Quote Originally Posted by pushit
Looking good:thumbsup:

Have you had any luck with your hps search?
I 'thought' I had, but it fell through. A girl in Atlanta had a 1K and a400? 600? Plus fans, pumps, nutes, complete kit. SunSystem's Ballasts and a couple of conversion bulbs for both. She had already sold the 600 (or whatever it was) and 'only' had the 1000 left. I was negotiating with her on that 1000w when she came back and said someone had just bought it all - package deal. :wtf:..>>....>>..:stoned: ..>>..
But really... she had thousands invested in everything she had and was looking for a $350 bailout. It WAS a Sweet deal!

So I kinda gave up as my plants were flowering and ended up building 2 grow boxes instead. Extra large cardboard storage boxes from HomeDepo. I kept 'em flat and reinforced the corners with 1x2 pine stripping - which created 'legs' as well as reinforcing the entire corner. I Mylar lined everything. Then I laid a sheet of Mylar on the floor to sit them over effectively lining the bottom.

I built a CFL light board with a piece of 1x12, 4' long, and with 6 ($1.79) ceramic sockets. Wired the line of sockets in parallel using a 12 ft extension cord ($2?) - which left 8 feet of cord to get it plugged in. Then I put a 'Y' splitter (79¢) in each socket creating 12 sockets - which I filled with 26w/100w-eq bulbs($14/6 pack). At 2,700° Kelvin they're way red/warm.

I drilled a couple of holes in the wood and threaded a cord through, looping through a couple of hooks in the ceiling to raise it and lower it - I'll put it on pulleys soon. I put a couple of pieces of Mylar covered cardboard on each side of the wood for a reflector and hung it up. It gives me 600w in each box, which is 22"x22"x65", and it's working like a charm. :thumbsup:

The reflector spreads out when the light is in the lowered position, and allows the top to 'seal', but this seal is not absolute... So during the 'night' (for the plants), I just raise the lights and throw a piece of black poly over the top. If I miss the time for whatever reason, the reflector seals the boxes well enough for them to wait.

I'm just getting ready to expand it to a 3 pot box and then duplicate the entire system with another.

Attached is an image of my homemade lights system. Total cost? Around $65-$75.

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