Where to start? I’ve been growing for a few grows now in my converted Ikea Pax single wardrobe (460mm x 575mm x 860mm) using CFL’s and a Sunmate CFL reflector. This has been ideal for me as it’s quiet, stealthy and an ok producer. The important word in that last sentence is about it being an OK producer. To overcome this problem I bought a 250W HPS setup and a cool tube.
Got the thing home and it was cracked, so another drive back to the hydro shop to replace it with an un-cracked one. Got this home, fitted it and what do you know, another bloody crack. This led me to believe the cool tubes are cheap pieces of shite that you have to handle like a baby. Not to mention the light spread!!! (and the 490mm length made it a bit too tight with all the ducting in my space).
So that task was on to build my own cool tube that would be better than the one’s you buy. I have found a few suppliers that will supply 5mm thick Pyrex tube with an outside diameter of 120mm. Perfect!!!.......well not quite. After postage and the taxman’s cut, the price was nudging £60 just for the tube!
So that’s where I am now. Ive decided a round tube reflector just will not do. So I looked at a few forums for some DIY reflectors that I can make and modify. Then I came across this:
An easy home made reflector made of sheet steel and reflective paint. This is perfect as I can make any size I want :-D (all of the current air cooled hoods available to buy wouldn't fit in my growroom)
So I made use of these plans:
The original plans (courtesy of “DurbanLegend” via “Pontiac” on icmag.com shown above)
Slightly modified now to give me slightly more length for a 250W HPS. The yellow tabs are to be folded to allow glass to be slid in and out and the red tabs are needed to hold the thing together. Notice how the holes are slightly offset in a hope to get better air cooling. I don’t know if it will work any better but intuition tells me it will. Another advantage of having a design like this rather than a cool tube is that the reflector will act like a silencer too.
Build cost: 500mm x 500mm x 1mm Steel sheet B+Q number 3232636004108 £17.34
2x 100mm Wall Spigot/Connector Growell Code 1228 £4.80
Sheet Glass Not sure on this yet, I'll update this thread when i find out)
First stage is to get some sheet metal; now I’m not sure if I should get sheet steel with a galvanised reflective coating or just use some paint when I’m done. A 500mm x 500mm sheet will be fine for mine. I ended up getting 500x500x1 steel for B+Q, bit pricey at £17 but I wanted to get busy. 1mm sheet should produce something with some strength to it too.
Draw the plans out on the metal and use some tin snips to cut the shape out (Don’t forget to leave tabs at the side so it can be held together and look further through the thread concerning tabs). I used a jigsaw with a metal blade which worked a treat.
After the cuts have been made now would be an ideal time to cut the 100mm holes for the air cooled ducts. I didn’t do this, I forgot and have to do it later. Once the holes have been made it’s bashin time.
I think the tabs should be the first thing to be bent as they are the sharpest bends. Find a desk with a nice 90 degree bend at the edge, line it all up and hit with a wooden/rubber mallet until it is in the shape you need. Do that with all of the tabs. If I was doing it again I’d start with the inside one’s! This can be a lot trickier than it sounds if you don’t have a variety of surfaces to place the piece flat after there are bends put in it! I had to use some pipe grips to make a few bends. Not the prettiest but functional none-the-less.
Then use that same desk to fold each of the edges down so they meet the tabs and drill a holes through the tab and the side ready for rivets to hold it together.
You’ll notice on this picture that some of the tabs need edges cut off so it’ll fit together. This is because I didn’t work out the exact measurements for the angles to cut at the end of each of the tabs
Thats where I am now but I'll update this thread when I've made some more progress
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