Thought it was time for an update on my Pine Tree project. Here in this first picture is the stand that the trees are mounted on in plain metal. Next to it with its point painted white is a Nail stand with glued flocking drying piled up on its shaft. Under pine trees is always a pile of dead fall, pine needles, cones, small branches. Behind them is a larger base with 4 of these smaller bases glued on and drying. For a change I won't wait till I'm done and then work back to take pictures!
I made a jig to hold the tree trunks and used a dremel drill with a round router bit to make a dimple into the end of each trunk. With a starter hole it is Much easier to clamp the trunk onto a piece of wood and then run a 1/8" drill bit up into the trunk to make the mounting hole for the nail fastener. Out of 30 I drilled I only ruined 2 and those will be cut down an inch and redrilled. On the drill itself, I marked a spot and put a piece of duct tape on the drill and my depth marker so I didn't go to far and didn't drill to shallow. This larger base project is my proof of concept for the rest of the Pine Tree project.
Points to keep in mind from my wandering in the national forests, off the worn path areas, about Pine Trees;
1 Lower branches on older trees are gone, up to half way or higher from forest fires.
2 Pines tend to grow in rough circles, Pine cones fall outwards from the trunks.
3 As they grow near others, the wind moves them against each other , knocking off branches that would between them and that holds even when they are 100+ feet high.
4 Young pines, about 4 to 12 feet are more like a dense bush than appears as a classic pine.
More updates as they occur!
5 Older Pine tree branchings seem to be only upwards of 8 to maybe 10 feet long from trunk to outer edge of the branch. They grow fast to compete for sunlight which is limited by neighboring trees.
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