The entertainment center

[Tilt]

to everyone that pooled their knowledge, trials, success,and even failures here at Icmag.

The set up.
330 watts flower. 6 55 watt pll 3000k
144 watts veg. 6 24 watt pll 4100k
HDsog 8 plants around each light overflow on the side
pot size is 18 ounces in soil
cabinet is 5' by 3' entertainment center
nu tes are dry organics npk 4/6/3 1 cup per cf of soil
soil is Black Gold Water hold with pumice amended
Requires 2.5 gallons of water every three days using dunk method.
Genetics are ch9 jack
Overall cost to me is about $225.00 (lots of freebies)
Time per week gardening 3 hours
Produces 1/2 to 3/4 ounce a week not dialed in

 

[Toyot4]

damn tilt, that is one cool ass grow cab. how you keeping that thing cool? what do you have surrounding your pll's?

 

[Tilt]

Stanley Blower with a home made scrubber (thanks pontiac) 4 degrees above ambient.
The plls are cool tubed.
I have a t12 tube guard with a 1 1/4" reducing bushing inside a 1 1/2" male pvc connector. The connector is installed in a 4 11/16" deep box with a 4" pc fan installed on top. The assembly is ran through a hole in the shelf into the flowering chamber.

 

[yesum]

I likey! Vertical ftw.

 

[Dopeboy668]

Awsome! I like the cool tube idea. Really great.

 

[growclean]

The plls are cool tubed.
I have a t12 tube guard with a 1 1/4" reducing bushing inside a 1 1/2" male pvc connector. The connector is installed in a 4 11/16" deep box with a 4" pc fan installed on top.

Nice job man! Is there any chance you can show a few more pics/more explanation of this? I don't quite understand.

 

[Tilt]

t12 tube guard is the acrylic around the lamp (you can find them in the light bulb aisle in home depot or lowes) the 1 1/4"reducer is in the irigation plumbing aisle. The 1 1/2" male adapter is in electrical fittings aisle. it all should fit together a little loose. The 4 11/16" box deep should be on that same aisle. The hard part is knocking out a hole to 1 1/2" trade size in boxes back. I used racheting knock out set. I put everything together with a lock ring on the male adapter and slipped the lamp in wired it . I then got my 4" computer fan and put in some 10/32 machine screws in the holes in the corners. The fan will fit securely in the box.

 

[twrex]

This is almost the same idea I had, but I'm curious, have you tried running this without the fans on top of the tubes and just using the exhaust blower to move the air? how well does that cool things?

My idea so far was to just use the exhaust fans to pull the air, but now seeing how you've got fans up top I'm wondering if that might not be enough. Of course I was considering 40 watters not 50's.

If you could show more pictures of the top of the box I doubt I'd be the only person very interested to see it.

Also, I have completely passed this thread by for a few days now because why would I look at just another entertainment center cabinet conversion? You should rename this as something to indicate that this is new and different "vertical pl-l sog entertainment center of doom!" has a nice ring to it, don't you think?

Things like this and the highpod make me wonder why more folks don't utilise the heat shielded L-type lamps vertically in tight quarters where they give massive penetration and low heat.

 

[Tilt]

the fans help quite a bit. I have a laser thermometer. I will get some readings to show the difference. I will work on those pics too I will show it all torn apart and put together. You are right about the thread name "kinda boring" I really haven't seen a whole lot of intrest in the thread. This project took alot of thought and really has fired up my imagination. I have all these diy ideas but no space time or money.

 

[twrex]

That's one of my favorite things about all of this cab design stuff, the fun little challenges which lurk around every corner. This is doubly true when you have no money and have to come up with the really interesting ways to re-purpose what you've got around. Anyhow, I can't wait to see those disassembled pictures and the temp data.

 

[hazy]

Tilt, those tubes for the plls is nothing less than genius. Running a bunch of vertical pll lights, who could think of something like that?
excellent.

 

[Tilt]

Thanks hazy.

Now for some pics. pardon the dust we are still remodelling.

 

[Toyot4]

Tilt thanks for the pictures, makes a lot more sense now on how you are cool tubing your pll's.

 

[twrex]

Something I was thinking about for my own ideas and a possible improvement for you: have you tried using wire or something to hang the light down lower, as in completely down in the heat shield? It looks like you're losing at least an inch of usable light length between your junction box and adapters at the top because of your bulb placement.

Also: how many/what kind of ballast(s) are you using? I was looking at fulham's workhorse series but I'm still not completely sold on them yet.

 

[Tilt]

My lamps hang right at the soil line and I have no more head room to go any higher and no reason to go lower.fullhams are very good ballasts. I would upgrade to them. I use advance electronic ballasts rated for 4 t8 lamps at 32 watts each. I wire them to 2 55 watt pll.You can pick them up at home depot pretty cheap I think. My ballasts were free. Flourescents dont produce very much light at the ends. What you see is reflected light internally in the tube and the phosphur coating reacting to the electric charge. The base does produce the majority of the heat so I made the trade for less lumens for less heat.

 

[twrex]

Ah, indeed. Thanks again for the info.

I'm curious to know if you've ever tried using a smaller number of plants along with this vertical cfl method rather than doing a sog? My idea was to do something similar to the highpod but using multiple plants and allowing them to utilise the light from all angles. I've also been considering how a setup like this might work for a cylindrical scrog. So many things to think about. Any thoughts on these slightly different approaches to an environment similar to yours?

 

[Tilt]

Yea, I had this idea looking at a water fall.
1.water fall (nutrient film) on the back wall
2. lexan wall with net cups against in the water stream
3. plants
4. bank of lights mounted on the doors
5. res. in the botom of cabinet

way to complicated though. Hydro is a big no no for me I live upstairs. i can't afford spills as a security hazard.

I also considered adding a pair of hps 100 watters in my set up. I decided against it because my set up provides plenty for personal use

 

[Tilt]

I like the high pod too. I would set up several staggered for a perpetual. This uses to much space though and looks out of place to me. but it would be cool to combine that method somehow with the outdoor trash can scrog by nokuy

 

[twrex]

I don't see the connection between the high pod and the trash can scrog (aside from the obvious growing in a trashcan) what are you trying to say exactly?

I have an idea for a high-pod alternative where you could make a working 'lamp' that has a cab for a base and you could have several throughout your house. it doesn't look as suspicious as a random box with a cord hanging out of it but it would take some work to keep it from looking too odd otherwise.

something like that but with a taller lamp part and a more broad base, you could use the base as some sort of table for knick-knacks or other decorative items... just think of things that are about the same size as industrial trashcans, that's about the size of an end-table to me... stick a lamp on top of the box and find a way to make it quiet and you're golden. You could have several of them throughout the house/apt and it wouldn't look too odd I don't think. Nightstand(s), living room end-tables, all sorts of things.


edit: http://www.amazon.com/Inexpensive-Simple-Floor-Lamp-Nightstand/dp/B000AO5A42 a homemade version of that would work perfectly, scale it up just slightly and you'd be on-point.

 

[Tilt]

My recent idea is to do a single row using my style. You would only need 10" of cabinet depth. I would use the cd rack idea that anti uses. a whole wall would be cool. The outdoor scrog you take your hi pod outside and take advantage of full on sunlight.There are all kinds of furniture on icmag used to grow in. There are many ways to grow. I have found the good way, maybe not the best way to grow for my situation