How to Build a Grow Light Hanger for Seedlings

Part 1 | Part 2

 

After cutting your PVC pipe, it's time to put it together. Do not glue it until you're sure everything will fit together. In fact, you may not have to glue all of it. I would highly recommend gluing the parts that bear weight, however.

Begin assembling the braces of the light stand like so:

1. 90° elbow
2. 1 in. section
3. Tee
4. 12 in. section
5. 18 in. section

Here is another view of the completed side brace:

1. 12 in. section
2. 45° elbow
3. 9 in. section
4. 45° elbow connected to 1 in. piece connected to a tee (and then vice versa)
5. 18 in. section
6. Tee connected to 1 in. piece connected to 90° elbow

When both braces are completed, you should only have the 3 48 in. sections left to attach. You can then begin fitting the longer lengths into the tees and elbows and gluing them, making sure the connections are straight.

These parts are the easiest to glue first:

1.  48 in. section connected to a tee on both ends
2. Two 48 in. sections connected to 90° on both ends
3. Four 12 in. sections connected to a tee on one end
4. Four 9 in. sections connected to 45° on both ends (not pictured)

I used heavy duty PVC cement so I would have a bit more time to set up the objects to be glued. Even though I used a slower drying cement, the glue still set quickly. I did accidentally glue the wrong sections together and had to use a wrench (shown below) to get it apart.





The cement should come with its own applicator, which helps quite a bit. Try not to get any on your skin, it is a pain to get off later. Rubber gloves may be best if you want to keep your hands clean. The PVC cement will put off a tremendous amount of fumes, so either glue this outside or have a window or door open with a lot of fans going to air it out.





After you glued the long sections to the elbows and tees, let it dry for 12-14 hours even though the PVC pipes felt solid after 20 minutes. I waited until the smell had gone, which took until the next day.

The next day, you can glue (or not glue, whichever you prefer) the bottom of the stand together:

1. 12 in. section connected by tee connected to a...
2. 90° elbow connected to a 48 in. section
3. 18 in. section connected to two 12 in sections

The elbows are connected to the tees with a 1 in. section. After gluing the base, you may either wait another few hours before attaching the rest of the PVC pipe or go ahead and continue.

 The upper part of the structure is attached like this:

1. 45° elbow-ended 9 in sections are first attached and glued to the four 12 in. sections
2. Four 1 in. pieces are then connected to the other end of the 45° elbows
3. The 48 in. length is connected to the 1 in. pieces by the tees. The tees should already be glued to the 48 in. length.

You should wait an additional 12-14 hours for the cement to dry before you attach the shop light. I bought the most no-frills light available, the only way to turn the light on is to plug it in. You can get as fancy or as plain as you want when choosing a shop light, just as long as it fits the light stand. I used T12 because I already had the lights for it.

When it comes to the lights, I used aquarium lights. You have a lot of options, check out this article for some suggestions.

After the stand is all dry, or whenever you can no longer smell the cement, feel free to attach your shop light and put some plants and/or seedlings underneath.





As you can see from the picture above, I wrapped the shop light chain around the tee instead of the pipe for added stability. Just something to think about.

Also, I lowered the chain so it was almost touching the plastic greenhouses after I took this picture. You'll want to keep your lights really close to the plants. You can move the light up as they grow.