Like many of you, I keep my light at a fixed position at the top of my tent and raise and lower my plants. For those that don't, it's because I don't start a full tent at the same time....I do a tent of mixed strains all started at different times, so that I can have perpetual smoke. It means you have to keep a selection of boxes and pots around to raise plants up.

AFAICS there are no adjustable plant stands on the market, and so I want to design and build my own, maybe even sell them - but this is predominantly to solve a common problem. I saw someone mention adjustable plant stands in another "new product" thread somewhere, so I know for sure there is at least one other person with this problem....and there must be many more.

Problem is this: I can't work out the most effective mechanism to use for the raising part and was hoping some clever DIY or design bod has a better idea than me.

Typical mechanisms are:

- hydraulic - e.g. bicycle foot pump type, but expensive and difficult
- "click holes" e.g. adjustable table legs with 'nipples' that click through holes up the leg (or wood with dowels/nails) but limited by the leg length
- telescopic e.g. like antenna, but needs to be manufactured and may not support the weight of 11l full of compost

The best I can come up with at the moment are:

- Base and a top square platform with removable legs, change the legs to change the height.....means you have to keep legs somewhere and have to remove the plant to raise or lower.....but is simple and easy

- Blocks of wood, same size different depths. Very low tech and very easy, but means you have to store blocks of wood.

Any other ideas?

GN

I've got this one sorted! Video tapes, i mean what other use do they have?

As the plants stretch you take away a video tape....easy as


Soz not much help

cheap car jacks used like acro`s? would they work? under a platform maybe with some guides up the walls to keep platform straight

If you google adjustable table legs, you can buy the legs seperate and just put a bit of wood on top.

Hi,why not take the hydrolics from a chair ?

I mentioned it in another thread.

It is easier to design a platform to be lowered rather than raised, I'd thought of an air-filled bag in a frame, let the air out to lower the platform.

A set of tough lightweight (polystyrene) tiles in 2" thicknesses would probably be easiest and cheapest.

e2a. Another idea is to have a round pot incorporating 3 legs (or square with 4) that could be extended and held in place with a butterfly nut. Maybe need a tube attached to the pot.

I thought of the air bag one but it doesn't fail nicely....if the rubber gets old and punctures you end up with a plant falling over, and ime there's a domino effect in the tent often ending in broken stems.

The other major factor to account for is cost because most people will want a 5-10 of them depending on the size of their tent.

KC - problem with video tapes is you've still got to store them somewhere and I've got really limited space in this tiny flat. Ideally these would just live in a tent permanently.

Laramie - I like the idea of a frame because it's cheap to do.....and butterfly nuts could work well. Ideally a 500 cm piece of meccano would be perfect...but I like your thinking. Cheap, all-in-one, low tech. Nice one fella....will try and see about making one.

Btw, I was using some surround sound speaker stands as adjustable height stands for small 1-2l pots (punch hole, put cable tie through hole, hang from stand) - and it works brilliantly but only for small pot sizes.

GN

edited to fix typo

This could work, and would be quite stable and hygienic. It should support quite a lot of weight.

It's a shit picture though..

Basically it is in two sections - a bottom section with a base, that has a large screw thread around the outside. The top section fits over the top, and has a matching thread. Rotating it would raise or lower the top section of the stand, which should lock in place quite securely when there is weight on it.

Does that make sense?

Looks good Andy.

You could have a swivel top on it too. So you don't have to bang your buds on all the other ones when you're lowering the platform.

Could probably be made cheaply too.

Oh yes.. A swivelling top plate would allow you to rotate the plant under the light when there was room too..

Maybe you should be thinking of a way to hang the plants from the tent, rather than raising/lowering the floor?

I do realise this'll mean re-inforcing your tents roof but for ease this would be the way i'd do it.
The weight spread across say four yo-yo's would be easy to adjust, albeit you'd need to remove the plant first.

Andy - great idea - the way I described it to a friend was like the photo booth seats in tube stations. It's a great mechanism...low cost and all in one, but the issue with that is the limited amount of height adjustment (i.e. limited by the size of half of one). Let's say that in a 2m tent, the max height most people will need a stand to get to is about 1m off the floor (at a maximum), so it would be two halves of 500cm. Very do-able I guess....maybe even better if custom moulded 2-bucket systems are made with interlocking screws. Nice one....

Weedio - I already hang stuff from the ceiling but a pulley system would rock. I have twine holding 2l pots up in the near 2 corners of my tent so that I can put cuts in there to flower to check sex. What would stop me from doing a full pulley system would be the major adjustments needed to my tent (DR120) to make it work. I guess if you had the room and a custom wood frame build it would be much easier to do (i.e. pulleys over the top and tied down the sides of the tent outside, to minimise any space loss....then one big drip/drain tray underneath. Would rule

I wanted something that could be operated at a distance (say 1.5m) or by remote control. I don't mind using pots and blockers to raise a pot, but it is a pain when it is at the back of the room.

If you could see my tetris-like configurations you'd laugh....I totally hear you.... I have to break down a pathway to get to the ones at the back. There's no way around that, apart from Weedio's Hanging Gardens of Babylon style suspension system I reckon...

Did you find a solution m8? How about some sort of mini cruthes legs(tube in a tube in a tube) with a board mounted on the top?

The best solution was definitely Andy Potatoes by far because it's such a simple and elegant design, and I think relatively simple to fabricate and therefore lower production cost. I need to have a word with Silver (I think that's his handle - Mr Octobox) about taking stuff into 3DS and then out to a fab for a quote.

Mini crutches, like a telescopic aerial, would work but don't have a 'stop' mechanism. It would need to be something pretty robust to be able to handle the weight of a fully flowering plant plus pot plus medium, so stopping mechanisms would get tricky. Andy's 'twisty drum' solution easily handles any weight, allows rotation of the plant (towards the light) and height adjustment. It's not perfect but given the design constraints I'd say it's pretty bloody close

Anyone work for a plastic injection moulding company? If so, I've got a load of questions to ask about this and a few other ideas (e.g. cost of setup for tooling). Would rather chat to a community member before I talk to the pros externally...

GN

i used to make mould tools , was a good while back but they arent cheap even something pretty basic will cost you a grand+

Wondering where i can get a photo booth stall now, with extra height adjustment....

This may work:

http://www.uk420.com/boards/index.php?show...=161246&hl=

depending on the size of the pots you want to suspend.

May be u can adapt telescopic camera/video tri-pods?. can be picked up boot sales etc pretty cheap. I use one for my fishing rod rest , probably need a couple but they don't go right down to ground level or take the legs off and make a table good luck have fun

Just had a look at my tripods, it would be possible to fix the legs to a table so that it is closer to the ground. it will then give about a 3 foot lift.could be shaky but it may be worth a try.

I run perpetual with 10+ different strains ranging from short indicas all the way to tall lankies and different size pots work well for me, start with a big one with a smaller one on top taking away as need be, you do knock a few over getting used to this method but I'm used to it now and have learned to be carefull, its like a jigsaw when all plants are out for the weekley check, tall ones at the outside and smalloer on pots in the middle.....and they stack away in a neat pile, and you can use em to grow in as well ahh I love pot(s)

I think the swivel thing you guys are talking about is called a 'lazy susan'. Some great brainstorming goin on here!