DIY - A Grow-room Log

[PharmaCan]

I donâ??t know where one draws the line between do-it-yourself and professional construction. As a professional builder who is skilled in most of the trades, building this cabinet was pretty straightforward â?? a lot of work but nothing very complicated. This might be a little advanced for someone with no construction skills. But if you can cut a piece of wood straight and pound a nail without bending it, you should be able to put something like this together.

In deciding on where and how to build this grow cabinet, a number of factors were taken into consideration. Primarily these factors were stealth, security, and functionality. I decided to build using a good quality standard of construction, essentially building a cabinet that not only fit my purposes but would also be impossible to break into without creating general havoc.

This cabinet would have been a lot easier to build if I had simply built walls from the existing floor and ceiling. However, I wanted a drain system, which required raising the floor, and I needed storage space in my garage, so the roof of the cabinet had to be strong enough to support a lot of weight.


First thing you have to do is find a spot to build your grow-room, then move all the â??stuffâ?� out of the way.

Next you put up the first board. This is the hardest part; itâ??s all downhill from here. LOL Actually, this first board is quite important because it "locates" everything else that follows. If you put this board in the wrong place, you'll have problems later on.

[PharmaCan]

On the other side of this wall is my laundry room. I will be using air-conditioned air from inside the house as my intake air. Since I donâ??t want light to enter (or escape) the grow-room, Iâ??m building an offset vent using the space in between my studs as duct. I framed a rectangle inside the wall space. The horizontal 2x4â??s are the upper and lower limits of the vent. After caulking the inside to seal the â??ductâ?�, I painted the inside of the duct flat black then replaced the drywall. Later on, Iâ??ll cut a hole in the cabinet wall and an offset hole in the laundry room wall, cover with a vent grills and have a nice source of heated/cooled air.

[PharmaCan]

I nailed a piece of ¾â?� plywood to the wall. Itâ??s a real pain in the butt to have a drywall wall to work with, not only during construction but also when using the cabinet. Itâ??s impossible to attach anything to the drywall and the studs arenâ??t always where we need them to be. With a ¾â?� plywood back-wall, I can nail or screw anything I want to it.

The side-walls are framed and then attached to the back-wall. The side walls are then sheathed with plywood. (At this point you need to use a framing square to make sure that the side walls are perpendicular to the existing back-wall.) I then attached the 2â?� x 6â?� boards that will support the roof and floor joists.
Note: I built the roof first, then the floor, because you don't want the floor in your way when you're building the roof.

[PharmaCan]

Each time you add plywood sheathing to a side wall and when you install the front 2x6â??s, the structure will get stiffer and stiffer. At each step you need to check to make sure that the side-walls are perpendicular to the back wall. This structure will not completely immovable, in respect to remaining square, until the floor and ceiling are installed. However, it does get damn hard to move so be sure to frequently check to make sure the structure is square and plumb.

The floor and ceiling joists are installed. I put a slight (1/2â?�) drop in the floor so that the water will flow to the drain. The No. 8 photo below shows the framing where the ceiling will be attached. Note the 2x4 that is laying flat. This is called â??backingâ?�. When you are done with the structural framing for the floor and ceiling, you need to look where the floor/ceiling plywood will be attached and make sure that there is wood backing for the floor/ceiling plywood to attach to, that there is wood under the edge of the plywood all the way around.

[PharmaCan]

The main part of cabinet is essentially completed so itâ??s time to build a front wall, with openings for the doors. Iâ??m framing this so that I can use standard 2â?? solid core doors and conventional door hinges and hardware/locks. Itâ??s a lot easier to use conventional materials whenever possible, particularly when moving parts are involved.

[PharmaCan]

After a couple of coats of a good primer, itâ??s time to cut the holes for the air intake and vent fan. The hole thru the roof for the fan needs to be sealed real well so, after I cut the holes through the double-layer ceiling, I wrapped a piece of 6â?� duct with paper and foil and filled the roof space with expanding foam sealant. This gave me a nice â??tubeâ?� thru the roof and I can now easily caulk the vent pipe to seal against light and air leakage.

Iâ??m going to line the interior with reflective material. The reflective material is rather difficult to work around or on, so Iâ??m going to temporarily install the ducts and fan to make sure everything fits right. Itâ??s a good idea to use short screws when taking the fan in and out making it fit. That way, the permanent screws you use will be going into fresh wood instead of a used hole.

[PharmaCan]

I want this enclosure to be inconspicuous, so I drywalled it and will finish the walls the same as the rest of my garage.

My next-door neighbor came over while I was working on this and asked me what I was building. I told him that I was going to start running a secure server with a T1 line and 128 bit secure encryption and that to comply with the requirements the server had to be in a secure enclosure, separate from my living quarters. Well, about the time you mention T1 lines and 128 bit secure encryption, the average mind tends to enter â??I donâ??t want to appear stupidâ?� mode and the average person will pretty much accept whatever you say. Anyway, thatâ??s my story for the neighbors and Iâ??m sticking to it. It explains anything and everything they might happen to see. (Of course, if my next-door neighbor wanders over while Iâ??m installing the Mylar, I donâ??t know what the hell Iâ??m going to tell him. Anti-microwave shielding??? LOL)

[PharmaCan]

Here the doors are installed. This is a very important step because the doors can be a primary source of light and air leakage. I used standard doors and cut them down to the height I need. If you take a look at the photo of the door frame, notice the size of the door stop I used. If you take a look at the stop (this is the wood stops your door in the frame when you close it) at your home, itâ??s about ¼â?� - 3/8â?� thick. I used ¾â?� stop to give a larger overlap and thus seal better. When installing the doors, you canâ??t put everything together real tight and close fitting. If you do, the door wonâ??t work right after it is painted â?? itâ??ll be way too big for the opening, which happens to be smaller also because of the paint on it.

Itâ??s all wet and dewy this morning. As soon as it dries up Iâ??ll get into my electical panel and bring power to this puppy.

[PharmaCan]

My vent fan, cool tubes and home-made carbon filter. The filter cost about $25 for materials and took a couple hours to put together. I saw a similar sized filter on-line for $250, so building your own filter can save a lot of bucks - or quid or looney's.

[PharmaCan]

Here's a few pics of installing the relflective material. The wood strips hold it in place then the strips are covered with foil tape.

[PharmaCan]

And here's a few pics with the fan and lights.

On the back wall you can see the air intake vent w/ grill.

The wires need to be hung properly, but that's for manana. I'm tired now and I'm going to go soak in a nice hot tub.

[PharmaCan]

I'm not going to go into a lot of detail about the electrical wiring. Either you know how to wire or you don't and if you don't then you have no business messing around with the electrical work. So if you don't know anything about electrical stuff, get an electrician to help you.

For the electric supply for this cabinet I tapped into my panel and installed 2- 20 amp circuits. I happened to have a Square D slimline 20 and some 12/3 Romex so I put in two circuits. One 15 - 20 amp would have been more than enough.

The electrical boxes inside the cabinet - the box on the right has four receptacles, all of which are hoo9ked to the timer. The box on the left has 3 receptacles that are always hot and one rec that is hooked to the timer but thru a rheostat to control the fan speed.

Outside I have the timer, rheostat and live receptacles. The orange power cord is for the ballasts. I also have a thermostat and hygrometer with remote probes that I'll mount in this general area.

[TheGreenFog]

Hey, Pharma. How're things? Hope they're good. Your cabinet is looking awesome. Didn't you say that this is just the veg cab, right? So, are those going to be MH cooltubes?

Anyway, cab looks great. Hope all those twists and turns won't hurt the fan's efficiency. Either way, looks like you oversized it anyway, so you should be ok. Let me know what the sound is like. :) Also interested on your opinion of those light hangers after you use them for a while.

Excellent work. :thumbsup: Technically, I think this thread should be in Growroom Setup but I'm glad u posted it here, cuz otherwise I wouldn't have seen it. :p Good log.


The Fog :rastasmoke:

[PharmaCan]

Hey, Pharma. How're things? Hope they're good. Your cabinet is looking awesome. Didn't you say that this is just the veg cab, right? So, are those going to be MH cooltubes?

Anyway, cab looks great. Hope all those twists and turns won't hurt the fan's efficiency. Either way, looks like you oversized it anyway, so you should be ok. Let me know what the sound is like. :) Also interested on your opinion of those light hangers after you use them for a while.

Excellent work. :thumbsup: Technically, I think this thread should be in Growroom Setup but I'm glad u posted it here, cuz otherwise I wouldn't have seen it. :p Good log.


The Fog :rastasmoke:

Hey Fog - Thanks for the compliments.

This will be a vegging cab so, yes, the cool tubes are for MH bulbs. However, I bought electronic ballasts and they are good for MH or HPS.

The fan is about 470 cfm, so I don't really care if it gets slowed down a little. I put a fan speed controller on it too. The cabinet is 82cu.ft., so the fan is way oversized, for the cabinet, not necessarily the lights. I'll just have to wait until I fire things up and see what happens.

I've used the fan a couple of times to get air circulating to help paint dry. The noise is so-so. I can hear a slight hum in the garage and in the laundry room (that's the room that's on the other side of the garage wall), but it's really just a minor humming and not at all noticeable outside the immediate vicinity of the cabinet. The fan is a 6" Vortex and it runs pretty darn quietly.

[TheGreenFog]

Yea, that's what I thought. Cool. NICE veg cab. That thing's gonna be poppin'. Looking forward to watching to room construction. So, you're going to cool the lights with the 470cfm fan and I see that you have left the opposite end open, so does that mean that you will be also pulling in the ambient air inside the cab thru the cool tubes? Where is your air intake? Is it that register-looking thing on the left side behind the ducting?? Sorry if you've already mentioned it.

PS...Did u see our friend left you a little note? :rolleyes: He said goodbye. :p


The Fog :rastasmoke:

[4x5]

Nice box, It should serve you well for many years; the only thing I can think of is maybe some heavy-duty locking casters, just in case you need to move it around; other than that, priceless piece of work man.

[PharmaCan]

Yea, that's what I thought. Cool. NICE veg cab. That thing's gonna be poppin'. Looking forward to watching to room construction. So, you're going to cool the lights with the 470cfm fan and I see that you have left the opposite end open, so does that mean that you will be also pulling in the ambient air inside the cab thru the cool tubes? Where is your air intake? Is it that register-looking thing on the left side behind the ducting?? Sorry if you've already mentioned it.

PS...Did u see our friend left you a little note? :rolleyes: He said goodbye. :p


The Fog :rastasmoke:

LOL - I ignored the little asshole - figured that would be the best way of displaying my disdain. I assume after that tyrade he got himself banned for good. I wish I knew what I said that made him hate me so much. I'd write it down and use it again! :smokin:

That register-looking thing on the left side behind the ducting is my air intake. It's a wall vent that goes into my house, then my intake is air-conditioned air.

[PharmaCan]

Nice box, It should serve you well for many years; the only thing I can think of is maybe some heavy-duty locking casters, just in case you need to move it around; other than that, priceless piece of work man.

Wellllllll.... it's pretty tightly attached to the wall behind it. It's not going anywhere.

[Dizzy1]

Looking very good, Pharma.
It's amazing how quickly a large cab can get filled up with everything, and then you have to add the plants. :)

[PharmaCan]

Looking very good, Pharma.
It's amazing how quickly a large cab can get filled up with everything, and then you have to add the plants. :)

Dizzy - Love your avatar! Where was that nun when I was in catholic school?

[PharmaCan]

Today was fun - a few finishing touches and then it's done.

The ballasts were hung from the garage wall. Well, they had to go somewhere and this seemed like a good spot with good ventillation.

The vent - this is the air intake vent - in the laundry room doesn't look at all out place. After all, I don't want to drive down the value of my home with rinky-dink work.

The last of the controls are installed and the cables that are passing thru the wall are sealed for light.

[PharmaCan]

And finally - Mission Accomplished!!!

The girls are relaxing in their new home.

Temps are holding steady at 79f. Hummidity 51%

[Dizzy1]

Bitch'n!

I only wish I had that much free space to hook up a nice cab. You did it up proper.

And she wasn't teaching my Sunday classroom either. lol

[TheGreenFog]

Yea, Pharma. :yippee: Excellent. I'd be happy to have that as my entire flower cab! lol. Nice use of your space. I'm sure everyone wishes they had such a nice generous space. You gonna paint the outside green? lol ;)

So, those plants are mother plants in there, huh? Have you considered topping them and bushing them out a bit? Temps & RH seem ideal. "Thumbsup!" :thumbsup:

Now, onto the flower room!!!! :D Where are you going to do your cloning? :)


The Fog :rastasmoke:

[PharmaCan]

Yea, Pharma. :yippee: Excellent. I'd be happy to have that as my entire flower cab! lol. Nice use of your space. I'm sure everyone wishes they had such a nice generous space. You gonna paint the outside green? lol ;)

So, those plants are mother plants in there, huh? Have you considered topping them and bushing them out a bit? Temps & RH seem ideal. "Thumbsup!" :thumbsup:

Now, onto the flower room!!!! :D Where are you going to do your cloning? :)


The Fog :rastasmoke:

Hey Fog - I've been studying up on cloning. There's a whole lot of good information on cloning techniques - Stinky has a step-by-step a moron could follow - but darn little info on cutting and maintaining the mother plant. I figured topping is something I would do when I cut the clones??? I'm about to go on pure water for one week, so there wouldn't be much sense in topping now, would there?

I just cleared out my 2' x 2' box, so I imagine I'll do the cloning in there. What do the clones need to root? A couple of cfl's on 18/6? I've got the cloning tray & dome & those kinda bark things Stinky recommends & everything else I need except wilt-pruf, which I can't seem to find locally even though I live in farm country.

My garage is drywall with a heavy coat of texture and no paint. I'll match that for now and when the flower room is done paint the whole inside of the garage.

The flower room is actually going to be a whole lot easier than this cabinet. No ceiling, no floor, just three walls with openings for a door, a/c and a couple vents. I can buy a pre-hung door and have it installed in 30 minutes. This cabinet had two doors and all the jambs had to be custom made and the hinges and hardware hand chisled and the doors modified... Anyway, just from a construction standpoint, the flower room will be a piece of cake compared to the cabinet.

Live long and prosper!

[TheGreenFog]

Hey, Pharm. Well, yea, cloning is pretty easy. Lots of info out there and it is basically all the same, with a few variances. I personally would prefer using rockwool cubes to root, but that's only because of the following hydro setup. I guess those jiffy pellets work well for most, esp. if you are in soil. :) Wilt-pruf is unnecessary, IMO...but may be beneficial if you can't keep up with misting them and such. Oh, and yea, a couple CFLs on 18/6 or even 24/0...or anywhere between.

As far as mother plant maintenance, if I'm not correct, there is some information in Bluebear's Bonsai Mum thread (http://boards.cannabis.com/indoor-growing/82586-all-about-bonsai-moms-clones.html) about mother maintenance, but basically if you keep them unrootbound and on light nutes, you can keep a mom chillin' for a long time. There is some pruning and even root-pruning involved to keep high-producing, short, bushy mother plant.

I hear ya about the flower room. Sounds like it will still be a pretty decent day or two's work. Looking forward to the pics. You do excellent work. I like that kind of work. It's nice to see your own final product when you build something of quality and function...kinda like growin' weed! lol :D

Be cool. :smokin:


The Fog :rastasmoke:

[Al B. Fuct]

PharmaCan, what a nice piece of work! Well done. Can I hire you to do some stuff around here? Unfortunately, I think you'd hate the 12,000 mile commute. :D

A good subterfuge for the neighbours is to call it a 'photo darkroom.' Explains ventilation fans to some degree. I DO like the network ops T1 1024Mbps hub gobbledygook, tho. :D You can just see the eyes glassing over.

I see you have your cooltubes in series. Just wondering, what is the temp of the air when it enters the 2nd tube? Considered ducting them in 'parallel'?

You might find some use in this tutorial on cloning in rockwool (http://forum.grasscity.com/grow-journals/156518-batch-clones-rockwool.html#post1648974).

[PharmaCan]

PharmaCan, what a nice piece of work! Well done. Can I hire you to do some stuff around here? Unfortunately, I think you'd hate the 12,000 mile commute. :D

A good subterfuge for the neighbours is to call it a 'photo darkroom.' Explains ventilation fans to some degree. I DO like the network ops T1 1024Mbps hub gobbledygook, tho. :D You can just see the eyes glassing over.

I see you have your cooltubes in series. Just wondering, what is the temp of the air when it enters the 2nd tube? Considered ducting them in 'parallel'?

You might find some use in this tutorial on cloning in rockwool (http://forum.grasscity.com/grow-journals/156518-batch-clones-rockwool.html#post1648974).

Al - the cool tubes are way cool, even connected in series. The hottest point of the whole setup is cooler than a 26w cfl. I think you could let the plants touch the tubes and it wouldn't scorch them.

[Al B. Fuct]

PC, thanks for that. Are your cool tubes commercially made or did you make them?

[PharmaCan]

PC, thanks for that. Are your cool tubes commercially made or did you make them?

Al - They're Hydrogrow (commercial) tubes. I was going to build the tubes myself using 6" bake-a-rounds. I went to E'bay and found two bake-a-rounds and tried to order them. For some unknown reason, PayPal wouldn't process updating the expiration on my c/c and I wrote the vendors to make other payment arrangements and they never wrote back to me and I finally just said "fuck it!" and bought the commercial units.

IF you could get the 6" bake-a-rounds, the tubes would be simple enough to make. If you just wanted a single light (not two or more hooked in series), you could use just about any Lowe's lamp glass. But my cool tubes only cost US$80, so you might save $30 - $40 each by making them yourself.

And really - the cool tubes don't have to be all that well made. There is more air flow and more air turbulance in your vacuum cleaner hose than in the cool tubes. I have a 470cfm fan. With all the twists and turns and filter, it's probably moving 350cfm - 400cfm. The air flow thru the tubes is maybe like a hair dryer on medium setting. The point I'm trying to make is you don't really need to get all that gung-ho worrying about sealing the tubes. There's very little air pressure involved, so simple taping would suffice. And the tubes never get much more than warm, so duct tape or foil tape will work well and last a long time.

my keyboard batteries are very low - sorry if there's a bunch of typos in this.

[Tomthehippie]

Looking sweet man! :)

[criom]

i want updated pics its been like 5 days! :O

totally amazing setup

[texas grass]

hey give these a look for your moms
archive (http://www.cannabase.com/cl/index.html)
Bonsai: how to discipline your plants - PlanetGanja.com (http://www.planetganja.com/highsociety/showthread.php?t=763)
i hope this helps some
and thanks for the advice on my cab. yours is awsome

[KillerDemo]

are u pulling from ur filter or pushing?

[PharmaCan]

are u pulling from ur filter or pushing?

Pushing air through the filter.

PC :smokin:

[Cervantez]

UOW!!! HOe nice that is, mine is a lot simple, but still working so far. Well, this is one of the most beatiful closet i´ve seen, congratulations!!! I wish I had all that equipment here. My system the exaut fans do the cooling of the tube and the vent. it´s good when a bug comes in, than my exaust just suck them to death!!!!!!YEP!
http://boards.cannabis.com/closet-cabinet-growing/122430-cervante-s-closet.html#post1512807

[kronos416]

My vent fan, cool tubes and home-made carbon filter. The filter cost about $25 for materials and took a couple hours to put together. I saw a similar sized filter on-line for $250, so building your own filter can save a lot of bucks - or quid or looney's.

Very nice setup. Starting up a small room myself. Have a question do you mind posting how you made your carbon filter?

[GoldenGoblin]

Very nice setup. Starting up a small room myself. Have a question do you mind posting how you made your carbon filter?
there are multiple DIY carbon scrubber how tos


Pharma nice setup! your making me rethink.

[klipche]

This is deffinately not a DYI. lol

[BeforeYourTime]

Nice cabinet any updates?

[texas grass]

anyone can do this AWSOME DIY just mainly need saw and drill

[misterz]

sorry to bring back such an old thread, but Pharma, does that vent make your laundry room smell like the plants? I want to do the same thing but it goes into a coat closet.....dont want my wife's dress coats smelling like the plants. Do you have any scent issues?

Thanks

[killerweed420]

That was his intake vent. His exhaust goes through the carbon scrubber for stinkweed control.
Excellent craftsmanship on that cabinet.

[misterz]

I agree, its top notch construction on that. I was just wondering if there would be any smell that might seep into the house from the hole. Does the exhaust fan ever turn off or is it a "constant on" type of device?

[gedogen]

i doubt he gets any smell in the laundry room, worst that could come from this setup is a slight 'wrrrrr' sound from the air movement in the laundry room. the air is pulled thru the grow space by the fan so that hole is just a passive intake.

one of the best cabs i've seen on here. i'm building it as we speak. the only thing this post lacks is a shopping list. very talented builder, hope they post back.

:clap:

[disrupt86]

verry nice my friend:thumbsup:

[ForgetClassC]

I didn't think I would have to post this statement twice today on the forums, but:

:jawdropper:cheese us riced.

The idea for the duct being the space between your studs, nice.:thumbsup: You seem quite handy with those tools, that cabinet is fresh, good luck witht hose ladies.


-C