AlcoholicO
Active Member
I've been building a few cloning machines myself, as I can't quite afford the models you can purchase online and where I stay, it's impossible to buy these things and most of what I've seen other people use for their machines, so I thought I'd post the results so far, as especially the cloner came out really nice.
CONTAINER:
I used a 21 Ltr/5 Gallon Styrofoam cooling box (they're also used for various other things and come in many sizes) which cost 1.25$ and it's easy to work with, though you have to be careful it doesn't break when full of water!
TOP LID:
I got a 2 inch drill for 3$ and my mate borrowed a drill. On each lid, I put 15 holes, 3x5.
Each of the round styrofoam pieces that comes out of drilling, can be used instead of neoprene lids, for a cheaper, but not very good alternative (they will fit in a net pot each, with a little help from a knife).
Netpots are cheap as dirt, so my mate got a bunch and cut off anything below 1cm or so and glued each of the 15 to a 2 inch neoprene lid that's about 3/4 inch thick (for the newer cloners we cut the thickness in half, doubling the amount). They fit perfectly in the styrofoam lid, which closed the box tightly, preventing water spills very effectively. 32 round 2inch neoprene tops/caps, die cut, with a slit for the cutting, cost me 12$ on eBay and when cut in half, comes to 64 tops, enough for 4 cloners with a few extra caps...
PUMP:
I got Aquarium water pumps, two models, one AP1600 and one AP2000, which cost 7$ and 9$ respectively, as well as a 38Ltr/Minute (10Gallons/minute) air pump, with 4 outputs, one for a stone in the water of each cloner (for extra aerated water). You'll need one Aquarium water pump for each cloner and the smallest of the models I got, was still more than sufficient.
SPRINKLERS:
As is evident from the pictures, I tried a bit of everything I could get, resulting in the first completely useless model (cloner 0) and later the ineffective Cloner 1. For these I used stuff that doesn't make sense, like much too large sprinklers and what appears to have been drippers (they don't necessarily speak English in the shops here).
After Cloner 1 however, I got the neoprene tops, along with 50 ez cloner sprayer heads, the little red ones - THAT worked well and they cost 17.50$ online.
WATER:
As the tapwater has 100-120ppm and isn't recommended for human consumption, we use mineral water for the cloners (once they are transplanted, we use tap water, to safe money), which has less than 5ppm. We added a bit less than 5ml clonex clone solution for each liter of water, purchased online (one Quart/Ltr with shipment came to a little less than 50$ - I know, MAD, but it will last a fairly long time, as we use the water for 2 weeks, before changing and putting in new clones).
Cloner 1.
As I couldn't find any misters, nor any decent sprinklers, the first cloner was made with two rotating top sprinklers that took up a spot each, with the pipe system also taking up a spot. This meant only 12 spots were available to grow and two of these hardly got water enough. Another problem quickly appeared in that the sprinklers of this design will at times get stuck - really not a good system at all, though it might've worked, but we never did a test run, as the ez cloner sprayer heads had arrived, so then came Cloner 2...
Cloner 2.
This system is a copy of Stinkbuds cloner, using 1/2 inch blue rigid PVC pipe (cheaper than the black flexible 1/2 inch PVC pipe) with 4 corners, 3 T pieces, with very short pieces of straight pipe and of course the PVC glue/solvent.
This cloner needed about 10-12Ltr of water, but as the sprinklers and pipe wasn't quite high enough, some of the clones didn't get enough water and as such, developed much less root mass.
The pictures showing roots, are all pictures of plants from this cloner, after around 10 days and these have all been transplanted to one bubble bucket system.
Cloner 3.
A much improved version of cloner 2, with 10 sprinklers, which have been adjusted to cover the area much better. Furthermore it comes with two legs, adding a lot of stability and the pipe system is somewhat taller, getting much closer to the cuttings and thus giving them a lot more water. This means that the cloner can use up to15 Liter of water, up from 10-12Liter in the previous system (though it will work with 10-12 as well).
Any comments or questions are welcome, as this is my first cloners and I'm interested in seeing what people think or if they have suggestions to make them better...
CONTAINER:
I used a 21 Ltr/5 Gallon Styrofoam cooling box (they're also used for various other things and come in many sizes) which cost 1.25$ and it's easy to work with, though you have to be careful it doesn't break when full of water!
TOP LID:
I got a 2 inch drill for 3$ and my mate borrowed a drill. On each lid, I put 15 holes, 3x5.
Each of the round styrofoam pieces that comes out of drilling, can be used instead of neoprene lids, for a cheaper, but not very good alternative (they will fit in a net pot each, with a little help from a knife).
Netpots are cheap as dirt, so my mate got a bunch and cut off anything below 1cm or so and glued each of the 15 to a 2 inch neoprene lid that's about 3/4 inch thick (for the newer cloners we cut the thickness in half, doubling the amount). They fit perfectly in the styrofoam lid, which closed the box tightly, preventing water spills very effectively. 32 round 2inch neoprene tops/caps, die cut, with a slit for the cutting, cost me 12$ on eBay and when cut in half, comes to 64 tops, enough for 4 cloners with a few extra caps...
PUMP:
I got Aquarium water pumps, two models, one AP1600 and one AP2000, which cost 7$ and 9$ respectively, as well as a 38Ltr/Minute (10Gallons/minute) air pump, with 4 outputs, one for a stone in the water of each cloner (for extra aerated water). You'll need one Aquarium water pump for each cloner and the smallest of the models I got, was still more than sufficient.
SPRINKLERS:
As is evident from the pictures, I tried a bit of everything I could get, resulting in the first completely useless model (cloner 0) and later the ineffective Cloner 1. For these I used stuff that doesn't make sense, like much too large sprinklers and what appears to have been drippers (they don't necessarily speak English in the shops here).
After Cloner 1 however, I got the neoprene tops, along with 50 ez cloner sprayer heads, the little red ones - THAT worked well and they cost 17.50$ online.
WATER:
As the tapwater has 100-120ppm and isn't recommended for human consumption, we use mineral water for the cloners (once they are transplanted, we use tap water, to safe money), which has less than 5ppm. We added a bit less than 5ml clonex clone solution for each liter of water, purchased online (one Quart/Ltr with shipment came to a little less than 50$ - I know, MAD, but it will last a fairly long time, as we use the water for 2 weeks, before changing and putting in new clones).
Cloner 1.
As I couldn't find any misters, nor any decent sprinklers, the first cloner was made with two rotating top sprinklers that took up a spot each, with the pipe system also taking up a spot. This meant only 12 spots were available to grow and two of these hardly got water enough. Another problem quickly appeared in that the sprinklers of this design will at times get stuck - really not a good system at all, though it might've worked, but we never did a test run, as the ez cloner sprayer heads had arrived, so then came Cloner 2...
Cloner 2.
This system is a copy of Stinkbuds cloner, using 1/2 inch blue rigid PVC pipe (cheaper than the black flexible 1/2 inch PVC pipe) with 4 corners, 3 T pieces, with very short pieces of straight pipe and of course the PVC glue/solvent.
This cloner needed about 10-12Ltr of water, but as the sprinklers and pipe wasn't quite high enough, some of the clones didn't get enough water and as such, developed much less root mass.
The pictures showing roots, are all pictures of plants from this cloner, after around 10 days and these have all been transplanted to one bubble bucket system.
Cloner 3.
A much improved version of cloner 2, with 10 sprinklers, which have been adjusted to cover the area much better. Furthermore it comes with two legs, adding a lot of stability and the pipe system is somewhat taller, getting much closer to the cuttings and thus giving them a lot more water. This means that the cloner can use up to15 Liter of water, up from 10-12Liter in the previous system (though it will work with 10-12 as well).
Any comments or questions are welcome, as this is my first cloners and I'm interested in seeing what people think or if they have suggestions to make them better...
