Mega Tree and Star
(New upgrades for 2009)
Since I had to make the Star topper in order to create the megatree, we'll start there first.
I found a star design on a website I liked. I grabbed my scale ruler and came up with the dimensions I needed to duplicate it.
I found that I needed to make 8" segments and each star has 10 segments. I made a simple jig to work off of to keep the segments in line while I tacked them together. I found it was easier to make the star in 2 sections and weld them in the middle. I made my star in a "4d" arrangement! The star was painted with Rustnoleum Pro Hunter Green.
2 sets of 50 red and green 5mm LEDS were clipped on. The excess wire was wrapped around the rods to keep a clean appearance. Also 1 strobe was added to the middle of the Star.
*2011 Update!
I wanted to refresh the Star a little this year. The goal was to make any of the 4 stars change colors. I ordered some RGB ribbon rolls, then did a little testing. What was found, I didn't like. One part of the star you could not see from the ground. BUT I found a way to make it appear like Rope light. By sliding the ribbon through an opague clear water tubing, I was able to make my own RGB rope light. Now all portions of the star can be seen! And I can change it to any color I desire.
Now that I had a star, I needed a way to attach it to the top of my portable basketball goal. For 2009, since I was adding 4x more lights this year and needed to be more heavy duty, I donated my original hook head design to my friend Darryl for his megatree. I ordered a new hook head already fabricated. I could not fabricate a piece this nice for less.
From there a few quick pieces pipe from Home Depot and it connected to my Star. But then I needed to attach it to the pole. I fabricated a piece that slid down into the pole this time, and welded a 1 1/2" threaded pipe nipple on it so the hook head spin right onto the mount.. Now I am ready for 128 strings of lights, plus strobes and the Star.
The mega tree from there is quite simple. 32 strings of Blue, Red, Cool White and Green LED's attached to the hooks then pulled outwards to metal tent stakes, then strung inwards towards the center pole. For 2009, these now attach to a center ring for support. I made the strings come out to the "Faux Train Tracks" so they would clear the Basketball Goal base which is quite big. The big heavy base, along with 128 strings made the entire MegaTree very stable.
