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The CannaBunker Begins
- Thread starter CannaBunkerMan
- Start date
I had it all delivered to my house, then I carted it around back. Not much you can do, except hurry to move a dozen pallets of cinder blocks. You can't REALLY hurry without hernias when it comes to blocks, so just expidedite the process.
EDIT - I did get some strange looks from the neighbors. I'm in a good spot though, where all of my neighbors have known me since I was a kid. I'm always building something crazy, so it isn't that out of the ordinary. I only have 2 neighbors with any view of the back yard. One it the King of Rust's old man. The other is an ex hippie that's friends of the family. I think he knows, and is constantly coming by and asking me for things right after toking up. It's like he has some sort of ganja detector. The other 2 neighbors can only see my front yard. They also have been there for 30+ years, and we know them well.
This is a shot of the 3rd vent I was talking about with the last set of images. I have it wrapped in poly to keep it dry. It's under my porch, but can never be to careful in avoiding mold.
The 3rd picture shows where the 2nd vent exits the stairwell. I dug out a hole under the foundation, then pushed the vent into place. That was a bitch, man.
Finally, the last picture is of after I filled in the area from the last two pictures.
It was pretty nasty under the porch. That's where our drier vents to, just in case you're wondering about the fuzzy christmas lights thing that's going on under there.
The 3rd picture shows where the 2nd vent exits the stairwell. I dug out a hole under the foundation, then pushed the vent into place. That was a bitch, man.
Finally, the last picture is of after I filled in the area from the last two pictures.
It was pretty nasty under the porch. That's where our drier vents to, just in case you're wondering about the fuzzy christmas lights thing that's going on under there.
Now I'm adding the layer of sand that will bring the patio pavers back to the original grade. The soil is sand with small rocks, and rocks suck when laying a patio. I built a shaker table, which is definitely not a Shaker table, to remove all of the rocks before laying any pavers.
The next picture is a little out of orfer, but it's of where the 3rd vent comes up from the structure.
And FINALLY, the Canna Bunker is covered! You can see how I used the pipes and a long 2x4 to level off the ground. I'd level, compact, level, compact, etc., until the grade was acceptable. There's a particular grade that stone masons (again, lowercase 'm') use for any surface that needs to shed water. I just don't feel like looking that slope up. What I do remember doing is that I doubled that standard slope to help get any water away from the bunker.
The next picture is a little out of orfer, but it's of where the 3rd vent comes up from the structure.
And FINALLY, the Canna Bunker is covered! You can see how I used the pipes and a long 2x4 to level off the ground. I'd level, compact, level, compact, etc., until the grade was acceptable. There's a particular grade that stone masons (again, lowercase 'm') use for any surface that needs to shed water. I just don't feel like looking that slope up. What I do remember doing is that I doubled that standard slope to help get any water away from the bunker.
It says, "Wacker". 
Let's go patio, here we go! Let's go patio, here we go! YAY PATIO!
Square patios are so ... rectangular, at their best. At worse? Rhomboid! What shape is not so dependent on parallel and perpendicular sides? You got it. A circle! The marquee in the middle is made out of broken bathroom tile and colored grout. I guess you could also call it a tile mosiac. It's also slightly bulbous, again keeping water from pooling.
I used stone dust and the wacker to seal the deal. A few months after I laid the patio, I pulled it all up again. Why? Because I like to do everything twice. That, and I overused the sealant on the patio, and all of the nicely colored bricks turned a milky gray. I pulled them all up, turned them upside down, and forgot about that mistake.
I also took the time to seal the area around the bulkhead with tar, and cover the area closest to the house's foundation with another sheet of 10 mil poly. The sand covered that, and the patio went back on.
I still have the ocassional leak around the bulkhead during torrential downpours, but it never amounts to any more than a few cups. The rest of the bunker is always dry. That makes me happy.
Square patios are so ... rectangular, at their best. At worse? Rhomboid! What shape is not so dependent on parallel and perpendicular sides? You got it. A circle! The marquee in the middle is made out of broken bathroom tile and colored grout. I guess you could also call it a tile mosiac. It's also slightly bulbous, again keeping water from pooling.
I used stone dust and the wacker to seal the deal. A few months after I laid the patio, I pulled it all up again. Why? Because I like to do everything twice. That, and I overused the sealant on the patio, and all of the nicely colored bricks turned a milky gray. I pulled them all up, turned them upside down, and forgot about that mistake.
I also took the time to seal the area around the bulkhead with tar, and cover the area closest to the house's foundation with another sheet of 10 mil poly. The sand covered that, and the patio went back on.
I still have the ocassional leak around the bulkhead during torrential downpours, but it never amounts to any more than a few cups. The rest of the bunker is always dry. That makes me happy.
Tilt
Member
#4 awg wire is not large enough to handle a 100 amp breaker. You need a minimum of #3 or downsize your breaker
the problem at your main is not 240v. It is all the misc 120v loads like microwaves fans hair dryers etc. that can cause a two pole breaker with a breaker tie between the handles to soft trip the overloaded pole and leave the remaining pole on.
I couldn't find a 60 amp breaker for the room. I'll never be pulling more than that, so I figured the 100 amp breaker would work. I know that probably makes any electrician out there cringe. Just wait until I wire all of my 240v ballasts with 120v plugs. There are definitely a few things that I've done that I wouldn't reccommend repeating.
Ok, this makes some sense. The soft trip has only happened while 3 things occur. The microwave, the toaster, and all 6k in lights need to be going. You're saying it doesn't have anything to do with the amp draw from my room? I'll look into seperating the toaster and microwave ovens onto different sides of the panel.
EDIT- It sounds like you know a thing or two about electricity, so if you reccommend replacing the 100amp breaker with a more appropriately sized 60 amp breaker I'll go and spend some more money.
Man, looking back at these pictures, I had forgotten how spartan it looked back then. Rusty metal and gray concrete. Water stains and bare wire. Knoted plywood and snap ties.
I decided to add an electric meter so that I could monitor the bunker's electric usage independently of the house's. It was really cheap on ebay. When I was growing in the atic space, I had 3 of them so that I could monitor the usage down to the circuit. That was overkill.
I ran 4 gague wire from a breaker in the main breaker box to the electric meter, then to my new sub-panel here. As Tilt will mention in a future post, 4 gague wire is good for 85 amps, but I shouldn't ever pull more than 60 with the 6k in flower.
I wish building those shelves was as easy as posting a picture of it, and typing about it. It never really works that way though. These shelves will be for storage, and for clones. The interior wall that added started inbetween the end of the shelf and the left side of the bulkhead. The wiring and outlets will be on the outside (flowering partition)
I decided to add an electric meter so that I could monitor the bunker's electric usage independently of the house's. It was really cheap on ebay. When I was growing in the atic space, I had 3 of them so that I could monitor the usage down to the circuit. That was overkill.
I ran 4 gague wire from a breaker in the main breaker box to the electric meter, then to my new sub-panel here. As Tilt will mention in a future post, 4 gague wire is good for 85 amps, but I shouldn't ever pull more than 60 with the 6k in flower.
I wish building those shelves was as easy as posting a picture of it, and typing about it. It never really works that way though. These shelves will be for storage, and for clones. The interior wall that added started inbetween the end of the shelf and the left side of the bulkhead. The wiring and outlets will be on the outside (flowering partition)
Here's a few shots of the concrete splatter that I now need to use an air chisel to remove. There wasn't a single block that didn't need attention.
I used the left vent in the stairwell to route all of the power to the balasts. Also shown are the two laly columns that are just laly-gaging around now that I decided not to use them.
The 4th picture shows the wiring for the ceiling fluorescent lights, and the 5th shows the first time I saw the bunker in a decent light. It really made a difference.
I used the left vent in the stairwell to route all of the power to the balasts. Also shown are the two laly columns that are just laly-gaging around now that I decided not to use them.
The 4th picture shows the wiring for the ceiling fluorescent lights, and the 5th shows the first time I saw the bunker in a decent light. It really made a difference.
The next shots are all of the wiring of the timer and the panel. I had a nice plywood cover for the timers, but that was also a little overkill, and it eventually just got in the way, so I threw that piece in the fire.
More light, and ... holy shit! Did someone paint the walls? That makes the whole place look less "prison" like, don't you think?
The two shelves will hold the mother plants, and the next gen while they root some before going into flower.
I decided to kitty-corner the veg room to make more out of the square space, 14'6"x14'6". It ended up turning out pretty well, plus I scored bonus Feng-Shui points to boot.
The two shelves will hold the mother plants, and the next gen while they root some before going into flower.
I decided to kitty-corner the veg room to make more out of the square space, 14'6"x14'6". It ended up turning out pretty well, plus I scored bonus Feng-Shui points to boot.
O
OrganicOzarks
Is the meter in the bunker? Is it a smart meter or something? I am trying to figure out how the meter reader is going to come down into your bunker full of plants and read the meter each month.
That's the funniest thing that I've heard all day, thanks!
LOL
...
Okay, I bought a surpluss electric meter, and attached it inline so that I could keep track all the electricity the bunker used. This way I could make beter financial predictions.
EDIT - I'm still giggling.
I
In~Plain~Site
Quite the collection of skillsets there my man. 
I've done some small(in comparison) home improvement projects...finishing correctly seems to be where I stagger, until 'someone' puts foot to ass and gets me moving again
Well done
I've done some small(in comparison) home improvement projects...finishing correctly seems to be where I stagger, until 'someone' puts foot to ass and gets me moving again
Well done
Quite the collection of skillsets there my man.
I've done some small(in comparison) home improvement projects...finishing correctly seems to be where I stagger, until 'someone' puts foot to ass and gets me moving again
Well done
Thanks man, I built most of the skillset as I went. Also bear in mind that I quit my day job. I still had the job while I built the stairwell, and that was hard to keep going.
On a side note, I can say with certainty that I would not have had the ability, or confidence to attempt, much less complete this project without one thing. The internet. I think the internet's almost as cool as concrete in its amazingness. I want my children to be born with wiki pre-installed in their brains.
