Camaro’s First Grow Journal

[Camaro1691]

Alright folks, Camaro is back at it again, this time We’re going to have a little quiz/question while I do a little assembly, what does everyone think is going on here?

 

[Camaro1691]

This is where we sit right now until the primer and cement warms up a little bit, is starting to turn to gelly working out in that cold Maine air haha

 

[Camaro1691]

Little delayed on the update boys and gals but this is how the system is going to be setup, I have the connectors for 3 buckets glued in place and ran out of silicone, need to get more in town tomorrow to finish the rest and test for leaks then get er fired up and drop some beans into her.

 

[Camaro1691]

Looks like I’m doing some disassembling and re-gluing my fittings today, had a chance last night to test for leaks and my connectors at the buckets are leaking, man I wish I had money to but uni-seals but holy cow aren’t they expensive.. Going to get everything resealed up today and test for leaks again then hopefully drop some beans tonight

 

[TurboBucket]

You can use the schedule 40 electrical conduit fittings and corresponding rubber washers to make your own bulkhead fittings for a fraction of the cost. They are a straight thread as opposed to a tapered thread on most schedule 40 pvc fittings.

One male one female and two rubber washers makes a nice cheap fitting you can get away with only one washer in the water side of the seal but they are cheap and it's a little extra insurance.

 

[Camaro1691]

You can use the schedule 40 electrical conduit fittings and corresponding rubber washers to make your own bulkhead fittings for a fraction of the cost. They are a straight thread as opposed to a tapered thread on most schedule 40 pvc fittings.

One male one female and two rubber washers makes a nice cheap fitting you can get away with only one washer in the water side of the seal but they are cheap and it's a little extra insurance.

Thanks for dropping in Turbo, I’m using schedule 40 trap adapters already, I’ve tried using 2 washers per fitting and that seems to leak worse than using only 1 on the outside of the bucket, I’m assuming you’ve read Snypes RDWC as we’re both on the same mindset as far as fittings. I think part of my problem was I was impatient and didn’t let my silicone set up long enough, the last time I didn’t use silicone I was ok for about 2 months then things started leaking, but if I silicone everything in place it usually never leaks, giving that I let everything set up long enough haha. As far as the washers have you found a place locally that sells them? Me and a buddy put a order in to have a company make ours specific to our needs and I still have a couple dozen left over, but if I could source them locally that’ll be great for when I expand my system in the future. I’ll post a pic of my “bulkhead” connectors once I get a couple disassembled

 

[Camaro1691]

This is one of them, upon taking my first bucket off I already know my problem and stupidly I should have thought of this from last time I built an undercurrent, I never used anything to scuff the outside of the bucket for a surface for the silicone to bite into, the buckets I got from the hydro store are super glossy and doesn’t allow the silicone to grab that well which is funny because I’m using “The Right Stuff” by mr gasket, which is the same silicone I use sealing oil pans on cars and it grabs bare metal like it’s nothing and keeps motor oil and transmission fluid in, and it has one hell of a bond if it does take, I remember gluing 2 pieces of wood together with this stuff and the wood snapped rather than it letting go where I glued it, good sh*t. Anyways, this is my bulkhead, I’ll get my buckets cleaned up and Reggie everything and I’ll give it an hour before filling this time rather than 10 minutes haha

 

[TurboBucket]

I was able to find mine at Menards, a regional competitor to Home Depot/Lowe's. They were in the electrical section. Near the junction boxes, that's the intended purpose of the fittings.

Not sure what you have going on with trap adapters but the key to getting it all to seal up is using what they call "terminal adapters" nearly every other PVC fitting uses tapered threads which won't seal tightly to the inside of the washer. These use a straight thread and seal to the inside of the washer better. They also have washers readily available to fit them.


These thread together through the wall of the bucket with either one washer in the water side or a washer on both sides

 

[TurboBucket]

This is one of them, upon taking my first bucket off I already know my problem and stupidly I should have thought of this from last time I built an undercurrent, I never used anything to scuff the outside of the bucket for a surface for the silicone to bite into, the buckets I got from the hydro store are super glossy and doesn’t allow the silicone to grab that well which is funny because I’m using “The Right Stuff” by mr gasket, which is the same silicone I use sealing oil pans on cars and it grabs bare metal like it’s nothing and keeps motor oil and transmission fluid in, and it has one hell of a bond if it does take, I remember gluing 2 pieces of wood together with this stuff and the wood snapped rather than it letting go where I glued it, good sh*t. Anyways, this is my bulkhead, I’ll get my buckets cleaned up and Reggie everything and I’ll give it an hour before filling this time rather than 10 minutes haha

Nice. Giving the adhesive some traction should get you all fixed up then.

 

[Camaro1691]

Ill

I was able to find mine at Menards, a regional competitor to Home Depot/Lowe's. They were in the electrical section. Near the junction boxes, that's the intended purpose of the fittings.

Not sure what you have going on with trap adapters but the key to getting it all to seal up is using what they call "terminal adapters" nearly every other PVC fitting uses tapered threads which won't seal tightly to the inside of the washer. These use a straight thread and seal to the inside of the washer better. They also have washers readily available to fit them.


These thread together through the wall of the bucket with either one washer in the water side or a washer on both sides

I’ll have to check those out next time I’m at the depot, I’m not sure we have any Menards stores around here, but the trap adapters also are straight thread, the only thing I have in my system that uses pipe thread is the “T” that comes out of the pump for screwing a boiler drain into for draining the system, other than that it’s all slip fittings and a few ball valves and unions, even those are slip though, I try to use slip anywhere I can, cause the pvc primer and glue, I got that stuff down pat hahaha

 

[TurboBucket]

I like the look of the trap adapters, they seem like they would be able to seal well enough.

I don't think they (menards) have an overly large reach.

 

[Camaro1691]

I like the look of the trap adapters, they seem like they would be able to seal well enough.

I don't think they (menards) have an overly large reach.

They’re a little finicky but once you get them sealed up their awesome, thinking back I feel like I looked at going the route you showed, but if memory serves me correctly using the trap adapters allowed me to get a little lower in the buckets even if it’s a hair, it’s something haha. And going the trap adapter route you only need to buy one piece for each bulkhead, whereas the electrical connector route you need 2 pieces for each one, I’m a cheap bast*rd and over engineer most of the things I build, mostly cause I can, but I like to constantly change things up as the ideas are always rolling in my head.

 

[Camaro1691]

Eventually I’d love to get my room semi-automated, using an arduino or something similar, to keep PH in check and top off as needed, possibly even let it handle nutrient changes, I don’t know much on the programming side of things soo that will be a learning curve but the hardware side won’t be too bad to handle I would imagine from projects I’ve done in the past

 

[Camaro1691]

Took it upon myself to hot glue some window screen onto the last trap adapter while I have everything apart seeing as how I’m not going to be running a filter before the pump in this system, to prevent any clay pebbles from being sucked into the pump, it won’t sacrafice water flow much if at all. I may end up doing it to all of them, we’ll see how patient I want to be, time to take a smoke break then come back to it

 

[Camaro1691]

I like the look of the trap adapters, they seem like they would be able to seal well enough.

I don't think they (menards) have an overly large reach.

We’re up and going now, not a drop of water anywhere after 2 hours of running, and man what a current she produces, now time to clean it down, rinse up my hydroton clay pebbles and drop some beans, we’ll be in business before midnight tonight, can’t wait to drop these G13 seeds

 

[TurboBucket]

We’re up and going now, not a drop of water anywhere after 2 hours of running, and man what a current she produces, now time to clean it down, rinse up my hydroton clay pebbles and drop some beans, we’ll be in business before midnight tonight, can’t wait to drop these G13 seeds

I love it when a plan comes together. haha

 

[Camaro1691]

I love it when a plan comes together. haha

Yes sir, slowly but surely, now gotta start collecting pieces to get my flower room up and going, this system is going to be for mother plants if I decide to keep these strains going, I already have a cloner box that I built to drop my ez cloner into, makes it soo I can hook a drain hose into it and I have a pump that’s used to transferring nutrients different places in the room, something like 24 valves to make it go the places I want between filling and dumping but it works haha

 

[TurboBucket]

Yes sir, slowly but surely, now gotta start collecting pieces to get my flower room up and going, this system is going to be for mother plants if I decide to keep these strains going, I already have a cloner box that I built to drop my ez cloner into, makes it soo I can hook a drain hose into it and I have a pump that’s used to transferring nutrients different places in the room, something like 24 valves to make it go the places I want between filling and dumping but it works haha

Any number of valves is better than carrying buckets of water every few days.

 

[Camaro1691]

Any number of valves is better than carrying buckets of water every few days.

Don’t remind me of those foolish days they are not missed haha

 

[Camaro1691]

Little later in the night/morning than I want to (3a.m.) but smoking on some blue dream while I get ready to drop these babies in the buckets