Hello fellow D.I.Y growers. I'm starting this thread for anyone who wants to come along on my journey toward building an amazing Grow-Cabinet. The things that I want out of my Cab are as follows: Semi-Stealth. I don't mind if I have a large, unexplainable cabinet. I just don't want it to be obvious from my front door that there is a grow going on. This means that it will have to be quiet enough not to be heard from another room and leak neither light nor smell. Large Enough space for nine plants to grow about three or four feet in height as per SoG. I will probably also lollipop them or construct a screen to lay the buds out evenly. I addition it will include a side compartment for vegging plants to one foot high. It will also give space for growing clones on the veg side. The dimensions Five feet tall Five feet long Three feet wide Here is a bird-eye-view (heheh I'm not an engineer!) That line that bisects the cabinet is the partition that divides the veg and flower spaces. Shelves I'm going to put brackets for shelves every 8-12 inches or so. (Maybe I should stagger the spacing? ie 6,8,12,6,8,12?) This will allow me some versatility to split the box in many different ways, as well as to raise or lower the plants and possibly lay a screen f. It will also allow me to maximize my use of vertical space, especially on the vegative partition where plants will not be more than one foot tall. This will allow me space enough for a small perpetual harvest. Lighting I have a 400 watt HPS lamp with a flat white parabolic reflector for the flowering partition. I will probably use 200 watts of CFLS for veg. I figured this would be enough because I only want to grow them to about a foot/foot and a half tall before I start flowering. I will take my clones from vegatative plants if there is not space for mother plants. I will use a single 22 watt florescent tube to root the clones. That should be enough for 10 clones? Ventilation First of all, I will have a small oscillating fan for moving air inside the grow room. I am going to use a 4" or 6" confused inline fan because I have a 400 watt HPS lamp for the flowering partition. I figured I wouldn't use any ducting, just install it into the wall. This should make it easier for the fan to move air... right? I will probably go with a large passive intake lined with cotton filter material, unless someone can tell me why I shouldn't. I plan on installing seperate muffin fan ventilation for the much cooler veg partition, unless you DIY guys think I can get away with putting another filtered passive intake, while cutting 3 inch holes in the partition and fitting one foot pvc pipes filled with dark cotton filter. Do you think that I can rely on that inline fan in the flowering partition to pull enough air through a couple(or a ton..) of those? Any one think that they would leak light? What if I used elbows? I would also love some help with carbon filters/scrubbers. I have seen the sticky, but I would like to know which one is easiest to build, and most cost effective. It also needs to be adequete for the size of my cabinet and the strength of my in-line fan. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- I have been wondering if it would be possible to wire the ventilation, fans and vegatative lights together into one plug with a timer, and just have the 400 watt lamp on another plug. How would I wire them together without starting a fire? Could I just wire them all together into a normal, grounded plug? And finally, will all of these things pull enough power to blow my circuit? Will I have to do some conversion to my breaker-box?
I will build it out of wood, preferably something laminated. I'll seal all of the cracks with some sort of expanding poly-fill material. I will then paint the entire cabinet and all of the shelves flat white. Then will come a flat, waterproof finish. The outside will be painted light blue, to match the furniture. What am I forgetting? What have I got wrong?
I was inspired to " get out of the closet." I forgot to get those batteries on the way home, toxic... But I'll get them tomorrow morning while I search for a good spot to rent.
400 w hps, probably is not enough for a big space like that. But you re heading in the right direction.
Eventually im going to but im going through college myself and i dont have the space or the money to do what i want yet so ill experiment and learn the basics through trial and error until i can do what i want.
You don't think 400 watts is enough for three by three? I was just reading that it was perfect for a 3 foot x 3 foot space! Argh my brain!
Alright dude! Thanks! I was scared for a minute there! I designed the whole room around the wattage of my lamp, so I was facepalming to the max. Very true. I'm gonna build a carbon scrubber when someone suggests a tek for DIYing one. If thats not enough, I will get one of those ONA blocks to absorb the smell.
if you can build one , definitly do it.cuz those things are pricey.but also if youre gonna use it you gonna need a good fan that is noiseless and powerfull enough to suck it out through the scrubber.That how i f-ed up i bought a charcoil filter, but didnt think about the fan. now it just sits there and looks at me.
you might want to consider inline ducting on that light, it's going to get hot in an enclosed cab. scrubber is pretty easy, you can make one out of pantyhose, pencil cups, and activated charcoal, all for under 20 bucks and available at walmart. i use a 120cm fan with an inline hookup for my scrubber, works like a champ.
Thanks! This is the sort of stuff I'd like to know! Would I have to buy a vented hood, or do you think I can just get away with putting the in-line fan right next to the HPS bulb? Like hooking it up on the other side of my hood across from the socket? Those metal-mesh type pencil cups? Thats pretty smart. I'll probably get a fan that size. Do you have a tek for building your scrubber? Or is it really easy?
http://forum.grasscity.com/do-yourself/273604-small-carbon-filter-diy.html This is the carbon filter i am going to make for my growbox when i get around to it . i will be using an inline 4 inch fan and a 4 in one of these instead of the 3 inch. But i will be using a 250W HPS light setup with a flat white hood that has a venting hole, so i will be using the tubing to cool my light effectivly so that i will not burn my plants. I hope this is helpful because i have been thinking about building something a little bit smaller but wit somewhat the same specs. looking forward to your grow with this setup... post your new thread here when you start please
yup, that's pretty much the same steps that i followed, just be sure you get to different sized pencil cups so one fits inside the other i would hook up the exhaust duct next to the fan to try to pull as much heat from the light as possible. probably a good idea to add another clip on fan for general circulation too.
Yeah dude! Thats exactly the sort of design I was looking for. I see how you can use pencil cups, too! Thanks a lot for that link! +reps all around for the Carbon Filter help!