SciFi
New Member
So.. We've all been there...
Money's tight, you're over budget or just simply broke as flip.
Perhaps the baby momma is a blood sucking harpy along with your 3 ex wives.
Or maybe you're a cheap bugger, or just super paranoid about leaving paper trails.. Whatever the case it..
I'm starting this thread to point out places where I sourced free supplies and where I got other items for very cheap (but may have required a bit of DIYer), and most of all, without a paper trail.
**** FREE CONTAINERS ****
So.. You need something to put stuff in?
Maybe it's literally dirt (compost manure), or it's to organize your hell hole of a grow room, or perhaps even to put a soil or soil-less, or hydro in... And you can get them FREE, very low-key, and most places won't think twice about you, if you ask nicely and don't give them a reason to think you're up to bullshit.
How you say? Almost every restaraunt including fast food use 5-gallon buckets.
Food-safe (YAY) white (boo), buckets, then they throw them away (booooo for earth, yay for us).
Because of the way the food safety rules were wrote in the USA, you can only use food-safe buckets once, then they have to be thrown away or recycled into non-food use buckets... They want virgin plastics in food-grade.
That, combined with the fact that some places only get one or two buckets a week, most managers don't save them, sell them, or recycle them. They pitch them in the trash.
Just about any bucket you get like this, is going to smell like what was in it. The best way I've found to get rid of lingering smells, and colors is to fill the bucket up with water, put a 1/4 cup of baking soda in there (SODA NOT POWDER), put the lid on and let it set in the sun for a few days. Rinse, repeat as necessary.
A lot of places you will find get their pickles, butter, and sour cream in large 5-gallon buckets, and usually after the baking soda, a good scrub with a tiny bit of bleach in there takes care of anything residual.
Beats the poo out of paying $6-7 bucks at the grow store, or using non food-safe buckets from home depot. :|
**** CHEAPER HID LIGHTS ****
If you have electrical wiring knowledge, you can pick up used, industrial lights on Craigslist, and convert them to a remote ballast.
Always pay cash, meet the guy with the lights somewhere inconspicious, preferably without camera, and give some bull story about your barn/security/flood light went out, and your electrician son/friend/brother said to get these lights.
I payed $35 a piece, cash for 400W MH industrial/high-bay ballasts, which included a large aluminum dome reflector, a phillips bulb, and the mogul socket.
After finding the wiring diagram on the side of the unit, I read the schematics and rewired it into a remote ballast, and used chain to hang the reflectors with the moguls mounted inside them. I used some romex from HD, and made sure to get the amp/volt/temp requirements needed to operate the ballast.
Again, thou, I'd like to point out.. DON'T try this high, nor try this if you have no experience around electricity. You can really flux yourself up.
*** Coverings ***
Cheap semi-disposable mylar can be obtained from Walmart or other megastores in the camping section as an "emergency blanket".
Don't try to just tape this stuff to your wall either.. or use sticky wall putty. It's tempting but it'll fall, and potentially land on a light leaving you with a shattered bulb, and broken dreams at the least, and no more grow rooms/house and prison time at the worst.
Another source for these blankets? Emergency Road side kits. The kind you stuck in your trunk or glovebox and forgot about. Check there.. you might have one handy at 3AM in a pinch.
Oh and be careful throwing this stuff in the trash.. It's not very commonly used and sticks out like a sore thumb in your trash can.
Well, that's all for now.
Thanks for reading.
Money's tight, you're over budget or just simply broke as flip.
Perhaps the baby momma is a blood sucking harpy along with your 3 ex wives.
Or maybe you're a cheap bugger, or just super paranoid about leaving paper trails.. Whatever the case it..
I'm starting this thread to point out places where I sourced free supplies and where I got other items for very cheap (but may have required a bit of DIYer), and most of all, without a paper trail.
**** FREE CONTAINERS ****
So.. You need something to put stuff in?
Maybe it's literally dirt (compost manure), or it's to organize your hell hole of a grow room, or perhaps even to put a soil or soil-less, or hydro in... And you can get them FREE, very low-key, and most places won't think twice about you, if you ask nicely and don't give them a reason to think you're up to bullshit.
How you say? Almost every restaraunt including fast food use 5-gallon buckets.
Food-safe (YAY) white (boo), buckets, then they throw them away (booooo for earth, yay for us).
Because of the way the food safety rules were wrote in the USA, you can only use food-safe buckets once, then they have to be thrown away or recycled into non-food use buckets... They want virgin plastics in food-grade.
That, combined with the fact that some places only get one or two buckets a week, most managers don't save them, sell them, or recycle them. They pitch them in the trash.
Just about any bucket you get like this, is going to smell like what was in it. The best way I've found to get rid of lingering smells, and colors is to fill the bucket up with water, put a 1/4 cup of baking soda in there (SODA NOT POWDER), put the lid on and let it set in the sun for a few days. Rinse, repeat as necessary.
A lot of places you will find get their pickles, butter, and sour cream in large 5-gallon buckets, and usually after the baking soda, a good scrub with a tiny bit of bleach in there takes care of anything residual.
Beats the poo out of paying $6-7 bucks at the grow store, or using non food-safe buckets from home depot. :|
**** CHEAPER HID LIGHTS ****
If you have electrical wiring knowledge, you can pick up used, industrial lights on Craigslist, and convert them to a remote ballast.
Always pay cash, meet the guy with the lights somewhere inconspicious, preferably without camera, and give some bull story about your barn/security/flood light went out, and your electrician son/friend/brother said to get these lights.
I payed $35 a piece, cash for 400W MH industrial/high-bay ballasts, which included a large aluminum dome reflector, a phillips bulb, and the mogul socket.
After finding the wiring diagram on the side of the unit, I read the schematics and rewired it into a remote ballast, and used chain to hang the reflectors with the moguls mounted inside them. I used some romex from HD, and made sure to get the amp/volt/temp requirements needed to operate the ballast.
Again, thou, I'd like to point out.. DON'T try this high, nor try this if you have no experience around electricity. You can really flux yourself up.
*** Coverings ***
Cheap semi-disposable mylar can be obtained from Walmart or other megastores in the camping section as an "emergency blanket".
Don't try to just tape this stuff to your wall either.. or use sticky wall putty. It's tempting but it'll fall, and potentially land on a light leaving you with a shattered bulb, and broken dreams at the least, and no more grow rooms/house and prison time at the worst.
Another source for these blankets? Emergency Road side kits. The kind you stuck in your trunk or glovebox and forgot about. Check there.. you might have one handy at 3AM in a pinch.
Oh and be careful throwing this stuff in the trash.. It's not very commonly used and sticks out like a sore thumb in your trash can.
Well, that's all for now.
Thanks for reading.
