Custom Fabricated Stealth Grow Box Design, Built for Sativas!!

Hey fellow stoners, check it out, my new and improved grow box. Everything in the box has been custom made including the box. I couldn't find a cab big enough so I thought I would build my own. I'm extremely happy with how it turned out as I've never done anything this big before. I basically hit the lottery with the build, the box was designed on paper at 3:00am one night while stoned, next day went to the lumber shop with all the measurements, rented there saw in the back and went to work, after all this everything actually went together like it was made from a template. I couldn't find any edge tape that matched so I still need to find that, I'm glad the wood is light so the cuts don't look that bad. I did want to do more to the box but ran out of money, upgrades will come next grow. It's not completely finished yet, but I'm finished for now, still have some details to take care of and need to do the mom and clone chambers.

The box is 5.5ft wide, 2ft deep and 7ft high. It's split into 3 sections, a flowering section, clone/veg section and mother section. The flower chamber is 3.5ft wide and the clone/mom chambers are 2ft wide. I'm running a 400w HPS light in the flowering section, a MH light can go in there too if need be, the clone section has a 32w CFL lamp and the mother section also has a 32w CFL lamp.

The venting is handled by a 4” inline vortex fan, it sits in the mom chamber. Its hooked up to a T connector with a diffuser in each side, this is where is draws air from. One part of the T goes to a carbon filter sitting in the flowering chamber and the other part of the T stays in the mom chamber to draw air from it. Each sections air flow can be controlled with a diffuser. A small inline computer fan will be placed in the shelf between the clone section and the mom section drawing air from the clone section. A 3” intake hole will be at the bottom of the clone area and 2 3” intake holes are in the flowering chamber. So, fresh air is sucked in each of the 3 intake holes passively then that air goes through the box, through the filter and out of the vortex fan through the HPS reflector and out the cab.

The doors of the cab have been sealed with heavy duty foam weather stripping reinforced by a wooden frame, this seal was made to last. Where the doors meet I placed a strip of wood on the first closing door and overlapped it a bit on the inside. Then I closed door #2, at this point the crack between the doors is over that strip of wood I put on #1. Then I went inside the cab closed the doors (not easy from inside) and placed some weather stripping on door #2 right up against the strip of wood on #1. Now when the doors close there's a light proof seal. The first closing door is held shut by some wing nuts at the top and bottom. And of course a cheap lock to seal the deal.
Here she is. Tons of pics, best viewed while high!

This is what I started with.


And here's what I ended up with.


Here's the top, still have to clean it. That metal strip on door #2 is to keep it sealed at the top, the foam presses it out so light escapes, this works perfect and you can't see it.


Here's the top when you open door #2.


Here's the inside on door #1 sealed up.


Here's the bottom of door #1 sealed up.

70% done anyways.

Let's look at the 70%


Top half of the box.


Bottom half of the box


The bucket was very hard to get it there, very tight fit getting it in place, ended up ripping the mylar on the side, gonna have to fix that.


Here's the clothes line pulley to lower and raise the light. The square head screw you see is what I remove to turn it.


Here's the fan for moving air around. It can slide up and down a 1/2" PVC pipe which is secured at the top and bottom. Notice anything wrong with this picture? You got it, green and white are being used in the wiring. The cord I grabbed already had 2 wires stripped and 1 wire was cut short, it was a long night and I just figured the ground was the short cut wire, plus I'm a DC volt guy so black is normally ground, anyways I hooked it up like this plugged it in to the control panel and bang my GFI breaker blew, I'm glad I had that installed, not a single spark, just lights out in the box.


Here's a pic of the 400w MH bulb burning.


Here's the thermostat, its a comfortable 75f so it looks like I'll be ok, I never got to do much testing but it hasn't gone over 80 so all should be good.


Here's a peak in the mom chamber, all this has to be removed though so I can get the mylar in there.


So there she be, now lets look closer at what's inside. The box has many cool features which brought the cost up and kept me busy, I need quite a few grows to pay for this sucker.

The first feature is the custom DWC (deep water culture) system. It uses a black heavy duty 100L storage container with 2 pot extensions. It has an overflow container for checking and adjusting PH/PPM levels. There's a 250gph inline water pump installed for circulating, removing and adding water. It also has a digital thermometer with a probe to monitor water temperature. (yet to be installed)


Inside: It has 2-3" round air discs, 1-36" air hose, 4-mid size stones for corners. I forgot to stick the fill tube in there, it goes in the back hole in the side and runs all along the back wall. It was capped at the end and has about 15 1/4" holes in it. The idea is if I add PH up, down or nutes it will distribute quicker.


There's the piping, it has 5 ball valves so I can circulate the water, empty my check bucket, add water or remove water.

The 2^nd feature is a homemade rectangular carbon filter. I went rectangular so it doesn't take as much height as a round one would take, this only requires 3.5 inches. When building this box height always came first, I wanted lots of room for buds. The actual filter surface is 8.5” x 18.5”, the air flows through a custom made ¼” pre-filter and then 2” of activated carbon. There's a cap at the end which can be removed so the carbon and pre-filter can be changed easily.


This is where the air is sucked from, the bottom wall is a high quality steel screen, the carbon is on the other side of it.


Here's where the carbon and pre-filter are. I put a layer of black panty hose on the screen so the carbon dust doesn't get through. I haven't filled it yet, I'm going to wait till I need it.


The 3^rd feature, my favorite, is a power control system. I made a box which holds all the electrical equipment and keeps the wiring clean and safe. I have a main on/off switch on the side to shut the box down and a GFI installed for safety, good thing too as I mentioned above. Everything has a special place to be plugged in, the box has been marked so I can't forget. The fan control is that dial, I misplaced the knob for it. The 4 black and white terminals are 12v DC.


GFI on side of box.


On/off switch to kill power to box.


All the wiring, everything happens in here. All the components just need to be plugged in.

The 4^th feature, installed tomorrow will be pin switches on each chamber. Whenever a door is opened the light will shut off, when the door is closed the light will come on if its time. I'll update a pic tomorrow.

The 5^th feature is the dual diffuser system for the venting. Each chamber's air flow can be controlled so keep temps/humidity at the proper levels.


The 6^th feature is the pulley system for lowering and raising the HPS light. I got a 6.5” ball bearing metal pulley, its used for hanging clothes outside, and attached 2 separate pieces of thin metal cable to the pulley. The pulley is attached to the top of the cab horizontally, one cable goes through a eye hook and to one end of the reflector and the other cable goes through another eye hook and to the other side of the reflector. All I have to do is turn the pulley and it will go up or down depending on which way I turn it. I lock it in place with a long screw which goes through the middle of the pulley.


Hole drilled in pulley and wire threaded through, done on both sides.


I put a small nut that fit over the wire and soldered it all together, it isn't going through the hole again.


The 7^th feature is the ability to easily move the height of the fan in the box. The fan is secured snug by U clamps, it can be slide up and down but won't move on its own.


Top clamp

The 8^th feature is the scrog screen, it might be done tomorrow night as well, this will be updated when its done.

The 9^th feature is the thermostat, it controls the vortex fan. It has a good scheduling system and is programmed in conjunction with a timer. The timer is used to override the thermostat during late flowering, its programmed to turn the fan on every 10 minutes for 25 minutes no matter the temp, this is to keep humidity down. If the timer is in the off position or in an off cycle and temp rises the thermostat will still kick the fan on. Another thermostat will go in the clone/veg chamber and will work in line with the other thermostat and timer. I still haven't decided which chamber will be priority in the system, probably flowering. Its as simple as swapping the plugs that go into the control panel.

So as you can see a lot of love has been put into this box, not to mention money! Here's a breakdown on cost. About 70% was purchased this time around, the rest I had from last time. I'm sure I missed some stuff.

Cabinet<o></o>
·6 – 4'x8' sheets of 5/8” wood $300
·Renting saw at store $50
·9 – door hinges (blum 120 Degree Clip Top Hinge, Straight-Arm Style) $60
·3 – door handles $10
·Screws $8
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Venting
·1 – 4” 167cfm vortex fan $209
·1 – 5" inline computer style fan $12
·duct work and hose clamps $45
<o></o>
Lighting
·1 – 400w digital ballast + MH & HPS bulb + socket $190
·2 – 32w soft white CFL bulbs $30
·2 – standard light sockets $4
<o></o>
DWC System<o></o>
·1 – 100L black heavy duty storage container $25
·1 – Mag-Drive 250gph water pump $75
·2 – quick connects $18
·5 – PVC ball valves $25
·miscellaneous PCV parts + rubber gaskets $25
·3 –air pumps (75g, 75g, 100g) $100
·air stones, hose, T's and clips $40
·2 – pot extensions (plastic draws) $10
·1 – on/off switch for pump $18
<o></o><o></o>
Carbon Filter<o></o>
·various duct work $15
·high impact metal screen 18” x 24” $35
·pre-filter $2
·7 liters activated carbon $42
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Power Control System<o></o>
·3 – digital timers $60
·1 – 24v, .8amp DC transformer $12
·1 – 12v, 1amp DC transformer $10
·1 – 24v DC / 120v AC relay + relay board $15
·6 – 120v wall outlets $5
·1 – 120v on/off switch $2
·1 – 6 outlet power bar $8
·1 – 120v fan dimmer switch $20
·1 – 120v, 15amp GFI $15
·6 – 24v + 12v DC plugs $10
·box made of sheet metal $10
·wiring and other hardware $20
<o></o>
Other Junk
·60ft – heavy duty foam weather stripping $50
·50' x 4' roll of mylar $50
·2 – 120v, 10amp pin switches (normally off) $16
·1 – Oakion digital PH meter $85
·1 – HM digital TDS meter $40
·1 – reverse osmosis water system $200
·1 – 6.5” ball bearing metal pulley $15
·2 – digital programmable thermostats $60
·misc hardware (screws, brackets, tape, etc, etc, etc, etc…… $150
·scrog screen parts $20<o></o>
·Sweet, Blood & Tears Priceless

Total Cost (not including tax and whatever else) $2229

Well now I wait for good to come out of all this, the box is in service as we speak, I'll post an update on whats going on in there tomorrow night. I attached a few more pictures during construction, there in no special order. I hope you enjoyed all the pics.

 

Hey guys thanks for the kind words, I figured some of you might like it. This last week has been crazy getting the cab up and going so I'm going to be taking a few days off construction, I do better when I want to do it and right now I don't. I still have lots to do so it will keep me busy for a while.

Anyone know a DIY for an AC volt digital amp meter? I'm a DC guy so I don't know whats involved and I couldn't find anything on google. I really wanted to add that to the control panel as I'm dying to know how much power I'm really drawing, I can do the math but I want to see it on a meter whenever I want.

So yeah nothing to report on the box, I'm filling the bucket right away I hope it doesn't leak after forcing it in there. Update coming on my babies.

 

So you're probably wondering whats going on inside the box, Kali Mist baby! Oh yeah, supposedly one of the sexiest sativas out there, I can't wait. The high from her is suppose to be very energetic and outgoing, I can finally get ready to throw my couch lock indica away.

I got 5 seeds from the Canadian Seed Exchange out of Toronto, they cost $100 + tax. I got them on Feb 28th and put them in paper towel right away. 24hrs later a perfect size tap root had shown on both seeds so in the rockwool they went, 2 days later they showed there heads and things are still looking good. I'm pretty happy both seeds did there part, now its up to me.

My plan is to veg these 2 plants until I can clone off them, then I think I'll be taking 2 clones from each plant. Once I have those I'll basically flip to flowering on the 2. If one of them is a female I'll keep the best clone from it to be the mother. Hopefully everything goes right the first time around. Scariest thing is I have to get dirty again with soil, oh how I'm dreading this. I'll probably go soilless mix, would that be wise?

Well I'm going to be needing some help along the way so I'm glad some of you have those comfy chairs, don't go anywhere.

Here they are.


Feb 28th: set to germinate


Feb 29th: Ready for rockwool


March 2nd: Just showing there heads


March 4th: They stretched a bit because I didn't get them under light soon enough.

 

Thanks jdubb, I think the box is good for sativas because of all height that's available for the plant. Obviously they could easily outgrow it but using scrog and lst there should be enough room. I have 52" of actual grow room, from top of medium to bottom of light, I think thats pretty good for a box using DWC and a 400w light. Everything was designed to use as little height as possible, if I could save an inch I did. I looked at lots of strains and websites on them and Kali Mist seemed like it was one of the best suited for indoor growing, lucky for me because I really like the reviews on it. Supposedly this sativa doesn't stretch quite like the others, its fairly easy to grow and odor isn't too bad, I guess I will soon see if all is true. I'm thinking I may have to go to 1 plant instead of 2, I guess I'll find out on that one too. I also think properly scrogged, etc... one or 2 plants would yield the same. I only have 1 complete grow under my belt, so I don't know much. I played with soil at first but didn't get very far, went to hydro and life got easy. I know I have a challenge but thats what I was looking for, its all worth it if I get what I think I will.

 

Thanks guys, Mr. Scientist your LED lights is one thing I didn't have money for. I was thinking of lining all the walls completely with LED's plus the 400w HPS in there. How much did just the LED's and boards you have cost you? Where did you get them from? Does any heat come from them, less then small CFL's? I know most of those answers are in your thread, I just went there and its getting pretty long so I figured I may as well just ask you here. I'm pretty sure I'm adding them for next grow.

Bobby2sox I only have 1 exhaust fan and its hooked up to the thermostat. There's also a dimmer switch inline but right now its turned all the way up and probably always will be, at least with the MH bulb burning, that sucker throws lots of radiant heat. The box is hovering around 80f. Here's a link to how I have the thermostat wired in, the dimmer switch goes between the fan and the relay. The power going into the relay comes from a timer, the timer will turn the fan on no matter the temp, I needed that for late flowering to keep humidity down. It was just wired around the relay.

http://forum.grasscity.com/absolute-beginners/181202-automatic-temperature-control.html

speedingsnoopy yeah my best work is done when I'm high, everything you see was made while high. There are a few small flaws but nothing anyone will really notice unless I tell them. There wasn't much to designing it, it is just square, I decided on how big I wanted it, then drew on paper how a cabinet goes together and added or removed 5/8" where it was needed as I knew the size of wood I was going to use. The hardest/scariest part was making ALL the cuts off site. Luckily I've cut wood before so I always kept in mind which side of the line the saw blade should be on. Also at the hardware store I went to there saw was pretty sweet, just lay the 4x8 sheet vertically against the saw and push it threw, shitty thing though was there blade was getting old and lots of cuts were ripped so close up on some edges look ruff. All the long cuts were done that way and the short 24" cuts were on the table saw. The doors those were hard, took me longer to put them on then making the whole cabinet. I'm amazed at how nice they close. I honestly don't think I could do it again so well.

So yeah yesterday I almost killed my 2 babies. I moved them into the 6" pots so then I lowered the light. I forgot on the out side of the light the duct work wasn't secured, because the light was so low it was stretching the duct work, it came off after I closed the box up. When I went to bed 3 hours later I decided I would give them one more squirt of water, opened the cab and it was an over, thermostat read 98f. Luckly they were under a plastic dome because they still looked ok, one looked like it was starting to bend but they were rescued just before certain death. Damm I have to be careful, I only have 3 seeds left.