stillmatic
Well-Known Member
QUESTION: would aluminum sheet metal be good for making a cfl reflector??
thats what im doing small grow, small plantsI can see where you, both, are comming from! Cfl's are not the best for growing - and - yes , they do work (especially in Micro-grows and for small plants). The debate has been going on for a long time!
The real question is, "would aluminum sheet metal be good for making a cfl reflector??"
The real answer is, "Yes". Sheet aluminum is probably the best materiel to make any sort of DIY reflector from.
Yep that will work great but it's REALLY expensive. You can get just some steel that has the exact same non-shiny-ness as the aluminum for at least half the cost if not less.
I found both at the local Ace hardware store.
I use a 300W 22,000 DIY CFL setup and it works pretty damn good for veg but I do move to a 400W HPS for flower.
I'm building something similar, with roofing flashing sheet metal. does anyone know if it would be better to leave the metal plain or paint the inside with an oil based flat white spray paint?
your mini veg area looks pretty cool, check out my mini grow box im building right now... its the bottom link in my signaturei think flat stock aluminum is one of the handiest things you could have around the house. here are some pics of a batwing construction i did just now, in about 3 minutes...it is very similar to the grow faq's but it shows you how easy and fast it is to make out of flatstock aluminum
the whole roll costs about $100 -$150 but you get like 100 ft.
you can chose the colour of the one side. i find arctic white works best.
the last pic is of my mini veg area where i also used a piece of flatstock.
you can get it at any roofing/siding/metal supplier. as far as attaching a socket, there are numerous ways. I like to get small 5" L brackets and simply bolt the socket to the L-bracket or use hose clamps. the possibilities are endless. but L brackets and hose clamps work wonderfully for reflector fabing, and the flatstock aluminum of course.