Matt Johnson from the Johnson Family Light Show has a video about building a Leaping Light Arch. It was that very video that inspired me to get started learning how to do this... however, 2" HDPE tubing is not available in my area and a single 10 foot tube that only costs about $18... then costs over $80 to ship. Not ideal, so I looked for a suitable replacement and came across this video: Building Leaping PEX Arches. 1" white PEX tubing works like a charm! I picked up a 100 foot roll from Lowes for about $70. It's waaay more than enough, as you only need between 4-12 feet of it (per arch) depending on how big you want your arches to be.
Supplies:
• RGB addressable Pixel Light Strip ~$22 each (One roll is about 16 feet)
• 1" White SharkBite PEX tubing ~$70 for 100 foot roll
^That's enough to make about ten 7 foot arches!
• Acetone - to remove the ink branding from the PEX tubing
• 1/2" Rigid EMT Conduit ~$3 per 10 foot pole
• 1 1/4" Pipe Fasteners (2 per arch... see PEX video)
• 3/4" - 1 1/2" Pipe Clamps ~$8 for a 10 pack (2 per arch)
• 1/2" Black Floor Flanges ~ $5 each (2 per arch)
• 1/2" Black Steel Nipple Fittings ~ $1.20 each (2 per arch)
• Screws, Lock Nuts
• Wood for the bases
Many people that do Leaping Light Arches will make identical-sized arches. I chose to make them in 3 different sizes, Large, Medium, and Small. This way I could achieve a more realistic leaping animation effect where the energy of the Large arch starts to diminish the further away the light goes. (Like the gravity effect on dropped bouncing ball) I've Named my arches "Gravity Light Arches". As of 2017, my display has 5 arches and I plan to create more that will cascade down the steps of the retaining walls.
It's exactly like having a LIGHTSABER! The lights glow through the PEX tubing really well. All the pixel strip needs is some tension to keep it against the inner part of the tube. If not, the light strip can get too close to the outermost edge and you'll see the RGB pixel dots (on the outside tube) instead of a smooth, diffused look.
These images were some quick tests of what the lights look like shining through the PEX tube in the dark.
The arches keep their shape by pipe clamps at the ends of 1/2" conduit and metal hose clamps that compress the 1" PEX tubing on an 1.5" black pipe nipple and screwed into a black 1/2" floor flange that I could stake to the ground.
Testing the strip lights inside one of the medium arches. The Sharkbite text on the PEX tubing can be removed with some acetone, but it doesn't bother me and I chose the non-printed side to face out toward the street.
FOR MORE:
• HOW to Build the base supports
• Connecting everything
Please reference the PEX video link at the beginning of this post.
Thanks for sharing this wonderful article. Google