The Grow Cube / Grow Box is my entry for the 2016 Hackaday Prize. It is essentially a counter top / table top indoor hydroponic LED garden that you can use to plant edible vegetables.
In Part 2 of the build, I begin the aluminium structure which will be essentially the ‘box’ or ‘cube’. I initially wanted to braze the aluminium with a high-temperature solder, but this did not turn out well.
I then proceeded to rivet the pieces together with 15mm L brackets used for attaching lumber together. When this warped the entire structure, I broke it apart and started over, this time gluing the pieces together with 10 minute epoxy.
This had the desired effect of producing a pretty square box, however, it had no strength at all. Once the epoxy cured, I proceeded to drill into the L brackets and rivet the pieces together.
I managed to strike a balance between both the structure being as square as possible and being able to resist some weight. Once I had the basic square structure, I test fitted a 1020 tray and proceeded to start wrapping the structure in 3mm PVC sheets.