Coming out of retirement..... New Grow Box

[Baron Von Hooti]

Greetings all. I am Baron Von Hooti(n) hehe, not enough space for my original name.
Since OG shut down I pretty much did as well. I moved to go to school, and taking my grow box (a bloombox) with me wasn't an option. So I sold it, took my final harvest, and hit the road.

My last harvest was just under 9 oz of some killer weed from the 400w HPS in the bloombox. Since I have a Volcano it lasted a looooong time, for about a year. I ran out about 4 months ago and since then I've had to buy weed about 5 times. It hurt every single time. I forgot just how much it costs to buy this stuff that costs pennies to grow once you've put in your initial investment.

This brings us up to date. I decided a few days ago to go ahead and build a new box. I've been playing with the idea for awhile but had a bit of cash to work with. So here's what I did:

I bought a storage cabinet from home depot. I bought a 250wHPS and a 140cfm Dayton blower. I bought a sheet of plywood to use for the back of the box as it came with a little rinky dink thin sheet that just wouldn't work. I planned to use the back to mount the heavy stuff so it needed to be heavy duty.

First I assembled the box as per instructions, pretty easy. I then bought the plywood and got them to cut it to the dimensions of the back of the box. I mounted the plywood on the back with screws so it was solid. Getting there.

Next was to mount the fan and the ballast. I bought some roof flashing to fold and use as heat sinks for the blower motor, the ballast, and above the light. I took the main housing off of the ballast to save some room as well as to allow for more cooling of the ballast. The fan was mounted in the top corner. I cut two 2'' holes in the bottom for intake that I plan to put a PVC corner joint on there to help with light leak.

Next I weatherstripped all around the doors and cut a piece of plywood to use as the floor of the utility room/roof of the flowering room. I could have used the shelves that came with the cabinet but again I wanted this piece to be as solid as possible so I went with plywood. So far so good.

So far the only issue I've had has been mounting the socket. They sure don't make these easy to mount if you're not using a hood. Hopefully I can get some good tips from you guys. It's mounted safe and solid, but it needs to be better.

Further plans are to mount the light better, make a semi-sealed light chamber with a piece of glass, and deal with the stupid 10ft cords I have when I really need 10 inches

Cost:
Box $120
Light $205
Fan $145
Plywood $60
Additional $100
Total (so far) : $630

Hope you enjoy, if you have any questions or suggestions about the light I look forward to hearing your comments.

Glad to be a part of this new community, seems like a good one.

The Baron

[dvskidsec]

Sounds great got any pics of the finished product, or the process of assembly for that matter?

[Baron Von Hooti]

I do, quite a few, but they are all over the size limit.

any ideas to make them smaller easily?

[willydog]

I think you can download a program (free) from Microsoft that lets you resize pics. Your setup sounds great, maybe with pics we can answer your question.

[Baron Von Hooti]

ok, let's give this a try, here we go!

[chimera]

Are you going to mylar the inside or paint it white, I would, you reduce light loss and heat increase by bouncing the light instead of the wood absorbing it. Otherwise looks very professional.

What about picking up a cool tube($59) for your light, they have mounting brackets which would make mounting easier and they concetrate the light like a reflector. Speaking of lights are you going to get an MH conversion bulb for vegging?

[Baron Von Hooti]

not sure the exact day we're on, so on this day we'll call it day 7 and go from there.

looking pretty good, got a light nute watering yesterday, unfortunately when trying to exercise the stems I broke one in half, tried to tape it but to no avail, guess I don't know my own strength

[VeoDigital]

Baron, how many days, if you can recall, did it take for you to see sprouts? Did you plant the seeds in soil, or germinate first in wet/damp paper towel? Also what did the cabitnent cost you? $120?

[Baron Von Hooti]

I let them germinate until I saw 1'' roots coming from the seeds, so I saw sprouts above ground in about 36hrs from planting them, and yah I used the damp paper towel method.

and yep, the cabinet itself was about $120 and I bought a piece of plywood to cut to size on the back and that was $60, and I still have a big piece of wood left over

[eyec0n]

do you think it helped letting the root grow that long? I've been waiting almost 2 days for mine to sprout and I planted at like little under half an inch

[Baron Von Hooti]

I used to only wait until I saw a teeny tiny root poking out of the shell then I'd plant it in rockwool. Usually got 9/10 or so that would poke through but it would take 3-4 days to see anything.

I find if you let them get a good healthy root in the paper towel you see them a lot quicker and they seem to like it more too.

[HercuLungs]

What are the dimensions of the cabinet? I' m looking to build something very similar.

[Baron Von Hooti]

Day 10

the interior dimensions of the cabinet are 26.5'' wide 57'' tall 14.25'' deep

here's an update, repotted them yesterday in my ghetto pots

[shadowclown]

very nice indeed and welcome to the city. I think i'll pull up a chair.

[Serious Eric]

WOW! nice grow box. +rep ...very cool.

and your plants are lookin good. did you add perlite or vermiculite to you soil mix? i see somethin alike that on your topsoil.

E