CHRISTMAS YARD ART - the 10-FOOT STAR

Your outdoor Christmas display just ain't complete without a star. This one is easy to build. If you can use a measuring tape and drill holes, you won't have any trouble with it. Some say this is a touch on the redneck side. I agree. But hey, I'm born & raised in Dixie. This goes nice with the Driveway Arch on my other page.

 

MATERIALS
6	10-foot pieces of 1/2-inch PVC pipe
10	1/4-20 screws, 4 inches long. Must be all-thread.
10	1/4-20 nuts.
1	Black spray paint. (Flat black if you can find it.)
6	100-bulb miniature outdoor Christmas light strands. Must be able to plug three strands end-to-end.
1	roll of electrical tape

TOOLS

Drill and 5/16-inch bit

DIRECTIONS

1. Measure 1 inch from the end of a pipe. Drill a 5/16-inch hole straight through the pipe at that point. It might be easier to drill a small pilot hole first, then come back with the bigger bit.
2. Measuring from the same end, drill another hole at these measurements: 46, 74, and 1 inch from the other end (which ought to be 119 inches from the first end). All these holes must pierce the pipe in the same direction. See "helpful hints" below.
3. Repeat steps 2 and 3 until you've got 5 pieces done.
4. Paint all six pipes black. Okay, so I didn't paint all of mine, but I wish I did.
5. Assemble the star. This ain't complicated. You know what a 5-point star looks like. Just lay it out on the floor. Now, at the five points of the star, you'll find a hole in the two pipes. Put a screw through the holes and run a nut down on the screw. No wrench needed, finger tight is fine. Once you get the outside done go back and do the inside junctions. See the photos below.
6. Stand the star up with the screw ends pointing at you. Lean it up against a wall.
7. Starting at one of the bottom corners, wrap one strand of lights around the star clockwise, going from one 4-inch screw to the next. When that strand runs out, plug in another strand and keep going. And when the second strand runs out, add another. Stop when you've done three strands. The loose end can be secured by wrapping it around the light strands, or with electrical tape.
8. Back at that same bottom corner in step 7, wrap another three strands going counter-clockwise.
9. On each "arm" of the star, you may want to tape the lights to the pipe to keep them from sagging. See photo below.
10. The sixth pipe is a prop to hold up the star. Put the star out in the yard where you want it. Lean it back a few inches from vertical, put the prop on top of the horizontal cross-piece (leaving the other end on the ground), and tape them together with electrical tape. Use plenty of tape.
11. Plug it in, sit back and enjoy while reducing your supply of fermented adult beverages.

HELPFUL HINTS

Do the drilling on a big flat surface (garage floor). Put a piece of wood under the pipe to keep the bit and floor from damaging each other.

Getting the holes going the same way is the hardest part. After drilling the first hole, stick one of the screws through it and run a nut down on it to hold it in. Keep that screw pointed straight up and the drill pointed straight down and you'll do fine.

The 5/16-inch hole leaves plenty of slop for misalignment. You could drop down closer to 1/4-inch if you know what you're doing.

You can use another screw and nut to hold the prop to the cross-piece, if you really want to drill more holes. The drawback is next year you'll have to insure the same cross-piece is the horizontal member before you start stringing lights.

When assembling the pipes, don't worry about which piece goes over or under the other piece. It's flexible.

If your back went out when bending over to drill all those holes, you can assemble this puppy standing up. Put two pieces together like an up-side-down V. Then hook on the horizontal cross-piece using the two inside junctions. And then hook on the next stick, again using the inside junctions. When all the inside junctions are done, get what end junctions you can without bending over, then rotate the star as needed to get the other end junctions up off the floor where you can reach them better. Maybe you'll have recovered enough to bend over to string the lights.

Can't find 4-inch all-thread screws? Get a stick of 1/4-20 all-thread rod and cut your own. At my Home Depot, the long pieces of all-thread rod sold in the lighting department (for hanging light fixtures) are much cheaper than the short pieces sold on the screw isle. You'll need 10 more nuts to substitute for screw heads and a hack-saw for cutting the all-thread.

That "3 strands clockwise, 3 strands counter-clockwise" thing is because most strings tolerate a total of three plugged end-to-end. Oh, while you're winding on the lights, don't pull them too tight or it'll cause the star to bend funny.

Take a minute to insure no bulbs are caught inside the bundle of wires. You want them out so they can be seen. Setting a couple of strands to "twinkle" adds some interest.

A buddy from up north reminds me that wind and snow might be a problem for this design. Down here in Dixie, snow ain't a problem. But we did have a thunderstorm that blew the prototype over. So if storms are a problem, you might have to stake it down somehow. He also said that cold weather makes electrical tape brittle, so zip ties might be better. Whatever. If ya got what it takes to build this thing, you'll be able to work around any challenges your environment throws at you.

Photo shows how the lights go around one of the inside junctions.

A patch of tape in the middle of each arm keeps the lights from sagging. This photo is sharp. Your monitor makes it look fuzzy.

Good luck and have fun!