Mini pyramid trees

Chad

Chad

New elf
Joined
Dec 27, 2018
Messages
31
Location
Brisbane, South
As part of my first display I was looking for a small, easy, and cheap way to fill a particular space.
I decided on four pyramid trees, which I wanted to share some build details for any new to the hobby and looking for ideas.

It has 84 nodes per tree, so when two are put together it maximises a single universe.

Cut 1 x 4m long, 20mm rigid conduit into four equal lengths. I went with the rigid conduit (rather than medium, grey) so there is less chance of deformation (sagging) in the summer heat, and I thought orange would look nicer during the day.
Drill holes spaced as desired. Note, I didn't put the top node too close to the end so I could zip-tie, and a larger space at the bottom node for a little clearance from the ground.
tree1.jpg

Put some smaller holes at the top so you can zip-tie them together.
Note the orientation of the nodes. These trees would not be seen from directly behind, so I orientated them facing forwards and outwards. This gave me 180 degree viewing.
For storage, these won't quite fold up due to the back leg node wiring facing each other. I may need to cut that back zip-tie to do this, but no big deal.
The input is on the back-left leg and output on the back-right. This makes connecting multiple trees together easy.
tree2.jpg

And here's the result.
For next year, I'm considering a small 20-node star on top, but I'm not yet sure if that will detract from the clean geometric shape. Thoughts?
tree3.jpg
 
They look amazing effective. The only issue I have is that white/clear cable ties aren't UV stable and can break down very fast in direct sunlight. Even black UV stabilised ones will break given enough time in the sun. The only other thing I'd suggest is linking the + and - from the beginning to the end of the prop. It makes power management much easier as you virtually have no voltage drop across the prop.
 
I like them, well done. I agree with Alan in regards to the white cable ties. I get 4-5 seasons from black ties, but <1 from white cableties before they become brittle
 
At first glance I wasn't sure, but the photo of them lit up does look very cool.
I know when we all get into this hobby, we have that set of gears running in the back of our head trying to figure ways of using everything in a xmas display. It is goo to see people still coming up with different ideas.
On the cable ties, what everyone says is true about being short lived, but if you allow to cut it, you will find it will fold down better for storage and just throw a lacky around it to hold it flat, or you could replace with better and just stack them on top of each other as is.
One last thing, and it is only me being picky... Maybe look at running the cable that joins the legs back up the conduit and down the other to hide it, or at least keep it out of the way.
 
Awesome job that they can store easily. That’s part of the challenge in where to store it for 10 months of the year.
 
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