Contact Info
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Wire Frame D'Lites
Omaha, NE 68152
Email:


Phone: (402) 659-3130

HOW TO LIGHT YOUR FRAMES

There are several ways to put lights on your frames. First you need to know the total length of each part of the frame that you will be lighting. If you are doing a singing frame then you need to know the length for each channel that you will have.

Some people like to use all white lights and put color caps on them so when you need a small number of lights for, say, the eyes or nose or inside of the deer ears, Santa's belt buckle, that you can do this easily, because it is very difficult to get a string of lights small enough for some of those places, so color caps are very useful for these areas.

The Color Combo Clips are for LED M5 & M6 Mini Lights. You use white lights and slide the color combo clips onto the light and then snap the clip onto the frame. It very easy to change colors and very fast to light up a frame. You may still need to use zipties in some places to secure excess wires to the frame.

The length of the M5 Combo Clip is 1 3/8". Keep in mind that approximately 1/2" - 5/8" will be over the socket.

NOTE - If your wire frames have a lot of detail in them, we suggest that you use the M5 Combo Clips with the M6 light strings.

If your frames are large with little detail, use the longer M5, M6 or Incandescent Combo Clips. There is also nothing wrong with mixing sizes of combo clips on the same frame.

Using the M5 combo clips, you will need 6 clips per foot of wire frame. That's putting them on tip to end so there is not any space between the lights.

The color combo clips are available at Christmas-Leds.com.

You can also get blackout caps to just plain cover up the lights you don't want to shine. A cheaper alternative would be black electrical tape to cover the light bulbs. You can get these caps for both incandescent mini lights and LEDs (They are different sizes), and some of these for LEDs come with a little hook on them. For wireframes, I think your lights should be very close together, about 2" apart. Have all bulbs face outward when possible. Most of the lights you buy in stores like Walmart, Lowes, Etc, will be 5 or 6" apart, so pay close attention to the space between the lights when buying light strings. Buy lots more than you think you will need. For wireframes, you'll be needing one clip for about every inch and a half to two inches of wire. Twist the wire to take up slack between bulbs. Sometimes use small cable zip ties or a twist tie to hold something in place that doesn't want to stay.

Start with the male plug at a bottom corner and work your way up from there. Be sure all lights have plugs at both ends so you can make it continuous when you run short of lights and need to add another string. The more lights you put on, the better it will look, it will have more definition.

You can use standard miniature lights. It is best to use 50 light strings with 2-4 inch spacing between the lights. You can attach the lights with 1/2 inch fiber based, plastic packing tape. The only problem with this tape is it tends to come unraveled after a few years being outside and exposed to the elements. It's worth your time to enhance the wireframe and use a 4 inch tie wrap on each light socket. You'll never have to worry about the tape coming undone again but the tape still deteriorates with age.

If you want to use Pixels there is now a clip called "Wizard Pixel Clips". The universal 12mm Pixel and RGB Node Clip will hold Pixels onto frames made with 1/4 round steal rods.

The Wizard Pixel Clips are available from Todd at www.wizardofwire.com or you can email him at .

You can also use ropelight. Use lots of tie wraps to attach the ropelight to the wireframe. When putting the zip ties on the rope I noticed if you place them at the cut point and tighten them you have a good chance of killing a section. So I stayed away from those areas when placing the zip ties. Spots where you don't want to see the ropelight should be wrapped in black electrical tape. Ropelight creates special challenges of its own. Be sure and read how to cut and attach 120 volts to it. Most of the time, you'll have an excess length of ropelight color on your wireframe. Simply use black electrical tape and wrap it around the length of extra ropelight giving the end special attention to make sure bare wires are not protruding (use liquid electrical tape or silicon to cover.)

You can also use tie wraps (zipties). A 4" length works the best and you'll want to get a "tensioning tool" to automagically pull and cut each tie, though people have been known to use fingernail clippers. Note the lock assembly is always on the back of the frame. With ropelight, put the tie between lights.

You can also use clips as they are easy to use. You sometimes need to get creative securing excess wires to the frame with zipties.

Print out a picture of the frame and then using a pencil, mark on the picture the path that you will be using to put the lights on it, keeping in mind that you will start at the bottom of the frame going up one side and come down on the other side. Try to keep from doubling back if possible.