Gypsy's 600 watt Home Made Grow Tent

GypsyBush said:

Hi...! yes... I'very Hi...!

A while back (10 days or so) I ordered a new light... a 600 Watt HPS w/ a 8" cool tube... ... so I could have one light over the four trays I intend on having..

I wanted to order a Grow Tent as well, but the cash was a little short that day... not wanting to wait this long again for shipping, I decided to go get some supplies and build my own... (with the help of a good friend... Thanks!!!)

Soooo, I just thought I'd post about how I spent part of my day yesterday...

Went to WM... picked up a "wardrobe"... air pumps & stones... Industrial Strength Velcro... and 4 plastic containers...

Then I went to "L" and got a few more things... 4"in-line duct fan (exhaust) @ 80CFM... some 4" ducting... a 4" ducting wall adapter... and some heavy duty tape...

Then I went to a gardening supply store and picked up some 6 MIL black/white Panda Film, but I had to buy a freaking roll of it... 1000 sq Foot roll... yeah.... ok... and I found these neat little zippers... probably $1 from China, but I paid PREMIUM, let me assure you hehehe, what a rip off... I needed them so I got them... and they were very easy to use... if only they were a better zipper... I hate cheap, flimsy shit that you know won't last... especially when you have to pay a lot for it...

Oh my other beef with the zipper is that you NEED 2 to make a door... all of the pictures showed what I needed... but you can't make an effective door with just one... everything I said before... just doubled the price... rip off....

So I guess a few pictures of the assembly are in order...

This is not a tutorial... I am not a teacher and I don't have patience to explain anything to anyone unless the person is willing to pay genuine attention because they are really interested...

With that said, I would be glad to answer questions here on this thread (please do not PM me ABOUT THIS)... just make sure you are asking a relevant, specific question... Thanks...!

So Yeah, it is pretty easy, if you have the patience to deal with a very large piece of plastic that needs to be folded neatly several time...

I still need a piece of thin plywood for the bottom, the cardboard looked good for the pictures, but it's not permanent...

I put little velcro tabs, attaching the frame to the panda film...

I had to make an extra section to cover the back of the zipper, as it is not light proof, and to make sure, I ran a strip of velcro lenghtwise, to make sure light cannot go in because of the zipper...

I'll take a better picture of the thermostat, but it is just a regular cooling thermostat... you set the temp and it lets power go to whatever it is you are running...

Kinda like a timer..... but instead of turning on and off with hours and minutes, it is controlled by temperature...

So I can have the fan kick at ... say... 75F...and when it gets below 75F (+- a few) it shuts off....

Passive intakes should do it... but it would be easy to add at any point...

I know I will not get true 80CFM out of this fan, but I have a small tent...
true 80CFM would circulate the entire airmass 3.3 times every minute...

I bet I am still getting full volume transfer every minute... I got 24 cubic feet of space...

Well, it's time for me to go and enjoy some torture at physical therapy...

Be good boys and girls... and remember "Always Drive Rowdy...." lol...

Gypsy....

When the light gets here, it will have 8" holes on the sides of the tent for unrestricted blow by ventilation... provided by a 265cfm cage fan (not an in-line blower...

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GypsyBush said:

Damn... and I still got the joint...


Ok... so I will start pretty much where I left off... with one overlapped picture to illustrate a change....


I decided to change the exhaust flange because I found one that will block the light a little better than the previous... and I think it looks slightly better...

...and a little fan to ... "..stir it up, little darling stur it up..."lol

Oh! I was wrong about the fan all along... it is a 170 CFM in line blower...

I have always been scared of cheap plastic timers on anything more than household lamp... so... here we have a real timer... that probably won't catch fire, melt or be overloaded...

Of course we gotta know what we are feeding our plants, so here we have a HANNA Pronto TDS/PPM meter.... everything to keep my ladies happy...

The thermostat will kick the exhaust fan ON when the temperature inside raises to what the user sets it to...

This power strip will be used for non-ballast/non-timed/non-heat generating items such as the circulating fan and 9 watt CFL (just in case I need a light and don't need to fire up the BIG GUNS...)

Everything else will be staged outside... airpumps, ballasts, transformers... etc...

And here is the whole strip with the goodies....

... and last but not least....

I really wanted to use some of the "neoprene" medialess "disks"... but there were none to be had in this town...

So, again, I found something that works at a fraction of the cost....

I wanted to get away from absorbent foam once the seedlings grow a bit, to avoid stem rot...

So this closed cell foam is perfect, even if I have to tape or glue it once the thin seam busts...

It's perfect for what I am doing...

Well boys & girls.. it's been fun so far... but I am not finished.... soooo... I will get busy again and check with you guys a little later...

Take care...

Gypsy...



... anyone...

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GypsyBush said:

So this is what I came up with for the timer...

there is a 5' cord that will plug into the wall...

and a 3-way splitter, to feed the light, cool tube fan and anything else I want to run on the same schedule...

So... how am I doing this far...???






.

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K1Ng5p4d3 said:

wow gyps, your shit is bangin man. I know its a little late comin in here to check shit out cuz youhave everything set up, but god damn man, your action is a little more involved than mine as far as wiring and bells n whistles go dude. I didnt think you had alla that stuff hooked up like that man, so props to ya - if i could rep you again this soon i would

N btw bro, where ya been??? outta the circuit for a couple days man, just makin sure your still alive, lol. Get back at me whenever you come back bro.

-K1.

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WeBreedGreatness said:

nice job man, I've been waiting for you to put this up. looks good gypsy.

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purplekitty7772008 said:

wow. i know im oober late coming to look at this, but you posted it on another thread so I came to check it out, and I have to give props when its deserved. So PROPS and +rep
for you. this is an incredible professional grow tent made by hand, and I can appreciate hand mades. I really want to try this, instead of buying a grow box and what not. How much did everything cost?

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SpruceZeus said:

looks real clean and nice, +rep!!

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DubB83 said:

I have been thinking about making one of these myself, do you feel it could be a bit bigger?

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joefish said:

this is beautiful!!! ,man its all the little things which make it a mint setup. im gonna cut and paste some of these ideas straight to my tent.

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joefish said:

kinda pissed off now though, cos i spend $2k decking out my tents haha

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purplekitty7772008 said:

2k??? omg.

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purplekitty7772008 said:

I wish I had that much to spend for my future investments.

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techtoker said:

Talk about patience gypsy, It would take my weeks to acquire the materials for your tent.

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techtoker said:

I was going to buy a complete setup for an outrageous price just because I hate the hassle of shopping. Especially around this time!

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techtoker said:

Your project is clean for a DIY. +rep for making me want to save some $ and build something for myself

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Jash1297 said:

How loud are the fans that you are using? I have just ordered some similar ones and am worried about the noise. Nice set up btw

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