Devlog 4 Hydro Garden - Root Grate + BOM

what i did

• built the root grate
• its a 180mm disc, 4mm thick, 8mm holes on 3mm ribs so roots sit on it and water still gets thru
• also chamfered 2mm off both bottom edges. since the cones are 45 and a chamfer is 45 they end up parallel so the grate beds flat on them instead of balancing on a corner
• skipped finger holes cuz i can lowk grab it normally

the fiberglass rod thing

• looked into it properly and it doesnt actually work
• fiberglass has no threads so theres nothing to tighten a nut against, and thats the whole point of the rods
• BUT while checking i found the actual problem. m5 is metric and metric threaded rod is like 15 bucks a meter at home depot
• switched to #10-24 which is the imperial one. its 2.98 for 3 feet. saves like 48 bucks and its actually SMALLER than m5 so it drops right into the holes i already made

money

• a lot of them had the wrong description and stuff
• the psu i had picked wasnt UL listed, swapped it
• led channel was 39.99 and i found the same thing for 19.99
• also found stuff i just straight up forgot to buy: tubing for the dosing pumps, wire, ph storage solution, and pvc cement
• ended at 481 which is under the 600

whats next

• water spreader