My first windowfarm is almost a fact! Within an hour i constructed the air/waterflow construction of the simple 3 bottles windowfarm. I bought all materials at Hornbach store, and the inflation needles at Perry Sport, in the Netherlands. Looking forward working on the rest of my windowfarm! See video: my first windowfarm: dutch DIY on air/waterflow

Or: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYuasSd-E2o

http://cgrantmccool.com

Using the following website with a quick, easy DIY solderless LED fixture as a guide, I set-up and made my own lights!  http://www.dabblings.net/subpage2.html

I’m no expert with electricity, but I understand enough and had enough research skills to pull off a modified version of the DIY set-up given in the site.  My LEDs were TopBright LEDs

I have since reworked this set-up to add a Red bulb to each fixture.  This was a bit tricky because the Red LEDs I was using required a separate circuit from the White/Blues which had the same electrical draws.  While each fixture’s Blue and White circuits are all self-contained in their own project enclosure, the red bulbs are also in series with each other from enclosure to enclosure.

This is my first post from my blog, I just cut and pasted so it may have some since abandoned thoughts.

So after much design (I will put up some scans of sketches later) I decided that for the final project, glass wine bottles would be the best choice. And after my friend (the same one as before) showed me this video: http://en.vidivodo.com/210769/beer-bottle-trick , I had my means (I had been trying to figure out how to do it before this with… little success). This is essentially working a controlled version of what happens when you pour ice water into a glass hot out of a dish washer. Through heating the glass along a specific line (just above the string) and then dunking it in cold water. It may take some practice, but after a few I generally do them first try every time now and have produced around twenty. And so, here is a little tutorial on how I did this for my garden… but it could easily be modified I would imagine.

I tried to make this pretty self-explanatory, the second-to-last tier of frames is supposed to be depicting rotation of the bottle. I had a lot of success with Charles Shaw bottles (the green is beneficial in blocking the sunlight that algae uses to grow, and covers the roots). With those I found that three lengths of twine worked well. I also had many other types (brown is good, clear you’ll have to paint), the thicker the glass, the more twine, I never used more than six lengths though (and I had some thick bottles). And try to keep the lengths relatively flat against the bottle. Make sure to tie tightly (or it either just shatters, or won’t work), and trim the extra off after the knot (I didn’t on the first tries and the bottle came out more like it had been in a bar brawl). I chose to submerge the bottle with the string in order to keep as much of the acetone in the string as possible when lighting, for higher temperature (because acetone is so volatile it will evaporate readily at room temperature). SAFETY TIP: DO THIS OUTSIDE! KEEP THE ACETONE CAN AND DUNK TUB AWAY FROM LIGHTING AREA. ALSO, THIS IS GLASS, BE CAREFUL WHEN HANDLING. WEAR SAFETY GLASSES, sometimes the bottles ‘pop’ the top and/or shatter.

Additional notes: If the glass is really thick at the bottom, it may not work, or get messy, just as a forewarning.  You want to stack the strings along the bottle so that they DO NOT overlap more than once, and are VERY tight, with no loose parts hanging of AT ALL, for the most effective and cleanest break.  Leave the string on while the bottle cools.  Any specific questions you can just message me.

This is a simple DIY way to make a reflector for a compact florescent (CFL) bulb.

There are many situations where you are lighting a plant and half the light coming from the bulb is going out your window, on the floor, or into you living room. A lot of this wasted light can be redirected back at the plant with a simple reflector.  With CFL’s the best light comes out the side of the coil, therefore a standard shop light reflector is not very affective. Fortunately it is possible to make a  effective CF reflector in under 10 min.

You will need:

1- 16oz beer can (12oz work, but not as well for bulbs over 15 watts)

1- CF bulb, I used a 26watt one

1- Clamp light (this will work for other fixtures too)

tools:

needle-nose pliers

tin snips or scissors you don’t care about

pocket knife

Step 1-

Take apart clamp light. With out a bulb in it (and not plugged in!!!!) twist the reflector off. It is threaded into the plastic, and it should come off in 3 to 5 revolutions. Next loosen the wing-nut until everything falls apart. You should now have something like in this pic:

Step 2-

Cut up your can. I started by poking a hole with a pocket knife, then attacked it with scissors. First I cut a strait line the length of the can starting and ending just before the metal starts to curve in. Next I cut off the top of the can. On the bottom of the can I cut a slit almost half way around on each side, leaving about 1/2in. on the opposite side as the slit.

It should now look something like this:

Step 3-

Cut a hole in the bottom of the can that the light fixture will fit into.  I did this by poking a hole with a knife and then pulling back the metal with pliers.  Notice in the picture that the hole is not centered, instead it is located closer to the side which was cut. This will give more room for the bulb.

It is also important that the hole is not much larger than the plastic fixture. When opening the hole, the extra metal should not be removed, as it is necessary for the next step.

Step 4-

Put the clamp light back together, with the new reflector.

Slip the new reflector over the plastic fixture, and bend the excess metal so that is touches the plasic. Then reconnect the bracket that connects the clamp to the fixture so that it compresses on these flaps of metal. This is what will hold the reflector to the fixture.

If you are not using a clamp light this connection could be made with a hose clamp, or my favorite thing; annealed steel  wire.

Step 5-

Fold the cut edges of the reflector.

Be careful with this step, it is sharp! Gloves may be a good idea, though it’s not as bad as most sheet metal, as aluminum is rather soft.

I bent a little under 1/2 in. of the edge over. This makes the reflector much stiffer, allowing you to bend it to the form you want.

At this point the reflector could be painted white, or better yet coated with silver Mylar. This can easily be attached with spray adhesive. Just cut the Mylar to size, spray, and stick it (read the directions on you spray adhesive)

Step 6-

Test it, and tweak it.

Bend the reflector so that it shines the way that is most useful for you.

For larger bulbs, like this 68watt CFL, a coffee can can be used.