It's been a long spell since I've had an update, so it's about time to get folks caught up. The good news is the wheels have kept turning, but I won't kid anyone, it's been a very sobering moment for all involved. The one thing that hasn't nor ever will change is the fact that failure isn't now nor will ever be an option for us. Winning. Bloody noses and all, we are still winning.
The best news is we are now a solid 4 weeks into flower with the hands down best looking crop we've have produced in this venture. In my opinion, the reason why is simple. For the first time our ladies haven't been sending out precious resources attempting to fight off a nearly invisible enemy, and instead have been stripped down to their bikinis and have been enjoying sunbathing in 1200 ppm Co2 @ 82 degrees 12 hours a day with their feet soaking in a 68 deg H2o highly oxygenated bath...
Also, I'm VERY PLEASED to report the folks who supply our dedicated LED lighting in both our flower rooms and veg rooms,
Atreum Lighting is now a sponsor of 420magazine.com! What this means is I now will have the ability to share some of what we came to know about the folks at Atreum Lighting, and go into much more detail on why their lights are one-upping the competition in my ever so humble opinion.
I'm not going to let the cat out of the bag quite yet, but the lighting design changes in store for Flower RM #2 are not only going to be a major improvement for our second flower room (of three planned), but will also offer the kind of test-bed for documenting lighting improvements and comparisons I could have once only dreamed of. I'm bigtime into facts, and love verifiable proof. Our next installment will hopefully offer up some very interesting facts, and we plan on having fun along the way!
I'll keep you folks posted on this one.
Moving on, when the ladies are sunbathing, I'm offered up a little extra time, so what better time to find a way to make life a little easier, right?
One thing I've come to dread is the required bucket cleaning that takes place at the end of a successful grow. Now I get your first thought might be "It's only a bucket. Big deal". Right? Yes, but when it involves 100's of 5 gallon buckets "no big deal" just turned into a messy deal. The salt buildup and other little "left behinds" take scrubbing, spraying and without a wet suite, your gonna get wet.
There simply HAS to be a better way....
Usher in the "HappyOne 5000 Bucket Washing System". Sounds silly, huh? What started out from an idea from my son after HE and his wife spent a day slopping water and washing buckets. After a PVC pipe mockup he made, I was sold on the idea. I love 1x1 14 gauge square tubing and expanded metal so I went to work. I need dependability, so I weld when I can. For the water distribution pipe I used 1/2" black pipe and attached a central power wash head and drilled a few tiny spray holes in a piece of offset 1/2" iron pipe cap to rinse the bucket down low.
A five gallon bucket tapers inward at the bottom, so I needed to carefully position the full length brush to fit that tapered position for even side brushing
I used stainless hardware to keep from rusting. If time and money weren't an issue, I'd have the entire frame powder painted. For now, cheap spray paint has to do.
I used one of our 27 gallon totes for the reservoir, and just built the frame to fit inside the tote. You can see how the water connected in front of the ball valve. The system used the buildings water pressure, around 50 psi. Though it did an OK job, it really needed more water pressure than what was available out of the tap, and that got me thinking. Mind you, I have a nice gas powered pressure washer, but I'm not only only wanting a "no muss-no fuss" solution, I also need to be able to clean buckets IN the building especially when it's in the cold winter like it is now getting., so a gasoline engine was out of question. I don't want to hear or breath one, that's for sure.
That left one option. Electric. After doing a little calculating, it became clear 1000 psi was way more than we needed, and after some research, the Greenworks seemed to be the best bang for the buck in the small electric pressure washer arena. So after a search, I found a like new Greenworks 1800 (more power, right?) for less than 50 cents on the dollar, and snagged it. I can bring the pressure down some by upsizing the outlet from the pump. The 1/2" gas pipe does just that.
I made a roll around cart for the upcoming "HappyCo 5000"...(hehe) and now needed to find a way to marry these two unlikely characters in form, fit and function. (Mostly functional)
Since the motor mounts for the pressure washer are basically built for 1" round tubing it only made sense to NOT try and put a square peg (which I have on hand) in a round hole, so I bit the bullet and bought a seven dollar 10 foot stick of 1" round 14 gauge tubing and built the motor mount saddles.
With the marriage intact and a thorough successful hands on test, I was happy with the design, layout and function. I welded a few hangers for the power cord and bucket drain hose and called it a day. This makes bucket cleaning a MUCH less tedious task.
When I put wheels on the cart, I'm glad I put wheels with locks because there's one more thing I need to implement. A foot valve. That will remove the need for the hand ball valve and will free up an entire hand. That my friends is the icing on the cake. I ordered one of these.
I'll update the final version of our "HappyCo 5000 Bucket Washer" when the valve comes in....
(For those in the wonder, the HappyCo 5000 is a tribute to Tooltime's Tim Taylor, my mentor...lol).
. We have just enacted the nuclear option.
