Reccomendation

[RaceMedic]

As always ... thank-you for all the help for the newbie here.

I would like to know what people suggest to the following.

I have 2 peaks to my house .. a 14' peak and a 10' peak.

I am looking at building a track that will hold 2 strings of C9 sockets. This way I can just bolt them to the facing of the house, where there is no eves trough. Makes for easy installation, and take down, as well as storage.

Looking at the diagram attached .... I was wondering what would work out better. To have the sockets within the track, making the track thicker, or to have the socket outisde the track, keeping it thinner. I was thinking that having the sockets in the track will keep the bulbs from flopping forward.

Thank-you for your time.



Dave


Attached files

[jldavis1969]

I agree with your assesment of putting the socket inside the track. I see it as support for the light and no weight on the cords.

[George Simmons]

No advice for you Dave, but I'll be following along to see what kind of track you end up with. I need to come up with something similar for the front of my house to hold C9 strobes.

[RaceMedic]

I was thinking plastic down pipe from an eaves trough .. it comes in brown which is the same color as where it is going to be mounted.

I was thinking I could cut it in half, mount everything and them tack them together with some screws.

Thinking I may go to our local Home Depot and try a template.

I will post pictures when I do.

Dave

[George Simmons]

Thanks. Good luck!

[Greg]

I think I remember reading somewhere, that someone used siding "J" channel to accomplish this. With that in mind I am not sure how the lights fit into the track but it might be something to look into.

[RaceMedic]

Greg;

I looked at J channel and unless it comes in a bigger size than I can find locally it is too small for the C9 bulb.

The socket is 1 1/4" in depth.

I will double check into the J channel.

Thanks,

Dave

[Guest Don Gillespie]

If you contact any siding company or exterior renovation company you can order J-channel that comes in different sizes, I find the the lights clip on the J-channel easily you can also cut and bend the J to conform to your house IE: fascia boards and gable ends, what I do is clip the lights on the aluminum fascia that covers the wood fascia if you do not have aluminum this is where the viyl J will come in handy average cost in Canada is about $3.00 for a 12 foot length you get a box for around $150.00 about 40 peices per box or 480 feet of J - channel, also check Lowes or any hardware store easy to install either with screws or staples.

[Tim Herberger]

RaceMedic wrote:

As always ... thank-you for all the help for the newbie here.

I would like to know what people suggest to the following.

I have 2 peaks to my house .. a 14' peak and a 10' peak.

I am looking at building a track that will hold 2 strings of C9 sockets. This way I can just bolt them to the facing of the house, where there is no eves trough. Makes for easy installation, and take down, as well as storage.

Looking at the diagram attached .... I was wondering what would work out better. To have the sockets within the track, making the track thicker, or to have the socket outisde the track, keeping it thinner. I was thinking that having the sockets in the track will keep the bulbs from flopping forward.

Thank-you for your time.



Dave

I did something like that last year, it worked out much better than I originally planned...

There are 6 circuits of C9's, 3 of red and 3 of green,so I can do a chase effect in either color, bulbs are on 2" centers...

I also attached layered icicle lights and strobes to the bars.

In total, there are 600 C9's and 5000 icicle lights and 30 strobes on the front of my house... They went up in less than 4 hours and where down and stored in less than 2 hours.

Here are some pics...

[Rick Hughes]

Fixed mountings are great. I have several hundred feet with a couple thousand C7s attached. Took me 2.5 hours to get everything down this year.

My two suggestions:
First, keep in mind the weight and the awkwardness when installing or removing. A few of my first ones are 15' long and quite unwieldy to get into place. I'll be reconstructing them this summer into shorter distances.
Second, allow plenty of spare cord on the ends for connecting either to another section or to extension cords so you can move the bundle of plugs out of the way.

Rick

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[Garry]

Tim Herberger
That was some nice pictures, great ideas, and nice work!!

Garry

[PaulXmas]

Rick Hughes wrote:

Fixed mountings are great. I have several hundred feet with a couple thousand C7s attached. Took me 2.5 hours to get everything down this year.

My two suggestions:
First, keep in mind the weight and the awkwardness when installing or removing. A few of my first ones are 15' long and quite unwieldy to get into place. I'll be reconstructing them this summer into shorter distances.
Second, allow plenty of spare cord on the ends for connecting either to another section or to extension cords so you can move the bundle of plugs out of the way.

Rick

Did you make those yourself?
What are they made out of?
I have been trying to think of some way of "cleaning up" the look of my lights plus shorten the set up and tear down time.

[DrHudd]

PaulXmas wrote:

Did you make those yourself?
What are they made out of?
I have been trying to think of some way of "cleaning up" the look of my lights plus shorten the set up and tear down time.

From the pictures they look like some wood strips with the lights stapled close to the socket to keep the light upright, and a "few" zip ties tossed in to keep everything neat.

It also looks like he has the colored lights on their own strings or seperate channels (i.e. Yellow, Green, Blue, Red) and the clear look like they are on 4 different strings or seperate channels. You could create some cool chase sequences with this setup.

[PaulXmas]

DrHudd wrote:

PaulXmas wrote:

Did you make those yourself?
What are they made out of?
I have been trying to think of some way of "cleaning up" the look of my lights plus shorten the set up and tear down time.

From the pictures they look like some wood strips with the lights stapled close to the socket to keep the light upright, and a "few" zip ties tossed in to keep everything neat.

It also looks like he has the colored lights on their own strings or seperate channels (i.e. Yellow, Green, Blue, Red) and the clear look like they are on 4 different strings or seperate channels. You could create some cool chase sequences with this setup.

Ahhhhh your eyes are better than mine!
At first I thought they were little squares, now I see the zip ties and staples...

Very good idea!

[Surfing4Dough]

Not meaning to hijack this thread by any means, but figured the crowd here might be my best source for an answer on something similar. What have people used/built in order to accomplish the same thing but with mini-lights? I haven't taken down my roof lights yet (ice just melted about 3 weeks ago anyways) since I am waiting until I can think of a way to mount them on boards or something to make installation easier for next year. I have mini's lining the edges of the roof and going up onto roof peaks---each place lined with 3 stings of lights: red, green, and white. I presently have shingle clips (all-in-one type) holding each individual bulb upright (about 3000 total). Therefore installation was a pain--most time consuming project of my display. Only thing I have thought of is to staple the shingle clips to 8-12ft strips of wood (2-3 sections per set of strings). Then during install, somehow mount each board on the edge of the roof. During take-down, each string set (R, G, W) could fold in half or thirds for storage. Any other ideas/input? If not, what type of wood to use? Wood prep? How to secure the boards on the roof?

[Cray Augsburg]

Surfing4Dough wrote:

Any other ideas/input? If not, what type of wood to use? Wood prep? How to secure the boards on the roof?

Why not use PVC (we do seem to use a lot of it for various things)? Cable tie the lights to it in whatever "layout" you want. Create sections of whatever length -- shorter are easier to handle, and the sections can be temporarily joined with couplers. Then fashion some clips that slide under the shingles.

Might be worth a shot.

Cray

[Rick Hughes]

Just catching up a bit. I used 1x4s, the lights are on 3.5" centers and there are 8 channels (4 for the clear and 4 for the colors). Cord ends are color coded which makes connections from one to the next very quick. I do my house plus the ones on each side of me. Here's a view of this year.

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[Rick Hughes]

And here's the garage storage. Most of the time I use a 10" adjustable wall bracket and get two sections laying face down and two sections face up.

Attached files

[DrHudd]

You might check this site out Colonnade Light Clip Strips I have heard good reviews from others in the Lone Star Holiday forum who use them and they really like them.

Hope this helps,
DrHudd

[steve synek]

pikadroo wrote:

Surfing4Dough wrote:

Not meaning to hijack this thread by any means, but figured the crowd here might be my best source for an answer on something similar. What have people used/built in order to accomplish the same thing but with mini-lights? I haven't taken down my roof lights yet (ice just melted about 3 weeks ago anyways) since I am waiting until I can think of a way to mount them on boards or something to make installation easier for next year. I have mini's lining the edges of the roof and going up onto roof peaks---each place lined with 3 stings of lights: red, green, and white. I presently have shingle clips (all-in-one type) holding each individual bulb upright (about 3000 total). Therefore installation was a pain--most time consuming project of my display. Only thing I have thought of is to staple the shingle clips to 8-12ft strips of wood (2-3 sections per set of strings). Then during install, somehow mount each board on the edge of the roof. During take-down, each string set (R, G, W) could fold in half or thirds for storage. Any other ideas/input? If not, what type of wood to use? Wood prep? How to secure the boards on the roof?

OMG, I am thinking about that same thing! I have gutter all around the house so I am thinking, hook on gutter, and plug in. =)

Oh and the ice was brutal here too and many a day I could have taken them down if they would have all come down at once. I feel like the extra three months up there is more ware and tare then I would like.

Drew

At less than $1 per ten feet, pvc conduit has really cleaned up my look. I have four strings stuffed, and I mean stuffed into conduit. I cut a 1/4" slot with a router and it holds the lights nice and straight. It took a lot of work, but saves a lot of install time. (and the highjack continues). The picture is a few super strings sitting on my work bench. (red,green,blue,yellow) I use the same method for all my lights-mega tree, window frames.

Steve




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