best materials to use

[J Warren]

Have tried PVC 1 inch pipe to make my arches only for it to break when we have a cold snap/freeze. The distance between the legs is 10 feet and I'm using 20 foot sections of pipe. Metal doesn't seem to be the best material to use.

[basis21b]

I used 1" PVC Electrical conduit and had no trouble. I felt that the white PVC might not be very flexible in mid-Jaunary in Minnesota.

I will admit that I was only using 10' lengths between 8.5' anchors, but I was able to easily flex them with no trouble when the temperature was 20 degrees F.

Tom B (The other one)

[Dale W]

Find a water well driller that sells PVC screen. Even though it is schedule 40, it is more flexible than the piping you purchase at Home Depot or Southern Pipe.

Slotted Well Screen (not cheap) would be better because the piping is precut and can practically be tied into a knot without it cracking.

[Bruce Womack]

I use black roll pipe. It comes on a roll and u just cut to length that u want. I use 1"

It is used a lot in irregation or it is used for putting in yard sprinkler system. Try that it works great........and cold has no effect........

[J Warren]

Tried this type of tubbing only for it to flex in the wind.:? I am looking for a local well driller though to see if his offering would be better. I think that what has happened in the past was that the pipe would freeze and then the wind would start blowing. Even a brace/guys didn't help.

[hobbes]

Have you checked out the 1" electrical PVC that basis21b suggested? I am making an arch to go over my driveway and it worked good when tested it. I have not made the arch yet but I don't expect any problems. The total length is 22' with a 13' spacing between the ends. It is more flexible than regular white PVC. I bought 10' lengths of 1" electrical Sch 40 PVC at Lowe's for $2.67 each.

tom.

[basic]

hello guys im new at the archs 2 but i find it easy too use a 15 feet rebar [thin]

[John horton]

I have 10 Arch's that go over my street next to the house yes the street. 15 ft tall and I'm not sure how wide but wide enough to go across a two lane road. I use the elect. conduit grey pvc. 11/2" with 500 mini lights and 200 ft of pine garland. it gets very cold and windy here in Ky and I have had no problems I started out using the white and had the same problem with it breaking or blowing over in the wind. Trust me I had some pissed off neighbors when they broke and blocked off the road. LOL oh well they got over it. but anyway here is another tip for you use the next size down of the metal conduit in the ground. for ex. I use 11/4" metal about 5 ft long on either side of the road drove 1/2 way into the ground and the slip the pvc right over it. It's a snug fit but works like a charm. The only thing is after a couple of really windy days you may have to move the ends over a few inches because the moving around from the wind will ream out the whole wear the pipe is in the ground. Good luck I hope that this will help.

[Brian Mahnke]

Wow,

Thats one way to link your neighbors display with yours. Would reallt love to see some pix of that!

[Brian Mahnke]

Jeff

Did you have any issues with the city. I would like to do it here, but I think that if I asked someone at City Hall, their response would be"NO!"

Brian

[John horton]

No i didn't have any problames with the city. I did call ask before i did. The only thing was I had to make sure that the garbage and fire trucks could pass under them. I also had to have my neighbors permission.

[John horton]

Jeff

No They didn't. When I spoke to my city administrator he told me that there was nothing they could do to stop me as long as I had permission from my neighbor, who's property it would also be on. However they strongly recommended that I make sure that the garbage and fire truck could pass under. Given that I live on a dead end street and there is only 1 other house at this end I wasn't to concerned with the fire truck, figuring that if my or my neighbors house were on fire I wouldn't care if my aches got hit and or destroyed. I did talk to the garbage man and found out that there largest truck was 14 ft tall however most were around 12 feet. Knowing that I measured my arch about 8 - 12 feet from the curb and the truck could pass. Needless to say that meant as long as the truck went down the center of the road I was good to go. So I put one up without lights or anything else on it and made sure the truck would clear. Sure enough it did. There has sense been another street about 15 miles from here in another city that does this down the entire street. every house on this street decorates like you wouldn't believe and every house paid for at least one arch. It is the coolest thing to see! I have become pretty good friends with some of the people on that street, and I'm trying to talk them into getting a (lor) controller. They love my display and I can just imagine seeing all there arches chasing to music down the road and around the circle. I have people drive down and then back up under mine every night so i can just imagine how cool it would be to drive under there's. I hope this has helped. wish I had some better pics because I would send them to you but they just never turn out. I think I might have an older pic in the daylight if you want me to e-mail it to you. back when i was using the white pvc.



JOHN



Attached files

[John horton]

I just realized i could put the pics on here LOL.

Attached files

[Brian Mahnke]

John,

Pictures speak a thousand words. Thanks for giving us a peek. TOO COOL!

Brian

[John horton]

Anytime! hope that it helped. Keep in mind that was with the white pvc and the grey works much better. if you look closely in that last pic you can tell the 3rd arch was broke on the right side. I think that was my 1st year doing the arch's because I have sense added 4 more and I also had sting on those to hold them up strait and I no longer need to do that with the grey and the metal in the ground. If you are able to get yours done I would love to see pics. I always seem to have a problem with mine moving around to much to get a good pic. Even moor so now that they are hooked to my controller.

Attached files

[Dale W]

If you are worried about PVC breaking due to cold and brittleness, you can get heater tape and install it on the piping. Simply plug it in and it keeps the PVC nice and warm.

Unfortunately, for the quantities you guys up north would need, the price of the heater tape would run your display costs through the roof (it starts about $1 a foot).

[JeffF]

Sooo... it seems like 1" electrical schedule 40 PVC(the gray stuff) is the way to go for arches.

I'm going to be building 4(or 8 if I feel like mirroring the first four in our side yard) this spring and may actually buy the conduit now. Seems like everything electrical is going up, up, UP so I may as well. Only wish I had the forsight to buy a couple rolls of 12/2 last year when it was ~$15-$20 cheaper.

I know I've said it before, but again... thank you to everyone here at the LOR forums. The information that gets passed around is very much appreciated. :cool:

[JeffF]

Too funny... I was also at Lowes today but couldn't pull the trigger. I was comparing the 1" and the 3/4" and I'm thinking the 3/4" will serve my purpose better. I'm only going to be using 10' lengths for my arches so I need a tighter bend... which the 1" seemed to fight(you should have seen the looks I was getting from the "associates" when they saw me bending the hell out of their conduits).

I think I'll get a few 3/4" ones tomorrow and then wrap this weekend. It'll be fun and I'm getting a little tired of running all the wiring for my outlets so it will be a nice break.

[JeffF]

My 7 year old son and I have been at our first arch for the past 2 days. We are using a cordless drill attached to 3/4" electrical PVC via a 5/8" drill bit and a pin(the drill bit has a hole through it for pulling wire so the pin fits perfect). We also put a 1/2" EMT conduit inside the PVC to help with flexing.

We first taped 9 SPT1 cords to the PVC with 12" spacing while leaving 6" on each end. Then we wrapped 8 100ct multi-color minis all the way across, except for the 6" on the ends. These multi-color minis will either be all on, or all off.

Next we wrapped six of the nine 100ct clear minis for the sequencing. I'm going with a silver(clear), gold, red, and then multi-color theme for 2008. I didn't intend to have multi-color, but the wifey and kids really like multi-color so I just had to. Only difference with the multi-color will be that it's an all on or off thing. I'm not going to sequence it(it will be included, but nothing real fancy).

At any rate, my son thinks it's sooo cool we are making this awesome thing. The look on his face was incredible when we lit up the multi-colors. He also had this priceless shock/giggle thing going on when we added up our costs for the arch and it came in at around $6.00. He can't beleive how cheap it is when you do these things yourself. Too funny to me... he's still very innocent so his facial expressions and giggling was 100% genuine. It's pretty darn cool doing this stuff with your family. :cool:

After dinner we may try to finish the last three clear stands... but he gets a little tired doing more than 3 or 4 strands a day. I'm going to rig up my variable speed drill so I can do the multi-color minis by myself via a foot switch and then he can help out with the clears. I checked with him and he's AOK with it.

Thanks again for all the great advice!

BTW, my 5 year old daughter was sitting there watching us last night when she decided to start taking pictures... she's quite the photographer already. I love Christmas... even in April.:shock:

[hobbes]

Jeffrey,

That is a great story.

tom.