Cheap-o ebay LED box

fishdeth said:

Look at my first thread in my sig.
Screw some casters on the top & flip that thing over, and use the hump where the compressor/guts are for filter, air pumps, ballast etc.
Then make a nice "top" for it and you will have a lot more floor space for your plants.

Just a suggestion.... FD

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I was wondering where you got a fridge that had the freezer on the bottom, that makes more sense though you just flipped it over.

PicklesRus said:

I'll try a clamp and snip. I don't want to release any of it since its in my living room.

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Take it outside for your safety. Duh. You are allowed to release some much freon. It varies by state. Look it up and make sure for yours.

I would suggest reclaimer just for the environment.

whitebb2727 said:

Take it outside for your safety. Duh. You are allowed to release some much freon. It varies by state. Look it up and make sure for yours.

I would suggest reclaimer just for the environment.

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I'm on a 4th story apartment with no elevator. Im happy that I got it up al the stairs. Lesson learned, next time I'll strip it in an alley or something.

I don't know about the USA but up here in beautiful Canada afaik the fire departments act as hazardous home waste drop off locations for stuff. I'll see if that's true and I can drop the clamped (hopefully not
Leaking) old tank there. I don't have a reclaimer.

Edit: the city dump has a 17$ charge to remove refrigerant from the unit, that's not bad.

There is so little gas in that tiny system..I wouldn't worry about it. Push it by a window and cut that sob.

PicklesRus said:

I'm on a 4th story apartment with no elevator. Im happy that I got it up al the stairs. Lesson learned, next time I'll strip it in an alley or something.

I don't know about the USA but up here in beautiful Canada afaik the fire departments act as hazardous home waste drop off locations for stuff. I'll see if that's true and I can drop the clamped (hopefully not
Leaking) old tank there. I don't have a reclaimer.

Edit: the city dump has a 17$ charge to remove refrigerant from the unit, that's not bad.

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Dude. Serious take it outside. Freon is dangerous and can cause someone to stop breathing. Don't be lazy, take it outside.

When you cut it release gas. A gas that displaces oxygen. Some will turn to liguid.

You are asking for trouble and a mess.

Don't fuck around and kill one of your neighbors.

Corso312 said:

There is so little gas in that tiny system..I wouldn't worry about it. Push it by a window and cut that sob.

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That is stupid. What if he kills or makes someones kid sick?

Seriously.

I don't know what to say. This is a stupid idea. You have no way of knowing where the gas will settle. All it takes is one breath to kill an adult. What if the gas reaches a child?

If you were outside away from people I would say cut away.

That system is too tiny and doesn't have anywhere near enough refrigerant to come close doing what you are panicking about.

I didn't realize it was such a big deal.

Corso312 said:

That system is too tiny and doesn't have anywhere near enough refrigerant to come close doing what you are panicking about.

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Yes it does. Freon can and has caused sudden death.

Why take a chance?

What you a suggesting is unsafe and dumb.


I have a license to buy and distribute freon. I work on my own stuff.

If I must I will walk to my building and show you my vaccum pump and reclaim tank.

Its silly to suggesting this.

PicklesRus said:

I'm on a 4th story apartment with no elevator. Im happy that I got it up al the stairs. Lesson learned, next time I'll strip it in an alley or something.

I don't know about the USA but up here in beautiful Canada afaik the fire departments act as hazardous home waste drop off locations for stuff. I'll see if that's true and I can drop the clamped (hopefully not
Leaking) old tank there. I don't have a reclaimer.

Edit: the city dump has a 17$ charge to remove refrigerant from the unit, that's not bad.

Click to expand...

Dude just borrow a dolly from the maint man and take it outside.


Odds are it will be fine but why take a chance?

It will for a fact make a mess.

I've got a vacum pump in mine too, so what? You know how I know for a fact you are freaking out over nothing? My uncle has nicked his line on his while chipping ice. The people who die from freon are huffing it.. That system is miniscule and poses no threat to human health.

PicklesRus said:

I didn't realize it was such a big deal.

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Its not.

PicklesRus said:

Yes that's a great idea. I just saw your thread. I think I just need now to figure out how to pretty up the top. What did you use to cut through the inner layer of the fridge?

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I used a rotozip to cut through the inner plastic and a hammer and thin chisel for the outer metal skin.

Corso312 said:

I've got a vacum pump in mine too, so what? You know how I know for a fact you are freaking out over nothing? My uncle has nicked his line on his while chipping ice. The people who die from freon are huffing it.. That system is miniscule and poses no threat to human health.

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Not really freaking. Just being cautious. Me need to do shit like this indoors.

Just saying if we lived in an apartment complex and someone e was letting freon off around my kids I wouldn't be to happy.

Just to say the system poses no threat is silly. There is a proper place and time to do everything.

Just saying better safe than sorry. No biggie.

Progress. I had my friend help me out. We used plyers and squished the lines, cut the lines and capped each one with a balloon zip tied and brought it outside.

The fridge looks good. Looking at it now I see I could mount the heat sinks and drivers externally on top so that the cobs are flush mount with the inner ceiling of the box.. The only thing is if I go to all the work to cut out the ceiling for the leds I won't want to make special holes for cheap eBay leds, I'd rather get better cobs. This was intended to be a fun cheap learning project but this fridge is pretty nice. I will build my led wen the parts come and hang it inside for now using the existing screw holes.

Now I just gotta think and figure out what I want to use this box for. It's roughly 2x2.

At first I thought it would be a veg / flower box, and I also thought about using it as a veg chamber only.

I guess my question is how much ppfd should I have for veg, and how much for flower. I gotta say tho this could turn out to be really nice and clean.

I want to put a butcher block top on it, and I plan on building the LED as a passive design with large heat sinks. I wonder though if having wood in relatively close proximity to the electrical circuit is a good idea. Il mount the drivers on a suspended metal plate,and I'll remove the styrofoam and cover it with a metal strip if I can so that nothing electrical will touch the styrofoam or wood.

Looks good.

That little circle on the bottom of the cab is where the lightbulb was, and there are two wired running through the foam to the top of the cab now, so if I clean out the styro around the leads on the bottom I could use those wires for something, I'm not sure what you'd want to have wired underneath your res, but hey, I have to wires running there for something. Maybe a sensor.

Alright Here's a visual of the direction I'd like to go with it.

I think the scrubber will take up the back indent. I'll mount the electrical hardware in the shallow top cavity and then for the front panel there used to be a slotted plate with a few switches in it, If it's not a fire hazard I'll replace that with some nice wood and put my arduino screen and control buttons along with any other buttons I'll be using (i.e. LED dimmer, Veg/Flower switch, timer control (arduino) etc...)

But this all depends if I want to make this stealth or not. If stealth is truly the goal then I should plan for keeping the front plate empty, at least for now.

If I want to make it really fancy I could goto Ikea and get a butcher block top or something even build some sort of furniture onto the top.

I was originally thinking to keep this on castor wheels rolled into the back corner of my storage room, not directly visible and tucked away with the door facing the wall, but easy to roll out for access.

I've settled on a carbon filter - outer 5" outer dimension made from 4" and 5" ducting, inside a box so that I can use an axial fan to pull through the carbon. I haven't thought yet about how I'll deal with carbon changes once it's depleted though.

This is essentially an inline Carbon Filter. I wanted to make something easier to refill but I'll have to just figure that out here, hopefully won't be too time consuming. Depending on how good the fan is maybe I can put something infront of it too and have it double as a cooling fan for something.

Designing a basic scrubber using ducting and screen from Home Depot / Rona ducting will run about 85$, not including the Carbon yet.. (yuck!)

I think it might be more worthwhile doing a cheap DIY filter instead

Parts
4" Ducting End Cap
(2) 5" Ducting End Caps
4" Duct Adhesive Take Off Flange
Rigid Steel Mesh
(2) 5" Hose/Duct clamps


1) Cut 4" hole in 5" end cap

2) Trim adhesive flange to fit inside 5" end cap

3) Cut Mesh and clamp around 4" end cap and 4" adhesive flange

4) Take of adhesive sticker for 4" flange and insert into cut 5" end cap.

5) Cut Mesh and clamp around cut 5" end cap


6) Stand on flange end and fill with carbon


7) Slide 5" end cap over screen and tap down gently with a rubber malleto


It would be a fairly decent quality filter, that you could refil by taking of the bottom cap, but too much $


All I learned tonight is that building a carbon filter from ducting is about the same cost as buying a prefab one.