Quitting hobby!!!

[castortiu]

At least we can share the experience to other people, couples in a galvanized pipe may and will fail when subjected to high winds unless they are big and strong enough to support the bending.

[jnealand]

Don't give up.  I'm sure that many of us have thought of quitting.  I know I have.  This will be my third year and my megatree has been blown over in both of the previous two.  I just put it back up and plan on how to make it stronger next year.  My only observation is that you may have been trying to do to much to soon.  Every year I learn more on the best ways to build stuff, to secure stuff, and to program.  Every year I say I'm going to take next year off, but I keep coming back.  There is so much enjoyment to be gained in this hobby, both for you and for others who come to see your show.  I think my show stinks, but my neighbors and friends all love it.  So just take a break and get back out there and keep going.  I only use 3200 lights on my mega  tree and it looks fine.  You may have to much weight with 20.000 lights.  Try it with fewer lights and see what happens.  you can always add more lights next year with another year of experience under your belt.

[kylec]

Hey Cas,

Sorry to hear about your bad luck .  The weather around here can be rough.  I guess if there is a bright side, at least it happened before the season started.

I can come by this weekend and help you put it back together.  You might be surprised at how many of the light strings are undamaged.  I even have a good strong center pole we can use.  I also have 5 years of wind proof mega trees under my belt!  So I'm sure we can get you back in business!

Kyle   

[wbuehler]

Sorry to read about this Cas.  But don't give up.  I do not have any Mega Trees in my display, just 3 foot trees made with a single piece of 4" PVC.  I have no name for them as they are bigger than a Mini but not big enough to be a Mega.

You can still put on a nice display without a Mega.

Bill

[inzeos]

Cas, I feel for you.  The very same thing happened to me.  My 35' Mega Tree came crashing down at 3:43 in the morning January 1, 2003.  C9's and C7's and minis broken and torn all over the place. let alone the 5' 5pt star!  I had joined three sections of recycled 1-1/2" galvanized pipe with new couplings, but the rusty threaded ends - the weakest part of the assembly - couldn't stand up to the storm.  At least I had made it through to NYE without a problem!  I learned my lesson tho, and graduated to new 2" pipe the next year, and double-guyed it from the top and the coupling.  This really made the pole solid.  And I had had it with glass bulbs and incans... so the following year the mega tree was 100% LED.

Hang in there!  Here's hoping the weather clears and you get out from under that cloud... literally and figuratively.  Best of luck whatever you decide is right for you and your display this year!

You have to be very careful when using galvanized pipe.  Galvanized pipe deteriorates from the inside out and produces "scaling", which is basically flakes of galvanized material that comes off of the pipe on the inside.  This is why you can't use galvanized pipe in plumbing anymore.

[rrowan]

Sorry to read about this Cas.  But don't give up.  I do not have any Mega Trees in my display, just 3 foot trees made with a single piece of 4" PVC.  I have no name for them as they are bigger than a Mini but not big enough to be a Mega.

You can still put on a nice display without a Mega.

Bill

Bill how about Mega Challenged Tree 


Cas,

Sorry you are having trouble. I hope you see it though.

Of course the final decision is yours

Good luck no matter which way you go.

Cheers

Rick R.

[paul58]

Cas, I lost my first mega tree also due to high wind and storms in the Tennessee mountains. I thought there were enough guy wires to hold it all together. NOT so. Now i have mini trees and a better understanding of how not to build a mega tree. I am going to do another next season with the smart strings and a bigger pole! Dont give up. The weather can get bad anywhere at times. You just have to build it better next time. Hang in there.
Paul

[magic8192]

Last year with all the rain and wind and overtime at work, I got very frustrated.  I never really finished everything in the show, but I ran it anyway.  People loved it.    Last year, I learned that rebar is your friend and couplings should be machined steel, not cast steel.    This year will be much better.   

Learn from the adversity and overcome it, do not give up. 

[Freebird]

Cas,

  I live just east of the Mts about 1-2 hours from you.  We have sunshine 300 days of the year here.  Come on over!!  Need a job in the computer industry? We are always hiring  here where we are running a data center for Redmond's most wealthiest employer  .  Let me know brother and I can help you get out of that rainy, traffic congested area.  I did 20 years ago and have never looked back. 

Freebird

[egenoup]

Cas, 

I feel your pain...  I lost my first mega tree not to rain/wind or mechanical failure, but to dumba** drunk college kids looking for something to do.  They placed their jeep right up to the tree and floored it.  They turned it into a "Z" tree.    They also “laid down” some stop signs around the neighborhood.  I’m sorry you are having issues, but hang in there and enjoy the good things in life!

Charles/Egenoup

[coachers]

 Cas,

 Keep on, keeping on! about as simple as it gets.

 Also, I added my theme song to help cheer you up.  Always look on the bright side of life!

 

[Kwajtony]

Sounds like my experience last year.  I almost had the tree working the way I wanted and the wind / rain took out the topper and everything below.  The only saving factor was the LED's weren't damaged but the strands were not strained either.

Keep a stiff upper lip and I'm sure it will look fine.

[zwiller]

Thought of taking a year off as I am wayyyy behind for a Black Friday start this year.  My daughter said that one of her friends from the neighborhood asked if I was doing a show again this year.     Been going full steam ever since... 

Hang in there bro!  Two steps forward one step back


 

[i1uhrace]

Don't give up Cas. I always get into a slump and think about taking a year off. Now I am 4 years in and counting. That wind storm the other night in Carnation we were getting 60mph wind gusts. It made a huge mess of my yard. Instead of hanging lights I ended up spending the whole next afternoon cleaning up. Remember that yeah we get alot of rain and this time of year but our type of Christmas displays are what very many people look forward to. In Carnation I start getting asked if I am going to do the display starting in October.  Let me know when you are up and running I would love to come by and check out your display.

Ian

[castortiu]

After several days I calm down and gave another shot.

The galvanized pipe was really strong but the couple didn’t take it as in picture Day3-1 and Day3-2, so I tried a new couple and after was in place I hit the pipe hard against the floor to test the resistance and broke again, so I needed a different approach.

So came to my mind the same trick I did for the base of the tree.

I join both ¾” pipes with a 1” nipple, with a huge hammer I forced the two ¾” inside the 1”, now it can break anywhere but guaranteed won’t be the join. (Day10 picture)
Also the second problem was the stupid rain that hit 300 days a year, so I needed to replace the PVC on the base for something else since there were two problems with that approach.

1 - It’s very time consuming to put the strings
2 – The lights are in the floor and rain and water short them very often

So I came with a wood foundation (Day6 picture) that higher the lights for about 5”, also it allows me to staple the strings way faster.

The base was strong and didn’t even moved, the base (Tree-Base picture) is a 1FT hole filled with concrete and in the center has a 1 ¼“ diameter, so I did it one size bigger to be prepared for bigger mega-trees, currently I’m using ¾” pipes (1” exterior) so I put a 1” (1 ¼” exterior) nipple around it so it fits perfectly, and in the future I can upgrade to a 1” pipe without make another concrete base.

I spent one day repairing the strings, only 20 lights broken, not bad since I was expecting a lot more.

More pictures in the next post.

Cas.