Mini Tree Materials

[IndianaChristmas]

I was thinking of mini trees.  I see where people report problems with metal frames and such causing breakers flips so that make me wonder about other methods.
I have seen rrowan's mini tree which is cool, but I wonder if I have the time to bend and cut that much PVC !
What about cutting out a triangular piece of "material" and wrapping around a wooden or PVC pole with a wire hoop at the bottom?  And then attach the lights to the material.   I bet someone smarter than me has thought this up already!  What kind of material?  I was thinking something like snow fencing but my concern would be it showing up with the lights on.  Other material like weed barrier cloth would probably cause too much resistance for windy days and you can't see the lights on the other side.  The coro material is nice and I already have 10 of those but I was thinking something in the 6-5-4-3' sizes for variability.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Eric

[trekster]

I am getting ready to make mini trees out of tomato cages. My lynx controllers will be plugged into GFI outlets.  Am I going to have problems here in Oklahoma?  Not much snow here most of the time.  But I don't want the circuits tripping because the lights are wrapped on metal cages.

Anyone had experience with this?

Ron

[rrowan]

I am getting ready to make mini trees out of tomato cages. My lynx controllers will be plugged into GFI outlets.  Am I going to have problems here in Oklahoma?  Not much snow here most of the time.  But I don't want the circuits tripping because the lights are wrapped on metal cages.

Anyone had experience with this?

Ron

If using mini-lights (not sure about leds) don't let them touch the ground. I tried the cages one year and tossed them away afterwards. Hope you have better luck

Cheers

Rick R.

[tbone321]

I am getting ready to make mini trees out of tomato cages. My lynx controllers will be plugged into GFI outlets.  Am I going to have problems here in Oklahoma?  Not much snow here most of the time.  But I don't want the circuits tripping because the lights are wrapped on metal cages.

Anyone had experience with this?

Ron

If you have good strings that have solid insulation then the GFCI should not trip regardless of what you have them wrapped around.  The down side to GFCI is that it doesn't take much to make them trip and the results are cumulative. 

[castortiu]

I'm trying tomato cages as well. Let's see how it goes.

Cas.

[magic8192]

I had GFCI trip problems last year, but it rained like hell.  I am going to try something different this year. 

[Dennis Cherry]

Any wire frame if left bare will have the ability to trip a GFI in wet weather.  

You can insulate the wire part of the Mini Trees that will be used in the ground.

If you cannot do that, one other option is do not wrap the wire too tight around the wire frame and use a minimum of cable ties to hold them in place, do not overly tighten them either. What happens is the insulation is compromised in contact with the wire frame, One tight wrap might not trip a GFI but many will add up to a GRI trip in wet weather.  Old (3 year or better) strings of lights insulation will not fair better in wet weather either, the UV protection is reduced and the insulation will start getting hard and getting micro cracks.  If you see the insulation has turned a lighter green or white at the point of contact with the wire frame then you have a potential point of current leak to ground for a GFI trip.

Just my 2 cents worth.

[lineman]

You could put a quick coat of rubber paint on the tomato cages for add insulation from metal

[dmaccole]

I wrap my tomato-cage minitrees with clear packaging wrap -- it's like Saran Wrap, but you buy it at an office supply store -- before I apply the minilights. It makes the tree look brighter and there are no GFCI trips.

\dmc

[trekster]

I wrap my tomato-cage minitrees with clear packaging wrap -- it's like Saran Wrap, but you buy it at an office supply store -- before I apply the minilights. It makes the tree look brighter and there are no GFCI trips.

\dmc

Ok.  You use "shrink wrap" (the stuff we wrap around stuff in the warehouse) to wrap your cages.

Thank you.

Ron

[Freebird]

Im making some with tomator cages but im wrapping the cages with garland and then applying the lights to the garland.  So far they look great..  But it shure is alot of garland and yard sale searchs...

Freebird

[Kwajtony]

I saw a DIY mini tree build with PVC (1/2) bent into a tripod   mayhaps three pieces  (planet christmas I think).

[CW]

I had quite a few GFI trips the 1st and 2nd year that I had tomato cage mini trees.  Then last year I wrapped the bottom ring with cheap electrical tape and that did the trick, no trips in the soggie Pacific NW.

[Brad]

I had no trouble with my tomato cage mini trees utill last winter when we had 8" of very wet snow. I had to unplug them, move them and shovel the show. Then I layed down black trash bags and put the trees on them. Problem solved.

Brad