DIY: How-to Make your own Cooltube (inexpensive)

Well, I looked on here for a "Do it Yourself" for making your own Cooltube on here, couldn't find anything, so here goes:

How to Make your very own cooltube setup! The very best way to do it.

This is of course, by no means a new idea. This is simply meant to be an informative tutorial based on my experience while searching for a cool tube solution. I was unable to find any detailed or clean instructions on how to make a cool tube using a Pyrex bake-a-round. They all leave out small details or used a ton of duct tape, random scraps, etc. Which is not very nice to look at, let alone have as a hazard. This is intended for those who want a durable, clean, easy to assemble piece of equipment for their setup. )

Clean and Easy Cool Tube

This is a detailed tutorial on how to put together your very own cool tube. You can assemble one of these in about 20 minutes or less. This is based on a 150 watt HPS setup, but may be adapted as needed to 250, 400, 600, and possibly 1000W.

What You Need, you can find most of this online, ebay, amazon, etc..:

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1 x Pyrex Bake-A-Round tube (long discontinued, but available readily on EBay and in classifieds, Flea markets etc â?? surprisingly common) - $10-15
1 x pair of Café Rod brackets (hardware store, where window fittings are located) - $1.50
1 x Ceramic medium or mogul lamp base with standard mounting hole - $0.99
1 x 1â?�-1.5â?� (approx) hose clamp - $0.80
1 x 3.5â?�-4â?� (approx) hose clamp - $1.00
2 x 4.5â?�-5â?� (approx) hose clamps - $2.50
1 x roll of self adhesive insulating foam for hot water pipes. - $2.50
1 x #6 â?? 32 x 3/8â?� (machine screws with nuts) - $0.99
1 x multipurpose (including glass) glue or epoxy (optional) - $3.00
1 x 400°F small tube of silicone sealant - $2.50
Your HPS/4â?� duct system â?? N/A


Step 1:

Collect your café rod brackets, lamp base, and screws.

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Remove one of the café rods and bend into roughly the shape illustrated in the next photo (you may need a something to help such as a pair of pliers).

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Attach the café rod to the lamp socketâ??s mounting hole using a screw and nut.

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Connect the wires from your power source line to the lamp socket. The white wire should connect to the silver screw, and the black wire to the brass / darker screw (this is standard color coding). I used a little bit of solder for good measure. Leave the ground wire (green) unconnected for now, ideally left a little longer than the others.
Cut and bend the remaining café rod into three pieces with tabs on the end as shown. The longest/middle section should measure 1&1/8� on each (medium) or 7/8" (mogul). The other sections are of negligible length, but around ½� is good. These are your spacers.

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Fasten the spacers to the lamp socket as shown. Use your epoxy or glue if desired in addition to the clamp to make sure everything is firmly in place.

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Step 2:

Hang your bulb assembly over the end of the Bake-a-Round. You will notice that there is a slight bit of play between the spacers attached to the socket, and the inner walls of the tube (if you measured correctly and donâ??t have an oddly sized socket). This is deliberate and is to account for possible thermal expansion in the metal. Fitting the spacers firmly could result in a cracked or broken tube!

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Place the bulb in the socket and clamp the hook hanging over the side of the glass tube with the ~4â?� Clamp. Tack the hook and clamp with epoxy/glue for added strength (The glued clamp can still be popped off, so donâ??t worry too much about how you will change the bulb).

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Step 3:

Wrap self adhesive insulating foam around each end on the tube as shown (or only one if you are using exhaust only). This will allow 4â?� duct to fit very snugly to the tube (which itâ??s self is 3 ¾â?� O.D.), and will also act as a gasket/seal when clamped.

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Thread wiring through the ducting, attach the ducting to the tube, and clamp in place. Finish with silicone sealant if desired. Connect the ground to the duct or the café rod hook.

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Add an optional reflector made from unclosed rigid duct (you can find this in your hardware store â?? itâ??s a piece of sheet metal with a snap together seam that hasnâ??t been connected). Simply cut to length, cut flanges a half inch from the ends, and clamp those to the duct/tube. Hang your lamp with light chain available from your hardware store by the foot. The chain attaches under the clamps on the duct. Youâ??re done!

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Can an admin/mod please enable pics on this? Would really appreciate it.

Also, you will need a ballast that suits your type of bulb, the ballast MUST match the bulb output!!!! NO EXCEPTIONS!!

does adding glass between your bulb and plants reduce the amount of light received by your plants? it seems like i read that somewhere ....anyone have more info?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by seventhchild

does adding glass between your bulb and plants reduce the amount of light received by your plants? it seems like i read that somewhere ....anyone have more info?

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That is true, but to compensate, you can move the bulb/tube closer without any heat (so long as you have ducting and fans), so it makes up in terms of light output, since it can be moved closer. Lumen loss will be about 8% at the same distance, but move it 2 inches closer, your back in business. Just be sure to keep the glass as clean as possible and you should be fine.

They got some good deals on ebay lately, got 2 of them for $15.00/each...

Better get one or 2 soon, they are discontinued..

Thanks lots for posting this - this clears up some of the questions raised by a
few other people's explanations on cooltube construction.

That's really only a 150 watt in the last photo? So there's enough clearance for airflow with a 250 or 400 watt?

I better head off to ebay. Once the people who sell kitchen stuff like those bakearounds figure out there's a lot of demand (and especially if they find out WHY there's suddenly a lot of demand), prices will shoot up and they'll claim it's because they're 'collector's items'....

I'm thinking of a dual bulb 250 watt cooltube (2 x 250).

You can use these for up to 1000W I believe, as long as you have a good inline fan (450+ CFM) should be good. For 400W-600W 200CFM should be alright, but I like more airflow to maximize the cooling effect. In the photo a 150W bulb was used yes, but up to 1000W should fit fine.

It is definitely a worthwhile project, you could save hundreds depending on how big you decide to make your grow room.

Lets just compare really quick:

250W ballast kit - $47.00
250W HPS bulb - $10.00
250W MH bulb - $20.00

$117.00 for full cooltubed setup (DIY style) includes bake a round, all parts, etc.
$189.00 - $304.98 on ebay


400W ballast kit - $65.00
400W HPS bulb - $18.75
400W MH bulb - $20.00

$133.75 for full cooltubed setup (DIY style) includes back a round, all parts, etc.
$189.98 - $339.95 on ebay

600W ballast kit - $82.00
600W HPS bulb - $25.00
600W MH bulb - $35.00

$172 for full cooltubed setup (DIY style) includes bake a round, all parts, etc.
$250.00 - $930.00 (48 inch setup)


1000W ballast kit - $120.00
1000W HPS bulb - $30.00
1000W MH bulb - $30.00

$210 for full cooltubed setup (DIY style) includes bake a round, all parts, etc.
$325.00 - $411.90 on ebay
Those prices vary, depending on seller, but the lower pricing depicts the level of quality they use as well. I would much rather build it myself and cost way less. Than buy it from someone and pay way more.

Sorry to post this, probably already know the answer to this but..

I just picked up a 1000w mh(given to me), but its one of those old school ones... the bulb is like 6-7 inches wide, 12" long...so i was wondering if there are any ways of cool tubing this. Biggest Pyrex Bake-A-Round tube I see is 4" in diam.

For the 1000W bulbs you will most likely need to use a storm lantern glass. The bake a round will not fit the 1000W bulbs due to what you said, but certain storm lantern glass will do the trick wonderfully.

This board does not allow direct linking of images. You must upload the pictures you're talking about directly to the thread. See the "Manage Attachments" button below your text field when you're writing a message in advanced mode. You are allowed 5 pictures per post.

I have tried that, and when writing up this post I noticed the images will show up at the end of the post, rather than where I would like the images to be in reference to the guide. If I did that, everything would be out of place.

Not sure what to do, any ideas?

whoa whoa. Where can you get a ballast + bulb for like $60? Every where I look they are like 250!