Collapsible Mini-Tree

[DanHouston]

I'm planning to add 16 mini-trees to my display next year so I started working on a build for them. I've read and seen lots of designs by folks (thank you all!), but as I thought about it more and more I wondered if I could attack setup and storage in a single tree....so here is my prototype collapsible mini-tree.

It stands 28" high (24" lit with a 4" base) with a 15" diameter, and collapses down to a 5" diameter with the lights attached.

It currently has 100 C6 multi-color lights on it....I'm not sure if it can handle several hundred lights wrapped around it yet or not.

If someone has already tackled this and has a proven build please let me know....I'd love to see what you came up with.

[mms]

The more I get into this 2 things are always in the back of my mind.  1) How am I going to get power to it? and 2) Where am I going to put it in the off-season?  This is a great solution.  Very clever!

I'm planning on carefully stacking my tomato cage mini trees on top of each other.  That will still leave an 12"-14" diameter footprint in my shed, garage or basement.  You won't have that problem!

Good job!

[rrowan]

Hi Dan

I have designs very close to what you did. The thing I was planning to do differently was to attach plastic mesh to the tree and then attach the lights to the mesh. I think the would allow the lights to be placed where I wanted them (or pattern) and still be able to collapse.

Nice work

Rick R.

[tbone321]

I really like that mesh idea.  I would go a step further and make the mesh removable.  This way you can easily remove the lights from the trees and stack the trees easily with no fear of damage to the lights.  The lights can then be stored seperatly on their mesh backings tangle free.  At the beginning of the season the lights can be tested flat out on their mesh screens before attaching them to the trees which should make repairs much easier and it should only take a few seconds to attach them back to the trees for the display.

[Steve Gase]

This year I moved from mega trees using mega strings (zip-tied strings with white, red, green, blue, pink) to RGB.  With the 'extra' mega strings -- all LED -- I upgraded my mini trees.

With each bare tomato cage, I zip-tied from the peak and layed down the mega-string in spiral fashion -- tying down the end as well.  As I break things down I am removing the zip-ties and lifting off the strings and placing them in my storage box.  Easy on, easy off, and they looked good with all of the color choices.  The spiral effect looked nice too.  The tomato cages stack and take a small corner.

[DanHouston]

Mesh is a very interesting idea.  I suppose you could actually make it more like a table cloth....pop up your tree and drape the mesh (lights attached) over the frame. Definitely something worth considering.

[DanHouston]

This year I moved from mega trees using mega strings (zip-tied strings with white, red, green, blue, pink) to RGB.  With the 'extra' mega strings -- all LED -- I upgraded my mini trees.

With each bare tomato cage, I zip-tied from the peak and layed down the mega-string in spiral fashion -- tying down the end as well.  As I break things down I am removing the zip-ties and lifting off the strings and placing them in my storage box.  Easy on, easy off, and they looked good with all of the color choices.  The spiral effect looked nice too.  The tomato cages stack and take a small corner.

I've not been a huge fan of the tomato cages (just personal preference)....In fact I'm not totally in love with what I came up with either (although I added it to my show tonight and it is growing on me). I agree it is not that hard to wrap lights around a mini-tree, I don't think it will beat lifting it out of the storage box, pulling down the pipe, and setting it in the yard...done!

[IndianaChristmas]

I have thought about mesh as well but I think the mesh would have to be something that doesn't obscure the lights on the back side.  I was thinking something along the lines of black or green snow barrier/fencing material.
I like the collapsible idea presented and will look closely at this. 
Thanks for the idea.

[Gary]

When originally planning my light display, one of my original criteria was that storage of everything should not take over the garage. I wanted to have something "substantial" to the right of the driveway, but not have something bulky to store, like an artifical Christmas tree with lights wrapped around it. So, I devised my "Triangle Trees", as I call them now. They were made out of scrap 1x1's I had. They are essentially the same design as a painter's easel, except, of course, they don't hold paintings: the triangle shape in the front, and a cross member with a hinge and extra leg to stand it up. To make it stable, I drilled holes in the bottom of each leg, passed eyelet bolts through them, and used stakes to hold it all down.

I guess you can see the end result at You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login

[meman]

I cut the $9.95 rolls of plastic garden fencing from Home Depot into strips to get perfect lines on my spinning gumball tree. Its by the chicken wire and chain link fence, not in the garden dept. This stuff is cheap, has a 1" grid, cuts easy and will lay flat over any shape with a little persuasion from a heat gun (for you guys in colder climates). You could easily make "wraps" out of this stuff for tomato cages or other shapes. 

Mike E.

[coachers]

Gary,

 I really like your "Triangle Trees"
 I've been looking for an idea for the perimeter of my yard and didn't want to hassle with artificial trees, this may be my answer.

AL

[Gary]

Here are some close-up photos of one of the Trangle trees I built.

They weren't built really with any precision or specific plans--just a bit of measuring and mostly eyeballing. I left the legs on the bottom for a bit of a snow allowance. As for the angles: 30 degrees on top and 75 degrees on the bottom of each side.

I nailed the frame together, got some hinges, and screwed them into the cross-member and the third support leg (as you can see in one of my photos, the holes I pre-drilled were a bit too small... oops). I then painted them green. I also drilled holes in the bottom of each leg to pass an eye bolt through so I could stake it into the ground.

As for getting the lights on, I didn't wrap them for two reasons: 1) It would be a pain, and 2) I didn't have very many lights to use, (and why have lights on the back where people wouldn't see them?), so what I did was place all the lights on the front. I placed each tree face up flat on the floor, then I stretched my red, green, and white light strings on top using twist ties to hold them temporarily, "massaged" the bulbs in a way to minimize the number of them buried underneath the wires, and when I was happy with it, I zip tied at all down nice and snug. Then, I zig-zagged my multi-color lights wrapping around it all to "fill" in the trees' insides; they didn't slip around as the border lights provided the "grip".

[inzeos]

I like the design of both of your mini trees.  I like how the painter easel style collapses down so nicely.  I wonder how long the wood will last outside in the environment.

[Gary]

The triangle trees I have lasted me two seasons without a problem, and we do get some pretty high winds. I guess it's wind resistant because it is mostly open space, unlike an artificial tree which will catch the wind. One day we had winds hard enough to knock over out blue tote for food donations which had a few of bricks on the bottom, and the trees fared okay.

I was thinking about it more, and here are some pros and cons:

Pros:
- Cheap to build
- Doesn't take too many lights
- You can see through them, so you can have them lined up front to back, and still see the ones in behind no matter what angle you're looking at them
- Don't start rusting like artificial trees can
- Don't have to deal with stuffing it back into a box which will eventually rip.

Cons
- Not as pretty as a real tree

I was thinking, it doesn't take much less storage (overall volume-wise) than a comparably-sized artificial tree stuffed into its box, but at least they're light enough to hang them from the ceiling in the garage where they don't take any floor space. Or I guess if someone is creative, they can modify the design to have the bottom and cross-member horizontal pieces to have a pivot hinge in the middle, so it can be folded up side to side as well as back to front like an umbrella like DanHouston's design... you'd just have to leave some extra slack in the wires at the pivot points.

[inzeos]

Another pro is that you don't have really "break" them down to put them into a box.