🛠 Best in DIY builds

[TerpSneeze]

Hey OGs,

I like to think of myself as a handy person, not shy of wrecking some stuff to find the right solutions, much in like many of us here. I don’t know if its the thrill of the chase or whatever but as soon as I finish one, I start another. I’m addicted.

Every time I see a new (to me) piece of growing tech, I scratch my head a bit and say to myself “I could make that!”. From renovating my growspace to modifying AutoPots, building vertical farms, Drip to Drain, Flood to Drain, Aerocloner systems, assembling LED arrays you name it if I haven’t already, I likely want to build it.

I wanted a spot for cheap buggers, hacksmiths, tweakers to share their creations, discuss challenges, and celebrate building things with our hands!

So the question is: What is the DIY build you are most proud of and why?

Here are some of my most recent builds. I have been playing with microsystems mostly for seedlings/cuts ATM but hoping the lessons learned lead to some systems for wee lil Autos in the near future.

Super excited to see what you are building!!

Micro soilless Dip to Drain

Not so micro Flood to drain in a DIY rack farm!

AeroCloner

7’6 X 4’ 600+w LED Array

So far the toughest was the Lights, I will be most proud of the AeroCloner when I finally have a big enough pump to complete it but so far I am most proud of merely getting grow my space together. The added bit of time and care seems to be paying off and I am always working to improve it.

My build and Grow Journal

Thanks for stopping by, looking forward to more building inspiration

[Daytripr69]

2x2 light I built for a guy here. 17 eb2 strips and a xlg240 L AB driver

Half the light I built for my tent. This panel is 16 4 ft eb 2 strips driven by 2 xlg240 L AB drivers

Driver board for both panels

Something from my other hobby. 7.62x39 ar pistol. 10" barrel with a flaming pig muzzle device,12" carbon fiber handguard, short 4" buffer with a pair of 1911 recoil springs instead of the giant 8" bigger tube and bigger spring. She’s an obnoxious little thing, extremely loud, throws huge fire balls, recoil is strong enough to destroy hologram sights meant for shotguns lol

My other recent build. The shorty is for up close so I had to have a big brother. 7.62x51(308) ar 10, 24" match grade stainless bull barrel, custom 17" handguard, prs stock, m110 tank break, tuned buffer and gas block, NiB coated bolt carrier, mirror polished trigger with low tension springs. She shoots softer than a .223 and I can pull off single hole 5 shot groups at 100 and have rang 6x6 steel plates at 600yd with it. Weighs 14.5 lb unloaded. Depends on mag size for loaded weight

my diy hash tumbler, load the trim and dry ice, turn it on and come back when the fog and rattling of the dry ice chunks stops.

[TerpSneeze]

Those are some serious lights and serious toys sir! Gunsmithing is something that is a little out my reach but I can certainly appreciate the fine machining and milling that must have gone into that. As for your grouping; I have been warned, certainly won’t be tiptoeing around your spot

Nice dry sift rig. I used to have a great DIY drysift setup, wish I have pictures but those be very early cellphone days. We took 2 cake sized Tupperware, cut the bottom out of it, secured mesh around the reduced one and placed it inside the intact one. We then had a simple cradle to hold the Tupperware that was attached to a reciprocating saw/ SAWSALL via a bent over the blade with a hole in it and a bolt. A small run of baling wire to secure the trigger and off it went. Simply place the shake/trim into the container with the mesh bottom, put the lid on and trigger the saw. That was my favorite dry sift system I ever worked with to date, even after having worked with much larger commercially built rigs. It worked well and fast. Might have to build another…

Thanks for sharing this @Daytripr69

[SaintAliasKnife]

hey there, nice toys! How is the feeding on the ar47? this is my sam

[Daytripr69]

Well to be honest the barrel extension for an ar-15 platform sucks monkey nuts for larger rounds that make them jam up. I ended up milling the feed ramps into one large one that ended the feed issues for the most part. Mags are an issue, they are not created equal, I’ve thrown away probably 15 different brands and settled with steel mags and that completely stopped the feed issues, then you have the light strike issues, not really a light strike per say but the Russian ammo has extremely hard primers so in the ar you have to have a slightly longer firing pin, not much only a few hundred thousandths to have it flush with the bolt face instead of slightly behind it. I also added an extra power hammer spring and bobbed the hammer it increase it’s travel speed. So far that seems to be working, every now and then I’ll get a FTF and it’s a dented primer. Wish I could get some quality brass case commie ammo. I’ve got a few more receiver sets left when I bought a dozen on sale for $45 each for the lowers, now they’re 145 or more. I just sold my Barrett M107A1 .50BMG and infrared/Fleer/ night vision scope set up. Was an awesome gun just couldn’t stand seeing $30k plus just sitting in the safe never getting shot.

[SaintAliasKnife]

bought 2k 7.62 wolf and 1k s&B 9mm in december. I am so happy. but barely anytime to shoot. I think I shot my 308 2yrs ago. gonna try to get to the range tomorrow morning and bring sam along. I totally get the sale of the Barrett. Fleer? fancaay!

[Daytripr69]

Be careful buying large bulk quantities of ammo. 3k they won’t ask questions most of the time, but when you do like my dumb ass did and buy a pallet of 5.56 you get a visit from the ATF if you don’t have a FFL. It was a great deal 48000 rounds for $5500. When my mom died I used recoil therapy a LOT! I was shooting 1000-1500 rnds a week lol

[SaintAliasKnife]

sorry for your loss. I totally get the therapy (slug gun masochist here). How were the alfabet boys? that is a great price though. a freaken pallet would set me for life. Most fun I had this year was a day with my 22 rifle. just plinked all day.

[Daytripr69]

Thank you sir. I’m over wanting to eat a bullet for how I let her be treated or the things I let them do so it’s all good now brother. He was cool because he came while I was gone and I called him like 5 min after he left. We chatted and I explained buying it in bulk saves me .22 a round, instead of .33 I paid .11 per round. Told him how much I shot a week and he was good. There were other issues from a 20+ year old charge that adjudication was withheld on and in the system wrong as well so…
I’ll pull the trigger on anything at least one time lol. The worst so far was an ar with a .50 upper. Light gun and no barrel recoil suppression that bitch THUMPED! Shattered a standard mil spec stock on my shoulder on the 5th shot.
There is only one gun I’ll never even pick up again, my buddy has a .50bmg pistol with a 3" barrel he made. That bitch is EVIL! I wondered why it had a tether on it lol

[beacher]

That’s 48 THOUSAND rounds??!? Holy shit lol. Have you gone through them all yet?

@TerpSneeze nice builds there! I like to do DIY stuff as well. It always works but nothing I’ve made has ever looked as nice as yours. I build stuff like my gramps used to, very utilitarian and made with whatever free stuff I can find

He made his own table saw with parts and a motor he got from the dump. It lasted like 50+ years I really wish I would have got it out of his house when he died. He built his house too, many of the heating ducts were made with old coffee cans lol

[Molto_Mota]

That’s because many manufacturers use m4 feed ramps on non 5.56 uppers which throws a wrench into feeding. Very nice builds though!

[TerpSneeze]

@beacher

He made his own table saw with parts and a motor he got from the dump

That’s what it’s all about! I am afraid that soon those skills and ingenuity will cease to exist as people now don’t make anything. I do much in the same except I have tended to have fun bits kicking around from other gardening/growing related projects, made good connections at my local hydro-mart as well which helps keep things cheap . It doesn’t have to be pretty if it works well!

[beacher]

Yes I think in the near future the ability to build and fix things might be just as valuable as any educated type profession. I wish he had been around a bit longer for me to learn some of that stuff from him.

[randrobertson522]

Twenty characters! You all are very handy peeps!

[Daytripr69]

People wanna rag on red necks lol red necks are good to have around, especially edumicated ones lol
@beacher that’s good stuff there man. That’s exactly why I always hung around all the old farts when I was growing up. Learn lots of things from those that lived through the great depression

[Daytripr69]

The feed ramps are made into the barrel extension, but yes for some reason they always put m4 feed ramps no matter the caliber if barrel. Wait till you see a .458 socom with m4 feed ramps in the extension lol

[Molto_Mota]

Yep they just use it as a buzzword now like mil-spec. Any tapered cartridge will be a bitch to find mags in AR platform as well, that work reliably. In my 6.5 Grendel I’ve found most 5-10rd metal mags work perfectly (Alexander Arms, CPD, ASC) but over 10rds is when it gets dicey lol. E-Lander are the only full capacity mags I trust in my Grendel, and they are very well made.

[angel4us]

I made this floating stick gauge to tell exactly how much nutrients they are drinking in my rdwc system - it’s a 29 gallon tote /reservoir elevated above system and connected to control module with float switch via 1/4 “ water line …

[TerpSneeze]

I really like the simplicity and functionality of your res gauge @angel4us! This sort of ingenuity has been making not only cannabis possible but life as we know it possible in simpler times. People just made do with what they had. Thanks for sharing this, I can see a res gauge coming in handy around my projects and will certainly be keeping this one in mind.

[rootfarmer]

are you using the tank pump with no filter ?
i imagine you just want to keep the water circulating the nutes.