DIY large Christmas tree stand Complete!

[Trent Mason]

Hello Folks,

Christy and I would like to get a big Christmas tree this year (probably 10-12 feet) to both fit in a large area of space in our den and also to show some good Christmas spirit in spite of a rough year...

My question is this. Do any of you have any plans for building your own tree stand for a tree that large?

We saw one at Lowes today for $54.00 that had a very small watering pot. I didn't want to spend that much, especially because of the small watering pot. I have some scrap metal at work and a very good welding setup. A thought I had is to go and buy a fairly large cooking pot from Walmart, etc and somehow weld it to a strong base and something that will hold a tree that size.

Just wondering if any of you have done anything like this. Any help/tips are greatly appreciated! :icon_thum

Trent

 

[Mike Davis]

Re: Need ideas for a DIY large Christmas tree stand

The pot doesn't need to be welded to the stand, just make provision for it to sit under there.

 

[Joe Scharle]

Re: Need ideas for a DIY large Christmas tree stand

Traditional stands were buckets filled with rocks (smaller the better) packed around the butt. Sometime the bucket would sit on a cross made of lumber and the 4 ends of the lumber would have wire or twine tied back to the trunk. Then, just keep your rocks watered.

 

[DaveD]

Re: Need ideas for a DIY large Christmas tree stand

If its a aluminum or stainless steel pot be sure you know how to weld those materials. Particularly if the pots are relatively thin.

A few years ago my daughter was into 10'+ trees. My job was to haul the tree. What we saw were these tree stands welded out of pieces of thick rebar. 3 splayed legs with a sharpened rebar spike welded vertically where the legs joined. Crutch tips on the outbound ends to prevent scratching the floor.The center, where the 3 legs joined was probably 4-6" off the floor. For a water pan it had a large diameter plastic pan with about 6" high sides. The pan had a hole in it with a O ring kind of gasket and it just slid down over the spike.

Surprisingly it worked real well and it didn't leak. Had envisioned having to weld up a pan for her and weld it on the spoke.
The place selling the trees had a powered auger that drilled a hole in the bottom of the tree. Pretty slick. Hold the tree vertically and step on a foot lever and drilled the hole. Hole was probably 6" deep

Now if I was going to make a stand I'd get a 1' stub of big diameter pipe, maybe 6-8" in diameter. Weld up one end with a piece of plate, and have a 3" spike on that end welded in the middle of the plate. Up around the circumference on the other end I'd weld (after drilling 1/2" bolt clearance holes) three 1/2" nuts, 120 degrees apart. These would be for clamping the tree. Then just weld 3 wide legs onto the pipe.

Since you have scrap metal and the welder available this might only cost you time to build. Dig around in that scrap bin and find scrap steel that will work. None of those dimensions I gave are cast in stone.

 

[peteb301]

Re: Need ideas for a DIY large Christmas tree stand

Why not make one out of WOOD. Couple of pieces of 3/4 ply to make a box on top of a box with a hole for the tree trunk.
You can leave one side open on the bottom box to fill the bowl that the tree sits in with water.
Mine was 18" square and 10" high for the bottom box, 10" square and 6 " tall for the attached upper box.
Ther was also a seperate shelf built into the lower box , also with a hole to stabilize and keep the tree plumb.

2" holes were drilled for the tree trunk all aligned so the tree would be plumb. This was for a 5' tree.
You can modify the dimentions to fit the BIG tree.

Send a note, I'd be glad to help, design , build.

Is this NOT a wood worker site ??

 

[ncguy77]

Re: Need ideas for a DIY large Christmas tree stand

I'm an engineer and I hated every stand I've ever seen or used in my life....until I bought this one a few years ago.... finally!

They call it the "Last Stand" and I concur.

Also brutally simple watering solution.

http://interiordec.about.com/gi/o.h...42.ip_&tt=3&bt=0&bts=0&zu=http://xmas911.com/

 

[merrill77]

The link should be, I think, http://xmas911.com

 

[ncguy77]

Re: Need ideas for a DIY large Christmas tree stand

I guess I'd also add that the stand appears to be made by a true Ma/Pa scenario.
I'd also say that the stand is a whole lot better than their early 1990's style website.

 

[Trent Mason]

Re: Need ideas for a DIY large Christmas tree stand

The one in the link looks fairly easy to replicate. (I say that now) :gar-La; I believe I have enough scrap metal on hand to do something like this. I also have a a ratchet strap that I could shorten. We'll see how it goes... Thanks for the info! :icon_thum

 

[Trent Mason]

Re: Need ideas for a DIY large Christmas tree stand

Thanks to all for your great advice. :icon_thum I had a little bit of free time at work on Wednesday and came up with this, based on the link that you all provided.



As of right now, I'm planning to drive a 3" deck screw through one of the holes in the base (you can kind've see it in the photo) into the bottom of the trunk and use a shortened ratchet strap to secure it further. No idea how it is going to hold up. I guess we'll find out when we're eating dinner and the fully decorated tree falls over onto the table. :swoon: :rotflm: :wconfused: The welds seem pretty solid as I stood on the base last night and it only gave a little. Any comments/criticism is welcomed. :icon_thum

 

[Mike Davis]

Re: Need ideas for a DIY large Christmas tree stand

Looks pretty solid. Will the L bracket sit in the pan of water?

Should hold an 8 foot tree easily.

 

[Trent Mason]

Looks pretty solid. Will the L bracket sit in the pan of water?

Should hold an 8 foot tree easily.

Yes it will. I've got an old rectangular rubbermaid trash can that I will cut to height. It should hold plenty of water. Also, I'm going to try a siphoning system with a 5 gallon bucket (hidden in a fake present) to make watering a little easier.

 

[DaveD]

One concern I might have is the tree isn't centered on the stand. Be sure to check how easy it will push over towards the right. You could always put some weight on the other two legs to help out.

Put two straps around the trunk. One gives you no backup if the strap happens to stretch/break,etc.

 

[toolferone]

Looks good and it is Christmas tree green too!

 

[Trent Mason]

One concern I might have is the tree isn't centered on the stand. Be sure to check how easy it will push over towards the right. You could always put some weight on the other two legs to help out.

Put two straps around the trunk. One gives you no backup if the strap happens to stretch/break,etc.

This is also my main concern. In the link provided by Chris and Jim, from the looks of it, they use a small "spike" that you are to hammer into the butt of the tree stump. In the picture it looks like it is less than 2 inches high. I've drilled two holes (so far) in the bottom of the "L bracket" and may drill a third, even further out if the trunk ends up being very large. I chose to use 3 inch deck screws as an alternative to the "spike." I'm not sure how that will turn out and that is my main concern. I am confident that the frame will hold up, but am not sure about the screw(s) themselves being submerged in water for over a month... :eusa_thin

 

[FredP]

get some stainless screws.:icon_thum

 

[ncguy77]

Wow that was fast and looks pretty accurate.

The actual spike is only about 1.5" tall and maybe about 3/16" in diameter. The pin is permanently attached to the flat bottom plate and the procedure is to lay the tree down and position the vertical channel along the trunk and just whack the bottom of the plate and drive it into the base of the trunk. Brute simple and effective. Then just ratchet it tight. Believe me it doesn't come out due to gravity and the strap. No reason to have multiple screws. One would be plenty. It wont rust away in a month...probably not a year.

Actual dimensions are

Screw levelers are at 27" x 23" rectangle
9" vertical is 2x2 angle iron
spike is 2.25" away from V corner of angle iron
Tubing is 1" square

Doubt most people can buy the materials for less than the $45 purchase and certainly if you pay yourself hourly but if you have the scrap I guess it was a fun
Thanksgiving project.

The whole key to the sturdiness of this structure is that when you ratchet that tree into the channel of the angle iron it is almost like the tree and stand become one. There is zero wiggle. That ratchet ain't gonna break as long you you paid 5$ or so and got one rated for a 1,000 pounds or so. The spacing and dimensions of the adjusters have seen more than sturdy for the 8 foot trees I've been putting up. With old stands i used to put tree in corner and have some guy wires to the wall. No more.

To me the only improvement would be to make the adjuster bottoms be like a 3" diameter disk if used on carpeted floors like I had. The current ones are like 1.5" which will be fine for my new hardwood floors. When on my old carpeted floors I'd rest the adjuster on a couple thick magazines to spread out the weight at each adjuster.

 

[Trent Mason]

Thanks very much for your reply Jim. That definitely gives me some confidence in my work. :icon_thum It's funny, it doesn't matter what it is or how many pain staking hours of precision work I put into it, I always feel like it isn't good enough (especially with electrical work). :elvis: I just looked at the photos on his website and tried to estimate the dimensions. Once I had the "legs" all welded up and started going vertical, I would just try to think logically and always try to stay two or three steps ahead. But for the most part I just guessed.

Screw levelers are at 27" x 23" rectangle Mine ended up being about 34" x 29"
9" vertical is 2x2 angle iron All we had was 1" x 1" angle iron so I opted for u channel instead. It ended up being about 10" high.
spike is 2.25" away from V corner of angle iron I've got one screw hole 2" from corner of u channel and another 2.5" from corner of u channel.
Tubing is 1" square Mine is the same. 1/8" thick mild steel. The vertical support and u channel are 1/4" thick mild steel and this thing probably weighs 30-40 lbs.

It was certainly a fun project and I definitely agree with you. Unless you have the scrap metal laying around and don't clock in to work on this, it is much cheaper to buy it from xmas911.com. All together, I probably have 7 hours of labor in this (including driving to and wandering around the hardware store) :gar-La;. I'd imagine you could stream line the process if you were mass producing them, but I still think it would take at least an hour to make each stand. The most frustrating part for me was tapping (threading) the holes for the screw levelers. :BangHead: As far as money goes, having the scrap metal, access to a welder and metal band saw, and a ratchet strap, I probably have less than $15 in this, and that was hardware and a can of spray paint. Fun project. :icon_thum Christy said I should make these and sell them and I kindly pointed out to her that the gentleman has a patent on this design. :nah:

 

[DaveD]

Just noticed something, somehow a few of the responses got this to be a stand that should hold a 8' tree comfortably when the OPs requirement was for a 10-12' tree. That's 384 to 768 sixteenths of an inch off in woodworking lingo.

Trent, the satisfaction of making something yourself, independent of the business case for it, is what gives us that satisfied feeling of accomplishment. Being able to mix welding with woodworking can also open up all kinds of new avenues for things to build/make. Besides if you make it too short you can always weld more steel on it where if you cut a board too short you start over.

Ive got into metal working and machining as a hobby the last few years and have told people that I can make a 25 cent washer in 4 hours on my expensive metal lathe. The satisfaction of just having made it is priceless though. The dumbfounded look on the person I just told that to is even better.

Have a Merry Christmas and enjoy your stand.

 

[Canuck]

Well done Trent!!! :eusa_clap


You owe us another picture when the new tree gets hoisted into position.


Quite impressive work.


Wayne