Grow shelf basic and upgraded

[gill_za]

As an experiment I've fitted the middle shelf with the sliding acrylic panels using cord guide from lowes.

Had to enlarge the slits in the cord guide to fit the sheets.

It is not 100% sealed, but definitely better than what blinds provided. The only problem is that blinds had to go.

 

[mass]

I've kinda got the same thing going on in half the GH. Really helps with nightly temp drops and hiking up the daytime humidity.

 

[gill_za]

Mass, what did you use for the track?

 

[GrowinOld]

Gill,
I don't think I have seen anyone has put in as much effort or made such a solid
grow shelf since I have been here! WOW!
You do get an A+ !

When you do things, you sure go in all the way!
Very nice Gill!


You also have devised some interesting things using materials available!
Very inventive!
Nice Job!

 

[gill_za]

GrowinOld,

Thank you very much for the kind words. But I think you give me much more credit than I deserve.
Many of these things that I did to the rack I've seen here done by others on TF

Thank you

 

[robthered]

Great idea with the cord guides.

I'm currently working on merging two 4 foot tanks into one and will have a sliding plexi glass door in front. I think I'll use your idea with the cord guides. Seems really inexpensive and easy to do. Great stuff!

 

[31drew31]

Looking good man!

Another good option for sliding glass, which I have use when making monitor cages is using plastic tracking for glass. You can find it at most glass places. Comes in 10' lengths and you cut to size.

Example.
http://www.google.ca/imgres?q=plast...5&tbnw=135&start=8&ndsp=10&ved=1t:429,r:8,s:8

 

[gill_za]

This is what I was looking for originally. But since I did not have all day to look around in lowes and the employees there could not suggest anything useful cord guides had to be it.

In addition the cord guide has an adhesive strip which hels hold itself in place (with some additional help) and its cheap.

But next time im doind this kind of a setup im going with what you suggested.

Thank you!

Looking good man!

Another good option for sliding glass, which I have use when making monitor cages is using plastic tracking for glass. You can find it at most glass places. Comes in 10' lengths and you cut to size.

Example.
http://www.google.ca/imgres?q=plast...5&tbnw=135&start=8&ndsp=10&ved=1t:429,r:8,s:8

 

[TheFury]

THIS IS FANTASTIC! I've been gone for a month, and I come back to see all this ingenious engineering on your thread. Bravo! Gonna have to steal some of these ideas

How much were those acrylic panels? I love the sliding door idea. How did you fix the guides to the front of your rack?

 

[gill_za]

Hey. Acryic panels are from lowes (18x24") and are about 8 bucks each. The guides are about 6 bucks and they are 6' or so. The guides come with an adhesive layer. but i also used tape (attached from inside the guide to the shelf itself). I also did the same to the top shelf and will post pictures next week.

 

[UnstuckinTime]

gill_za, it looks like a fume hood, and I want it!

Very nice work indeed! You and TheFury are definitely pushing the bar higher in the ways of set-ups.

 

[Rocketcaver]

Great job!
Very inspiring.

 

[gill_za]

A little update:

The weather stripping as it turned out is just not good for supporting the cord guides and acrylic panels. It is too soft and the adhesive is too weak. After about two weeks the weather stripping started to slide down and almost fell off.

Instead I have cut out a strip of the reflective panel and glued it to the shelf using industrial adhesive "Liquid nails" . After the adhesive solidified the cord guides were also glued to the strip (remaining adhesive on the cord guides was also removed).

Side

Front

It works much better than weather stripping.
Fans off and Humidifier on.

Additionally, I have used Velcro squares and attached Reflective bubble strips to keep the light in.

Finally, fans were rewired. I have soldered pieces of the sparkler sticks like so

The red tape is just to keep the wires together. The wires are connected in parallel to the adapter from router. It runs the fans at half the speed and can supply enough current for 6 80mm fans.

 

[Monkey]

That thing is a piece of freaking art!

 

[gill_za]

That thing is a piece of freaking art!

It actually looks really shabby! That is the beauty of cell phone pictures, they are so bad they make the ugly things look ok

 

[Dexenthes]

Wow that is quite a production you've got there. Nice job!

 

[mass]

Ingenious!! I'll take two please..

 

[mato]

Looks awesome, Gil. How is the velcro working for you on the front? I created a removable piece on the back using velcro and I find it to be a pain to remove. I'm thinking of replacing the velcro with magnets pretty soon.

 

[Av8tor1]

Junk refrigerator/freezer door gaskets contain long and flexible strip magnets that would be ideal for this application.

just a thought

 

[gill_za]

@mato77429
So far Velcro works ok. But it is a new addition so I might encounter some issues with it later. I guess because I did not use the strip of Velcro but rather a few pieces it is not hard to remove the front reflector.

Magnets is what I thought I'm going to go with, but I found Velcro at home, must have gotten it a while ago and forgot about it.

@Av8tor1
Heh thanks you for this idea!