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Remember in the movie, A Christmas Story, when the "old man" was gluing back together the leg lamp? That's going to be me.

Just about done. I took off all last week because I had vacation to burn and was well used getting everything ready.. Had a lot of rain the past two days but that actually helped find any wet plugs before it all actually goes on.

Put the candy canes out, This may be the last year for some of them, there getting brittle and have cracks. I purchased these used from e-bay a few years ago, so not complaining Had to take two pictures to get all 6 pieces.

We "opened up" for our first time tonight. Posted it on Facebook with no pic or video. We live in a small town and in less than an hour had 5 or 6 cars come by. Several commented on Facebook. I can see how this can become addicting. We are running a 32 ch LOR with all LED. I enjoy making people happy and I am already trying to plan for next year being bigger and better This has been trying but fun. I think it will be worth all the money and effort.

15 piece Nativity Theme, we actually set it out yesterday. (not lite yet) We always wait till after Thanksgiving for the Lightening. Trying to get everything done before bad weather hits.

Put out the Patriotic Section of my blow mold display. I always put it up before Veterans Day I'm a newbee, don't know why the pic is over the text.

What’s everyone Christmas display looking like. I been working in the back yard on mine. I live HOA and can’t put out in front yard until week of thanksgiving. If weather is good I will start pulling it to front yard on Monday.

The search is over. https://tru-tone.com/ https://www.facebook.com/trutonebulbs

Found this today looking for something else. It the largest set Poloron carolers I have ever seen. youtube:

Those are my 5 that were repainted a few years ago. My dad had those before I was born and I am 42 now.

I found my folder with more info on UV paint. Repainting a Blow Mold HU.docx

PC Controllers with the plastic enclosures have a limit of 8 amps/channel and 15 amps/power feed cord (one feed does channels 1-8, the other 9-16) Consider also that and individual home circuit can only handle 15-20 amps, with a 75% or 80% max usage being ideal as stated above. Depending on your usage you may be able to put both controller feeds on the same circuit. If you use a lot of amps, you may have to separate the feeds to different circuits. I highly suggest the Kil-A-Watt meter as well.

Every show is different. Every sequence is different. Drawing juice at different times all the time. I purchased a Kill-A-Watt meter $20 bucks ebay. Answers all your electric capacity questions. When I switched over to LED's, I removed the second power cord and put in a jumper because I was pulling way less Amps then on Incans. Run one controller at at time plugged into your Kill-A-Watt meter and record the draw. Create a sequence with every channel on. You will be amazed how many things can be plugged into a 15 or 20 amp dedicated outlet. (one year our basement lights were pulsat

That’s true I think with the amount they have I could see them wanting more varieties of carolers. Also I know the flesh tones and gold paint are hard to find spray paint that matches. With yellow gloves instead that cuts down on the amount of repaint time. Looks like gold parts have also been painted yellow. With the amount they had it make since to me if they just made a set of stencils for repaint job. And toke more time making heads more unique. Below is from 1970 Poloron catalog.

Yes you would have S5. It has a steep learning curve but pretty easy after that

What is a blob?

I used UV spray paint for about 10years. It’s work well for me. Its hard to tell if it work’s because it clear. They only way I can tell is I missed spraying UV paint on a few molds about 8 years ago and I could tell a difference after a few years of use. Tips that have worked for me. If I repainted a blow mold I spray it down about week after with UV spray paint. Never mix different brands of spray paint they will run together. Also only put 1-2 coats on a blow mold of UV spray paint any more and I have found it does not look as good. To me the gloss works great and brings back some life to a

Yes, your image came through. I was on an iPad and this web site does some funky things so could really see it very well. I really only got a good look at your image after I posted. Web site needs to be updated to work better with tablets/iPads. I''m on my computer now. Much easier. How are things in Lancaster? I'm in Northern California in the Oakland/San Francisco area. But right now I'm halfway around the world. Nice to see something from "home". Did you like any of my ideas? What system/software are you using? If you want something different I have the LOR sequen

What do you mean what do you do? You immediately go to HomeDepot and buy more lights. If you are asking what should you do with the lights., since we don’t have a clue of what you have, here are some ideas, Shooting stars, leaping colored arches, snowmen having a snowball fight. Lighted animated figures. Strobe lights, Small trees running soured the yard. Walls of solid colors, such as all red, green, blue. Any of these ideas sound good? These are just the easy ones you could do in a week or two. I do have more, just ask.

When I was a teenager our neighborhood sponsored a Christmas lighting contest. As I remember I spelled NOEL in giant block letters on the roof and animated them a bit... but there was plenty of competition. I walked away with a $10 check and was soooooo proud. Now that I think about it, that was 50 years ago... Maybe a way to stimulate more outdoor decorating is to get with your neighborhood homeowners association and convince them a lighting contest is needed for 2020. I think I'll start a new topic on this idea. Thanks!

This may be the last I do this year. I added two new pieces the Tree and the Grinch. Last year I had my driveway lined with candy canes, but time has taken a toll on them. I purchased a lot of my blow molds from e-bay used and all have held up fine. The Candy canes became brittle and cracked so they are history.

Blow mold tree looks great!!!

Looks nice, I like the blow mold tree

For 15amp breaker 15A x120V=1800W 20amp breaker is 2400W. Side notes max I use rule of thumb and only have 75% load on any breaker. Also LOR control has a fuse under blue cover I think it’s 15A or 20A? My rule of thumb on LOR controllers I don’t put any one channel with more than 5 amps on it. Hope that helps:)

Sorry to hear that. I got this one at store 100 last Friday. It is best to go in the evening when the restock people are there because they know what they have both inside and outside in the trailers. They still did not have this out, the guy had to go get it for me in the trailer. But I am glad they gave you something for your trouble. I saw one sold on Mercari, sorry you had to pay that much for it. I wish people would leave them for people who really want one and want to display it. Thats good. I would say anywhere from Siloam Springs up to Bentonville and down to Fayetteville should

Well I don't know how to turn on all the lights at the same time so I did the best I could and tried to time it right on a sequence. Didn't get the whole mega lit up lol. And that is Roscoe in the foreground. He doesn't know what to think of this stuff lol.

We stopped somewhere in southeast Arkansas, so now I’m thinking they may have just been out of stock. We’re just a little over an hour from the Arkansas border, so I might call around today and see if any stores have them. Drove to Joplin mo yesterday to antique shops and checked in their Walmart but didn’t find one. I did find the 43 inch empire lamp post from the 1960s in one shop, so it was worth the trip!

Way to go! You are not alone at getting started early. I call it the "testing phase." With 32 channels are you using those three outlet connectors on each channel to run different props at the same time? I did that for years until I was able to afford more controllers and separate the props. I also learned quick to make my own extension cords. Saved money, storage space and weight.

I was just reading through some old post, so you may have an answer for this post already. LED bulbs have a bit of a different description. An Example a 100 watt incandescent is a lot brighter than a 60 watt incandescent bulb. Now the LED's you need to read the "K" factor. the higher the " K" the more white the light is, The lower the K the more orange it is. Okay, with that being said and since it is inside a blow mold, I have noticed that the high 5000/6000 K works the best. Hope this helps

Looking great!!

Worked on the front entrance five more blow mold pieces, also worked on the driveway, I'll put it in another post. We have been having real nice weather to be working outside.

Looks good. There a clear UV spray paint I used on mine to keep the plastic in good shape. Even if they are old it give them a bit of new life.

Can anyone recommend or know of a company who sells wireframes? Looking for the frames of various Christmas shapes minus the lights, like snowmen, Christmas trees, etc. I can add the LED lights. Thnx, Scott

Awesome and quite the early start, this year especially I think people are going to be loving these displays.

I’m really excited for you, and it sounds like you’ve been bitten by the bug!

That is awesome, patriotic and original. Good job.

Very cool!!

I agree totally I was asked by many folks waking by when I was taking down Halloween if I was doing Christmas. My goal this year is to get it all out by thanksgiving. I live HOA land and I can’t put out stuff in my front yard until the week of thanksgiving. But my front yard is small so it should not be a problem. I am going to try this year to have motion detector to trigger Charlie Brown Christmas story. On my LOR set up. I tried a few years ago with button for people to push to start show but it rained a lot and I had voltage drop issues so trigger did not work most of time. My other goal i

I don't use the Forums, I use the All Activity and Search feature. Consolidate everything into a stronger search engine. Get rid of Video, Gallery and Clubs. Allow more space per person to post and delete content. sorry if this seems too direct.

Well said Chuck! That's part of the reason my wife and I started in September this year. We started making window frames for lights, and checking out all the previous years decorations for functionality. We started putting lights on the house around the 1st of October and just got finished. Tonight, everything will be turned on for the first full night. We've had people go by the house and complement the decorations and say they can't wait to see it lit up. Some have said it inspired them to start early too. Some people have had rough time this year with the pandemic and such, so a litt

I built three different versions of my animated trees display I added an ammeter to monitor how much electricity each was consuming. Interesting. The setup: 4 trees, each with 150 lights 1 tree with 170 lights ... so 770 lights total. Using incandescent minilights from Walmart Total cost (including a new LOR 16 channel light controller): $291 All lights off: 5 watts of power (I assume that was for the light controller electronics) All lights on: 234 watts of power. Using LED minilights from Walmart Total cost (including a new LO

The only way I know to do that is to use a single light or flood light for each of your channels. And place them in a circle. It's not the easiest but it works, but then you have to assign each of those to the correct channel.

I agree you can break wires inside the cable easy bending around a window. I would suggest using big foam stripe if you have old style window that way you have a cushion around cord. The way I have done it is to buy outdoor electric box that can be used closed and drilled hole and ran cat5 cable though it. Just a thought. Also install the box after you drill hole unlike what I did.:)

With a mix of traditional, LED and RGB, I made the upgrade to S5 this summer. It went well and I am looking forward to seeing the software in action outside on my shows soon. I have begun installing lights on the house that I will use for Halloween night only. I don't put on a longer Halloween display. Just RGB bulbs as a fire effect in S5 for a few hours during trick or treat. Which we are having in our town. All four of the Tomshine 80watt moving heads are functioning great in DMX mode and are very bright. Extremely happy with them. ok talk to everyone soon! BANG! Here we go!

I think the answer you are looking for is yes but it is not necessarily the case. "C7" refers to the glass part of the bulb. It means cone shaped" and 7/8ths of an inch in diameter. The size of the base on most C7 bulbs is "candelabra". E12 is the same as a candelabra size base. The names of the base sizes are Mogel,, Medium, Intermediate, Candelabra, Midget, and Miniature. (Most "standard" household bulbs have a Medium base. Most C7 bulbs have a candelabra base. Most C9 bulbs have an intermediate base.) TED

I too have a sodium vapor street light right in front of my house. It is about 30 feet line-of-sight from the front corner of my attached garage. As I acquired my blow molds and other Christmas display stuff I converted it to all low-voltage LED. There is such an array of LED lights these days you can get any light level you need and still save a lot of watts. The string lights were already LEDs and bright enough. I have a couple fabric covered displays like a snowman and a 40" tall striped candle. Originally both had lights attached to the inside of the fabric. It was too much

Walter sent the following information, stating that the rod is 1/8" and is difficult to bend in the shapes shown. Pin Puller.pdf

I would call the power company and let them know you have low voltage. Let them know you want to be there to have all the lights on. I work for power company for over decade and it normal to get those request. You should be getting around 120V with it loaded up. They can check it at the meter box and transformer. Most place have Aluminum going from transformer to the meter box. If the aluminum gets hot it will deform under the lugs in the transformer or meter box. So your connect might act up when you add load to your service.