Hanging GE BOAW on Door

[oxytousc]

First time poster, long time lurker. Based in California.

I’m working on my layout for next year and I’m wanting to hang a BOAW on my front door. The door gets opened all the time—so I recognize this may be infeasible. I’m wondering how I might secure the cable to it has slack when the door is open and retracts when closed—automatically. My thought was some sort of counterweight system but not sure. Thoughts?

 

[merryoncherry]

I have a Boscoyo star wreath on my door. I just bring the cable down the hinge side (left), and have it tucked behind the frame trim. That way the path length of the cable doesn't change (much) and it doesn't get pinched or snagged.

Looking for a better photo.

 

[Indigogyre]

So, the biggest concern I see is not the wire itself but the dynamics of opening the door with the wreath on it. I think a simple U Half-loop around the hinge side would be fine to give enough play. That's a nice dense prop which needs to be mounted so that it doesn't sway and bump every time the door is opened and closed. There will be a bit of weight with the wreath and also dealing with the depth due to the pixels. This can all be done in various ways depending on the type of door it is. As the wreath is 31" - 32" inches I am guessing it is a standard sized door.

 

[Skymaster]

I have a 30" Boscoyo ChromaWreath on my front screen door, 144 nodes.
It is cable tied to the larger metal security mesh with about 8 cable ties; using the pixel wire. Not ideal but it works well.
The xConnect runs down to the lowest hinge, and then is cable tied to my door outline. There's a loop of about 6" of cable in the 3" of space which works well.

 

[merryoncherry]

I should have mentioned my door is wooden, so I just drilled some eyelets in, the star has zip ties to those to hold it from 3 directions. The cable is zip or twist tied to the hinge-side door eyelet to keep it in place. I didn't leave a loop, but with my door I didn't need it. (Has a lot to do with your particular door. This is assuming it opens outwards, and so on.)

I don't think that my particular screen door, being a thin wood frame with a turnbuckle to hold it rectangular, would support a BOAW... but the little star is just fine.

 

[oxytousc]

So, the biggest concern I see is not the wire itself but the dynamics of opening the door with the wreath on it. I think a simple U Half-loop around the hinge side would be fine to give enough play. That's a nice dense prop which needs to be mounted so that it doesn't sway and bump every time the door is opened and closed. There will be a bit of weight with the wreath and also dealing with the depth due to the pixels. This can all be done in various ways depending on the type of door it is. As the wreath is 31" - 32" inches I am guessing it is a standard sized door.

Yea. I mounted it with 2 suction cup mounts this year. They worked great. Should work fine on the door.

 

[oxytousc]

I should have mentioned my door is wooden, so I just drilled some eyelets in, the star has zip ties to those to hold it from 3 directions. The cable is zip or twist tied to the hinge-side door eyelet to keep it in place. I didn't leave a loop, but with my door I didn't need it. (Has a lot to do with your particular door. This is assuming it opens outwards, and so on.)

I don't think that my particular screen door, being a thin wood frame with a turnbuckle to hold it rectangular, would support a BOAW... but the little star is just fine.

My issue is it’s a Dutch door. So if my wife opens just the top, I need to account for that. The half loop should cover though. You don’t get the cord tripping people and such? I guess if you run it tight enough and secure it it’s fine. It just needs enough slack to clear the swing of the arc.

 

[merryoncherry]

Oh... Dutch Door. You have room for two wreaths then .

OK, some other differences in my scenario - my cable comes down from the porch roof not up from the ground. Pointing out what probably couldn't be seen from the image... the cord roughly follows the red line below. It is loosely affixed at the orange circles. The blue is zip ties that hold it to the door... As the door swings out a bit of slack develops in the cord but not enough to matter... there is not anywhere for it to get pinched.

 

[merryoncherry]

If your door swings in, you'd definitely need a slack loop but not much. Just imagine it drooping down between the two circles on the left.

 

[Indigogyre]

My issue is it’s a Dutch door. So if my wife opens just the top, I need to account for that. The half loop should cover though. You don’t get the cord tripping people and such? I guess if you run it tight enough and secure it it’s fine. It just needs enough slack to clear the swing of the arc.

When needed, I run it under the door mat tucked close to the house so no one trips on wires.

 

[Skymaster]

When needed, I run it under the door mat tucked close to the house so no one trips on wires.

Yep I have about 6 cables under my doormat. I add a second one to really cover them up, which is a "Stanta Stop Here" themed one so it looks like it's mean to be there

 

[oxytousc]

If your door swings in, you'd definitely need a slack loop but not much. Just imagine it drooping down between the two circles on the left.

That makes sense. The outswing screen you’ve got actually makes the engineering challenge a bit easier, at least in my mind. It’ll still work, just maybe not as tidy.