Converting a Basketball Goal into a megatree
It probably shouldn't be called a megatree, because it's only 10 ft tall, but its the tallest tree in my yard, so it's mega for me. It could easily be adapted to taller designs.
My design goals were:
> Use things I already had and others were likely to have or could get easily and inexpensively
> Make it very strong to handle the winds and bad weather we have around here.
> Easy take down/setup with minimal storage space requirements
> A big goal that I couldn't find on other designs was an adjustable tension system on the lights so the light strands stay taught and don't flop around in the wind. The strands tend to stretch over time so it had to be adjustable multiple times as the strands stretch
> capable of high strand density so it looks great and can do smooth spins and other effects
> Have more of a tree shape and not so much of a tent shape
> Work with the 23ft light strands I had on hand
> Avoid GFI trips
> Inexpensive to build. I like the lights but would rather spend more money on my family than on blinking lights.
We have this basketball goal that never gets used anymore and my wife wanted me to get rid of it. So I did, but not in the way she expected
It's one of those cheap ones that has a plastic base that you fill with sand or water for weight. I was tempted to continue to use the base, but it doesn't sit level in the yard, and it had fallen over before in high winds and dented a car, which really made me mad
, so I decided to ditch the base and make my own.
You could just as easily use PVC pipe instead of the basketball goal post, so if you don't have the basketball goal, you can still do this project and keep it cost effective. One of the benefits of using the basketball goal post is it's height can be adjusted so I was able to lower it to 9ft so it would fit in my garage while I was building it.
What I came up with is a wooden octagonal base which supports the post and the bottom end of the lights, with a PVC drain on the top of the post to support the lights at the top of the post. The octagonal base of the tree looks round from a short distance and can be built out of wood fairly easily (if you have a miter saw - lots of angles to cut).
I completely disassembled the basketball goal. The main part I wanted was the post. It's strong, adjustable height, painted black, just perfect for my use. In the end, I ended up using almost every piece of metal from the basketball goal. By the way, you can do this without destroying it, so if you want to keep using your basketball goal when done with the tree, keep all of the parts and put the goal back together. I had a mandate from my wife to get rid of mine, plus I was still not happy about it denting a car when it fell over, so I was more than happy to make this a permanent change.
I attached what I could of the build instructions, but I couldn't post all the photos due to attachment limits. Will be happy to email detailed photos, etc for anyone that would like them.
