Mini trees

[ericg2000]

i'm starting to wrap my mini trees tonight.  i saw another thread talking about these obelisks from walmart, so i grabbed a few.

 

i am using two 100 red strands and two 100 green strands on each tree.  i wrapped my red lights on one of the frames and then got thinking that it might be better to alternate the red and green, so the colors are more even wrapped.  am i right, or an i over thinking it?  how do you guys wrap your mini trees? 

 

here's a pic

[George Simmons]

I'd say to finish your first one the way you started it. If the lights look okay when you plug them in, then you're over-thinking it.

[lightzilla]

Or wrap the strings together & then add them to the tree. Now your adding both colours at the same time. If you weave them with the green lights between the red lights or vice versa then it should look good. Just a thought.

[oilmoney]

I used the tomato cages, 200 red, green,blue,and white each. Zip tied on the bottom and just looped over the top, The first string of each color I ran vertically and the second string I ran horizontally.

[mpha9c]

Looks good.. I need to go buy cages. What size tomato cage did you use?

[oilmoney]

I'm going to take a guess at a 40" cage???

[Alwey55]

Somewhere I saw a video on a guy making small Mini Trees from a tri-pod he got at HObby Lobby.

Anyone know where that is, or have a link???

Cant seem to find it!!!

[dbltrukr1]

I can't find the video either but it's a wreath stand. I tried using them last year and found them a little lacking. I'm having better luck with tomato cages for the frames

[Max-Paul]

Just a reminder. Many have had problems with their mini trees and GFIs tripping. As you wind on your lights, keep in mind that you might need to lift your mini trees off of the ground. I am not a real big fan of using anything wooden cause it will start to conduct when it is wet. And for the majority of us. We live somewhere where it is wet during the show season. For that reason I suggest using short pieces of .5" PVC pounded into the ground and the tomato cage wire tied to the PVC tubing.

[HiTechLights]

Great reminder! And very nice suggestion.

---Michael

[ehgilman]

THat is where my ground fault is coming from!!!!!!  Never thought of that.... AWESOME!!!!  

[indi]

Max is right on. First year my ground fault keep tripping after a snow. Last year I took my tomato cages and bent the end of the legs in a 90 degrees (about 3/4") and used a pvc cap with holes drilled into it. I inserted the legs into the cap and wrapped safety wire around the legs and cap. I drove a rebar into the ground and set the cage over the rebar so that the rebar was inside the cap. My yard slopes real bad, so this solved two problems. The are off the ground and they are straight. No shimming needed to straighten them up.