Making a lighted sign

[Klayfish]

Last year, I took a stab at making a lighted sign. It was my first try at making anything for my display...everything else was bought at Wal-Mart, etc... It was a pretty simple design. I'm attaching a picture of it. As you can see, it was just a 4'x8' sheet of plywood. I painted it, then drilled small holes in the letters, so that I could stick the bulbs of a few light strings through. It was attached to a 10' long 2x6, which we painted and wrapped in ribbon. Well, OK, I had to actually cut the 10' section in half. The reason for this was to make it easier for me to drive the wood into the ground. I beveled the edges to make them come to a point. I dug a narrow ditch, then used a 45lb weight plate to help me drive it into the ground. Then I joined the two sections together with heavy brackets. As you can see, I still had to put eye hooks in it and run some heavy duty line into tent stakes in the ground (a homemade guy wire... ) to keep it from falling over. As I said, it was my first ever attempt, so don't laugh too hard. But I think it looked cool in my display

Clearly my way isn't the best way. I want to make another sign this year. It's going to be similar in concept to the North Pole sign, but will say "Santa's Workshop". How would you set it up so it's easy to put into the ground and is stable? Mount the sign to a PVC pipe, then drive a sleeve into the ground? Please keep in mind I'm trying to keep it as simple as possible, as I don't have the time or skills to do anything fancy.

[Cray Augsburg]

Ummm, OK . . .

Get yourself a T-bar type fence post (maybe a 6 footer) and a driver for same. These should be available at any home center that carries fencing. Drive the post a couple of feet in the ground. (You might be tempted to use a sledge to drive the posts, but you'll find that is a lot of work and usually includes smashed fingers and hands. The driver for these posts is a closed-end steel tube with handles. Slide it over the post, grab the handles and pound it down. The nice thing is that it's easy to drive them plumb this way. The drivers cost around $30.) The driven post acts as your "sleeve" or base or whatever. Then you can bolt your upright to that. If the display item is light enough, you could even use 3 or 4 strong zip ties. The upright could be wood, PVC, fence top rail, whatever. It's little work for a fairly stable system.

In my display, I use 4-foot artificial trees for mini trees, and several taller artificials for other trees. I use the T-bar and U-channel fence posts and zip ties to hold them up. Works well. And the posts come back out of the ground with a little back-and-forth wiggling and some tugging.

For the driver:

http://www.homedepot...132&R=202024132

For a 6' U-channel post:

http://www.homedepot...128&R=202024128

Edited September 19, 2012 by Cray Augsburg

[Klayfish]

Cray,

Thanks for the idea. Like I said, last year was my first try at it, and it was done very ad hoc.

Can you tell me a little more about how you set up your 4 foot artificial trees with the t-bar and u-channel? I'm using 8 channels to have a row of 8 mini-trees, ranging from 5' to 6'. I was trying to figure out the best way to make them stable. So I'd love to hear more about how you do it. Do you have any pictures?

[tjflory]

Last year, I took a stab at making a lighted sign. It was my first try at making anything for my display...everything else was bought at Wal-Mart, etc... It was a pretty simple design. I'm attaching a picture of it. As you can see, it was just a 4'x8' sheet of plywood. I painted it, then drilled small holes in the letters, so that I could stick the bulbs of a few light strings through. It was attached to a 10' long 2x6, which we painted and wrapped in ribbon. Well, OK, I had to actually cut the 10' section in half. The reason for this was to make it easier for me to drive the wood into the ground. I beveled the edges to make them come to a point. I dug a narrow ditch, then used a 45lb weight plate to help me drive it into the ground. Then I joined the two sections together with heavy brackets. As you can see, I still had to put eye hooks in it and run some heavy duty line into tent stakes in the ground (a homemade guy wire... ) to keep it from falling over. As I said, it was my first ever attempt, so don't laugh too hard. But I think it looked cool in my display

Clearly my way isn't the best way. I want to make another sign this year. It's going to be similar in concept to the North Pole sign, but will say "Santa's Workshop". How would you set it up so it's easy to put into the ground and is stable? Mount the sign to a PVC pipe, then drive a sleeve into the ground? Please keep in mind I'm trying to keep it as simple as possible, as I don't have the time or skills to do anything fancy.

If this is something you're sure you are going to use every year you could put a tube in the ground like you

would for a clothesline. Put it in concrete, but pour short so you can have a few inches of dirt over the concrete

for grass to grow. You would never know its there off-season. Then when the time comes, just slide the smaller

tube, which is attached to your post, into the hole and walla... you're done!

tj

[Cray Augsburg]

Cray,

Thanks for the idea. Like I said, last year was my first try at it, and it was done very ad hoc.

Can you tell me a little more about how you set up your 4 foot artificial trees with the t-bar and u-channel? I'm using 8 channels to have a row of 8 mini-trees, ranging from 5' to 6'. I was trying to figure out the best way to make them stable. So I'd love to hear more about how you do it. Do you have any pictures?

Sorry, but I don't have any pictures of the fence posts in action. And taking some now isn't easy because I haven't yet opened the storage unit to dig through for this year. There's really not that much explaining . . .

For the 4' trees, I drive a 4' U-channel fence post about 18" into the ground. Then place the trunk of the assembled unlit tree against the U-channel (the 2 and a half feet still above ground) and strap them together (very tightly) in 3 places (low, middle, high) using zip ties.Then I put the lights on the trees. Same thing for the 6' and 7' trees, except that I use a 6' T-bar fence post driven 18' to 24" into the ground.

I was merely extending the concept to your need: drive a fence post, drill some holes in it and bolt your upright to it. Other options include using a sleeve in the ground, as suggested by tj above. This won't work at my house for the simple reason that my CFO so far absolutely refuses to allow me to do this. You simply need to decide what approach (or modification thereof) might work for you, your situation and your skill level.

Most of what you find on the Forum is based on other users' specific experiences. We try something, and if it works, then GREAT! If it doesn't, we try something else -- just as you are now. The first year, I used 1/4" rebar for the mini trees, which worked great until the winter winds came. Turns out rebar doesn't have much "shear" strength when not packed tightly in something dense -- like concrete. I found myself daily going out and restraightening the trees. The fence posts have worked well for me since.

Hope this helps, and keep at it.

Edited September 20, 2012 by Cray Augsburg