Being a bad DIYer I was planning to order the entire setup for my very first (600Watt) grow online. However, seeing how overpriced activated carbon filters are and how cheap activated carbon pellets are, I started wondering if I could build a big filter myself. I read through several designs and none appeal to me. They require DIY skills and materials I do not have. ( Pretty much all are based on Walmart’s merchandise which I don't have access to.)
After having a puff from my horrible soapbar I developed some ideas on how to build a filter myself, but I am not sure if either will work. Can someone let me know if they make sense.

I have 4 metallic shelves about 3.5’m long and 1’ wide and a 5’ tall vertical frame they can be screwed together to form a rack . Each shelf surface is covered in holes. I would cover the top shelf with normal filter for a kitchen extractor fan. On the shelf below I would place the carbon pellets, and on the shelf below that, kitchen filter again.
I then need to encase the entire structure somehow so it is completely closed. As you can see from the pictures, I have experimented with easy wrap, which did not yield great results. Mainly I am looking for advice on how to close up the structure so that it will function as a filter without reverting to superior DIY skills, tool or materials.

My other idea involves the four shelves from above but without the frame. I would take the four shelves and use each as one side of a box, tying them together with wire through the holes. I would then need to place either a smaller box inside this box, or a larger box outside to create the two layers of the filter. I would then do similar to 1) above. I would cover the outer box with kitchen filter, fill the outer cavity with carbon pellets and cover the inner box with kitchen filter again. This would leave a cavity in the centre. But I only have these four shelves.
(This idea can also be modified using only three of the metallic shelves to create a triangular structure.)

Please let me know if either of these plans hold water!
(I already know I need to stop the soapbar but I do not really have a choice until I harvest my own weed.)

Here is a pic of the rack:

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Nobody dignifies me with an answer?
I know I wrote a waay too long article. But you could at least tell me how stupid my idea is or something...

This silence is killing me.

Maybe Im too stoned but it went right over my head and I read it 3 times.
My $3 carbon filter.

You know how a carbon filter works.

There's an inner tube, then an outer tube with the carbon sandwiched between the two.

Go to BnQ and buy something like Chicken wire, or whatever that stuff is called (the name escapes me)

Make two cylinders, one slightly larger than the other.

Get the two cylinders and individually put them into some womens pantyhose. Use a few sets on each to make it durable.

Find an endcap that will fit on the end of the larger cylinder and put it on.

Put the smaller cyclinder inside the larger one..Fill up the gap between the large and the small with your active carbon..

It's really that simple. And you do have the resources.

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It should work. The best carbon filter I seen in action went away from the normal design. It was a monstrous huge 8X3X3 FEET and it used few furnace filters with the carbon just loosely spread out over them like a trays. I can only imagine due to the shear size of it that it didnt really create much static pressure.

ok lot to think about...basically i think you should loose the rack idea all together ... just use the shelves as screens build a box even cardboard and layer like you were orig. thinking..or with snips cut out squares or rectangels out of the mesh and build a wooden box around them ...i will scetch something out for you ..

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Originally Posted by warisnottheanswer http://www.rollitup.org/images/blaze...s/viewpost.gif
my dude winkdog he had a farm e-i-e-i-o and on his farm he had some bud e-i-e-i-o wit a barbwire here and a white widow there, here a bud there a bud every week more BUD BUD

chuck the shelf unit too big...make a bunch of boxes of 2x4s use the mesh from the shelfs to line the frames...

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Originally Posted by warisnottheanswer http://www.rollitup.org/images/blaze...s/viewpost.gif
my dude winkdog he had a farm e-i-e-i-o and on his farm he had some bud e-i-e-i-o wit a barbwire here and a white widow there, here a bud there a bud every week more BUD BUD

Thank you!

Nice picture but I don't understand. I spent a while looking it and I still don't get it. Sorry

2x4 is a kind of a board? I live in Ireland. I om OK with imperial just don't know the expression. And the rest of the explanation I don't get either.
Could you please explain?

Would 2.5 gallons (10l) of these be ok?
http://www.greenshorticulture.co.uk/...arbon-1242.asp
Would it make as good of a filter as they sell there?
I though it might make an even better one with 2.5, but I don't understand how.

Ok here we go .. A 2x4 is a kind of board its the standard size board that walls in houses are framed with . "2x4" is not really there size its more like 1and1/2 x 3and1/2 inches. We just call them 2x4's because thats the size they used to be milled a long time ago. But its just standard wall framing ...what i was saying is cut that mesh off the shelves cut it into equal size peices then make wooden frames to screw them to . Like a box with no top or bottom about the size of the screen pieces .cover these boxes with the mesh and charcoal or filter material and stack them up in layers then blow your stank air through the screens.and it will come out smelling fresh!

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Originally Posted by warisnottheanswer http://www.rollitup.org/images/blaze...s/viewpost.gif
my dude winkdog he had a farm e-i-e-i-o and on his farm he had some bud e-i-e-i-o wit a barbwire here and a white widow there, here a bud there a bud every week more BUD BUD

And you might want to get 2 of those CONTAINERS OF charcoal pellets they will last a long time but the thicker you put it in the screens the better it will work!

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Originally Posted by warisnottheanswer http://www.rollitup.org/images/blaze...s/viewpost.gif
my dude winkdog he had a farm e-i-e-i-o and on his farm he had some bud e-i-e-i-o wit a barbwire here and a white widow there, here a bud there a bud every week more BUD BUD