How to Make a Christmas Tree out of Horseshoes

In the spirit of the holiday season, we have a creative DIY gift idea that will showcase your handyman skills and creativity. Learn how to construct a Christmas tree figurine out of Diamond Horseshoes! This may sound like a time-consuming task, but it only takes about an hour to complete. The tools/items you’ll need are some horseshoes, a welder, welding supplies, a drill press, holiday ornaments, an angle grinder, safety glasses, and some very basic welding experience. Follow our steps below to impress your friends and family this holiday season.

How to Build a Horseshoe Christmas Tree

Step 1: Watch the video below before referring to our instructions. We will be creating the same type of tree as shown in the video, but recommend using new horseshoes. If you’d like to use old horseshoes watch the entire video, but if not, skip to 2 minutes and 38 seconds into the video.

Step 2: Grab all 14 horseshoes that you will need to complete the project.

Step 3: Pick out 10 of the horseshoes to bring over to your drill press then drill a small hole into the center of the closed end of the horseshoe, but be sure you’re wearing your safety goggles and gloves. The small holes are going to be used to hang the ornaments once nearing the completion of the project.

Step 4: Next, lay those same 10 horseshoes on your welding table, lining four of them up in a straight line horizontally, with the open end of the horseshoe facing down or up (your choice). This will represent the bottom row of your Christmas tree. Next, create a row of three horseshoes above the first row, followed by a row of two, and then a row of one, stacking one row on top of the other and leaving no gaps. Once completed, you should have a big triangle.

Step 5: Now it’s time to weld. Place steel angle stock around the outside of your triangle to hold the horseshoes together as you weld. Weld together each horseshoe at the joints, starting from the outside and working your way to the inside. In the end, you will need to weld together each area where a horseshoe touches another horseshoe.

Step 6: Now that the top half of your tree is taken care of, it’s time to focus on the base. Place three horseshoes together in a clover-like pattern, with their tips touching and weld the corners together.

Step 7: Use two support magnets to stand a fourth horseshoe upright, in the middle of the clover with the open end facing either up or down (depending on which way you decided to point your horseshoes in step 4). You will then weld the fourth horseshoe to your clover, from step 6, to finish the base. The horseshoe that’s standing upright will connect the top half of your tree to the base in the next step.

Step 8: Now it’s time to attach the base. Move your base all the way down to the edge of the welding table so that you can lay the upright horseshoe flat on the table, and the clover you created in step 6 should now be hanging off the edge. Use support magnets to hold two of the three horseshoes from the clover to the welding table. Now slide down the top half of the tree and line up the bottom row with the single horseshoe from the base. Be sure to center the single horseshoe when combining it with the bottom row, and then weld the single horseshoe to the bottom row.

Step 9: (Optional) Smooth out your welds and clean your horseshoes by using an angle grinder to smooth over any rough welds. Additionally, you can remove the last of the rust and dirt with a wire brush attachment and angle grinder.

Step 10: Feel free to spray paint your tree if you would like, but we recommend applying a primer coat before applying any spray paint

Step 11: Attach your ten ornaments to the horseshoes. Simply place the hook of the ornament into each of the ten holes your drilled at the very beginning.

Our horseshoe Christmas tree is just one of many DIY Christmas projects you can make with supplies found at Blain’s Farm & Fleet. Learn about our mason jar Christmas craft ideas, how to make chocolate bark, and more by reading our additional blogs!