December 28, 2015

The first version of the Pixabulb Megatree was ok, but the Boscoyo strips that held the lights caught too much wind for as high up as I had the tree. The bulbs were also spaced too far apart to get good results displaying graphics on them.

So the plan is to space the bulbs closer together and mount them differently. Hopefully the combination of those 2 things will work well.

January 10, 2017

The new tree is going to be 24′ tall with a base ring diameter of 17′. This is the largest tree that will fit in the circle drive island.

I decided to mount the bulbs on 24′ sticks of 1/2″ x 1/2″ square steel tubing, and space the bulbs at 4″. This let me put 70 bulbs on each stick. The Pixabulbs are spaced at 6″. To get rid of the extra wire between bulbs, I wrapped them around the back of the stick in between each bulb.

I used a 1/2″ conduit clamp at one end of each stick to attach it to the hook head. I used a 1 1/2″ conduit clamp at the other end of each stick. I had Roadrunner Fabrication make a new base ring out of 1 5/8″ Schedule 40 pipe, bent into a 17′ diameter circle. I cut this in 3 pieces and used smaller pieces of pipe to make connecting sleeves. All these new steel parts got a coat of oil-based primer and a top coat of flat black latex enamel.

Here is a picture of the finished tree.