Build it and THEY will grow!! Stealth Grow Box Design

[RobsGreen]

Hi all, I'm quite new to this website, came across it about 2 weeks ago and after reading some threads I got very motivated to start growing a few plants of my own. I've always wanted to grow like most smokers but never thought it would happen but after reading a thread titled "Coming out of retirement..... New Grow Box" and seeing what he grew, I decided why not give it a try.

I'm happy to say I've constructed my very own stealth grow box. I'm very excited this is actually happening, I just hope everything goes well down the road. I live in an apartment, I've lived here for 3 years now and not really worried about anyone finding it. When someone looks at the cabinet they would never think, "hey I bet theres some marijuana growing in there". Plus its in my bedroom so not everyone will see it. The only thing I'm worried about is the smell, the reason I've never tried this is the past. I just found out about the carbon filter and it sounds promising to me, I guess I'll see. My biggest challenge was getting this baby sealed up, I want 99.9% of the air to come out the exhaust fan so it goes through the filter first, hoping it doesn't smell. I wonder how much smell will come out the 2 air holes at the bottom back? Probably more than .1%

Anyways this is all so exciting I thought I would share in detail everything I did to build this, hopefully it will help someone do something like it and maybe prevent you some troubles I went through.

Supplies Used

• Grow Box purchased from Walmart -- $99.98 Dimensions 67"High x 27.5"Wide x 19.75"Deep
• 4'x8' Sheet of White Melamine -- $29.99
• Perma Foam Door Kit -- $21.58
• 200watt CFL Blue Bulb -- $119.00 Red will be coming shortly
• Socket for light -- $19.00
• Light Reflector -- $30.00
• 5" 235cfm Inline Duct Fan -- $45.00 (not using, didn't work very well, sorry I bought the thing)
• 4" 167cfm Inline Centrifugal Fan -- $209.00 (funny, its rated way lower but moves 10 times the air??)
  
• 5" Carbon Fiber Odorsok -- $89.00
• 4" Square Muffin Fan -- $27.00
• Digital Thermometer / Humidity Meter -- $19.97
• Digital Thermostat, Transformer & Relay -- $99.68
  
• Timer -- $9.00
• Extension Cord -- $9.99
• 12' Mylar -- $15.00
• Water PH Test Kit -- $14.00
• 3 - 2 Gallon Pots -- $4.50
• Soil -- $9.00
• Other Miscellaneous Supplies -- $100.00 (silicon, double sided tape, screws, brackets, chain, contact cement, 3/8" + 2" door foam, etc...)
• DAMM TAXES!!

So yeah as you can see I have put quite a bit of money into my little box, I hope its a GREEN CHRISTMAS!!

Here's how I assembled it all together. Of course I ran into a problem right off the bat, the wonderful cabinet I bought from walmart didn't look quite right when I put it together, there was a gab between the doors about 1/2", obviously not acceptable so I trimmed the top and bottom board that much to bring the doors together, thanks for the extra work walmart! Hopefully this won't happen to you.

Anyways, after I got the cabinet together looking the way it was intended I cut a round 5-1/8" hole on the left side at the top/back. When you cut that hole try and cut it as round as possible, a jig saw should do fine. Then cover the inside edge of the hole with contact cement and covered a strip of foam with contact cement, after 20minutes attach that sucker to the inside of the hole and it won't be going any where. When you place the foam in the hole put it to the outside edge of the wall, make sure you use 3/8" or 1/2" foam if your wood is 5/8". After your foam strip drys you can place the inline fan on the foam, it should sit evenly on the foam and not touch any edge of the wood, this will help reduce noise and vibrations. Use small L brackets to attach the fan to the board. Once everything is secure its time to get out the silicone, go ahead and wrap around the whole fan, cover any other cracks you see on the fan.

Alright we have that out of the way, now its time to hang our light. I placed 2 small hooks at the top, straight above the holes that are on the bracket for the light, make sure there center. Then attach 2 small chains to the light bracket and your ready to hang. Make sure you leave the chains long enough to have the light low, it should be nice and easy to adjust when the time comes.

Now my main goal on this project besides getting great weed is to have this as smell proof as possible so that means sealing it up as well as you can, this part was a bit of a challenge, mainly because I wasn't sure what to use, but after many hours at the hardware store I think I got it sealed. If you want a sealed box give this a try, I'll update later and let you know if its really working. Now that you have it all together, minus the back, its time to take it all apart again. Once you get it apart its time to start putting it back together, should be easier this time. This time use silicon on all of the edges. You can do this the first time but I recommend putting it together first just to make sure everything is good, could save you a lot of trouble in the end. After the box is together with silicone line inside corners with silicone as well.

Now that you have that out of the way lets seal up our doors. Cut some 1/2" foam to fit around the front edges of the cabinet then run contact cement along them. Also cover the back of the foam with contact cement. The foam will likely have adhesive on the back of it already but it won't do, make sure you get lots of contact cement on it. Wait about 20minutes and stick the foam on the edges that have the contact cement, along the inside edge. Make sure you press it nice and firm and don't move it once you stick it in place, care is required here. Once everything dries hang your doors again, make sure when you tighten the hinges you press the door nice and firm against the foam, it must squeeze before tightening. The doors won't open all the way after this but its necessary if you don't want smell.

Were halfway there! Next open your door kit and cut the pieces to fit along the inside of the cabinet so the foam presses against the door when it closes. This is a bit of a challenge as you want the door to press against it as hard as possible. Use 3 or 4 screws per piece to secure it in place. Once all the seal is in place its time to get out the silicon again. Run a nice bead along the edge of the sealer and then cover the bracket completely in silicon. If you use enough it should stretch when you open the door and stay in place.

Nows a good time to install the lock and latches to keep the doors close. You want to do this after lining the doors with the rubber so nothings in the way. This is pretty straight forward, you can see the ones that close the first door in a pic below. You'll probably notice they don't stay closed on there own anymore with all that foam pressed up against it. Here's a good way to keep them tight. Get a couple straight bolts, washers, wing nuts and eye hooks. Drill a hole in the top of the door just under the door sealing kit a size smaller then your bolt, 3 1/2" should do well. Screw that bolt into the door as far as you can without it coming through the front of it. Then screw your eye hook into the top of the cabinet so when the door closes the bolt goes through the hook, then place the washer on there and tighten the door down with the wing nut, do the same to the bottom of the door and you can be sure that door is tight and sealed. On the other door attach small latches to hold it closed. I used the latches that hold a cupboard door shut. Put one on the top and bottom, this is a bit of a challenge as you have all that foam trying to push the door open. Sorry I don't have a picture of those latches, I covered them in foam before I got my camera out.
Now we have to seal the crack between the doors when they shut. Take some 2" wide foam 1/2" thick and glue half of it to the door that closes first. Be sure to use contact cement. When the one door is closed you should see half of that strip. Now close both doo-+rs securely, and run another strip of the same foam on the other door so it bumps up against the first strip you placed. That should pretty much cover the crack in between the 2 doors.

Now we can finally put our back on the cabinet. Drill 2 holes in the bottom for fresh air to get into the box. Remember to silicone the edges before putting the back on. Then once its screwed in place silicone the inside corners.

That pretty much takes care of the sealed box, if everything goes well your box should be completely air tight, hopefully that means smell proof as well. Now its time to wrap this baby in mylar. This is where the double sided tape comes handy. Run some along all the edges of the box and a strip down the middle. Now cut some mylar to size, peel the backing of the tape and have fun getting it on there.

Well that about does it, you should have a decent grow box after your hard labor. Here's some pics along my journey.



Finished grow box from front.



That's from the back of the box with all the weatherstripping on the doors. The inline fan you see isn't in the box anymore it was junk!!





The brackets were covered in silicon a little later.



The lock is hiding under that foam



That nut and wingnut on the top is what holds the first door closed, theres another at the bottom just like it. The cupboard latch is under the lump of foam where the doors meet.



Ahhh, the inside basically complete!!



The bottom half close up. I have the light hung low right now. On the right is the digital thermostat that turns the exhaust fan on when the temperature gets too high. If you want to know how to setup a fan that way check out the diagram I made in another thread. http://forum.grasscity.com/absolute-...e-control.html I have another thermometer in there just for reference and for humidity. Those boxes along the back wall are covering the intake holes to defuse the light a bit, it was glowing out the back. Anyone have any ideas what I could do there? I also have 3 cups of mud in there, one of them showed green yesterday so that was nice. I hope the other 2 come threw.



Here's a picture of the actual CFL bulb I'm using. Its 200watts, I hope it does well for 2 or 3 plants. It sure seems nice and bright when its on. When I open the cabinet my room glows.



Here's the top half, you can see the new big exhaust fan, this thing moves serious air! With that cheap inline fan smoke wouldn't even get attracted to it with the odorsok on, but with this fan it will grab a piece of paper! Only downfall is the fan is quite noisy, my next step is to try and insulate it.



And this is the power setup. I have a 6 outlet power bar on the wall, a cheap timer and a transformer and relay for control the fan when the temperature rises.



And the stars of the show, not much happening in this area yet. Hopefully in the next week things get a bit greener.

[backfromthedead]

im gonna watch this one for sure

want to see how those high wattage CFL work

Can you post some pics of that bulb?

Subscribed

[Proper_Bo]

Well done my man, looks very nice +rep for your effort with the build & post. Ill be watching. Good luck bra.

Bo.

[MushuHappiness]

Very nice! I'll be watchin this one for sure

G'luck dude!

[doob3r]

thats a cool cab man! let me know how that filter works ive been wanting to try that brand for a while

[RobsGreen]

Hey guys, thanks for the kind words I hope this CFL does good. I was set on getting a HPS lamp but because I have such a small space and I couldn't find a conversion bulb for the 250w so I decided I'll give this a try. So far I'm glad I went with this bulb, my temperature and humidity seem to be sitting at good levels, I'm maintaining 74 degrees with 45% humidity, do those numbers sound close? I've read lots of different numbers these seem to fall in there. When the light is off the humidity drops slightly and the temp goes down to 65 degrees, hopefully that won't slow growth too much. The fan runs 95% of the time to keep that temp so that should be enough fresh air. There must be lots of air movement in the cabinet, when I close the door it tries to suck the mylar off the door.

backfromthedead - I posted a pic of the lamp with the other pics, I think its a nice looking bulb. I can't believe I forgot to take a picture of it.

doob3r - The odorsok seems to be doing its job for the smell of silicon. My first time with the silicon I didn't have the fan going and it stunk my suit up bad, one friend told me he could smell it in the hallway and thought I was painting. When I put the final seal of silicon on I put the fan on and it seem to help a lot. When I was in the box doing it I could hardly breath, as soon as I was finished I closed it up and I couldn't smell any coming out of the fan. When I put my nose down to the intake holes I could smell it. 45minutes or so later I opened it up and could hardly smell it, it was also quite dry, much drier then the first time around. At this point I'm feeling confident about it.

And here's my baby today, its been in the mud for 5 days now, geeezzz this is taking longer then I expected, I thought I would have my first crop in the bins by now. lol

[SurfsUpBrah]

Not to nitpick but is your intake more powerful than your exhaust?

Im wondering because you said you could smell it by the intake fan.

Your exhaust should be the most powerful fan so it gaurantees to filter all the smells before they escape.

If your exhaust is running at the same pace/or a hair lower power than your intake, the air will escape somewhere else, and it will not have gone through the filter.

Sounds like this will not pose much of a problem for you because it sounds like it took care of 99% of the smell.


I love your pictures and can't wait to see your progress

I also give +rep for the effort of the build and post.

[RobsGreen]

Nitpick all you want, I'm hoping for some of that.

I have no intake fans right now, just the exhaust fan and a 5" computer type fan blowing on the inside. My main problem is the exhaust fan is very noisy. I put my dimmer switch back on it tonight to slow it down, hopefully it still keeps the temperature down. I can still hear it though and that really annoys me.

[ocitown]

Originally Posted by RobsGreen

Nitpick all you want, I'm hoping for some of that.

I have no intake fans right now, just the exhaust fan and a 5" computer type fan blowing on the inside. My main problem is the exhaust fan is very noisy. I put my dimmer switch back on it tonight to slow it down, hopefully it still keeps the temperature down. I can still hear it though and that really annoys me.

I like your box man! You obviously did some homework,grow spaces always work best in any negative pressure environment because then the filter flows 100% of the air.Thats why he asked if your intake was larger than your exhaust which you dont have or need(the intake that is).You could prolly use much smaller CF if you want and for this veg stage you should try to get the humitity up over 60%RH and after your in flower go back to what you have now. Fine work,keep me updated man.

[RobsGreen]

Hi Ocitown, thanks, I certainly have done my share of reading and still feel like I know nothing. The vacuum affect is pretty amazing on the box, if I close the doors not latching either of them lots of light comes out the top and bottom, but when the fan turns on the doors close up and light is gone.

Why would I want to go with a smaller light? That confuses me. I was a bit worried with the amount of light I have now. After all my reading I kinda wish I went with a 250w HID air cooled.

I'm having trouble keeping my humidity high, any ideas how I can get it up without a humidifier? Normally its around 25%, never been over 37%. As we speak my meter says LO for humidity, not good. I have a bowl with water in there and a rag hanging above it with one end in the water but not doing anything. I'm able to lock my temp to anything I want, currently 76 degrees.

My baby doesn't look right today, could be several things, any clues? This started to happen yesterday and seems to be getting worse, this is what changed, all at the same time.

I moved the plant closer to the light, about 6", I also just watered it until water came out the bottom holes, it was dry and needed it. The only other thing is one my other plant that is barely growing I did a PH test on the run off water and it was around 4.5. Good chance this one has the same level, both done the same way. Because I just watered it yesterday I'm gonna see what happens when it dries out and my next watering flush it some with 7.5ph water. I'm thinking I might do more harm by watering it again so soon. I adjusted my water to 6.5ph or so before watering, I'm now thinking it might be this auto feeding soil my local hydro sold me that's dropping my PH level, and he claimed to know what he was talking about.

Any help would be appreciated!!

[eyeslikedonuts]

'Sup dude . They look slightly overwatered. Whats the name if your soil. Looks like peatmoss and perlite. The soil has nutes on a time release?? If so, that can be bad for your sprouts. Seedlings dont need any thing but water for the first 3 weeks +/-. Other than that, +rep for a well put together cabinet and a cute lit'l sprout. KEEP IT GREEN! peace, e

[RobsGreen]

Originally Posted by eyeslikedonuts

'Sup dude . They look slightly overwatered. Whats the name if your soil. Looks like peatmoss and perlite. The soil has nutes on a time release?? If so, that can be bad for your sprouts. Seedlings dont need any thing but water for the first 3 weeks +/-. Other than that, +rep for a well put together cabinet and a cute lit'l sprout. KEEP IT GREEN! peace, e

Thanks, I'll be sure not to water them for at least 2 more days. I'm using "schultz potting soil plus" and yeah it feeds for 9 months. I'm kinda mad that the guy at the hydro shop told me this would be the best, I now know its not, read that at least 50 times. How would I correct this problem. I know its not time for transplanting yet but maybe I should do this early with organic soil and perlite? Would this be a good idea and when doing it try and remove as much of this dirt as possible? My PH on the run off is way out, about 4.5 on one plant, it must be the nutes in the soil? Thanks for your input, its helpful!

[ocitown]

Originally Posted by RobsGreen

Hi Ocitown, thanks, I certainly have done my share of reading and still feel like I know nothing. The vacuum affect is pretty amazing on the box, if I close the doors not latching either of them lots of light comes out the top and bottom, but when the fan turns on the doors close up and light is gone.

Why would I want to go with a smaller light? That confuses me. I was a bit worried with the amount of light I have now. After all my reading I kinda wish I went with a 250w HID air cooled.

I'm having trouble keeping my humidity high, any ideas how I can get it up without a humidifier? Normally its around 25%, never been over 37%. As we speak my meter says LO for humidity, not good. I have a bowl with water in there and a rag hanging above it with one end in the water but not doing anything. I'm able to lock my temp to anything I want, currently 76 degrees.

My baby doesn't look right today, could be several things, any clues? This started to happen yesterday and seems to be getting worse, this is what changed, all at the same time.

I moved the plant closer to the light, about 6", I also just watered it until water came out the bottom holes, it was dry and needed it. The only other thing is one my other plant that is barely growing I did a PH test on the run off water and it was around 4.5. Good chance this one has the same level, both done the same way. Because I just watered it yesterday I'm gonna see what happens when it dries out and my next watering flush it some with 7.5ph water. I'm thinking I might do more harm by watering it again so soon. I adjusted my water to 6.5ph or so before watering, I'm now thinking it might be this auto feeding soil my local hydro sold me that's dropping my PH level, and he claimed to know what he was talking about.

Any help would be appreciated!!

As far as light,when plants are small they can only use so much light so its just a waste but as they get bigger they need more.The humitity should be fixed cause that could promote bad bugs sooner.4.5 in soil,Ide flush with PH corected water, try using three times the plants volume in three goes saving the final bit of each go and testing all three,see how the progress is by compairing them all.Thats what i would do.If you have nute soil thats a big no no.I know TX plants at this early stage can kill and nute soil can also so just sit tite and someone will save ya.I loose sleep every time baby girls get sick.

[RobsGreen]

Originally Posted by ocitown

As far as light,when plants are small they can only use so much light so its just a waste but as they get bigger they need more.The humitity should be fixed cause that could promote bad bugs sooner.4.5 in soil,Ide flush with PH corected water, try using three times the plants volume in three goes saving the final bit of each go and testing all three,see how the progress is by compairing them all.Thats what i would do.

Should I get rid of this soil before I do that, it has time release in it? I can get organic soil and perlite tomorrow, do a flush and then transplant. Or should I wait a week or 2 for a transplant?