New Leaping Light Arch Design

[mikeh65]

I don't know if this is that new or not, but I haven't seen my design before.

I wanted to add leaping light arches to my display this year. After looking at designs on this forum I was not sure it they would hold up in my area. My thought was, plastic, in possible sub-zero temps, under pressure; and accident waiting to happen. I also wanted to line my walkway with them, no room for guide wires. What else could I use?

My design uses 1" conduit and 3/4" black pipe. I purchased 10' lengths of 1" conduit. Took it to my local awning maker and had them roll it into arches for me. I came back with an arch that was approximately 8' wide and 3 1/2' tall. Following standard light wrapping, I was able to put seven segments of 100 lights on each arch.

Placing them in the ground was another design. I found that 3/4" black pipe fits almost exactly inside 1" conduit. So, going to the local Home Depot, I purchased 4' sections of pipe. Took them home and cut them in half on a sharp bias to create ends with a point. Unfortunately I found at final assembly that when you roll pipe it shrink slightly. This was fixed by a friend and a metal lath and milling a little off each end.

The spikes are driven in the ground approximately 18" leaving 6" above ground for the arches to sit on. They are rock solid, do not move, need no guide wires, and are very weather friendly.

Hope this design helps.

More pictures to follow soon with close-ups:

[Aurbo99]

Mike,

3/4" grey pvc electrical conduit works fine in northern climes.

Its been down as low as -18C (-0.4F) here and my 10 foot arches are doing fine. I go out each morning and tap them to remove the snow to prevent melting into the sockets.

I'm using 18 inches of 3/8" re-bar hammered in at an angle to hold them. no guide wires on mine at all.

[Sky-Lights]

your design , or usage of .. steel/metal pipe was not only discussed before , but , was tried/used . It was found to be of a slight hindrance , due to the wrapping/winding of the strands of lights now had to be done 100 per cent by hand twisting/wrapping verses doing it via something like a drill .

[dnesci]

They look great, but as I'm now fighting ground faults due to two days of rain, don't they increase GFI issuses being all metal attached to the ground? If there is any leak from a string, it is a direct line to earth.

[Sharkey]

They look great, but as I'm now fighting ground faults due to two days of rain, don't they increase GFI issuses being all metal attached to the ground? If there is any leak from a string, it is a direct line to earth.

My wireframe mini trees do that sometimes, the GFCI's trip on those a lot when it's wet.

[voyageurs60]

Wondering what the consensus is for lights on arches - mini-lights or LED?

voyageurs60 (Dan)

[Aurbo99]

-100 count mini-lights on sale range from 50 cents to 2 bucks a string.

-100 count LED's will cost on average 8 bucks on sale(rare) to 19 bucks.

an average 10 foot arch will use between 7 and 8 strings of either..

[Gary Martin]

Like others here I use grey PVC with great results going on three years now. I use 1" PVC mounted on 1/2" rebar spikes. Mine are 13' long, using eight 150 count incandescent minilights over a D-light.us FireFli RGB LED strand.

I don't *need* guy wires but I use them anyway cause these arches get really heavy when ice storms hit.

The PVC does nicely isolate everything from the ground. I leave about 8 to 10 inches on each end unwrapped, for snow clearance.