Gardening Light Stand

I have had my indoor gardening light stand the long way against the wall since I assembled it.  But it occurred to me that it would be easier to water all the plants if it stood out from the narrow end.  So I tried to just move it.  SCREEECH!!!  And my muscles objected.

Metal doesn't move on a concrete floor well.

So my first thought was to reduce the weight.  The rack came with shelves.  But they were kind of flimsy to add fluorescent light fixtures to, so I added plywood.  Worked great, but it is also hard to remove.  I managed the added plywood removal, but the lights were NOT coming off. 

The rack is 4' long.  The light fixtures are 4'+ and bolted in after disassembling and reassembling the fixtures.  I wasn't going to do that.  And the stand isn't actually bolted together.  It has parts that hold it together by its own weight.  It means you cant actually lift it or parts come apart.

So I had to figure out how to hold it together to lift the bottom.  Clamping pieces of wood to each corner in multiple ways seemed like a good idea.  If the parts separate by being moved up, them holding the parts down seemed promising. 

It worked.  I'm not sure whether a lever is geometry or physics, but after I clamped short blocks of wood to the bottom shelf.  I was able to move it 1" at a time.  And there was a pattern of moving the crowbar that worked.

1", 1", 1"...  And eventually, all those 1"s added up and I had it rotated 90 degrees...

Now I can put plant trays in and water easily from both sides and lift them out more easily (the original problems I was trying to solve).

And I had large plastic trash bags on the shelves.  They moved.  This time, as I set them back, I put the shelves IN the trash bags and folded the excess under them. 

Of COURSE I didn't take pictures.  I get involved in doing something and pictures are the last thing I think of.  But I can replicate some of it...

Did you think I wouldn't provide pictures?

OK, first is the clamping.  The one at the bottom crosses the rack parts that want to come loose.  The ones on the sides prevent that.  Clamps were suffifient.

Wedging the bottom allowed some slight movement.  That was the 1" at a time I mentioned above.  I did slowly move the stand 90 degrees.

Then I needed to replace the plywood above the light shelves.   And I wanted them covered with heavy duty plastic bags.That took some work fitting them over the sharp corners.  The boards BARELY fit around the rack.  This is an example of one.  And a cool thing is that I was able to fold the excess plastic trash bag under the shelf, so it stays tight. 

Here is the lettuce trays under the shelf I did today.  The others will be done tomorrow.  One is so tight, I have to cut it in half to fit them back, which is why I stopped.  And it was dinnertime too.

But the trays were SO MUCH easier to water and that was the point.  So I watered them, and it worked great.  I can get at them from both sides now.