PicturesPictures
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| Painting the light fan in the kitchen (it was too cold in the garage in January). Yes - my wife is a patient person! The light fan was constructed from angle iron, square steel tubing and 1/2" conduit. It was built in 2 sections to make it easier to move and store. Completely assembled it is 6' long and 12' wide. | Assembled and painted, it's ready for lights! |
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| We wanted the light fan to be one of our "center piece" displays so we added 36 strings of lights and 2 lengths of rope lights around the frame for a total of 3,700 bulbs. First Energy Electric stock holders like this display! | The finished product was worth the effort. |
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| Here is our roof star set up for testing in our garage. I probably over-built it but I wanted it to withstand high-wind conditions. It is constructed of welded square steel tubing which is welded to a c-channel base that matches the pitch of our roof. After we place this on the roof, we lay sand bags on the "outrigger" legs. The star is controlled by 2 channels - one for the red lights and one for the clear lights. Half of the lights are LED's. | We constructed our mini-trees from tomato cages. Cable ties are used to connect 2 cages together upside down, and then we add lights. We will be using 6 mini-trees for 2010. |
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The mega-tree is one of our newest displays for 2010. I designed it to be assembled/disassembled in 4 parts. The overall height is approximately 14' and the base is about 7' in diameter. I used durable but lightweight schedule 80 pvc tubing and fittings. The lights won't go on until we set it up outside. It is WAY to big to store assembled. It will sit on a temporary steel fence post that is sunk into the ground at least 30", and will be supported by 2 guy- wires. |
The mega tree will have 12 dedicated channels to control the 12 sets of lights that will be connected to it. The light strings will be connected to the hooks in this topper so they are evenly spaced. The topper can be raised and lowered with the pulleys mounted to the top of the tree. After it has been raised in place, the topper is secured with spring-loaded clasps. |
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| I ordered the Light-O-Rama units disassembled and put them together myself. They are very affordable when purchased in kit form. Don't let all the wires fool you - it's pretty easy to do. | Here is the second unit fully assembled. |
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This is the test stand that I built to check the timing and effects of our sequencing. This gives us a nice "real world" representation of what our sequences are going to look like. You can see it in action on the Videos page. |
Here's the best part - we get to do this as a Family! Here are my helpers serving hot chocolate and cookies to the people who made a donation to the Erie City Mission - Christmas in the Sky 2009.
Below are a few pictures from Christmas in the Sky 2010, and pictures of some of our new display items in the works for 2011!
Anyone who made a donation to the Erie City Mission received cookies and hot chocolate:
Randy and the crew from Prime Pyrotechnics did a great job with the fireworks again this year:
These triple stars (there are 2 of them) are new for 2011 and will be on top of poles to create an animated "shooting star" effect:
Our new Sign for 2011:
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