Emmie's Grow Box Building Project

[emilya]

Sort of like a grow log... here I am going to provide a log of my project to build a custom grow box in my bedroom. I remember my daddy telling me one day, you never know when you might want to build something, and then he taught me all about skill saws and electrical outlets and the value of a good plan. I don't think that he had any idea what I would put this knowledge to use doing... but I think he would have been proud of me.

Here is the goal... a two level, Veg/Flower grow box with separate lighting in each section. Heat and airflow should be controlled throughout and odor must be controlled.

So, here are the pictures of the project as I work on it. As of today you see the basic shell of the box, assembled and painted. Next step will be to hang the mylar and install the middle shelf and lights.

Emmie's Grow Box Album (http://boards.cannabis.com/album.php?albumid=961)

The box is 5' x 28" and is 4' tall. It is painted flat white inside and all surfaces will also be covered in mylar.

What you see in the top view is a bathroom exhaust fan that will draw air through the unit and out to a carbon filter. Constant negative airflow will be maintained so that air can go in... but to go out, it must go through the filter.

All electrical will be as close to code as I can get, note the boxes mounted in the wall. Between those two boxes is going to be a shelf that divides the box into two sections.

The bottom section will be 30" tall with room for a T5 x 4' x 8 array mounted on the underside of the shelf, room for growth above a 3.8 sq. meter SCRog screen and below that, plenty of room for 3 wide pots to populate the screen that is sitting 10" above the dirt surface.

On the back wall there will be room to also mount horizontally my T5 x 4' x 4 array just at canopy height. This will provide a total of 60,000 lumens to the top of the grow screen.

The upper side of the shelf will allow air flow from the lower level while still blocking light from the top and will have my smaller 4" shop light with grow bulbs (1900 Lumens) in an 18" tall veg area for clones and seedlings.

The second picture shows the bottom of the box where you see a gap in the back to allow incoming airflow. There will be a similar gap in the front when the door is closed so that airflow will come from front and back, through the center shelf and out to the filter. Temperature will be maintained with a small heater piping heat in at the bottom near the center of the box and controlled by a thermostat at the canopy level.

So far it has been a lot of fun putting this together and I have dreams of it being able to produce all that I need, safely.

I will upload more pictures as I make progress on the box. I estimate that I have 3 weeks to complete this before I have to separate out one male from my closet grow and attempt to pollinate one part of one female for seeds. After the first grow is successful and I have seeds to restart from if I suffer a disaster, then I will move operations completely to the box for a production run. I anticipate a very interesting spring. :thumbsup:

Emmie

[TANKJR]

Hiya Emmie! Looks good so far....looks like you learned a lot from dear ol Dad! Boxes look nice and square (:thumbsup:) and it sounds like you have a good plan layed out....Good Luck with this project!

[RAINHAZE]

Well I'm impressed! Nice job Emmie, and well planned out. It's good to see someone that does her homework, sets out a goal, and accomplishes it.:thumbsup:
I have a similar size growbox myself, and I was thinking the next grow of doing the same as you by dividing into two sections and producing my own seeds.
( I am concerned with the recent crackdown on homeland security and buying seeds thru the mail.)

Good luck to you, I'm def gonna subscribe to this one! (It wont let me rep ya no more):(

[emilya]

I made some good progress today. My design includes a removable shelf between the two sections that is also strong enough to hold up the big SB48 light, allow airflow from the bottom to the top half of the box, yet still be light proof. Its mostly ready to go now. The hangers for the shelf are in place and the shelf is cut, holes are drilled and the paint is drying. Tomorrow I put the edge trim on that will make it air and light tight and install the mylar. This should go fairly fast and then its on to the last stage when I hang the lights and test the airflow and temperature control. I will send some pictures tomorrow after I clean up a bit so you can see the shelf... its sitting on saw horses right now and not too impressive. ---Emmie

[emilya]

I made some good progress on the grow box today. I have uploaded a bunch of pictures into the album for you to look at, but I will put a few of them here to help in my description. Check it out at:
Emmies Grow Box Project Album (http://boards.cannabis.com/members/emilya-albums-emmie-s-grow-box-project-picture6680-big-sunblaze-48-8-heat-source-instantly-adds-20-deg-box.html)

I could not wait to get the family moved in after I saw how pretty the box was totally lined with mylar. I didn't start getting good at dealing with the mylar until near the end of the hanging, but I did learn a few things along the way in dealing with it. First, it isn't tin foil, so it doesn't bend up on you. If you are reasonably careful with it, it can be laid flat. After thinking about it I wasn't too worried about flat though... reflected light is reflected light, and having it take some odd angles in the box will bring light to places that would not have gotten light without it. So, I didn't stress about making it neat... I just worried about coverage. What I ended up doing that worked quite well is to fold over a piece of duct tape into a double sided sticky tube and place that on the wall in the corner. Then I moved the mylar to that spot, stuck it down and then went to the next corner and repeated. Once the mylar was hanging there, then I attacked it with the staple gun and got it pretty well nailed down.

Todays test of the box introduced some new things to ponder. First, I had the front open and the vent fan at the top off since it would have nothing to evacuate. I turned on the lights, checked temperatures for a while and then left for a few hours. I forgot to get my fan on it before I left. When I got back I found that the temperature had climbed at the grow deck by 15 degrees (90 deg) and my biggest plant was showing signs of 2 burned leaf tips. EEEKS!

http://boards.cannabis.com/members/emilya-albums-emmie-s-grow-box-project-picture6680-big-sunblaze-48-8-heat-source-instantly-adds-20-deg-box.jpg

I moved the light up a bit and I got the fan going and dropped the temp to 80 pretty easily but it is clear that air flow is going to be critical in this project.

http://boards.cannabis.com/members/emilya-albums-emmie-s-grow-box-project-picture6683-operational-checking-out-conditions.jpg

Tomorrow I need to work on the front doors, and get it sealed up to check air flow from the front and back vents up through the system. If the bathroom vent fan at the top is not able to draw enough air in at 50 CFM, I will be looking at putting some active air induction fans in each side to help cool this thing.

Today has been a good test though. The light hangs below the shelf just as I had hoped in would and the whole box seems solid. The mylar is just short of amazing. Comparing this with the situation in the closet that the plants just came out of, I have at least doubled the light hitting them, if not much more. The closet had no reflectivity, simply white walls, and the Sunblaze 48/4 was putting out half the light of this big 8 tube fixture. The closet needed heating when it got very cold outside... I am not sure that this box will need that, at least when the lights are on. I am already thinking how hard it is going to be to maintain temperatures in here in the summer time... I may have to duct some air conditioning right into the unit! We will see just how effective the vent fan is very soon and will have answers to these questions.

http://boards.cannabis.com/members/emilya-albums-emmie-s-grow-box-project-picture6679-upper-shelf-airflow-duct-power.jpg

So far so good... but still have a lot to do to get things regulated in here.

Emmie

[gypski]

I made some good progress on the grow box today. I have uploaded a bunch of pictures into the album for you to look at, but I will put a few of them here to help in my description. Check it out at:
Emmies Grow Box Project Album (http://boards.cannabis.com/members/emilya-albums-emmie-s-grow-box-project-picture6680-big-sunblaze-48-8-heat-source-instantly-adds-20-deg-box.html)

I could not wait to get the family moved in after I saw how pretty the box was totally lined with mylar. I didn't start getting good at dealing with the mylar until near the end of the hanging, but I did learn a few things along the way in dealing with it. First, it isn't tin foil, so it doesn't bend up on you. If you are reasonably careful with it, it can be laid flat. After thinking about it I wasn't too worried about flat though... reflected light is reflected light, and having it take some odd angles in the box will bring light to places that would not have gotten light without it. So, I didn't stress about making it neat... I just worried about coverage. What I ended up doing that worked quite well is to fold over a piece of duct tape into a double sided sticky tube and place that on the wall in the corner. Then I moved the mylar to that spot, stuck it down and then went to the next corner and repeated. Once the mylar was hanging there, then I attacked it with the staple gun and got it pretty well nailed down.

Todays test of the box introduced some new things to ponder. First, I had the front open and the vent fan at the top off since it would have nothing to evacuate. I turned on the lights, checked temperatures for a while and then left for a few hours. I forgot to get my fan on it before I left. When I got back I found that the temperature had climbed at the grow deck by 15 degrees (90 deg) and my biggest plant was showing signs of 2 burned leaf tips. EEEKS!

http://boards.cannabis.com/members/emilya-albums-emmie-s-grow-box-project-picture6680-big-sunblaze-48-8-heat-source-instantly-adds-20-deg-box.jpg

I moved the light up a bit and I got the fan going and dropped the temp to 80 pretty easily but it is clear that air flow is going to be critical in this project.

http://boards.cannabis.com/members/emilya-albums-emmie-s-grow-box-project-picture6683-operational-checking-out-conditions.jpg

Tomorrow I need to work on the front doors, and get it sealed up to check air flow from the front and back vents up through the system. If the bathroom vent fan at the top is not able to draw enough air in at 50 CFM, I will be looking at putting some active air induction fans in each side to help cool this thing.

Today has been a good test though. The light hangs below the shelf just as I had hoped in would and the whole box seems solid. The mylar is just short of amazing. Comparing this with the situation in the closet that the plants just came out of, I have at least doubled the light hitting them, if not much more. The closet had no reflectivity, simply white walls, and the Sunblaze 48/4 was putting out half the light of this big 8 tube fixture. The closet needed heating when it got very cold outside... I am not sure that this box will need that, at least when the lights are on. I am already thinking how hard it is going to be to maintain temperatures in here in the summer time... I may have to duct some air conditioning right into the unit! We will see just how effective the vent fan is very soon and will have answers to these questions.

http://boards.cannabis.com/members/emilya-albums-emmie-s-grow-box-project-picture6679-upper-shelf-airflow-duct-power.jpg

So far so good... but still have a lot to do to get things regulated in here.

Emmie

Raise that light higher from that little critter!!! Don't want to scorch the thing. :lol5: After reading it, great job!!! :thumbsup:

[emilya]

Well, made some more progress today. Got the doors sort of hung. Doors are hard. Doors that must seal in airflow and light are even harder. I have to rethink the vinyl weatherstripping I first went with and maybe go to a more dense foamy sort of thing. That might do it. No way to tell without experimenting though, and of course that gives me a good excuse to go to that wonderful hardware store where all the hunky guys hang out. This would be easy if I could get one of them to come and help me... but, can't have that.

What I did determine is that I need more airflow from the front and not so much from the back so I can cool the area under the lights better. The 50cfm bathroom exhaust fan is working well moving the air, but the flow pattern needs to be adjusted inside the box. Its hard to adjust this when it only happens if the door is closed because then you can't see in there... but I am figuring it out. I used a small candle and put it where I thought the air flow was... popped the door shut, and then saw if the candle got snuffed.

Right now with the airflow the way it is, the temp is about 83 in the box. Got to cool it down just a bit more, even if I have to put a vent right on the front door. I am more hopeful after today's labor though that I will eventually get this worked out and I have alleviated my fears that the fan would not be enough to keep air coming in and still be able to pump the exhaust through a home made carbon filter to deal with odor. That at least is not going to be a problem, and the fan noise is not too bad either. Now I am going to have to determine if the fan should be on the same circuit that switches the lights on and off. This is fun!

Emmie

[RAINHAZE]

Nice Job! Emilya :thumbsup: hell, if ya ask me, this is possible sticky material. Well written, well thought out.
I'm sure some of your ideas could help out some people that have never done this before, and want to do a grow box of their own.
I built mine while my last seeds were germinating, but I didn't think to document it as you did here. Kudo's to ya!

I have the same fan as you do, works great. You mentioned earlier about possibly venting in some ac to help keep temps lower, I had that problem earlier on, I had to take a 5,000 btu ac unit and place it on the floor at the opening of the box. Worked great, but only needed it for about a week.
I will mount the ac and vent it this next summer.
Keep up the good work.:thumbsup:

[emilya]

Nice Job! Emilya :thumbsup: hell, if ya ask me, this is possible sticky material. Well written, well thought out.
I'm sure some of your ideas could help out some people that have never done this before, and want to do a grow box of their own.
I built mine while my last seeds were germinating, but I didn't think to document it as you did here. Kudo's to ya!

I have the same fan as you do, works great. You mentioned earlier about possibly venting in some ac to help keep temps lower, I had that problem earlier on, I had to take a 5,000 btu ac unit and place it on the floor at the opening of the box. Worked great, but only needed it for about a week.
I will mount the ac and vent it this next summer.
Keep up the good work.:thumbsup:

Thank you RH... I was thinking about that air conditioning problem the other day and then it occurred to me that I used to have a window unit that had a remote temp sensor on the remote control. You could program the dang thing to regulate the temperature on the far side of the room! Now, I said to myself, why could that remote not be in the box? You got to love all this new technology and all the remote gadgets available these days!

Emmie

[RAINHAZE]

There you go!! :thumbsup: ..yeah mine had the remote too.

[emilya]

I havent forgotten about you, my faithful readers. It is just these doors. Grrrr.
I have tried a couple of different designs on the doors and so far, I have not gotten it right yet. I thought it would be easier to divide the two big sections into 4 doors that open from the right and left sides and meet in the middle. I'm still working on that one. Now I have 4 doors to hang evenly, and of course because of the active grow going here I am working on this by myself. This has required me to figure out various ways to temp hang the doors while I figure out where to put the hinges and then screw them in. Im still figuring it out... I am close, but its still isn't quite right. I will send some more pictures soon, but not till I get something I am a bit more proud of to show you. In its present form I still cant close the lower doors with the lights on, it will overheat. I need a good suction seal on the doors before I can start working on the air flow through the box. The new foam weatherseal will work im sure, once i get these dang doors to line up correctly. Wish me luck... but I am a very determined girl and I am going to make this work! ;)

Emmie

[gypski]

If you have two pairs of doors. You want to put the pairs together first. Then put your hinges on the end panel, align the doors and clamp or hold them in place and secure the hinges. Make the doors so they fold out and back on each other. :thumbsup:

[emilya]

Sometimes I marvel at how stupid I can be. I figure I have spent about $200 on parts so far for this grow box project and it is still a long ways to being something usable.

Tonight online I found a great gardening supply store in the major city near me. They are even having a 20% off sale. I just saw the Sun Hut and Grow Labs products and found myself drooling. For about the same as I have spent already, I could have already had a great box ready to go.

So, although I am embarrassed to say it, I am heading for that store tomorrow and am curious if anyone has experience with either of these products. The Sun Hut seems cheaper than the Grow Labs, is there a reason for this? There is every possibility that with a good sales person, I will be coming home with one of these boxes... maybe two!

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Emmie

[DogtowN]

So, although I am embarrassed to say it, I am heading for that store tomorrow and am curious if anyone has experience with either of these products. The Sun Hut seems cheaper than the Grow Labs, is there a reason for this? There is every possibility that with a good sales person, I will be coming home with one of these boxes... maybe two!

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Emmie

Nothing to be embarrassed about there, emilya. No need to quit that project, either. You'll want all the square footage you can get, eventually. :)

They are all pretty much the same. Being able to actually touch and see them in person is a huge plus, you can compare the materials and hardware. That's where you'll find the biggest reason for price differences. Pay particular attention to the zippers, and how well they are attached/seal. Also, the framing could be skimpy on some of the cheaper ones. If you plan on hanging any significant weight, you'll want to avoid the bargain tents.

I like the grow lab. If you are planning on CO2 enrichment, then those gimmicky "windows" might be useful. :D
They also have, IMO, the best method of light-proofing @ the zippers. It is one of the priciest, but is made very well, with high-quality materials.

That said, I'm also impressed with the Secret Jardin tents. If they carry those, take a look. They are lighter than the GL, and don't have the windows, but are very well-made. :thumbsup:

Make sure to work those zippers! Nothing worse than a tent with a balky zipper.

[emilya]

well, I did it. I spent the money on the professionally made grow tent and invested in a real inline fan. I spent the afternoon taking apart the grow box project and storing the lumber for future projects. Then I assembled the new tent... an awesome 4x4x7 room. I also bought a smaller one 4x2x7 for the separate veg room. I'm sure that eventually I could have made the plywood box work and enjoyed working on the project... but I had to suck it up and realize that this commercial project was a much better expenditure of my time and money and will provide a much larger working area and will allow me to do several projects at once.

Thank you for following my thread here and giving me pointers as I worked on it, but lets face it folks... this girl ain't no carpenter. :) Happy New Years!

:birthday:

Emmie

[gypski]

Now young lady, let's see some fat finished buds gleaming with THC!!!:lol5: