Check out my DIY CFL fixture/hood

I made this last week to mount all my lights on, I would say it's 50% finished right now. It's 24" wide and 44" long, it cost me $15 for the PVC parts and like $2 for the cheap party store mylar. It's mostly finished right now, I need to get another power cord to run for the left side and I really need to get thicker mylar that will create a flatter surface that is less transparant. I am also going to add another PC fan to blow up from the middle, and maybe some from the ends. Other future plans for it is to just add some cheap screw in hooks and get some chain instead of mounting it with twine like I am now.

I have 18 cfls in there right now( I think) which is real close to 40k lumen, there is enough room left over to probably but at least a dozen more in there, maybe more if I really pack them in. At the end I have a window box fan setting and blowing out to exhaust and I keep a small fan inside just to blow on the plants. This is my first grow, and my plants aren't at their best at the moment because of a little bug killer problem, but I didn't expect to be perfect the first time. In a couple weeks I am builing my own hydro hut sort of thing for this to fit in, it should be cool.

Anyway, lemme know what you think. Any suggestions would be cool.

hey thats rly cool.

question, shouldn't the plants be raised up about 2-3 inches closer to light?

They are actually, I just raised the fixture up some so I could get the picture. Later on I may add another row downward durring flowering if the plants get really tall or something, but I am not planning on that.

Height of box?
how many plants? how old?

I have 8 plants right now but and they are right around 3 weeks old. As far as box goes I am not sure what you mean, it's in my closet at the moment but I am going to build myself a little hydrohut-ish grow tent here in the next week and that will be 54" tall, and 48"x26", the light fixture is about 14" tall, but if I want to add a row of lights on the bottom bar and then add another bar below that I can make it as tall as I like, it's just a matter of how long I cut the PVC.

Oh and I am using 1/2" PVC for this, but if someone were to make it out of little metal tubing they could make it much thinner I imagine. I also think it would work pretty well if I were to put a bunch of t5 bulbs in there.

I added two more lights to it yesterday, I had broken some when putting it together so I wanted to get all my sockets full. having it this way is a lot easier to deal with heat then before, even though they are CFLs they can still get kinda hot.

Anyone have any idea how many I will be able to get in there before heat becomes a big problem?

dude thats crazy. are the lights all wired together?

Looks good...

Maybe cut a hole the same size as the fan is, where the fan is....

Otherwise its Original

looks good

looks good to me.i aprove ...if that matters

The lights are on two 15 foot power cables I got from Home Depot, I need to get a third to finish wiring the botton row on one of the side. Just ran out of length.

The hole for the fan is the same size as the fan, just looks ugly. I am going to buy a roll of mylar here at the local hydro store, but I am looking at getting my MMJ card this week so my money is going toward that first. But after that I will make this thing much prettier.

I'm telling you, All of you, MOVE TO CALIFORNIA! get your medical licenses and start growing without paranoia or fear... it has changed my life.... for a medical stand point and a legal stand point.

I mean fuck man, marijuana (in my county) has been moved to the lowest priority of enforcement. I can literally walk my dog and smoke a J.... I have been pulled over for speeding and the cop smelt my dank (even an anosmia person could, yes i linked for all your out there that dont know what anosmia means) searched, siezed (thought he was pretty cool for it too, even though i showed him my MM card), i went to court, got all charges dropped (besides speeding....) and got my dank back.... granted they left the bag open while in their possession so it was all crispy and kinda harsh, but that was the best bowl i ever smoked..... the feeling of having a judge make the cop give you back your bud is the best feeling in the world .... when i was growing up cops use to just take my budz and not even write me up, now they take um and i take um back.

.... come to think of it, there was a couple grams missing.... :S who knows....

420inmyapt said:

I'm telling you, All of you, MOVE TO CALIFORNIA! get your medical licenses and start growing without paranoia or fear... it has changed my life.... for a medical stand point and a legal stand point.

I mean fuck man, marijuana (in my county) has been moved to the lowest priority of enforcement. I can literally walk my dog and smoke a J.... I have been pulled over for speeding and the cop smelt my dank (even an anosmia person could, yes i linked for all your out there that dont know what anosmia means) searched, siezed (thought he was pretty cool for it too, even though i showed him my MM card), i went to court, got all charges dropped (besides speeding....) and got my dank back.... granted they left the bag open while in their possession so it was all crispy and kinda harsh, but that was the best bowl i ever smoked..... the feeling of having a judge make the cop give you back your bud is the best feeling in the world .... when i was growing up cops use to just take my budz and not even write me up, now they take um and i take um back.

.... come to think of it, there was a couple grams missing.... :S who knows....

Click to expand...

I grow in my closet because the rest of my house is in use, and my girl has dibs on the limited back area for growing. Not out of paranoia.

i mean nice lite set up veryy fukiin niceee but ur plants look like shitt

OgkUsHemZZ0613 said:

i mean nice lite set up veryy fukiin niceee but ur plants look like shitt

Click to expand...

Thanks, I have yet to come up with any ideas for building anything that would make me a competent grower. However, my plants look better now then they did before, though I doubt anyone would be impressed.

Here are some updated pictures. Switched to actual mylar but I could only fine the 1mm kind. Put in another computer fan for the top exhaust and put chanes to mount it instead of twine. I haven't put light in the lower sockets because I am short on space, hopefully soon I will be able to pull out the males and then add lights there.

Kudos man, CFL Growing is fun because of the wiring and the possibilities, if you show me yours i will show you mine )))

Man that's a beast What strain and what's the temperature hover at?

No idea about the strain, all bag seed from random sources over the last 6 months or so. As far as temps go I think they are pretty good but I haven't measured, all I can tell you for sure is they are lower then the rest of the room is. I hardly ever run the A/C at my house but even when it's 100 outside it usually stays in the low 90s in my house, so that room is generally in the 80s or low 90s, but that closet feels like it's half a dozen degrees cooler, but there is a lot of air flow.

yeah, looks great, thats a shit ton of lights, so you just add more pvc as the girls grow??