Spiraling Megatree Pics

[Skunberg]

I like this question. I personally run them in one direction and if I had more I would still run them in one direction, as the closer together you get them the more fluid you can make them flow for a chase. Now the reason I like this question is 'yes" you can run each color a different way which would give a very different effect. I think I might have seen this once in a daylight picture but I'm not sure. I know I haven't seen a night shot of this. So once again it's your call ;-)

Brian

Just remembered this thread was out there and was just wondering....do the folks that do only spiral on their tree spiral both ways or spiral all strings one way. I am doing a 32 channel 2 color tree and was wondering if I needed to spiral all one way or one color one direction and one the other way. Thanks for the info folks

[cnbales]

Many great designs. I will be building a spiral mega tree this year and this gives me some great ideas. Thanks for sharing everyone.

[taybrynn]

Mine is 48 ch, 3 colors and it's all one way ... One angle. Getting that angle down is key .

[PD Shimmers]

My design is new for 2012. Just tested last weekend. Oddly I can't seem to upload the photos so I posted on facebook
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?s...6259938&type=1

design uses vertical legs that have top and bottom rings. The rings are pex pipe held together with wire rope cable that runs inside. Legs are 1/2" EMT grey pipe. I stiffen the legs with green plant stake rods that are fiberglass over metal (home depot).
The design allows me to work mostly at ground level and then hoist the top into place. This also takes much of the weigh load and transfers to the steel mega pipe (1.5" black pipe with cement foundation.) It was windy on test day and it faired well. I will add some horizontal braces to lower legs by using snap t's. It seems to work well, isn't hard to assemble in the "stage" and isn't very expensive.

[FIRECOP252]

Looks good PDShimmers...been tossing around several options including the pvc pipe version myself...just not sure yet.

[mitchh218]

I built a Spiral tree last year. It is 20' tall. Here is a link to the design.
http://www.hancockchristmas.com/projects.htm

I used blue mini lights. I would not recommend using the blue lights. They fade and discolor. LED would be the best. I used 2 100 strand lights per channel and went almost two times around to get the effect I wanted. I used 16 channels for the tree.

The tree collapses for easy storage. It is free standing so I can move it around to different areas of the display if I change the layout of the display. You will need to use long stakes to secure tree in the location you desire. (The wind will blow them over) My mega trees are the same design. The videos show the spiral tree in action.

[barbotte]

I built a Spiral tree last year. It is 20' tall. Here is a link to the design.
http://www.hancockchristmas.com/projects.htm

I used blue mini lights. I would not recommend using the blue lights. They fade and discolor. LED would be the best. I used 2 100 strand lights per channel and went almost two times around to get the effect I wanted. I used 16 channels for the tree.

The tree collapses for easy storage. It is free standing so I can move it around to different areas of the display if I change the layout of the display. You will need to use long stakes to secure tree in the location you desire. (The wind will blow them over) My mega trees are the same design. The videos show the spiral tree in action.

hey i like the way you did it with the inner circle a sputting light around i find out last year that it was putting too much pressure on my center post ...so i would like some detailt .... size of center pole ... but what i need the most is how did you figure out the sizw of the inner circle and the distance to put them
thanks

[mitchh218]

hey i like the way you did it with the inner circle a sputting light around i find out last year that it was putting too much pressure on my center post ...so i would like some detailt .... size of center pole ... but what i need the most is how did you figure out the sizw of the inner circle and the distance to put them
thanks

What I did for the inner rings was space them 2 feet apart from the top down to the bottom. The base ring is 7 ft in diameter. Here is a table of the rings:

Ft Radius Circumference
2 0.35 ft 2.2 ft
4 0.70 ft 4.43 ft
6 1.05 ft 6.65 ft
8 1.40 ft 8.86 ft
10 1.75 ft 11.08 ft
12 2.10 ft 13.29 ft
14 2.45 ft 15.51 ft
16 2.80 ft 17.73 ft
18 3.15 ft 19.94 ft
20 3.50 ft 22.0 ft

I used the black flexible tubing at your local hardware store. The 2 ft ring I had to use a vinyl tube to make the ring. I used zip ties to secure the ring to the lines coming down to the base ring. I used 4 strands of 1/16" braided wire from the topper to the base for stability. I used eye bolts to secure the down lines to the base ring that allow taking out the slack in the 16 lines. I will rework my tree this year to change the nylon lines to the braided wire. The Nylon wire allowed the winding of the lights to twist the tree. By changing the nylon lines to the braided wire will give more stability of the rings and eliminate the twisting. Even though there is twisting, you do not notice it when it is up and running. The center pipe is 1.25" heavy duty electrical conduit, not the thin wall. To join the two 10' sections I was able to put a 3/4" piece of same electrical conduit inside the larger one and screw together with 4 bolts so that the pole is rigid. This also allows for dis assembly for storage.

[barbotte]

What I did for the inner rings was space them 2 feet apart from the top down to the bottom. The base ring is 7 ft in diameter. Here is a table of the rings:

Ft Radius Circumference
2 0.35 ft 2.2 ft
4 0.70 ft 4.43 ft
6 1.05 ft 6.65 ft
8 1.40 ft 8.86 ft
10 1.75 ft 11.08 ft
12 2.10 ft 13.29 ft
14 2.45 ft 15.51 ft
16 2.80 ft 17.73 ft
18 3.15 ft 19.94 ft
20 3.50 ft 22.0 ft

I used the black flexible tubing at your local hardware store. The 2 ft ring I had to use a vinyl tube to make the ring. I used zip ties to secure the ring to the lines coming down to the base ring. I used 4 strands of 1/16" braided wire from the topper to the base for stability. I used eye bolts to secure the down lines to the base ring that allow taking out the slack in the 16 lines. I will rework my tree this year to change the nylon lines to the braided wire. The Nylon wire allowed the winding of the lights to twist the tree. By changing the nylon lines to the braided wire will give more stability of the rings and eliminate the twisting. Even though there is twisting, you do not notice it when it is up and running. The center pipe is 1.25" heavy duty electrical conduit, not the thin wall. To join the two 10' sections I was able to put a 3/4" piece of same electrical conduit inside the larger one and screw together with 4 bolts so that the pole is rigid. This also allows for dis assembly for storage.

i am lost .. do you mind helping in math ?? my base is 12 dt .. top is 24 ft tall .... i would like 3-5 ring between thanks

[mitchh218]

i am lost .. do you mind helping in math ?? my base is 12 dt .. top is 24 ft tall .... i would like 3-5 ring between thanks

Here is how I calculated the circumference of each ring. Circumference is 2*Pi*Radius. I stared at the bottom and worked my way up on the calculations. So, circumference of the bottom ring (20 foot pole and I wanted a diameter of 7 ft), the base is calculated as 2*3.14*3.5 = 21.98 ft. Since the next ring is going to be at 18 feet, I calculated this way: radius of next ring = Ring height/Pole Height*Radius of base. 18/20*3.5 = 3.15. The circumference would be 2*3.14*3.15 = 19.94 (rounding error of Pi). So, in your case you are looking for 3-5 rings. In either case, there is a middle ring half way up the pole. Radius of middle ring would be ring height/pole height*Radius of base = 12/24*6 = 3.0 ft. So the circumference would be 2*3.14*3 = 18.85 ft. Here are tables of the 3 and 5 ring circumferences:

3 ring (assuming these heights)
Height radius circumference
6 ft 1.5 ft 9.42 ft
12 ft 3 ft 18.85 ft
18 ft 4.5 ft 28.27 ft

5 ring (assuming these heights)
Height radius circumference
4 ft 1 ft 6.28 ft
8 ft 2 ft 12.57 ft
12 ft 3 ft 18.85 ft
16 ft 4 ft 25.13 ft
20 ft 5 ft 31.42 ft

hope this helps.

How many channels are you planning to use for the spiral tree and how many strands per channel?