I'm going to update this thread as to my original query as part of the paying it forward philosophy. For my particular needs, my arches would be mounted against a railing, so I don't have to worry too much about keeping them upright or weighing them down, mostly just the two ends connected at the base to prevent them from snapping back to straight shape of the original pex. Last season, I was looking for an alternative to pixel mounting strips because of the cost of shipping, and came across a post recommending using this plastic pipe hanging strap you could buy from any hardware store. It was grey with 1" spaced small holes, and I simply used a forstner bit to drill the holes to the right size to mount pixels for my megatree. Even with 50 holes drilled into it (whose edges only left a very thin strip of material connected to the rest of the strip, not only did none of them break, but they withstood a pretty decent amount of tensioning in weather that spanned -20 Celcius to +15 Celcius over the span of 2.5 months, including rain, snow, you name it. And still this year, when I pulled them back out, they are just as strong, not brittle. I saw so many people talking about having to put a piece of emt as the base, and although it completely depends on your application and situation, using this dirt cheap strapping appears to be a good alternative I can report. I picked up some standard size adjustable pipe clamps for around $0.25 (and that's Canadian, Americans can probably get them for even cheaper). One on each side of the arch. Loosened it, slid the strap between the clamp and pex, tightened. I then proceeded to abuse the heck out of the connection to a scrap piece of the same pex and whipped it around like I was Indiana Jones lol. Doing everything I could to see if I could get the strap to break, the clamp to slip off the pex, or the strap to slip out of the clamp, including using it like a lasso and hitting the ground....Nadda. It's still holding firm. Connected it to the other side of the arch and it's rock solid thus far. So there you have it, a dirt cheap alternative that allows you to adjust the width of the base so you aren't stuck with whatever size your emt was cut at. But keep in mind, it all depends where you use it. Some places, that extra weight is needed
Here's the link to the product from the Canadian store I got it at, but just use that for reference. I've heard the exact same thing is available pretty much everywhere
https://www.rona.ca/en/3-4-grey-polyethylene-suspension-strap-1120027
PS EDIT: If you ever here a Canadian referencing RONA.... Rona=Lowe's in the USA. I'm pretty sure they are the same company.
