My Tunnel Project

[thepunisher]

I need to take some further photos but when I first started, I wanted to design a tunnel with 4 x arches approx 500mm apart forming a tunnel for people to walk through.

After looking at a tonne of different arch ideas, and the availability of materials vs cost for a first off trial, I went with building the framework with 25mm electrical conduit bent into arches.
I am far from an expert and if you look close enough the arches don't match - they were heated and bent around an old carriage wheel so are far from all the same.

It's quite rigid (hot glued) and held up for last Christmas in quite bad storms and weather.



Also designed a 3d xLights model to be able to test effects on it properly in xLights.



Feel free to ask any questions.

Here's some videos of how it turned out:
-
View: https://youtu.be/zbDSHuOmMnk

- https://youtube.com/shorts/Hemq4J9xwWI?feature=share
- https://youtube.com/shorts/0FYr1LH89E4?feature=share
- https://youtube.com/shorts/nm3cLXqqQ7s?feature=share

 

[CargoLights]

This is one of those things that doesn't seem to translate well to video. I'm sure it looks amazing in person. I'm considering making something similar as the entrance to the walk-through portion of my display, so thanks for the info!

 

[scamper]

One of the first props I built was a tunnel. The kids love it running through back and forth.
I built mine out of garden arches from bunnings and attached strips to them. Then I just put a plug and socket on each one to separate them and when i set them up i cable tie a 6mm rod to them to hold them together.

 

[thepunisher]

One of the first props I built was a tunnel. The kids love it running through back and forth.
I built mine out of garden arches from bunnings and attached strips to them. Then I just put a plug and socket on each one to separate them and when i set them up i cable tie a 6mm rod to them to hold them together.

I struggled to find a readymade solution for the arches. I did look at Bunnings for a kit but couldn't find anything. Extending mine out to more than 4 arches is on the cards, but the bending of the conduit is an absolute pain.
Will definitely see if I can find that garden arches kit

 

[pixelated]

You could buy or perhaps rent a conduit bender. The manual ones are relatively affordable compared to electric drive ones.

 

[scamper]

I struggled to find a readymade solution for the arches. I did look at Bunnings for a kit but couldn't find anything. Extending mine out to more than 4 arches is on the cards, but the bending of the conduit is an absolute pain.
Will definitely see if I can find that garden arches kit

If you can bend up some tube it might be a good option as the bunnings ones are pretty flimsy. I am super careful with setup and tear down and the only thing that gives them stability is the rod that I cable tie them together with. So just keep that in mind.

 

[thepunisher]

If you can bend up some tube it might be a good option as the bunnings ones are pretty flimsy. I am super careful with setup and tear down and the only thing that gives them stability is the rod that I cable tie them together with. So just keep that in mind.

Yeah I had a look at Bunnings yesterday and found them, they are definitely alot thinner and less rigid than the conduit.
I think the conduit bender idea above might be the go.