Revisiting mounting of Smart Strings...

[pokey]

I know there has been talk of Coroplast and Flexstrips.  What have you guys used for various mounting options for Smart Strings?

I'm hoping to outline three windows and my gutters next season, but I want a real "knock out" look of evenly spaced and straight strings.

Ideas ?  Suggestions?

I suppose I could think about buying the SmartString strips, but I've already invested in 18 strings and have 'em all ready to use....and I'd have to hide another $1000 purchase from my wife.

[chrisatpsu]

some people use pvc, and evenly wrap the smart strings around it.

plastic rectangles would work as well attached to something you could hang up.


personally i want to eventually do this, but i'd probably just grab vinyl siding "J" channel, and drill holes evenly through the face to stick the nodes through.

[zwiller]

I have several ideas I will be testing for frames.  I don't need the "granularity" of the flex strips, plus they are pain to cut/join for the amount I will need to do.  All ideas will result in either drilling holes on 3" centers or screwing modules on 3" centers.  Sure it will be a lot of work but I think it will make for a clean look but should be painless to install.  Mine will old school wood. 

The window frames here are on 6" centers.  So with 3" centers I am looking at 76 holes/modules per frame on 1st story.  Drill press jig is mandatory.  I will make a module jig for screwing as well. 

PS - If you decide to go a different direction than SS just sell em here. 

[peteandvanessa]

I zip tied my LED flex strips to 1" white PVC pipe. Neighbor round the corner hot glued them to white PVC pipe too.

I measured each outline of my house eves with a tape measure so I could custom cut each LED flexstrip and pipe to the exact length I needed.

Then I purchase some crawford 1" spring clips (Crawford Large Spring Clip) and screwed them to the facia of my house eves.

Now, when I want to put up my lights, I just take the PVC pipe with the LED Flexstrips outside and gently push them into the Crawford Spring Clips.

I can now put up most of the lights without the use of a ladder

Super fast to put them up and take them down 

Here's the clips I used:

[zwiller]

Cool idea.  Any pics/vids of your lights? 

[peteandvanessa]

Cool idea.  Any pics/vids of your lights?

Not yet, just in the testing phase, I'm getting ready for Halloween 2012 (I like to start early to get all the kinks out)

[Rod R]

I zip tied my LED flex strips to 1" white PVC pipe. Neighbor round the corner hot glued them to white PVC pipe too.

I measured each outline of my house eves with a tape measure so I could custom cut each LED flexstrip and pipe to the exact length I needed.

Then I purchase some crawford 1" spring clips (Crawford Large Spring Clip) and screwed them to the facia of my house eves.

Now, when I want to put up my lights, I just take the PVC pipe with the LED Flexstrips outside and gently push them into the Crawford Spring Clips.

I can now put up most of the lights without the use of a ladder

Super fast to put them up and take them down 

Here's the clips I used:

Cool idea with the spring clips and the the PVC pipe.

[twooly]

personally i want to eventually do this, but i'd probably just grab vinyl siding "J" channel, and drill holes evenly through the face to stick the nodes through.

This is what I'm going to be doing with my strings.  I want a permanent looks but really don't want to leave them up year round so Ill probably do something like the clips mentioned with j channel but may not be clips.

[jnealand]

My window frames are 3/4" PVC and I used white duct tape to hold them to the PVC frame.  I just put up two 1" white cup hooks at the top of the window, but had to bend them out a little so the pipe would nestle down in them.  Easy to put up and take down.  For my eaves I have had 1" white cup hooks screwed into the bottom of my fascia board for several years that I used with my old lights. I just hung the untwisted the smart strings so that all the bulbs hung straight down and they looked just fine.  My cup hooks are space about every 12 to 15".  With white trim on the house and the white PVC and the white duct tape nothing is noticeable unless you are really look close.  putting the cup hooks years ago has made putting my lights up much simpler.

[dmaccole]

My current plan is 3/4-inch white PVC, assembled with 90-degree elbows.

I plan to run the pipe through the table saw (when I buy a new one) with a narrow-kerf blade and drill holes the size of the interlock on the pixels' neck. Current thought is to place them 1.5-inches apart (but may change to 2-inches when the reality of cost visits), facing inward and using the c9 covers.

They will then be hung with deck screws into the facia and eye-bolts in the PVC.

\dmc