Wednesday, November 16, 2005

GT and Star Update

Okay,

So I haven't been blogging lately....Bad Daniel! Bad Daniel! "Sit Ubu, sit! Good dog!" (Let's see if anybody can guess where that archaic TV reference came from)

Anyway, I have been super busy getting the 6-foot star ready to be mounted to the top of the Gi-Normous Tree. I spent yesterday running wrapping my lights around the PVC frame that I constructed.

The star is made out two 10-foot sections of 1-inch PVC. I shaped the PVC using a torch to melt the star into shape. Then I constructed a PVC cross-brace and for support and duct-tapped the corners just in case. I spray painted the whole think silver and it looks pretty good. I then wrapped the star with two 18-foot sections of multi-color rope light.

As for attaching it to the top of my GT, I consulted my boss (Doctorate in Engineering and Masters in Physics) and several scientists (and yes they are actual scientists) to see if the GT could support the 6-foot star at the top. After a little bit of discussion, they alleviated my fears that this thing would come crashing down and said that I shouldn't have any issues. We'll see.

So, how am I going to attach the star?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh wow! I love the big tree. I would love to build a mega tree next year. I can't wait to see what yours looks like when it is done. I think I would prefer to build a real working train in my yard like bryce(http://www.kindlachristmas.com/Videos.asp)

Thank you for the comment on my snowmen. I see you bought some of Animated Lighting stuff. Do you have any of their controlers yet? I have three 16 channel ones. One of them will be used for the snowmen. I think they should be done this weekend. Hopfully. Oh, I had to turn off the comments on planetchristmas blog because I get spammed alot there.

If CC doesn't let you build that ship, you can do it at my house. LOL. We could have a couple of stamps to control the canons firing. We could make it look like someone is walking the plank. LOL.

Daniel Lopez said...

Hey thanks SP/DT:

The tree looks pretty cool at night and I plan on putting the star on the top this weekend. Should be cool and hopefully it won't all come crashing down! I will post more pictures when over the weekend...

I think the train idea would be cool. I saw that guys site and it seems like it would be pretty easy to build. Also, keep you plans for the snowman handy, I may need them for next year. I talked to my neighbor and he said that it would be cool to set up the snowman snowball fight to span between our yards...How cool would that be!

I bought a case of LEDs from Animated Lighting. Still working on my wife giving me the go-ahead to order one of the controllers - maybe next year...

It would be cool to build a autofiring canon and pirate ship. The only thing holding back the design is that we need to be able to store it and CC is running out of storage space...

Cheers!

-daniel

Anonymous said...

No problem Daniel. I will keep the plans handy. I am still trying to decide if I want to have the snowball knock his hat over too. But, then I will have to change things to much. But, if you need it, I can even help with the programming. Just remember that if you can keep the sequence down to 16 steps, than you don't need to buy the Monster brain from them. You would just need the software and the controler and then you are set.

These two pictures are from somone who made his snowmen already. My wife wanted it to look more like a snowman. This guys snowmen only have two balls. Ahhh, that sounded bad. LOL. Here are the links.

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y260/lovermonkey/Christmas/IMG_1145.jpg

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y260/lovermonkey/Christmas/IMG_1142.jpg

Anonymous said...

The links didn't come out. Here they are again.

(http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y260/lovermonkey/Christmas/IMG_1145.jpg)

(http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y260/lovermonkey/Christmas/IMG_1142.jpg)

Daniel Lopez said...

Cool, I would love the plans. I think I may also start building some light frames. What did you use to create your snowmen? It looks like fence staked into the ground. Also, do you cut and splice your rope light to fit the design?

-daniel