I recently picked up my St. Marks and found one of the palm trees to be loose. I read somewhere in this forum about about other St. Marks coming through with loose trees. I advised my dealer to be on the lookout for this and to warn his other customers to be careful when handling the piece.

My question is are these trees just pressed into a hole drilled or molded in the piece? If for some reason the tree came out (highly unlikely) should a small amount of glue be placed on it and the tree pressed back into place? If so, what kind of glue should be used. Sooner or later someone is going to find their St. Marks with a tree separated from the piece. It would be nice to know how to handle the problem.

That's the word from the East Coast where it's 20 degrees, the sun is rising and temperatures are heading for the mid 40's. ><}}}}}*>

I searched the forums for another mention of this problem Bob and the only other time I could locate was this one.

Latest Models
Topic: Review the new 1999 releases!

posted 02-26-99 02:23 PM Eastern Time Zone

Just picked up my St. Mark's and Cape Agulas about two hours ago (Matching numbers 442). They both look great! I did check the trees on St. Marks and found one of them to be loose. I warned the dealer to watch for this so he could inform buyers to be careful when handling the piece. I'm very pleased to add these two to my collection. "Two thumbs up on these two pieces!"


I would recommend that you call Harbour Lights and mention it to them. Don't depend on your dealer to do it. Even if the dealer (except for a few) says they will, they will get busy and forget and it isn't a high priority thing to them. Plus some dealers only deal with their reps and never have called Harbour Lights about anything. I have found that information like this, while not really wanting to hear it, is important to them at Harbour Lights, so they can be kept aware of things. They also should recommend how to best address the problem.

WackoPaul

Thanks for the info Paul. Maybe it was a topic brought up in the chatroom. I know I got the info from one of the other collectors somewhere. That was why I checked for loose trees when I was about to buy the piece. It doesn't feel like it's going to fall out, but it will move with slight pressure from side to side. It was the only St. Marks my dealer had so I took it anyway to get the matching number to my Cape Agulas and another piece I have in my collection.

I believe this post will be #200 on the forum for me. No weather report from the East Coast with this one. I'm going to have a Diet Coke and celebrate! "Really, you ask?" "No, not really!" <*>

I think I mentioned this in the chat room. My dealer received a piece with both palm trees loose. I was there at the time. Didn't try to lift them out. She was returning it.

From sunny (and sometimes not so sunny) San Jose where the temp has climbed into the 70s for the past couple of days, finally.

Except for the early years when Bob designed trees to mold into the lighthouse and not have a separate trunk, 'Stand-alone' trees are molded and painted separately, then glued into a small hole drilled for that purpose.

Some 'trunks' are the diameter of the lead in a pencil, others are the diameter of the whole pencil.

The later added trees should have a 'key-way' -- a shape that will permit the tree to be inserted only one way (no, not 'trunk down') That way the orientation of the tree to the house or lighthouse should be the same on all pieces.

Sometime back last year, I had a tree come out and took some pictures of the process of regluing it in place. I'll try to locate those and give you a URL for that.

John

John, you continue to be a wealth of information. Thank you for sharing that with us.

I have no intention of returning my St. Marks because a tree is loose. If it ever does come out, at least I will be prepared to correct it..........Thanks again!