Shopping list for making arches

[Klayfish]

I'm going to use a few arches in my display this year. This is my first time making one. Never worked much with PVC and other type materials...just started last year when I made a few signs.

Besides the lights, could someone give me a good shopping list of all the materials I'll need to pick up to build one? I'm going to go with the sleeve method. I think there's a "how to" on PC, but for some reason the website doesn't work well on my office computer.

[shfr26]

1/2 gray PVC for the "arch". 1 1/4 black irrigation pipe for the sleeves, 100 foot roll about $50.00. The length of the sleeves depend on the length of your light strings. Mine are 16 inch sleeves and the lights are about 20-22 feet. Rebar in the ground at 30 degrees or so and about 6 1/2 feet apart. Hope that helps. Forgot to mention, use an odd number of channels.

Edited May 10, 2013 by shfr26

[MCas4380]

1/2 gray PVC for the "arch". 1 1/4 black irrigation pipe for the sleeves, 100 foot roll about $50.00. The length of the sleeves depend on the length of your light strings. Mine are 16 inch sleeves and the lights are about 20-22 feet. Rebar in the ground at 30 degrees or so and about 6 1/2 feet apart. Hope that helps. Forgot to mention, use an odd number of channels.

 

1+

I would base the lengh of my sleeves on the channels you have dedicated to the Arch. if you losely wrap the arch segments to fit your design they will still look good. Additional ideas is to mirror arches to save on channels. I have 4 sets of Arches on 14 channels  I just designed the first set and mirrored the rest and by doing it that way look like a lot more.

 

see here

http://www.facebook.com/HolidayHouseSpringfieldIllinois

[MikeA]

I have 4 arches.  About 7' long and 3' tall.  They are only 4 channels each.  To the untrained, casual observer's eye they won't know the difference.  Sure saves on the channel count.  1 controller, 4 arches.

 

Just my 2¢

[Klayfish]

Awesome, thanks! I'm going to use 7 channels for my arches. I'm making two. They will flank a set of 4 "mini mega" trees. The mini mega's will be tomato cage trees with the lights installed mega tree style. They'll have 8 channels and will all share the same channels, so the 4 trees will dance in unison. There will be one arch on either side, with mirrored channels. I've been messing around with it on the visualizer, and it looks pretty cool. Plus, I get all that effect and only use 15 channels total. Gives me one open channel to find a use for.

Kind of leads me to a follow up question. If I'm using 7 channels per arch, how big can I make the arch without losing the lighting effects?

Edited May 10, 2013 by Klayfish

[shfr26]

Awesome, thanks! I'm going to use 7 channels for my arches. I'm making two. They will flank a set of 4 "mini mega" trees. The mini mega's will be tomato cage trees with the lights installed mega tree style. They'll have 8 channels and will all share the same channels, so the 4 trees will dance in unison. There will be one arch on either side, with mirrored channels. I've been messing around with it on the visualizer, and it looks pretty cool. Plus, I get all that effect and only use 15 channels total. Gives me one open channel to find a use for.

Kind of leads me to a follow up question. If I'm using 7 channels per arch, how big can I make the arch without losing the lighting effects?

 

Mine are 10 feet. Any more and then you have to couple PVC together.  My opinion is no longer than ten feet.  Make sure you figure out your amp draw per channel that you will have, that may dictate how long you can make them.

[Klayfish]

When you say 10', you mean you're using a total of 10' of the irrigation pipe, and the arch spans 6 1/2' feet from side to side, correct?

I'm working on an Excel spreadsheet to track my exact electrical draw...per channel, per outlet, etc... Hope I calculate right!!

[scottam67]

I found this article over at PlanetChristmas helpful

 

http://planetchristmas.com/leaping-arches/

[shfr26]

When you say 10', you mean you're using a total of 10' of the irrigation pipe, and the arch spans 6 1/2' feet from side to side, correct? I'm working on an Excel spreadsheet to track my exact electrical draw...per channel, per outlet, etc... Hope I calculate right!!

I use a ten foot piece of 1/2 inch PVC, my sleeves are about 16 inches, leaving me a few inches off the ground on each side. 100 count light string per sleeve, which draws about .04 amps per sleeve.   I have five arches, three in the back and two in the front offset halfway off the back ones.  I use 14 channels total for the 5 arches.  7 channels for a total of 21 sleeves  on three arches and 7 channels for a total of 14 sleeves on the other 2 arches.  So less than 2 amps per channel at the most. And I think I put them a 6 1/2 feet.  They stand about 2 1/2 to 3 foot at the highest.