Michigan Poasts Pictures and Talks Shit Too.

[FatMarty]

That custom exhaust muffler looks pretty tricked out. Can you please provide some insight to what you have there, unless it is a company secret that you are in the process of getting patented. (?)

Thanks Bro.
I haven't installed this one yet as I'm a lazy bum.
However I do have a pic of the Intake model I made for my 1000 Watt HID hood.



The only difference between the 'Intake' and 'Exhaust' is mounting direction in grow room.
That part was a trade secret up til now.

I use 6" ducting in and out of these and using 6" starters to mount to makes it easy to install and service.
Basically you got a Honeywell fan, a 5 gallon bucket and lid, a couple 6" starters, a flower pot base, and some 1/2" neoprene copper pipe insulation.
You use GOOD Silicone II made by GE, and self-tapping sheet metal screws, (and maybe some rivets for the flower pot base), to put it together.

The model of fan used is Honeywell TurboForce 9 in. Tabletop Fan
Model # HT-900
They sell them at Home Depot and Lowes, etc.

First Step is measure and mark your bucket, lid, and flower pot/base for the correct diamer holes.
In the center of the bottom of the 5-gallon bucket mark a 9" diameter circle.
In the center of both the bucket lid, and the flower pot/base/, mark a 6 1/4" circle.



Second Step is to cut out the inside of the circles you marked on the bucket, lid, and flower pot/base.
A jigsaw works well here if you first drill a 3/8" inside the circle close to the marking to slip blade into.

A tube of Silicone II is shown on the cut out bucket above.
This product comes in those little squeeze tubes as well.
It is vital that you use pure silicone on your glued on pieces as it does not deteriorate over time like other types of adhesive sealants.

I bought a cheap flower pot and it cracked on me when I tried to jam oversized drain line into it.
So if you are going to be tweaking it get a thicker flower pot or base to work with.
I included the broken in one of the later images so you can see what it did.

Step Three for me is to fix my fuckup and cut a 6 3/8" diameter hole in the thick flower base I selected as a replacement.
For you step three is gluing, and/or riveting, the flower pot/base to the bottom of the bucket.



Step Four we need to take the base off of the fan itself so it will fit in bucket.
Pry the little plastic caps off the end of the mounts and the screws are exposed.
There some screws, some little ball bearings, springs, and more screws, on each side.
Remove all that junk and the base will be free.




The middle image above shows where I went anal and rewired the fan plug to fit the plug through the bucket in a smaller hole than the plug requires.
It's a hassle and not worth it for most folks: drill or cut a suitably sized hole in the side of the bucket once the fan is inside it.
First we need to add insulation to edge of fan though.

Step Five is where I take a length of 1/2" copper pipe insulation that has sticky stuff on the edges, and then I attache it the outside diameter of fan as shown below.



The insulation makes for a tight fit without warping the fan body, etc., and greatly reduces ambient noise from the finished device.

Step Six is to test fit the fan inside the bucket making sure not to orient it like the third image above shows.
Next cut a hole suitable for the electrical plug to fit through in the side of the bucket behind where the fan mounts.

Step Seven push the fan down into the bucket and pull the electrical through the hole.



Make sure the neoprene insulation is fitted snugly against the remainder of the bucket bottom to insure a good seal.

Step Eight is shown in the third image above where you drive three or four sheet metal screws through the side of the bucket and into the plastic side of the fan.
In the first image of the three above you can see a screw sticking through at 7 o'clock if you look close.
In the third image a sheet metal screw is visible on the side of the bucket.
Just make sure the screws aren't too long here or they will hit the fan blade.
1" self tappers work great. Make sure the fan is level with the bucket end before attaching screws.

Step Nine is to test the fan to make sure you did not warp or bind it in anyway.
It should run free and quiet.
I run mine on low or medium depending upon application - never run on high as it designed for quiet not volume.



Step Ten is rivet/glue on your 6" vent starter rings.
Obviously the silicone needs to set up for a day to insure long term integrity.
You would also want to plug the hole around the electrical cord with neoprene and/or silicone.

In the first image above you can see the shattered plastic of the first flower pot I tried to use.
I am using some heavy duty flex made for drains for my output vent pipe; so I needed a strong base to support the glued on tubing.
You can expect several hundred cfm with this setup; the precise amount depends upon fan setting of course.
I have cooled my 1000 watt enclosed HID hood with one for years now.
The effenciency and quietness leave me sold on the design for my 1600 watt bloom room application.

I bought the stuff I needed for this from Home Depot for about $25.
The fan is $15, and the rest is cheap.
Don't let the cheapness scare you - this thing is perfect for many small growers.

 

[abe supercro]

That is an impressive tutorial.
Sound isnt a problem for me where i live, but this is great what you've designed on a budget. Those Honeywell's do have decent CFM. Is this application part of carbon scrubbing/exhaust, or predominantly for noise reduction and avoiding costly turbine fans? Will that Honeywell pull enough cfm thru a carbon cylinder? And the flower pot, that is just used as a reducer correct? The fitting on that must have to be exact I'd guess. A metal reducer would vibrate, hence this is all plasic. Heard about pricey plasic turbine fans are now available at the grow shop too. I just bookmarked this page. This looks like a good project to reference. Thanks Marty!

 

[st0wandgrow]

I have to admit .... Marty fucking lost me on that one.

 

[no carrier]

Marty that is pure genius. Honestly.

Thank you for sharing.

 

[FatMarty]

That is an impressive tutorial.
Sound isnt a problem for me where i live, but this is great what you've designed on a budget. Those Honeywell's do have decent CFM. Is this application part of carbon scrubbing/exhaust, or predominantly for noise reduction and avoiding costly turbine fans? Will that Honeywell pull enough cfm thru a carbon cylinder? And the flower pot, that is just used as a reducer correct? The fitting on that must have to be exact I'd guess. A metal reducer would vibrate, hence this is all plasic. Heard about pricey plasic turbine fans are now available at the grow shop too. I just bookmarked this page. This looks like a good project to reference. Thanks Marty!

I'm still trying to come up with the Carbon Scrubber part for T.P. Exhaust.
You have a fair amount of space left in the bucket after fan is mounted for layers.
But you can take another bucket and flip it around maybe to make it bigger inside for more layers.
Still thinking on that part.

Yeah the flower pot part is just for the vortex it makes for the output.
If you leave the lid off, and say mount the bucket face inside a cabinet, etc. it makes ZERO noise!
No shit - Zero. It's amazing.
With the lid and another vent pipe it is way minimal noise.

As for the metal reducer: if a decent gauge is attached securely and then siliconed I doubt it would vibrate.
I would imagine that Behler Young has something like that.
Mainly you want a long gentle vortex to the 6" output.
The 'vortex' type fans they sell are too thin to stretch the output vortex and reduce the noise.
I go for non-corrosive when I'm playing mad tinkerer in the garden.

If you come up with a carbon filter deal before I do let me know how you did it.

 

[FatMarty]

I have to admit .... Marty fucking lost me on that one.

Hehe.

My room runs no higher than 80* F and that input fan for my HID hood is a huge reason why.
It drains up to 2 - 4" sewer vent stacks.
So my hood cooling is a seperate system than the room.
For the room I use 12" intake fan plus 5" passive intake.
Been sucking the high hot air off with a 6" inline and blowing a few fans around with another vent back to the intake.

I run my 600 watts of sidelighting switched on/off every half hour when I am keeping it locked up tight.
If I'm home with the door open I run the sidelights full time.
Did I tell you about my 2x overdrive t-8's that put out 7600 lumens per 4' tube?
Old school man.

 

[no carrier]

Thought I'd add some pictures of where I am today.

The ones in the front are Blue Dream. In the back, Grand Daddy Purple. The next generation.

Blue Dream #1:


Blue Dream #2


Grand Daddy Purple


The same Grand Daddy Purple, just another shot.


Grand Daddy Purple #2


Grand Daddy Purple Top from #2


Grand Daddy Purple Top from #1


Blue Dream Top from #1


Blue Dream in the front. Grand Daddy Purple in the back.

 

[FatMarty]

Hey man I added a modification to the trailer park exhaust:
I added a #2 pot as internal vortex for output side of bucket.
Here's some pics showing how I did it:



A little silicone and some sheet metal screws and that was that.
It reduced the 'air' noise I get from dumping it on the floor.
No backpressure on it yet; but this does seem to help.
Fan is incredibly quiet: now I need to find silent water pump because my cloner is only thing that is kinda loud now.

 

[FatMarty]

I have been running a 1000 W HID in the middle of my bloom and about 600 - 700 watts cfl's as sidelights that surround my HID.
My temps will rise with the sidelights; so I have taken to cycling them to reduce heat buildup.
So I started out with a definate purpose contactor and a mechanical timer set to switch on/off every half hour.
The timer was energized when my other timer that ran my HID came on; so I ended up with 6 hours of sidelighting out of 12 hour on cycle.

I noticed that my temps drop much faster than a half an hour; but was stuck at half hour intervals with timer.
So I built me a tempurature controlled power center the last couple days to run my lighting more efficiently.
The basic idea on my particular setup is to use one definate purpose contactor for the HID, and another smaller contactor for the sidelights.
The HID contactor is turned on by a 110 VAC trigger from my timer for the bloom cycle, (12 on 12 off).
The voltage from the trigger energizes the 24 VAC transformer which in turn energizes the large contactor.

The secondary circuit, (from a seperate home electrical circuit than the HID circuit),
is controlled by a common home thermostat which switches 24 VAC to energize the coil on the secondary contactor.
I use the "Heat" setting in my case as I am 'warming up' the room with the sidelights.
Once the sidelights heat the room to set temp they are turned off by thermostat.
You could use the "Cool" setting to control fans or ac units, etc.
I also added an "override" on the "Fan" switch so that I can bypass the thermostat if I want.

The main thing to get out of this exercise is how to control large wattage lamps, etc. with any timer capable of handling about 2 amps.
2 Amps pretty much covers every timer in the store. Most do at least 5 Amps.
The definate purpose contactors have a high "surge" current when first energized; but once contacted use only a few watts to stay on.
Still you must always address surge when designing and building this sort of stuff.
You want your contactors and secondary wiring to be able to handle the surge worry-free.
1000 Watt HID may surge 1600 or so at turn on, and then settle down to 1150 or 1200 watts, (lamp and ballast power), once ignited.

So anyway here's some pics of the project before I finished wiring it up and installing duplexes:



Above is first mockup under test revealing a fatal flaw: lots of heat inside the box thermostat is mounted on.
That's not going to work. So I had to add another big box for the thermostat away from the internal heat source.
I used FS, or Field Service, gray PVC electrical boxes and conduit to construct it.
The material is minimum of 1/8" thick - very sturdy and durable stuff.
Below is most of it done:



The black coiled wire wrapped around white wire at top is the Trigger which plugs into timer.
The two white wires at top are 110 VAC Line inputs that plug into duplexes in bloom room I put in when I built it.
Two seperate circuits controlled by one cheap timer and a common household thermostat.
I don't have a $100 into it; but it could easily run you that and more if your parts bin is empty.

I'll get you more images of completed unit and maybe even the unit installed tomorrow.

 

[FatMarty]

Finished up the unit; but decided to add some inrush/power failure protection while I'm at it.
So I rated it at 1800 watts for the "A" circuit and 1200 watts for the "B" circuit.



The pic above is the unit during a burn-in test where both contactors are energized for 15 hours to test heat, etc.
Therefore the Inputs to circuit A and B are simply plugged into their own duplex Outlets for conveinance.
The Inputs are merely 'shorted' to their own Outputs while testing.
So far everything tests out fine and I anticipate no problems with the current design.

I am going to pick up something like the image below to delay the A circuit for the HID for 10 minutes.



I will use one on the input to the 110 to 24 VAC transformer timed at @ 20 Second delay after initial trigger signal from my bloom timer.
This will prevent excessive 'inrush' current for everything plugged into the unit, as well as protect the transformer, in the case of rapid intermittent power failure.

Another Delay on Make Timer will go the 'hot' side of the transformer Secondary 24 VAC going to the "A" circuit definate purpose contactor; this delay will be set to ten minutes.
Ten minutes here is sufficent to allow HID lamp to cool off for restarting.
The hood fan will come on with Bloom room timer and stay on the entire Bloom On cycle; so ten minutes should be good here.

So what should happen when installed is the CFL sidelights and most fans will come on 20 seconds after Bloom Room timer sends Trigger voltage to unit.
10 minutes after the CFL's come on in the morning the HID will fire up.
As the room heats up past predetermined threshhold - say 79* - the CFL's are switched off until the tempurature drops 1.5 degrees below set threshhold, (77.5 in this example).
(The 'Differential' setting on the thermostat sets the 1.5 degree drop /rise range - Most are factory set to 1/2 degree differential.)
If I find the B circuit cycling the sidelights off and on faster than I want I can add another Delay on Make Timer like the one above to the hot lead going to the B circuit contactor coil.

The thermostat wiring is very basic and just about any will work for this type of control.
I run the 24 VAC 'hot' lead from the transformer to the "RH" terminal inside thermostat.
I run a Jumper from the "RH" terminal to the "RC" terminal. (This is for the Override function via the 'fan' switch.)
I run the lead from the 'hot' side of the B circuit coil to the "G" terminal in thermostat.
That's it for thermostat wiring.
I set thermostat inside to 'non-heat pump' if available, 'gas' if gas/electric setting if available, and I set the differential through thermostat programing.

I will make up a drawing when I get a few minutes to illustrate how it is all wired together.
I won't be installing for at least a week so that image will be awhile yet.

 

[st0wandgrow]

^wtf!!^

I feel stupid after reading some of your shit, Marty.

You've got some skills my man!

 

[st0wandgrow]

Serious Seeds- Bubblegum

The white pistils at the tip of the flowers make it deceiving, but at day 70 these buds are ripe.

 

[st0wandgrow]

TGA- Cheesequake

This plant was fucking beautiful! I had 3 females from a 5 pack, and two of the 3 stayed lush green from start to finish, but this one had a really nice fade with leaves turning maroon and yellow in the last 10 days. My pics are terrible with this camera phone, but this plant is some sticky-icky goodness!

 

[FatMarty]

Both very nice Stow.

That Cheesquake looks tight - very pretty.

 

[stumpjumper]

Looks yummy stow..

 

[gladstoned]

View attachment 2292561

TGA- Cheesequake

This plant was fucking beautiful! I had 3 females from a 5 pack, and two of the 3 stayed lush green from start to finish, but this one had a really nice fade with leaves turning maroon and yellow in the last 10 days. My pics are terrible with this camera phone, but this plant is some sticky-icky goodness!

Good friend of mine just got his card, he is starting with some Cheesequake. Great job stow! I would like to know more about that Bubblegum. I did the Nirvana Bubblelicious cuz Belle wanted it real bad. It surprised the shit out of me, how good it was. You went with Serious just cuz the Kali Mist is so damn good, eh? lmao. I went with The Doggies Nuts Bubblegum #1, just to try them out. It is grape bubblegum (so it says). I bought a single seed of serious seeds White Russian that I am gonna have Belle try out.

 

[st0wandgrow]

Good friend of mine just got his card, he is starting with some Cheesequake. Great job stow! I would like to know more about that Bubblegum. I did the Nirvana Bubblelicious cuz Belle wanted it real bad. It surprised the shit out of me, how good it was. You went with Serious just cuz the Kali Mist is so damn good, eh? lmao. I went with The Doggies Nuts Bubblegum #1, just to try them out. It is grape bubblegum (so it says). I bought a single seed of serious seeds White Russian that I am gonna have Belle try out.

I'm getting ready to eliminate that bubblegum mama from the mix, and germinate some new ones I ordered. I had an unreal female from a pack I ordered a couple years back, and she was the bomb! Great high, great yield, and the most unbelievable bubblegum taste and smell. I lost that mama last spring when we got a shit-ton of rain and my basement flooded. I was slow to react, and she hermed on me. So, I ordered another pack from Serious, and this one (in the pic) was the best of the bunch, but still not near as nice as the old mama. I have another pack sitting in the fridge that I ordered a couple months ago waiting to be germinated, and hopefully replacing the current mama.

Fun times.

 

[gladstoned]

I'm getting ready to eliminate that bubblegum mama from the mix, and germinate some new ones I ordered. I had an unreal female from a pack I ordered a couple years back, and she was the bomb! Great high, great yield, and the most unbelievable bubblegum taste and smell. I lost that mama last spring when we got a shit-ton of rain and my basement flooded. I was slow to react, and she hermed on me. So, I ordered another pack from Serious, and this one (in the pic) was the best of the bunch, but still not near as nice as the old mama. I have another pack sitting in the fridge that I ordered a couple months ago waiting to be germinated, and hopefully replacing the current mama.

Fun times.

I hope for your efforts that you are able to relocate old momma, and to your surprise you find she was at the gym the whole time and now she yields double!! I want to have a bubble gum for PTSD, stress, anxiety, and depression.

 

[FatMarty]

It's shark week!



I'm sweating it man - I left my bloom room door open all night and got some indirect light leak.
Cheese is pretty much done so no biggie there.
But I got two virgins in there 4 and a half weeks into the bloom cycle.

 

[gladstoned]

Cheese!!!!!!!