this post was submitted on 07 Apr 2024
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Balcony Gardening

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Show off that vertical veggie garden 35 stories high. Or that bucket of potatoes you're proud of. Perhaps some fall mums that have been catching your eye through the sliding door into your living room. Any and all balcony gardens are welcome! Come and show your's off because we love to see it. :)

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I'm launching a little balcony gardening project that involves water reservoirs. I don't have much experience with these kinds of projects, so I need a little help.

Due to some dimensional constraints, I will need two regular plastic containers (your typical storage containers), and I was hoping to get away with only including a way to fill one of them. That means I will need to connect it to the other in some way. So I thought I would just drill a hole in both of them and stick a pipe between them.

  1. What is the best way to drill holes in plastic without risking any splitting?
  2. How do I make sure that the holes are water sealed afterwards? Can I glue around the pipe and plastic box?
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[–] poVoq@slrpnk.net 3 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

I would say for 1. melting instead of cutting is a sure way, but any kind of cutting that doesn't deform the container too much usually also works. You can also take a small drill and make a series of holes in a circle and then cut it out from there.

As for 2. you need to experiment with the compatibility of glues with the plastic of the container. A two component epoxy glue will nearly always work, but is probably overkill. Another common method is to used rubber gaskets and screw on clamps of some sort.

P.S.: in some cases a simple siphon will also work if you can ensure it never falls dry.

[–] solbear@slrpnk.net 2 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Melting sounds like a good idea. What would you typically use to do it? A soldering iron perhaps?

When you say compatibility, do you mean in terms of adhesion, or are there other things I should be concerned about?

[–] AnonStoleMyPants@sopuli.xyz 4 points 7 months ago

If you use a hole saw I would recommend you drive the drill bit in reverse. It will make a cleaner cut and in general is just nicer to do with plastics.

You could buy some quick fit hose fittings with o-rings and use those to attach the pipe. It'll work just fine.

[–] poVoq@slrpnk.net 2 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Any hot metal thing will do. You can combine the melt with the drill method by poking a series of smaller holes with a hot nail. Better do it in a ventilated space though... a balcony will do ;)

And yeah, some glues just don't stick well to certain types of plastic. You can try roughen the surface up a bit with sand-paper but it will not always work and having a leak because you accidentally slightly moved a container is annoying. IMHO the rubber-gasket way is the most durable way of doing it.