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Building a 4x6 hidden room
- Thread starter budderfly
- Start date
budderfly
Active member
Cheaper? Maybe. But let me illustrate what goes through my head when someone says diy..
Ok, electro magnet, simple enough right? What kind of wire? I'd assume copper, but it's expensive, maybe aluminum can do it as well cheaper? What gauge? Thicker, thinner? Depends on amperage, and that depends on voltage, and the resistance of the wire... which depends on the gauge.
What kind of insulation should the wire have, what kind of varnish etc? What voltage should I run it at? How strong of a magnetic field do I need? What about a core material?etc, etc, etc, etc. When you start doing something yourself and have issues with ocd & perfectionism a seemingly simple task can turn into a large task involving a lot of learning and design.
Now, I enjoy doing exactly that, but as I get older and now with a family sometimes it's smarter to just buy what someone else has already figured out. If there's a website and it says "Ron's House of giant Electromagnets - This magnet will hold a 500lb door shut its $100" or whatever. Even if I think I can make it for $10 it's a deal to buy for $100 to not spend 2 days learning about how to design an electromagnet.
And lets be honest, that $10 diy project is probably going to be $25 or more lol (as I keep having to make a depot run every day for crap like, say, $40 worth of screws).
Not to say you couldn't just try a coil of wire and a car battery, heh. This is more just to illustrate how I think about projects.
I assume that's an electromagnet in your pic?
Can you link me to a site that sells them? I can google it of course but if you're familiar with a good site I'd be happy to know.
I thought of electromagnets to unlock the latch, but I admit I hadn't considered using them as the lock. Suppose the 24/7 power wouldn't really be much compared to what it's locking up.
Yes it is,right inside fridge door it have a 600 lbs. clamp force.Not able to open the door att all when it's powered.I bought it some years ago from ebay around 50 $
budderfly
Active member
Yes it is,right inside fridge door it have a 600 lbs. clamp force.Not able to open the door att all when it's powered.I bought it some years ago from ebay around 50 $
That's awesome! Thanks for the idea I'm definitely going to use on of these. 600 lb seems like a common size.
So tell me, is it totally silent? No electric hum?
Mine as a little hum coming from it ,but i can't hear it when the door is closed.
budderfly
Active member
I thought there might be. Sounds like it's manageable though, I certainly have a lot of sound absorbing & blocking products here.
Little roll (4.5'x6') of foam backed mass loaded vinyl arrived today. It will be wrapped around both intake and exhaust ducts (insulated flex) - around the whole joist cavity, to stop any rushing air/vent sounds that might otherwise bleed out across the top of the room there.
The duct mufflers will be in the room to minimize noise in the duct as it exits the room - nothing like 80 square inches of wide open holes in your ceiling to blow your soundproofing efforts, lol.
You'll see, but I'm running sheet metal pieces through the ceiling and the joints will be sealed with acoustic caulk and then taped with lead tape.
I'll have extra MLV to use on maybe door seams or around the mag.
yerboyblue
Member
Grow some hydroponic tomatoes in plain sight outside of the room. If that warrant ever gets served because of electrical usage patterns, there you go. Nothing wrong with being an avid pico de gallo lover.
budderfly
Active member
Ouch! i hope this doesn't slow things down
hope it heals up in time for a nice fatty from you future harvest hehe
thank God for bongs
It'll slow me down, but not too much. Just can't use the finger that much for a week or two while it heals. Clean cut and it was stitched up within 2 hours so hopefully it'll heal quick.
It was actually a knife for cutting duct that got me. Sawing with a serrated edge the blade jammed and there's no damn guard at all too keep your hand from sliding up on the blade. Right through my leather gloves like butter.
I'm pissed because I was trying to be cheap and not get a rotozip or similar. Figured one of the many tools I had would do. Jig saw is too messy for overhead work and super loud, the rotary/dremel tool I have is junk so even though I have a bit there's a huge wobble from the cheap ass chinese off-square chuck, the snips did ok but were tearing more than cutting and not good enough for the cuts for the take-offs on top, so I went with the knife - and I knew better than to saw I should've just stabbed repeatedly.
Oh well, like I said, not a project til ya bleed and this is a big project so I guess I had to bleed good. The projects I bleed on always turn out well.
I'm thinking server rack, more my thing. Fake blinky LEDs and fans, boards inside for looks, power subtly cut.
Server rack is perfect. Covers heat, noise, electricity, space, pure genius.
Be-careful with those fingers man! You kind, just sorta, need those
There is a sign in my mechanics shop which I see as the golden rule to any work.
Its a triangle with 3 words on each corner. Cheap, Fast, Good.
It creates the following statements:
If you want Good/Cheap work, it won't be fast.
If you want Cheap/Fast work, it won't be good.
If you want Good/Fast work, it won't be cheap.
Be-careful with those fingers man! You kind, just sorta, need those
There is a sign in my mechanics shop which I see as the golden rule to any work.
Its a triangle with 3 words on each corner. Cheap, Fast, Good.
It creates the following statements:
If you want Good/Cheap work, it won't be fast.
If you want Cheap/Fast work, it won't be good.
If you want Good/Fast work, it won't be cheap.
Did almost the same thing 2years ago,i was cutting down plastic hinge from my rez,blade snap and knife landed right in my upper leg 1 inch deep.But has you have already say no project until a bleed.
budderfly
Active member
Server rack is perfect. Covers heat, noise, electricity, space, pure genius.
Be-careful with those fingers man! You kind, just sorta, need those
There is a sign in my mechanics shop which I see as the golden rule to any work.
Its a triangle with 3 words on each corner. Cheap, Fast, Good.
It creates the following statements:
If you want Good/Cheap work, it won't be fast.
If you want Cheap/Fast work, it won't be good.
If you want Good/Fast work, it won't be cheap.
Ha! My projects are neither cheap nor fast, lol - but they are usually good.
My car is on jackstands in the garage waiting for me to put in a whole new brake system from the pedal back, new suspension, camshafts, new clutch & lightweight flywheel, and a few other goodies. I'll be lucky if I finish that this year.Today I'm taking a break from the room. The finger is actually looking good and doesn't hurt much at all. I've got a little regular day job work I'm going to try to knock out then back to it tomorrow.
Picked up a house-brand spiral cut out saw (like a rotozip) at Menards. I will make this ducting bend to my will.
Also got some drywall and a 12" lazy susan base rated for 1000 lbs. - I'm thinking about doing a vertical and using the lazy susan to rotate the plants around the light in the center to easily access them for watering & trimming.
budderfly
Active member
Ok, so I spent a couple days doing the day job and now I'm back to the room build.
Here's some shots of me setting up the ventilation taps.
I started cutting holes in the duct with a snips. It worked, but tore the metal more than cut it and left nasty edges. Not precise enough for the take-offs.
Also, I'm cutting a couple holes so that I can feed in and glue up duct lining, sound absorbing insulation.
After the fiasco with my finger I used a rotary cut-out saw and the snips to cut out the two top takeoffs.
Here's the exhaust duct - 8". I had some spare flex duct that was decently heavy, so I just picked up insulated wraps from Home Depot (5' lengths). I want the insulation more for sound but heat is important too - I'm aiming for handheld flir invisibility.
Here's the exhaust line set in place. Really tight squeeze to get that takeoff seated. I'm also running the intake in that same joist cavity - it's going to be stuffed but I have faith it'll all fit.
Here's some shots of me setting up the ventilation taps.
I started cutting holes in the duct with a snips. It worked, but tore the metal more than cut it and left nasty edges. Not precise enough for the take-offs.
Also, I'm cutting a couple holes so that I can feed in and glue up duct lining, sound absorbing insulation.
After the fiasco with my finger I used a rotary cut-out saw and the snips to cut out the two top takeoffs.
Here's the exhaust duct - 8". I had some spare flex duct that was decently heavy, so I just picked up insulated wraps from Home Depot (5' lengths). I want the insulation more for sound but heat is important too - I'm aiming for handheld flir invisibility.
Here's the exhaust line set in place. Really tight squeeze to get that takeoff seated. I'm also running the intake in that same joist cavity - it's going to be stuffed but I have faith it'll all fit.
budderfly
Active member
This is Mass Loaded Vinyl backed with, iirc, closed cell foam. All together it's about 1.25 lbs per square foot. The foam absorbs mid range noise and the heavy vinyl stops vibrations from transferring. I'm going to be wrapping it around the insulated ducts in the joist cavity. Ha, if it fits!
Getting awfully full up there.
Here's the intake line. Same deal, leftover flex & new insulated wrap. Different shaped takeoff. Gotta say looking at it at this point it doesn't look like it's going to fit...
And here's both lines hooked up, the takeoffs are taped nice, and the MLV is around most of the duct (I add some underneath to wrap all the way around later).
It was not easy to pull the last duct through, but they do fit. It's stuffed like thanksgiving turkey but she's good to go!
Getting awfully full up there.
Here's the intake line. Same deal, leftover flex & new insulated wrap. Different shaped takeoff. Gotta say looking at it at this point it doesn't look like it's going to fit...
And here's both lines hooked up, the takeoffs are taped nice, and the MLV is around most of the duct (I add some underneath to wrap all the way around later).
It was not easy to pull the last duct through, but they do fit. It's stuffed like thanksgiving turkey but she's good to go!
