Santa and his reindeer

After years of looking I finally managed to get the 9 blow mold deer and sleigh yesterday at an after christmas sale at our local ace hardware at 50% off, now I want to suspend it above my house, I am not worried about a flying effect as we are 200 feet from the road and my thought is that any motion large enough to not look like wind wobble would be difficult to pull off, however I desperately want to suspend it. Is there any chance you could email me a parts list and a "how to build for dummies" instructions of your cable system? Judging by your screen name I should ask that you put instruction into words a 27yr Army guy could understand! Thanks for any help you can give me!!!!
 
So Bill was definitely the inspiration on how I did it. But to be honest it is a very simple setup. I used polycarbonate tubes 2' variety.

https://www.amazon.com/Polycarbonat...482876363&sr=8-2&keywords=polycarbonate+tubes

I also used this cable to run through the Reindeer and Santa.

https://www.amazon.com/Forney-70452...qid=1482876440&sr=8-2&keywords=aircraft+cable

If you look at the previous pictures you can see how it all just comes together. I will look to see if I have some better pictures.

You will also need these clamps to hold the reindeer in place and with the correct spacing. I believe I used 1.5" between each set of reindeer and Santa. https://www.amazon.com/Hillman-Grou...rd_wg=fDW0O&psc=1&refRID=FM0VN3A4QB5ZREHR24PZ
 
timpwk said:
After years of looking I finally managed to get the 9 blow mold deer and sleigh yesterday at an after christmas sale at our local ace hardware at 50% off, now I want to suspend it above my house, I am not worried about a flying effect as we are 200 feet from the road and my thought is that any motion large enough to not look like wind wobble would be difficult to pull off, however I desperately want to suspend it. Is there any chance you could email me a parts list and a "how to build for dummies" instructions of your cable system? Judging by your screen name I should ask that you put instruction into words a 27yr Army guy could understand! Thanks for any help you can give me!!!!
Click to expand...

I can post some pictures of my sleigh setup as well if it will help you? I built mine and gave Charlie a bunch of pictures to show him.
I have mine setup with an LOR controller under the sleigh that controls each reindeer, Santa, and two runs of Red/Green rope light for the reins. That way I only need to run a cat cable and power to the sleigh.
I strung mine up between my house and a tree but did not use anything to make motion as the breeze usually makes it move enough for me so far! I have hopes of someday making a monorail style system to make the sleigh go around the yard but so far nothing that elaborate!
Just let me know and I can send you photos if you like.
 
would it be hard to set up some sort of stepper motor that pulls the sleigh on a cable back and forth? anyone have any ideas? also anyone controlled something like that with falcon at all?
 
There is a fellow in Colorado, I think, that made a cable setup much like an old rope ski tow line with limit switches at each end and a reversible motor to bring the whole thing back to the start point. I had planned to make a similar setup with two towers but have not gotten to it.
I would think that a stepper motor would be "jerky" for the motion while a fair DC PWM control motor or just a plain AC motor with step down gearing would work better.
Limit switches at the start and finish with a reversing relay for the motor is pretty much it although I would only use a controller like the Falcon or any other to run a relay with adequate protection for the controller. That way you can use a good contactor relay for the motor power that has a low voltage coil so as not to draw a lot through the controller.
 
I am also considering putting in a brighter bulb n the deer. I was thinking about some 25W or 40W equivalent LED bulbs, but that could reuire reingeneering the hole for the bulb. Has anyone done this?
 
timpwk said:
I am also considering putting in a brighter bulb n the deer. I was thinking about some 25W or 40W equivalent LED bulbs, but that could reuire reingeneering the hole for the bulb. Has anyone done this?
Click to expand...

I didn't put brighter bulbs in my deer but I did add bulbs to them to get a more even glow out of them! I put a bulb in the rear leg area and another in the neck.
I did mod a GV deer to have a C7 bulb in his nose for my Rudolf one as well.
 
Bill, I like the idea of spreading out the light, however I think I want to go with LED due t the fact I may put these on my roof and many years once we get to December getting on the roof to replace a blown light is impossible due to snow and ice. Maybe I can find a way to do it with LED's if I can fnd a financialy sound source.
 
timpwk said:
Bill, I like the idea of spreading out the light, however I think I want to go with LED due t the fact I may put these on my roof and many years once we get to December getting on the roof to replace a blown light is impossible due to snow and ice. Maybe I can find a way to do it with LED's if I can fnd a financialy sound source.
Click to expand...

I agree all too much with you on this! I use dimmable C7 LED bulbs in mine as well since my sleight is 12 feet up in the air for the season!
I bought a bunch of dimmable replacement ones from AliExpress a couple years back but don't see them on his site anymore.
You can find them though from other sources like here:

http://www.ledholidaylighting.com/c7LEDreplacementBulb.aspx

or

http://www.christmaslightsetc.com/p...ulb-Package-of-25--18680.htm#F1V22955F373V331

I have 175 blowmolds as well that I have converted to LED bulbs so I use a lot of them myself! :w00t:

Bill
 
Here are some pictures of my reindeer for making them brighter. I ran the zip cord up inside the deer to get to the lamp socket for the head. It made it easier to maintain and out of the way.

I used fender washers on the sleight to distribute the load of the cable and keep it from cutting into the plastic. There are two washers at each point, 1 on the outside and 1 on the inside. I drilled three holes and used 8/32 machine screws, nuts, lock washers to "sandwich" the plastic between them.
Those two cables are the main ones that run from end to end and terminate in loops so that I can use other cables or anything else to mount the sleight team too.
 

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On this same topic, I'm finally getting my team deployed after two years of misfires. I have a question about securing the team in the air.

I have a pine tree that I have attached a board up about 45' into the tree with two pulleys on it. The board is pressure treated 2x6 and painted. It's secured with tie wraps, a ratchet strap (It'll rust shut soon enough), screws and the board is mounted on the back side of the tree. So the strength of the board is used more than the attaching mechanisms. I looped two coated aviation cables up and down through each of the pulleys with loops on each end and secured them just out of reach without a small ladder. This is all permanent.

I'll be hooking two other cables to these cables along with the team out into the yard. The team is set up a lot like the ones pictured in the thread with the PVC. The question is this...

I'm going to use ground anchors on both sets of ends. I have the potential for about a 100' span from the ground to the top. I'm going to put it out as far as I can of course to have a nice angle. The team will pretty much in the center of the run. I will also use run a couple cables from the center of the team down to the ground to anchors there to keep it from swaying in the wind too much.

Any advice on picking a ground anchors for the job?

The biggest vortex anchor is I think about 450 pound of strength. I've seen some bigger ones that go to up to 3500 pound. I don't want to go overkill on it but I want it to be safe too.

Thanks,

Jason
 
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