How I Make Inexpensive Conifer Trees

[Jumijo]

Walt,

John never made one of these trees in his life. His first tree is excellent, and it only took him 5 minutes. Your's will be too. and the more you make, the better they will look. Confidence is really the biggest ingredient in any successful endeavor. If you think you can do something, the battle is half-won already.

As for your clouds - you can do that, too. Repaint the sky blue color over the blobs, then take some white ceiling paint and a 2" house painting brush and slap the clouds on in a criss cross motion using a light touch. As you work out from the center, less paint is left on the brush, so it gives the cloud a soft edge. Practice on a scrap piece of wallboard or even cardboard until you develop a technique you're happy with.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to meet with a patent attorney to get this furnace filter tree idea registered, copyrighted, and patented. [;)][:)]

Jim

[TexasEd]

Nice. I may use that to create Cedar/Juniper trees for my layout.

Ed

[FJ and G]

Question: Will a forest of these trees filter the air in your train room? [:D][:D][:D]

[Jumijo]

QUOTE: Originally posted by FJ and G

Question: Will a forest of these trees filter the air in your train room? [:D][:D][:D]

Yes they will, David. As long as you plant that forest right in front of the H/VAC vent.[;)][:)]

Jim

[csxt30]

OK, picked up some 3/16" dowels & going to get to work before the Patents kick in !! [:D][:D] The train shows will want you to give a clinic on making trees maybe, Jim !!
Between Dave & Jim, I've been making a lot of stuff lately ! ( Daves' corrugator tool ) Plus I want to make some pallets & sidewalks that Hirailjon showed us ! Lots of action here !!
Have any of you giz noticed all the trees from different sellers lately on E-bay ?
Thanks again,

[FJ and G]

John, Looking forward to seeing your completed (or in progress work)

[csxt30]

Thanks Dave ! I made another one tonight & half of another. I painted the 2 outside while it was snowing ! Paint sticks real good to them, I noticed & I don't see any runs ! I plan to wack off a few more tonight ! Here's a picture of them just sitting on my mountain, & now I see I really need to get back to work on that ! Let me know how they're looking, I think I could still get the tops better, though ! Also I'm going to make some smaller ones.

Thanks,

[Jumijo]

John,

The tree on the right, the second one looks like it has a fine top. It's shaped a little better, too. When I cut out those discs from the filter material, it leaves little triangles of the stuff from the corners. Just slam one of those on top of your tree and tease it a little. You've got it down. You're a Pine Baron!

And I've learned a lot from David's posts as well. He's a good guy!

Jim

[Frank53]

outstanding Jim, they look terrific.

[jimhaleyscomet]

Jim...too late on the patent as you have already published it here first. However, perhaps a lawsuit might be in order...you might get lucky, the lawyers will get rich, and we can all chat about it!

Just kidding.

Jim H

[Jumijo]

I applied for the patent first, Jimmy. You'll be hearing from my lawyers, Dewey, Fleecum, and Howe. [;)] [:P] [:)]

John's trees are looking good. I see that he's started painting his mountain as well. Looking very good!

Jim

[FJ and G]

Maybe we should have a contest to see who can make the cutest, weirdest, ugliest and grungiest conifers from furnace filter material.

To add realism to the scene, have a couple trees toppled over too![:D][:D]

I think Jim's got the hang of this tree-making business. It's not in the materials you use, it's actually how well you shape the thing. (there have been some CTT issues in the past where the layout artists--in one case professional builders--did not get the shape right and simply stuck a mass of filter material on a trunk; uggg.

A variation on this tree-making work would be to spray adhesive on the tree and sprinkle various shades of green fine sawdust or ground foam. Also, a tiny sprinkle of brown for pine cones and perhaps a squirrel or two with a barking beagle at the foot of the tree.

[Jumijo]

Dave,

I have tried the ground foam technique to fill out some trees and to add texture. First, I give the tree a good coating of cheap hair spray. Then I sprinkle on some course foam. Then more hairspray. More foam. More hairspray, etc., until the right texture is achieved. Then I painted all with the Krylon. The Krylon didn't harm the ground foam one bit. I paint my trees while they are stuck in a piece of pink extruded foam panel. No harm done to that either from the Krylon.

I'd like to add a layer of dead pine needles to the floor of my soon to be forest. Do any of the scenery companies make a ground cover that is reddish-rusty orange?

Jim

[FJ and G]

Jim,

Get some real dried pine needles and cru***hem up until the texture is just right for ground cover; then seal with water/glue dilution.

[Jumijo]

Good idea, David! Plenty of those around here.

Jim

[csxt30]

Boy, more great ideas ! I now have my dowels painted & drying ! Thanks Jim for the tip on the tops, going to try that & I thought that spray on glue might work too ! My wife told me to paint the dowels too ! She likes them & has a few of the store bought trees, but now I have to make her some of these ! She has a whole bunch of the ceramic buildings. Hope to pump out a few more tonight, plus I think this is going to be a never ending project. As I'll bet the museum will want us OTTS members to make a lot of them for the layout there !! I'll get the Grandchildren to help make some when they come next time too !!
OK, thanks again,

[dwiemer]

Jim, good idea about the old pine needles. I have 3 acres of long leaf pines that I can use, but I will have to chop them up.
thanks,
dennis

[jimhaleyscomet]

Jaabat,

Is the filter you purchased more "foam" like (that is what it looks like in the picture) or is it more "stick" like. The one I purchased seems to be made of 1 inch tiny "sticks"

Jim H

[cnw1995]

They seem to be more foamy - like a crazy quilt of fuzzy mesh - the ones I've found are more like a screen (so far)

[FJ and G]

One caveate to the info I provided. Rather than spray adhesive, try glue/water diluted fine spray to attach the sawdust or ground foam.

Why?

Over time, the glue adhesive may attract dust.

However, the glue/water mix will dry without sticking.

Glad to see there's interest on this topic

[Jumijo]

Jim H,

The stick type is the type I went looking for, but could not find. Those make excellent trees in their own right, but you need to cover them with ground foam. The filters I use are airy woven material. These woven filters have actually proven to be better than the stick type, in my opinion.

Below is a link to the filter manufacturer's web site. As you can see, they do make green filters! I haven't found any yet.

http://www.flanderscorp.com/Retail/proddetail.asp?prod=24-NaturalAire-Custom-Fit

These homemade trees look better and are way less expensive than the vast majority of the store bought stuff, and you will have the satisfaction of knowing you made them yourself. I cranked out five on my lunch hour a few days ago.

Jim

[jimhaleyscomet]

When I went looking for the foam filters I stumbled across Poly-fil Nu-Foam (15"x17"x3" at $4 minus 40% off coupon) at Hobby Lobby. It is working fine at making trees. The only issue is that it drops alot of foam crumbs when you cut it. I will try to post pictures when I get some made.

Jim H

[Jumijo]

Jim,

What color is that Poly-fil Nu-Foam? If we can find any of this stuff in green, it makes the process so much easier.

Jim

[jimhaleyscomet]

It was all in white. Still white looks better under paint then blue!

Jim

[danrunner]

Jim,

For an even cheaper and earth-friendly approach, why not use your old filters after you change them out? I assume the paint will still stick and the grittiness would only enhace their realism.

Would it work?

Dan

[Dave Farquhar]

It seems to be a good time to revisit this thread. I made a Christmas tree sales lot using the instructions I found in the December 2004 issue of that other mag. I used coffee stirrer sticks, like the author did. If you don't have the issue, it looks like every Christmas tree lot you've seen--a crude frame nailed together out of 2x4s with trees leaning across it. The coffee stirrer sticks were leftover from my wife and I going out for coffee. Cost: $3.63 for the coffee. Well, that doesn't count the about 24 drops of super glue and the ink from my pen that I used to write "CHRISTMAS TREES" on the front. Call it $3.64.

The article suggested using Christmas village type trees, but I'm too cheap for that. I remembered Jim's trees so I dug this thread out. I changed out my furnace filter (great minds think alike, Dan), cut out some disks from it, made a really big mess from the dust, but the trees turned out OK. I used bamboo skewer sticks, the kind that come a hundred to a package for about a dollar. I knocked out four trees in about half an hour, counting the time it took to find my green can of Rustoleum. I figure the total cost is under $4, including the coffee.

BTW, Dan, the dust from the used furnace filter scattered when I hit it with the scissors. It ended up pretty much anywhere but on the tree. My advice: Wear old clothes and do the cutting outside.  But it works, and since I'm a cheap er, uh, fellow... I like it.

Now I need to dig out the thread on posting pictures...

Thanks, Jim! 

[Birds]

I was just thinking about this thread last night!  Glad to see it again.

Chris

[Buckeye Riveter]

I wish there was a way to store Jim's tree making instructions so that we could easily find it in the future.  The Garden Rail Road Forum has that capability, maybe we could have it here, too.