Holday Tree Planter

The wife loves holidays. Especially Christmas. I don't. I do like making stuff, and justifying using my 3D printer for functional things. And it makes it easier for me to justify getting more printers and more printer stuff. Also, my kids like the holidays. and we had most of this stuff laying around the garage taking up space, and im all for clearing space. So here we go

Supplies

large planter (out of the neighbors trash)

Tomato cage (garden)

garland/ lights (holiday box)

baling wire (garage)

3d printer (not needed, but handy. plus, why not)

3/4 pvc (actually had to buy)

1 can spray snow (again, had to buy)

decorations

sand/ gravel

scrap wood

drill, saw, assorted hand tools

Spray paint

painters tape

1/8 inch pinstriping tape

Step 1: Setup Your Skeleton

so I had to clean the pots. the neighbors hot glued something all over it. then flip the cages upside down. I ran baling wire along the outside so it filled out the exterior. otherwise, when you wrap the garland around it, it will follow the 3 legs, and will look more triangle than round. I also added a 3d printed ring inside the pot to keep the PVC stable. I then cut a scrap of wood to keep it standing up. I just took a scrap of wood, cut it to fit, then drilled a hole in the middle. the scrap was then epoxied in. I also added a 3d printed "nose cone" this pulled the legs together into the right shape, kept them stable, gave a pocket for the PVC to sit in, and allowed for a tree topper when finished.

Step 2: Paint

as we were using this for Christmas, we went with the Christmas theme. If you are wanting to just do a holday tree that can be decorated for any holiday, you can paint a neutral color, or skip this step. We went with the ribbon/ candy cane look. I then put a coat of Kyrlon Fusion green over the whole thing.
I measured the bottom circumference. I divided that by how wide my masking cape was, measure the length, and marked it. so I had 20 tape strips to put on this thing, so I divided the top circumference by 20. I then put the first piece of tape on at an angle that I liked, and measured off of that. Once all the painters tape was on there, I put a another coat of green on to make sure to seal the tape edges and help prevent bleed over. Once that dried, I put a coat of white, so the red would really pop. Once that dried, i used 1/8 inch pinstriping tape on each edge of the painters tape. this will give the white lines. I coated with white again, let it dry, and then blasted it with the red. couple coats, then peal everything off. Hit it with a clear coat and your good to go This process took the longest, as its super humid here in Louisiana, and I had to leave everything overnight to try between steps.

Step 3: Wrap It

so the wife did this portion. Use small pieces of baling wire to attach the garland to the fram as you go around. Don't wait until the entire thing is wrapped before you do this. its super hard, and your gonna have a bad time. ask me how I know. This is also when you need to determine the height of your PVC pipe. after the garland is wrapped, spray it with the fake snow stuff. its gonna get everywhere, so do it outside. treat it like spray paint. This is also where I cut a hole in the bottom of the pot for the lights plug, and added a disk to hide the ugliness of the inside of the pot. I would also add the gravel/ sand for stability. but heres a tip. MAKE SURE THE PVD IS IN PLACE BEFORE YOU DO THIS. otherwise your gonna have a bad time. again. Once the tree is done, you can decorate and place it on the PVC.

Step 4: Finish, Tips, Things Id Do Different

once your tree is decorated, place it where you want it and plug it in. congrats, your done

I added a bolt to go through the top so I could tighten down the tree on the PVC. This kept it from swinging back and forth so much. Also alled some white fluff to the disc to make it look a little more finished.

If I had to do it again, id have 2 pieces of PVC. One permanently mounted in the tree, and one permanently mounted in the pot. these could use a coupler to get them together. This would make it so you wouldn't have to lift the tree all the way up to remove it, would aid in storage, and would keep the complaints about it falling apart to a minimum..

Step 5: