DIY large Christmas tree stand Complete!

[Trent Mason]

Thanks so much for the great replies and compliments. This morning, I kept looking at the welds on the base of the stand and wasn't really that satisfied. :no: So to test them I stood and more or less did a calf raise on the L bracket and what do you know? One of the bottom welds on the base snapped. :BangHead: I had more or less tacked the base together and welded much more on the vertical assembly. So I guess it's a good thing I did that or the tree may have very well ended up laying in our living room. :swoon:

Long story short, I took the stand back to the office, grinded the paint off of the places I wanted to touch up and welded that base together about as welded as it could possibly be. Then it was off to the Farmer's Market. If you haven't been there to look at Christmas trees, they have quite a good selection and are fairly priced. We ended up with this one.



Needless to say, it looked a lot smaller outside. Either way, it's our tree for this year. The stand seems to be holding up well with all of the new welds and I've spent the rest of the afternoon trying to figure out the siphoning system to make watering easier. Hopefully I'll get that figured out by the end of the night. :icon_thum

 

[Jeff]

Trent, that looks really good and sturdy construction too. :icon_cheers

FYI, the patented design can optionally include a laterally adjustable "spike" mechanism to accommodate trees of different diameters and 8-12' high so only 1 spike is required. You can view the patent and the associated images (14 of them) for the specifics. It's not easy reading which is typical of a patent, but a good place to start is the "Description" section.

http://www.google.com/patents/US5362024

I'll try to send you a copy of the .PDF download of this patent.

Did you get your siphoning system figured out?

Merry Xmas!

 

[ncguy77]

People may not notice that it's very easy to put a big plastic wash pan underneath the tree since the L shaped tree holder is offset
from the vertical riser. The tree comes with a plastic pan about 10wx14LX4H that holds a ton of water and also projects out enough
to easily replenish.

Jeff, thanks for digging up the patent. interesting read

 

[ncguy77]

Screw levelers are at 27" x 23" rectangle Mine ended up being about 34" x 29"

Jeez that should hold up a huge tree.

So what was your impression of sturdiness?

 

[Trent Mason]

Jeez that should hold up a huge tree.

So what was your impression of sturdiness?

It seems very sturdy. Once it was setup in the living room I literally tried to push it over and it wouldn't budge (OK, it wasn't that hard of a push). :gar-Bi Still my main concern is one of the welds breaking lose and us coming home (or waking up) to the tree laying in the floor and water all over the place. I weighed the boxes of ornaments and lights and they should add an additional ~40 lbs of weight to it, once decorated. Hopefully the welds will hold up... :eusa_pray I did have to put a few inches worth of shims underneath one of the legs. As it turned out, this tree was pretty straight in the stand, but the trunk is a hair crooked. One thing I forgot to take into account was that 34" x 29" made it quite a challenge to get it into the door (with tree attached). :swoon:

 

[ncguy77]

I did have to put a few inches worth of shims underneath one of the legs.

Hmmm...was the stand level to start with? The version I bought has about 3" of travel at each leg and typically way more than needed. Your adjusters seem similar. I think your tree may be more crooked than you think.

One thing I forgot to take into account was that 34" x 29" made it quite a challenge to get it into the door (with tree attached).

I think there might be a joke in there.

 

[pound]

look very good..learnt something here from the various posts.