Thundercat's Groooooooow

Thundercat

Well-Known Member
Definitely a cool product. That light meter test was very impressive, and I'm pretty sure I could tell a difference in how bright they seemed just looking at the crack at the bottom of the boxes. I could definitely use some of that, I'll redo, or layer over the poly on the walls, and make a curtain on the other side. For a couple years I've been thinking about making some small panel that would sit ontop of my pots with a slot in them for the stem to reflect the light back up towards the plants. Like a 7x7 square of foam board with reflective film ontop that would just slip around the stem and sit ontop of the pot. This Orca could be perfect for that.
 

max420thc

Well-Known Member
Ive thought about methods but nothing practical of doing just what you propose.Putting some of around the base of the plants.The best i have come up with so far without interfering with the maint. of the plants.There is allot of spacing between my plant containers so i put it on the floor under the containers.You would shit the difference it makes in keeping your plants from stretching and developing bud sites.
Basic really..More light=more bud...simple.The orca pays for itself first run in increased production..In other words you are going to be paid to purchase it..LOTS.
It just doesnt seem that way to some people.But thats how business works..you offer me a product that will make me more money..SOLD..It doesnt take long to talk me into giving me free money.
If i had one of the grow tents ive seen on here..and they do a good job..id throw it straight in the trash and make one out of orca..straight away..there wouldnt even be a discussion or hesitation about it.Orcas a nice thick workable material too..you can do lots of clever things with it..your mind being the only limiting factor..same as it is with everything else in life..the only limiting factor other than motivation is ones mind.
When you do put orca into your grow..keep in mind..your plants are going to use more nutes and water than they used to.Dont think..well im feeding as much as i always have and think it will be enough..it probably wont.Especially if you are jumping on it with co2 also.
That being said your increase in production will be outstanding.Those pain in the ass stretch plants will not stretch as much..the plants to the side of the canopy that were always kind of light fluffy bud will be hard now,Instead of hash they will be good smoke.Deeper into the canopy because of the light reflection coming back up the plant from the floor will be harder better bud.

The closer you can get your reflector to the light you are wanting to reflect the sooner it reflects the light rays with more intensity.
Lumen ratings are taken 1 ft off of the bulb.If you turn the light sooner it will be more intense.High polished stainless steel has a 100% reflective rating.
Over the tops of good hoods you will notice a small stainless steel strip of high polished stainless.Right over the bulb.
What this does is deflect the light as soon as it hits it..at 100% reflection.
If you hit it with 100 lumens it reflects 100 lumens.Its the only material i can think of that does this.
The problem with this is it can make heat spots in your garden burning some plants.So they Break the alum at angles in order to push the light into the diffused ,.normally,,german made dimple alum. If its a good reflector.
The argument is made by vert growers that the hood wasted the bulb.In fact it does not,a good hood focus's the beam of light with intensity.A good hood should focus the beam of light in intensity where you want it to go.
In the bloom room it is most important to focus,intensify and contain the light as much as possible.
The tighter containment of the light around the plant the more reflection of the light there is.
As light travels away from the bulb it loses intensity ..fast.So the sooner you reflect it the more intense it will be back into your plants.
There is no way around it..this equals more larger bigger better buds.
The hoods we made are made for the veg room they throw a wide swath of light.But its not intense light.The bulbs are mounted in them vert,orca curtains are mounted around the sides and on the walls around the babys in veg..and mothers.
My crony set up a stadium along one wall in his spare time.Pretty nice holds more plants in less room.
The results in the veg room have been outstanding..no stretch in veg..close internodal spacing stacking the sites in before they even become sites.
I encourage everyone to get a roll of this shit and start playing with it and inventing things with it.
 

smoke and coke

Well-Known Member
Sooo anyone ever find sap has formed on a plant?
i did some super cropping on a jilly bean. the next day i looked and where i crushed and bent the stem was red sap sealing the wound. i have never noticed this on any other plant.

i finally finished and am caught up. great thread btw.
 

Thundercat

Well-Known Member
As always great info there Max thanks for dropping it on us. I like the stadium style setups, its been on my list of things it would be fun to try.

S&C glad you enjoyed the read man. The sap thing was weird for sure, I suppose it speaks to me not having a completely controlled environment. I'm really looking forward to that day, but we still got quite a few variables to figure out before we'll be able to buy a place I can do a proper build in. Obviously once its built the room will pay for itself, but getting it done in the first place is gonna take a bit.
 

max420thc

Well-Known Member
Start getting your equipment together when you get it let me know.I am in Indiana ill help you with advice on setting it up..or if i could schedule it i could travel a few hours in the mid west.
We could just set it up for you.Set you up with a first class grow..Look for something with a large basement.It is much easier to control temps and humidity in a basement.
 

Thundercat

Well-Known Member
I've been running in basements for the last couple years, and they have become my preference for sure. That being said I need to build my next room so I can completely control it. Once I am ready though having the help from someone with experience going big will be great :).
 

Thundercat

Well-Known Member
So I was just sitting here, and realized I completely forgot about my birthday this year. My wife said happy birthday, but we had celebrated when we went to Chicago last month so hadn't thought much of it. Then sitting here I commented to someone about being younger and realized "I'm not in my 20s any more". Not that I feel old persay, but its just kinda weird being 30 cus its always seemed like a milestone sort of I guess. I feel like I've done an ok job of becoming my own person, and growing over the years. The last few years have been a real change with being a dad now. However I suppose looking at life I feel pretty good about the paths I've decided to walk. I've generally stayed out of trouble (I don't have anything but some traffic violations), I've got a great wife that loves me....even when she drives me nuts....and I her ;). My daughter is healthy, smart, and sweet(WHEN SHE WANTS TO BE). So now my 30's start! I still need to find a way to bring everything together and continue to build our life, but I suppose that comes with time.

Hope everyone is having a great day. After all that snow its now super warm, and I have some nice minor leaks in my room yay! Hopefully it won't get to bad. I need to get to the store today cus my bloom timer has failed on me again. I'm kinda annoyed since last time instead of buying the 5-8 dollar timer I sprung for the $25 apollo timer, and it seriously only lasted like 3 months. I'm going to be reading and watching a bunch of videos to learn how to install a new breaker myself, and then installing an inline mechanical light timer for the new outlet. I'm sooo sick of replacing timers.
 

Dr.D81

Well-Known Member
my wife turned 30 on nov 1st i am l am 33 in march i dont mind my self 40 will be weird. my sister freaked out at 30 se is 35 now. i say i are only as old as you fill damn wait a min that would make me 100 :lol:
 

max420thc

Well-Known Member
How far away is your breaker box from your grow TC..and what all are you running on it?
I just posted a picture of a mechanical timer for 40 bucks from ebay..not much more than that from lowes.They are heavy duty water heater and hot tub timers.
You will have to wire it into the breaker box and wire your own outlets though.Not to hard.I can walk you right through it.
 

max420thc

Well-Known Member
Oh yea..Happy Bday..as if that is supposed to make you feel good about getting old..im trying to forget my bdays anymore.
 

Thundercat

Well-Known Member
Thanks for the bday wishes guys. I'm the same way only as old as I feel, which sometimes is bad, but usually good and young :).

Max the breaker box is about 18 ft to where I would put the timer, and the plug in. I found a what looks like a nice timer at my grow shop normally 70 the guy told me 45 though. Its got the metal gears, and looks simple enough to wire. I've wired outlets before without a problem, its mostly the new breaker that I'm nervous about. I'm sure thats even very straight forward, I just have never worked inside a breaker box. The only thing running on that timer will be my 1k, and a circulation fan. If I wire one breaker I'm prolly gonna wire 2 cus there is room in the box, and run the other one for the rest of the grow areas so they are completely off the house circuits.
 

Dr.D81

Well-Known Member
tc it is very straight forward you just treat it with respect and you are golden oh yea happy late bday as well
 

max420thc

Well-Known Member
There is not much inside a house hold breaker box that is going to kill you..just make sure you are not standing in a bucket of water.This is going to be as easy as plugging in a light bulb.
The most you can get hit with ..and it wont happen because i am telling you how to do this.Is 120 volt...it will do nothing but tingle.

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Thundercat

Well-Known Member
OK max, it'll be a few days till I can afford the supplies, but I'm gonna get the stuff and we'll do this maybe next week.
 

max420thc

Well-Known Member
First thing you need a open breaker slot..preferably two spots on the same side of the breaker isles.Take the panel off of the front with a regular screw driver.See what brand of panel it is so we can go to mennards or lowes and get a breaker.Lets just use a 30 amp breaker double in 220 volts if you can get it.Get half inch..i think they call them 3/8 size romex connecters.purchase a fifty ft roll of i think its ten AWG.gauge three conductor wire..a black..a white and a bare copper wire in it.Check at lowes they will tell you what wire will hold 30 amps.
Take the front of the panel off..knock a pre punched knock out hole in the side of the power box.Remove knock out slug and throw away..feed wire through romex connecter with plenty of wire through it..after you put the romex connecter in the hole you just knocked out and tightened up.When you get enough wire..plenty to reach your breaker and your ground bar.You will see it . it is normally a alum bar that a bunch of BARE ground wires are connected to.sometimes white ones also.
Tighten the lug that holds the wire down onto the wire coming through the romex connecter holding the wire,clamping it in place..give a little tug to make sure everything is tight.
Pull the end of the wire out of the box so you can work with it easy and safe.
Strip back the plastic insulation over the wires all the way back to the side of the box as far as you can with a utility knife..then cut the plastic covering off and throw it away.this will leave three wires exposed.One black..one white and one bare copper wire.
You will take the bare copper wire and take it to the grounding bar..loosen if there isnt already a loose screw available ..should be..stick the bare copper wire under it and tighten the screw down tight on the wire.Cut the wire but leave a little extra..maybe 6 inch's of wire..the black and white wires.Just strip about 3/8 of a inch of the insulators off of the wire..exposing a nice tip of copper..leave the box WITH a box of romex staples.
Staple the romex over head neatly in a straight line or making right angle curves..make it look pro.If it looks pro it probably is..my opinion.
staple the romex over to a wall somplace where you want it..
Mount the timer on the wall and ..again the timer will have a knock out on the side of it..punch the knock out..out and install romex connecter.
Feed wire through and tighten in place.(hammer drills are sometimes handy in mounting to concrete)
Ok now feed wire over to ballasts wherever you have them located..i mount mine on the ceiling.
Install 4 outlet box central to ballasts ..pull wire through romex connecter just like before..and wire in outlets.
Go back to timer and follow instructions on the front of it..can take a picture of it and the schematic on the front and i could double check it right here.
Go back to breaker box..take breaker..put one wire under one screw of the double breaker...the white one..and tighten it down..then put the other wire,black.under the other screw of the breaker and tighten.
There will be a lip or a edge on most breakers..you will have a slot on the breaker that it sits in. normally on the back heel of most breakers..it put the back of the breaker onto this spot and push it forward onto the Bus bar..as it is called..this is where your power is..so dont touch it..hard to do actually unless you are trying.
You just push it firmly onto the bus bar.Some will snap into place nice and right.
On the breaker door take the knock outs out of it where the front of the breakers will protrude through it.
Any excess wire tuck neatly into the panel..re install the breaker panel door..
Done..no more cheap breaking timers.Nothing but heavy duty and will run 5 1000 watt ballasts.:bigjoint:at 240 volts.
Now for the ballasts.If you are running a digital..most of them will auto ajust for voltage.
If it is a magnetic some of them have a couple of slots depending on voltage ..it should be marked.Some of them you have to take the cover off and change a wire to a terminal marked 240 volts.
If you have 110 volt plug ins. The 240 volt plug ins are spendy.But nice..then sometimes you have to purchase a new cord.
If you use 110 volt outlets you can plug the 110 volt cord into the outlet..you just wire the black to one side of the 110 outlet the white to the other..one with silver finish on the screw..the other with golden.
You can plug right into it with 240..make sure all the bare wires are connected to every green colored screw along the way..connected one to the other all the way to every outlet.
When you wire the outlet this way..make sure you mark it this way..with a red marker or something..MAKE sure you dont get stoned and stupid and plug like a fan into it.
This is not much more difficult than plugging in a power cord normally.
 

max420thc

Well-Known Member
The last section to clarify..is how to use a 110 volt outlet and cord using 240 volt power.
It wires the same.The only difference in outlets for 110 volt and 220 is about 15 bucks vs 50 cents..the ampacity of them is about the same.
The prong location is different is all.The reason they do this is to keep someone from accidentally plugging a 110 volt appliance to that outlet.
So long as you do not do that your cool..If you do do it you will let the smoke out of whatever you plugged into it.
Let the smoke out of something is not good..the smoke is what makes it run..if you let it out..hows it going to run?
That is a very old mechanics term not heard much anymore..let the smoke out .
 

Thundercat

Well-Known Member
Thanks for the break down max!

I wanna just wire this up 110v cus thats what this ballast has always been ran on, and its what everything else is so I figured it would be the easiest, and most universal. For now I swapped out my veg timer, and replaced it with a spare I had around. We went out today, but I totally spaced going to a store that would have a timer. Once the daughter starts fussing I usually just wanna get headed home.
 

max420thc

Well-Known Member
To wire for 110..everything is the same way..just get 110 breaker.Put black wire under screw/wire lug.
and put white wire to grounding bar..other white wires will be located on it with a single breaker.Will hold 2 1000 watt lamps at 110 volts.With some amps to spare.
 
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