Mike's creation

Put mine up over the weekend. 20 hours. As I was finishing the damn ice cycles started to die one section at a time. Will work on them this coming season, I may switch to a nice 3/8 led red rope light. Anyone know where I can get 10 sections of 3/8 mounting trac for this or gutter clips?

When I was working with the 1/8 hanger rod, I took a 4x8 sheet of mdf board and layed a 4x8 sheet of peg board over it. Clamped it together and then spend the next 3 hours drilling holes. It gave me a nice grid system. Then using oak dowels that I purchased from Home Depot, about 3 bucks for 50 pieces, I would lay out a pattern on the board and zip tie the end to the first and work it around the shape bending and manipulating the metal. I then would slip a piece of 12x12 inch sheet metal under the material and solder it and then move it to the next point. It worked very well. For working with the 3/16 rod, this was more of a free form work. I would trace out the design on 48 wide by how ever long butcher paper which I got in a 1000 foot roll. To do this, I would lay out a 2 inch grid on the whole sheet. I have a drywall square that the width of it is 2 inches and 52" long so this worked out well. I would then take whatever my design was and sketch it out on the large sheet. Then using a bench vice, the 6" poles in the basement, a couple of different size galvanized pipes and some vice grips would spend the next few hours forming the shape. Back and forth bend a little compare to the sketch and adjust. My 3/16 stock comes in 9 foot lengths so there is now welding involved. Welding is not hard, it is not expensive, it takes some getting use to. I purchased an in expensive flux core wire welder for under 150 bucks. The wire comes in 1, 2, 5 and 10 lbs spools. I prefer the 2 lb cause it does not bind up in the machine. There are tons of videos on line to learn how to weld. Keeping in mind we are not welding to support tons of weight. When you weld doing it outside requires you to erect a blind, a place to weld where others will not be blinded by the arch. My blind is built out of 3/4 pvc pipe and fittings to make a square area 10x10X4 tall . I then took 2 painters drop cloths, (on sale for 5 bucks each) then went to the local stage supply company and got the fireproofing fluid to keep it from having and flare up problems from splatter. total cost for the blind 45 bucks. You need a welding shield and some good thick cotton clothing with long sleeves to keep from getting burned by the spatter. You will also need a welding table to put your material that you are going to weld on. I build a cart that is 36 wide by 6' long that had a fold down flap on it. Got 2 pieces of 1/4 steel plate for the table top from a local metal dealer, (tell them what you are doing and they may have scrap you can grab) The frame of the table is 1/8 thick angle iron bolted together, with a shelf to hold the welder and tools. This may sound involved but once you have all the basic stuff, you will find yourself dreaming, "what am I going to add next year" I have and I love being creative.

Yes Maroonz28. My first batch of 12 was made with 1/8 hanger rod. This material is used in commercial applications for hanging suspended ceilings. I took an unusual approach in the design. I laid the design out like a railroad track, two pieces with a cross piece soldered in place every foot. It was a great way to do it, all the lights laid into the track and stay in place very nicely. The only disadvantage to this design was burning myself multiple times. One would forget that the wire can stay hot for up to 1/2 hour after you were finished soldering. So the second, third and now forth batch are made of 3/8 cold rolled steel bent and shaped and then welded. (taught myself from you tube) and all of the frames from past to present are welded to 3/4 steel tubing frames. They are held upright in the ground by 5/8 16" long steel rods. At this point I have aprox 12-14 thousand lights (all led) and it all runs off of 12 amps. Have it split into two circuits only because the cord runs would be extremely long. 22 wire frames in the pict above. Adding a donkey and cow this year, along with 2 more sheep, 2 more nutcrackers (on the other end of the yard) along with a sleigh and reindeer and 6 4' tall candles. Love being creative!

Here is mine, 2 years worth of work and still going, adding a cow and donkey this year! Each of the main figures have 200 lights, the camels have 400, the flying angel is 600, the sheep are 150 and the rabbits are 100.

I will look through my paper work in the morning. I have a bunch they are not rubber, plastic, they are ok, but not real good true color representation. I use true lights in various counts. Extra lights I put a piece of 3/8 heat shrink over the extra glass bulbs and tape them to the frame. This way if one ever goes out, I don't have to look through a million little bulbs to find the right one. Mike

Thanks for the information. Now to figure it out. My problem now is they can't be in bad weather or direct snow. Living in Wisconsin that is not likely. So Now I think if this is going to happen, I have to come up with come kind of enclosure for them to be in depending if it is the snowman or the elf. Thanks! Mike

That was just awesome!!!! Would you be willing to share how you made the snowman. I finished building 4 coro singing Christmas trees for 2016. Will be adding 4 coro singing bells for 2017 and I would like to add the snowman next year. I like the more mellow music. I use Frank, Harry Jr, Dean Martin, well you get the idea and some Mormon Tabernacle Choir. I've been wanting to do a singing snowman but you nailed it on the head. So did you build it or what? Mike's Creations.