Hi! First post, but been learning much from the forums for some time. Wanted to show everyone my design of an atomizing nozzle, only a few bucks to build one. To be honest, I've never tried using them after the first grow failed a couple years ago. Life decided to make a left turn and I never saw another opportunity. But I'm amazed to see "AA" taking off nowadays, several very cool grows on just this site alone! My hope here is, in some small way, this info will get more growers initiated into AA. I'm sure the cost of commercial nozzles are a big part of why many won't risk testing the waters. I am anxious to see AA growing techniques continue to build a knowledge base. As little as I know now, I was much more naive at the time of this vid, but here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvxJ3mr6r7g
Homemade Air Atomizing Nozzles CHEAP!
- Thread starter Tex879
- Start date
The nozzles are made from using both a clicking retracing ball point pen, and a drip irrigation "flag type" emitter. Take apart the emitter and throw away the plug. In its place glue the cone-shaped tip of the pen (you'll need to shop around for one with a suitable fit, I had to slightly drill out the emitter). Then drill through the side outlet port which was subsequently blocked by the pen nose. Next take the ink cartridge with the copper tip which houses the ball point and separate them carefully. Use a small pin or needle to poke through the cartridge side of this copper tip and gently tap out the "ball." Now the messy part: clean out all the ink from the cartridge. I used a can of brake cleaner with the "coffee straw" which fit snugly inside the cartridge. Now point and shoot! Once clean, the cartridge and copper tip are reassembled and pushed into the inlet port of the emitter. You can clearly see it sticking out of the port in the vid. Don't glue this yet! You'll want to make small adjustments first once set up as the position affects spray pattern and quality. A rough position would be about where you'd normally see the tip when retracted (back when it was still a pen). Now you'll most likely need a well stocked drill index and to be comfortable drilling small plastic parts freehand. Also, take care when sizing your holes; I had to drill out my inlet port of the emitter to fit the pen cartridge through, and consequently thinned out the walls so they broke easily. The cartridge needs to be an interference fit without breaking off the nipple. Its needed to help locate the tip on center . So to anyone willing to try it, I hope the instructions were clear and I can't wait to see your grow!
LivingCanvas
Well-Known Member
Checked out the video, and it looks good!
LivingCanvas
Well-Known Member
Very ingenious!
Mike Young
Well-Known Member
Cool idea, fantastic description. Hope it works & we get to see more videos.
Thanks for the comments, guys! I probably won't try much with this design right away; been anxious to find a grow spot and try out a different nozzle idea. I will try to get a demo run on video soon, I'm excited about this next one! BTW, just in case I haven't seen 'em all yet, can anyone lead me to some of the most successful air assisted grow journals done w/ herb? Seen a couple vegetable runs on some cool setups, but what I'm trying to figure out is how the plants react to a HP nozzle vs air assisted. In other words, when one type is exchanged for the other, what else must change (ie: EC, pulse on/off times, chamber shape/volume in relation to plant size etc)?
theres only one ill pm you
Nevermind, working now. Lately I'm liking the idea of each plant having a dedicated root zone. Cavadge's grow got my wheels spinning; I like how modular it is vs one giant chamber which will always have a high volume of mist required no matter if every site is planted. Also if pulling plants mid-grow ever becomes necessary it won't do much to alleviate mist consumption. What I'd love to accomplish is to figure out a way to make a dozen-or-so bucket grow practical for air assisted aero. The immediate hurdles to this would be finding ways to keep the nozzles all evenly primed (relatively easy with HPA it seams) so mist times are consistent, and not spending a fortune on nozzles. Also there would need to be some creative plumbing in order to feed air AND water to each chamber wthout building an impossible to clean/maintain spaghetti mess. For now, I may play around with a cloner concept using a tote and one "pen" nozzle until I find my grow space.