted September 15, 2012 By the way, I did paint the tree, however I left the base alone for now. Link to post Share on other sites
Arnoldc 7 Posted October 16, 2012 Author Share Posted October 16, 2012 (edited) Finally made progress lastnight. I have all the trees wrapped in garland. It took about 175 feet of garland per tree. Lastnight, I stripped the lights off the old trees, and started to put them on the new.. Edited October 16, 2012 by Arnoldc Link to post Share on other sites
dknahoolewa 20 Posted October 16, 2012 Share Posted October 16, 2012 Nice work. But it looks like it might be alittle sparce when you only turn on one color. Link to post Share on other sites
Arnoldc 7 Posted October 16, 2012 Author Share Posted October 16, 2012 After taking a fresh look at it, I will probably add another strand of each color. Right now there are 200 of each color.. I figure 300 of each should do the trick.. Easy enough to unwrap and redo.. Got 5 more of these to do... Fun times! Link to post Share on other sites
dknahoolewa 20 Posted October 16, 2012 Share Posted October 16, 2012 I use 350 per color and mine are only 3'. but mine are really bright. Link to post Share on other sites
Arnoldc 7 Posted October 17, 2012 Author Share Posted October 17, 2012 Question from someone that has never built props (I only use what is growing or built like a house). Is the only reason you wrap the trees with garland is to make them look good in daylight? I have to build 5 4' trees but was just going to do lights, lol not even sure how many lights I will use.There are several reasons that people use garland.. In the case, I wanted to hide controllers.. And the garland does a great job of that.. Plus, I don't like the look of a bunch of wires at night or daytime.. So the garland also hides that. Its all preferance. These trees are 5' tall x 2 1/2' wide at base.. I redid them and have 300 of red white and blue.. Honestly, the white seems to be lacking.. Course, Im using LEDs for everything but white... that's the difference.I also have tomato cages that sit about 4' in front of these.. Now those Im just using lights.. No garland on those..Here are 2 of the 6 trees that have been completed. I am a lot happier with these than the first one.Arnold Link to post Share on other sites
Arnoldc 7 Posted October 17, 2012 Author Share Posted October 17, 2012 These are the trees that I am replacing from last year.. I had many issues with these.. the final straw was the outdoor trees are not really outdoor.. I couldnt take the bloody things apart after the season.. Even with WD-40! These are the trees that I am replacing from last year.. I had many issues with these.. the final straw was the outdoor trees are not really outdoor.. I couldnt take the bloody things apart after the season.. Even with WD-40! Link to post Share on other sites
dknahoolewa 20 Posted October 17, 2012 Share Posted October 17, 2012 (edited) There are several reasons that people use garland.. In the case, I wanted to hide controllers.. And the garland does a great job of that.. Plus, I don't like the look of a bunch of wires at night or daytime.. So the garland also hides that. Its all preferance. These trees are 5' tall x 2 1/2' wide at base.. I redid them and have 300 of red white and blue.. Honestly, the white seems to be lacking.. Course, Im using LEDs for everything but white... that's the difference.I also have tomato cages that sit about 4' in front of these.. Now those Im just using lights.. No garland on those..Here are 2 of the 6 trees that have been completed. I am a lot happier with these than the first one.ArnoldThose look alot better."Question from someone that has never built props (I only use what is growing or built like a house). Is the only reason you wrap the trees with garland is to make them look good in daylight? I have to build 5 4' trees but was just going to do lights, lol not even sure how many lights I will use."Using garland is a perference. Just like I don't like the look of tomoato cages. they look funny to me toward the top and I also don't like seeing the cords.Arnold is right...it's mainly to hide things they you don't want to see. Edited October 17, 2012 by dknahoolewa Link to post Share on other sites
Arnoldc 7 Posted October 17, 2012 Author Share Posted October 17, 2012 Those look alot better."Question from someone that has never built props (I only use what is growing or built like a house). Is the only reason you wrap the trees with garland is to make them look good in daylight? I have to build 5 4' trees but was just going to do lights, lol not even sure how many lights I will use."Using garland is a perference. Just like I don't like the look of tomoato cages. they look funny to me toward the top and I also don't like seeing the cords.Arnold is right...it's mainly to hide things they you don't want to see.Thanks.. Trying to hurry up and get these knocked off the to do list.. I'm so far behind this year.. Partly due to the late arrival of lights, and a small Halloween project that I wasn't expecting to do. It gets bad when you blow off dates to work on Christmas stuff! As it stands, I am about 3 weeks behind..I will finish 2 more trees tonight, and the last 2 tomorrow. Next week, I need to focus on my redo of the wreath, I have a lot of pixels that go on it.. Since I start putting up the roof elements in 2 weeks, I need to get my rear in gear..Once the roof stuff is done, I start putting things on all the non-grassy areas. then the weekend before Thanksgiving, I put everything else out..the to do list as of today4 more trees16 tomato trees2 3-d starswreath4 controller standsand need more beer! Link to post Share on other sites
magish01 22 Posted October 17, 2012 Share Posted October 17, 2012 ArnoldcI sympathyze with your what you have left to do. My suggestions would be to alter your to do list a little as follows:Beer4 more treesBeer16 tomato trees (beer between every 2-4 trees)etc. Remember-----beer is like extension cords, you can never have enough! Link to post Share on other sites
dknahoolewa 20 Posted October 17, 2012 Share Posted October 17, 2012 ArnoldcI sympathyze with your what you have left to do. My suggestions would be to alter your to do list a little as follows:Beer4 more treesBeer16 tomato trees (beer between every 2-4 trees)etc. Remember-----beer is like extension cords, you can never have enough!That's true until you wake up the next day in the driveway with no shirt...... But then you realize your display is up Link to post Share on other sites
Arnoldc 7 Posted October 17, 2012 Author Share Posted October 17, 2012 That's true until you wake up the next day in the driveway with no shirt...... But then you realize your display is up I see!! List has been altered! Link to post Share on other sites
Arnoldc 7 Posted October 25, 2012 Author Share Posted October 25, 2012 A week late, but here they are.. Link to post Share on other sites
75redman 150 Posted October 25, 2012 Share Posted October 25, 2012 Looks Good! Link to post Share on other sites
jeff bush 4 Posted October 26, 2012 Share Posted October 26, 2012 (edited) ArnoldcI sympathyze with your what you have left to do. My suggestions would be to alter your to do list a little as follows:Beer4 more treesBeer16 tomato trees (beer between every 2-4 trees)etc. Remember-----beer is like extension cords, you can never have enough! Edited October 26, 2012 by jeff bush Link to post Share on other sites
dknahoolewa 20 Posted October 29, 2012 Share Posted October 29, 2012 Mega Tree is up. It's 28' total hieght. It was a pain to get up with only two people but it's up. A few little tweeks left.got the lights on last night so I'll have pics later. Link to post Share on other sites
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