Blow Molds Blowing Over In The Wind

[Greg.Ca 0]

For the longest time I resisted having blow molds in my display but I wanted a beautiful nativity scene. Ok, I bought a 6 figure nativity scene that is probably 10 years old but seemed in good condition. I changed all the incescent light bulbs with LED bulbs and was dissapointed when I saw them topple over because of strong winds that we had last night. Not cool if the wise men or Mary is tipped over. What is typically used to stabalize these blow molds to prevent them from being blown over in high winds?

Out of curosity, what is a reasonable amount to pay for 6 blow molds that probably stand 4 feet high? Don't have a clue? Thanks --Greg--

[Deeny Dine 17]

There are many ways to secure your blow molds. Some like above use PCV, rebar, garden stakes, bamboo stakes, with either zip ties or fishing line to secure them, some even use two stakes, one in the inside and one on the outside. You can use sand or gravel in small baggies. Do a quick search in the forum and you will find lots of suggestions. On my roof, I zip tie my nativity to lattice, it holds up nicely to the wind. Good Luck, someone will have a suggestion that will work for you in your situation.

[mastertech01 10]

I have the lifesize nativity blowmolds and learned a few years ago that I would need to anchor them down. I ended up buying 40 pound bags of sand and filling small trash bags with about 4 pounds of sand and putting one in the front half and one in the back half through the bottom hole in the figure. I face the characters where the bags are inside at north and south configuration so if I get northerly winter winds or southerly winds like we are getting right now with this Indian Summer, they will remain upright. I do have some very large ones that take several bags because the wind can really hit them hard with thier large surface area. It works well. When its all over and time to put them away I have saved the bags that the sand came in and I refill them and keep the sand bags in my storage shed till next season, or you can find another use for it around the yard.

[nickdunn 2]

We just hammer a piece of the gray plastic electrical conduit into the ground and slip the blow mold over the conduit. We use 3/4", its less than 2 bucks here in KY for a 10' section and its easy to cut so you can get a few stakes out of one piece. We usually cut them around the same size as the mold and add 12" to it so enough to put in the ground.

[Elaine F 13]

I use the garden stakes. $2 for 6' stakes, $1 for 3' stakes at Home Depot. Push into the ground behind the mold, and use zip ties wrapped around the mold to hold it in place. Works really well for me!

[peppers-palace 12]

I always loved blowmolds too & also hated them tipping over. I tried different methods with the couple I had till I hit the motherload a few years ago.I now have over 150 blowmolds in my collection. I started holding them down with a weight zip tied under the base. Kinda worked but a pain to run the ziptie. Then I used sand in freezer bags. Worked alot better but another pain removing or storing with the sandbags in them. Earlier this year I was at Lowes & came across clear tubing for fluorescent lights & a light bulb lit in my head LOL. I wanted to light my uncle sam mold more evenly & figured that would be perfect to stick some mini lights in it. Then I needed a way to hold it upright which making a hole for PVC wasn't cutting it either. I hate the idea of a stake showing on a mold too so I went searching for some type of brace with holes to stake it in the ground. I found these but at close to 2.00 a piece that hurts the pocketbook too.

After talking to a friend about it he told me that he uses these http://www.homedepot...51#.UMAV34PAeSo on his. Very easy to cut to length. I bought a roll & put 3 per blowmold & so far everything is working great. Last night I had 1 penguin fall over but come to find out I didn't put a stake on the front of that mold. On my soldiers I put 2 braces & 4 stakes. Love how they are standing tall now.

Hope this helped & Good Luck!

[Minne-snowta 10]

I always used a large ziploc baggie filled with pea gravel, inserted into the bottom of the blowmold. For the blowmolds with a 4-5" hole (where the baggie can fall out of the hole), i measured and cut a 3" wide 1/4" thk wood board slightly shorter than the inside of the base of the blowmold. Insert the weight bag, then insert the board one end first and lay it flat over the inside opening of the hole, then maneuver the weight bag to sit on top of the board. This worked for all except the largest blowmolds in high winds. In which case (2) pea gravel ziploc bags would do the trick.

For blowmolds with small holes on the bottom, same baggie of pea gravel but this time no board. Just carefully feed the gravel bag in through the hole. It is a little difficult to get the baggie through the hole but believe me it works well. You just fill the bag a little less full to give the bag some room to elongate as it goes through the hole.

[Knight 12]

I have always used 3 bricks in my Empire snowman, and he has never moved. When it comes to items such as the Union "North Pole" sign, I punched a hole in the bottom of the base, and I hammer a broom stick into the ground. I slide the Sign onto it and its good for the season...not safe from thieves though...

[ki4bbl 0]

I use a wooden stake that I cut from some old fencing. It seems like the winds only pick up in December around here!

[ironman 10]

metal conduit very cheap and works great. Cut to length, pound it into the ground and slip the blowmold over it. Or sometimes ill put one in the back to and use bailing wire.

[KyleSimpson 0]

I do the electrical conduit and pound 12 inches into ground and then secure blowmold with galvanized wire from home depot. I have over a 100 blowmolds in my yard and none move or blow over at all.

[David W Prins 0]

I"ve had this problem for years.  Sand filled two liter pop bottles were tried as was using toilet flanges upside down with short lengths of PVC pipe. These did not provide a snug fit which was not a big deal in previous locations (shrubs provided a windbreak from the west winds off Lake Michigan).  But I moved last year and now have a front yard facing west and thus no shelter which meant almost daily uprighting of figures-especially the 36" wiseman.

What I did this year was cut 1x4 cedar into 24" sections.  Four 1/4" holes were drilled into each board.  The two holes on each end were spaced to accomodate the two legs of a landscape staple (normally used for holding edging in place).  Below is a photo of one end of a board and a landscape staple
 

Two pieces are bolted to each human figurine using 5/16 bolts, washers and hex nuts (I used the 4 inch blowhole in the base as an access point.).  Two holes per board.  Then the figures were anchored into place with the landscape staples.    

 

My TPI camel has one board on his base.  The two inch blowhole was used as an access point. 

 

The Empire Camel has had a different setup for about ten years.  The boards are not bolted to the figure due to the small size of the hole for the light bulb.  Rather 12 screw eyes and some electric fence wire were used.  Four screweyes per board (on the corners) and four on the camel (at ground level on the sides near the front and back).  A short piece of electric fence wire was then looped through each of the four camel screw eyes and secured in the two board screweyes of the respective corner.

 

Earlier this week this area was hit with 50 MPH winds.  One TV meteorologist said to bring in the Nativity Scenes.  I tempted fate and was thrilled with the results.  Every piece with the above mounting system was still standing!   All but 1 or 2 without had tipped.  

[David W Prins 0]

Here are two photo showing the above board bolted into place and staked into the ground.

 

[Flanigan 2]

In the past I've tried every trick in the book - lead bricks, sandbags, baling wire....  The thing that has worked very well is cheap 1/2" rebar from the lumber yard cut to fit the height of the BM. Just drop the mold over the rod. Entire GF nativity (except the sheep) was done this way, and each one stayed put in the 40+ MPH winds of last week (can't say as much for the manger around it all). The base of the Camel was drilled so it was in-line with the neck - affording the most support.

[Symphony 11]

We use bags of stones / gravel at the base.

 

Will have to upgrade on that next year though - as I type, there's a huge storm blowing outside, and we've already had a run away Mrs Claus, and our Santa Train & Elf postbox blowmolds keep flaling over!