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Hey y'all, me and my buddy Leaky97 aka TokNAway came up with this after seeing the July 06 issue of HT. We wanted something that didn't look obvious and wouldn't draw attention. Any comments would be completely welcome. More pics to come...Happy tokin'!
Here'a a few of the first stages of the build...
Peace! :smokin:
here's a few more...comments appreciated. Happy tokin'!
Peace :stoned:
Here are some more pics of what Rooster and I got done over the 4th.
The frame is made out of 2x4 framing joists (the pink ones) mainly due to cost. Since the 2x4's are 104" (not the normal 8') we got more wood for less $.
The sides, false front, and back access doors are all 1/2" finished plywood. The the top and two shelves will also be 1/2" plywood. These have been cut, but not put in yet. Still need to cut holes for the ventalation before we install those.
To create the stealth image we were going for, I decided to use some trim and moulding. I used three different types: 1 for the top and bottom edges (front and sides), 1 for the sides of the front (to cover the edges of the plywood), and 1 for the doors (to hide the seams). I used a chop-saw to cut the trim and a brad nailer (air compressor and nail-gun) to put the trim on. The brad nails that go through the trim actually hold the false doors on. This gives the doors a little bit of give when you pull on them, so you get the feel that the cabinet is locked. We added handles, hinges, and a lock to complete the stealth look.
Once the outside was finished we mounted the access doors on the back.
Rooster's old lady was supposed to stain the outside this week (Rooster and I are out of town for work), so I'll wait to see if that got done.
The next step it to finish sealing the inside and then add the top and shelves, lights, ventalation, etc. More pics when we get that done.
Damn nice setup, I might just use that stealth box setup:clap:
Thanks Buk! Hopefully this will work out for us. But I do have a question about lighting. Does anyone think we can be safe from temp probs with a 400w HPS, or should we use something smaller? Maybe a 250w HPS or 2-150w HPS? Any comments would be appreciated very much.
Also, does anyone have any recommendations for what kind of fans to use (brands, purchasing info)? We had a hard time finding timers at home depot, they were set for too long of a time period. Thanks for the help in advance!
Peace! :stoned:
Tha Rooster
Thats a damn nice cab. I wanted to build one myself but dont have the tools/time to do it. i ended up buying one just like that at homedepot. i am also setting up my lights and vent for this cab to have it ready for my clones by the end of Aug. I have a 400 hps with the hortilux bulb that I will be putting in the cab. I built a home made cool tube using a duct fan off of ebay ($30) and a glass tube I got from michaels for about 5 bucks(look in the candle section) This drastiacally lowered my temps in my other cab so Im assuming that this will be even better in a bigger cab. Im also thinking in addition to the cool tube i am gonna install a small extractor fan at the very top of the cab(bathroom fan). I think they start at $15 at homedepot and go up depending on cfm and noise. Im hoping that the cool tube combined with the top fan should give me more than enough ventillation to keep my temps manageable. I would def say that you should go for the 400w. That cab is huge and anything less would seem like wasted potential. Just make sure that you make a cooltube and pipe out the air and you should be fine. Good luck on the cab. -Diz:rasta:
Hey Rooster & Token
Nice touch with the fake doors. :thumbsup: Just make you use a cool tube or an air cooled hood and have 1 fan to just move air through it. That ought to keep the heat down enough for a fart fan or even a couple of good computer fans to vent the cab. Don't forget 1 inside to simulate the breeze. :rasta: Have a good grow.
yeah you will def need some strong fans plus cool tube or cool hood to keep that nice box closed with the 400hps. I have a box measures about 2x4x7 and I had and still have heat problems. Now I have (1)30w intake (1)250w exhaust (1)30w fan for the home made cool tube and a small fan blowing the plants and I still have slight heat probs my temps are about 87-92 with my door completely shut. My temp used to be 110 with the door shut and just one big fan blowing the plants. Dont worry not everyone has the same problems I did it also depends what kind ot room temp you have and a window would do wonders. Why dont you do a test run without the plants or I'm guessing you dont have the lights yet?
Damn nice cabinet. You will grow HUGE in there if you get your lighting and heat issues taken care of. A cabinet that size will take a lot to get air moving around in there. You might want to see if you can have a few fans that point more upwards to move the heat to the top.
In regards to what type of lights you are going to put in there, 400 might be as low as you want to go. But since there is a lot of room, you might want to also consider placing some CFLs a little lower in the cabinet to make sure the bottom part of the plants get more light. Heat wonâ??t be an issue as long as you test different fan positions. If you have extra wood, you might want to try out different places to put your fans (diff heights, directions, etc). This way you can cut holes and it wonâ??t matter since it is a test.
Anywaysâ?¦good luck!
Thanks y'all for helping us out with the lights. We weren't sure if 400 was too much. We had talked about using it with cooling tubes but were unsure. Sounds like that's the way to do it. We picked up some nice 30W Sunlight CFL's (135W replacement bulbs) with 2000lumens and 6500K spectrum at our local mega-store for starting out. Guess we'll need more of those. Again, thanks for the info guys, we really appreciate it!
Peace! :stoned:
Tha Rooster
Hey guys,
If you're gonna start with CFLs, keep em close to the plants. I use 8 four foot fluorescent tubes in a closet and keep em between 1 and 2 inches from the tops of the plants. You'll have to raise them often but it'll keep your babies from getting stretched out, weak stems. That cab. will get em BIG so they're gonna need stem.
We picked up some nice daylight cfl's with 2000 lumens and 6500K for vegging. We're going to get some more for extra lighting in the flowering chamber. I do have another question, though. We found a deal online for a refurbished 400W HPS complete system for $195.00. Should we take a chance on this? Also, it has a "wing" type reflector that has a mirrored finish. I thought I read somewhere that you didn't want to use a mirrored finish on reflectors, rather a flat finish...is this true?? Thanks a million for all the help y'all!
Peace! :stoned:
Tha Rooster
Looks great man. Me and a friend just completed our first box too, not so stealth as the location doesn't require it, but about the same size i think 4x4x6 external dimensions. We're stuck at the same place too with the light, we have 8 cfls right now with little round reflectors hanging from chains above the plants, but I'm looking at a 400 watt hps. Check out http://insidesun.com/ has refurbished 400 watt hps systems for $100 even on sale right now. Dealing with this TX heat is a bitch though, it was right at 100 today round here.
We were just looking at that same exact setup fom inside sun last night! Looks like a good deal. Now we're trying to figure out our ventilation setup. Thanks for the info!
Peace!
Tha Rooster
nice contruction guys, good luck with the grow :)
That is the shit man what are the measurments man for the whole deal so if I was doing to bulid one at least I know!
(More pics of the cabinet)
Put the door seals on earlier in the week. Also painted the inside frame (only the 2x4s) of top compartment in prep for Mylar. We're going to try and just go with the Mylar on the inside of the plywood. Don't want to FK with having to wrap it around the 2x4s unless we absolutely have to.
Added hooks and eyelets to keep the doors closed.
Got the stain on today. Probably won't put a second coat on it. Rooster is calling it the "gun cabinet."
Thanks for all the complements! :dance: I'm pretty damn proud of my design and all the ideas I've come up with (while :stoned: ) for this thing.
The basic factors for the size were that we wanted 3-6 plants and needed to have the thing be portable (Rooster is expecting a move within the next year). So we needed to fit it through a door frame.
For the front (doors and the door frame) we went with an entire piece of 4'x8' 1/2" plywood. The sides of the cabinet are about 26" long and the outer edge of the plywood extends beyond the frame to give space for the doors on the back. It's about 6'4" tall. Just big enough for our needs and we can still get it around a corner and through a door.
The outside of the frame measures 6' x 4' x 2' and the way I decided to put it together. That gives us around 20" x 44" surface area for the shelves. The top compartment is a little over 4' high and the bottom is about 1.5'.
Next is the ventilation design, I think ... :stoned:
Just ordered the 400W HPS from InsideSun. On sale right now for $100 bucks...not a bad deal.
Peace :stoned:
Tha Rooster
Shit...my hat is off to you two. With that stain you would never think. wow.
Oops! Sorry guys and gals, I found a better deal and decided against the 400W HPS. I found an air cooled cylinder with reflector for a decent price at the same store, so all we need to decide on is bulb size. This cylinder accomodates all HPS bulbs and most MH bulbs too. Now, we found fans for around $35-45 that will push a max of 500cfm and is only 2.5 somes (very little noise). This could possibly mean that we could use a 600W HPS bulb and STILL keep the temps down while keeping the light somewhat close to the canopy of the plants. If 256cfm is required for 1000W HPS we may could even try using this bulb and still be ok on the temps, not sure though, I am sure we will learn as time goes by. Anyway, thanks for the comments and info...keep 'em growin'!
Peace!
Tha Rooster :smokin:
Great cabinet man! Now build me one.
How many plants are you growing in there? Looks SO nice with that stain, by the way. Top-notch work.
Hope the grow is going well! :thumbsup:
WOW! :rasta: :thumbsup:
Would it be possible that you post a guide on creating this masterpiece to us? :D :D
I'd love to recreate it
Thanks for the compliments! Hopefully we will get some new pics of the cabinet soon. We've been busy lately and haven't worked on it like we should, but, should be in full swing sometime soon. Hopefully we're gonna get 3-4 good size tomato plants in there. We have an 8" in-line fan pushing 500cfm's of fresh air. We have a 2' cool tube running a 600W HPS, so the temps shouldn't be a problem. Thanks again for all the compliments! New pics soon.....
Peace
Tha Rooster
For the fan.. i whould get duel bladed window fans..they small and can be mounted on walls or mounted on a hole on top or bottom for good vent....
That's about the same size as my cabinet. I like the stain on yours better, but I bought my cabinet from Lowes and it is what it is. You can probably use a 600w bulb in there, but I don't think a 1k light would be a great idea, because I suspect you would have heat probs. Guess that mainly depends on the temperature of the air coming into your intakes though, so perhaps you could do it. I saw a guy on overgrow.com that used a 1k light in a box of roughly those dimensions, and he said he got the temps under control, but that it was rather a waste of electricity, since a 600w or even 400w light would have been sufficient for the area.
Here's a couple pics of how I set up my cabinet. Not saying it's the 'best way' or anything, by any means, but it has worked well for me. Those Doran 8"x8" darkroom louvres are the bomb. Carbon filter is on top, hidden behind the books and fire extinguisher, can't even see it.
Sabron...thanks for the info on the fans!
Jams...we are going with the 600W Hortilux Eye Super HPS. I've read those are some kick ass lights. What are your thoughts?
As far as the pic of your cab goes...we have looked at it many times. Hell, I could probably write a paper on it! It's been our inspiration, thanks for posting it! And thanks a million to everyone that has responded and given us ideas and suggestions!
Peace :pimp:
Tha Rooster
We are within a week (max) of being finished. :dance:
Worked on the cab two weekends ago and finished this weekend. Have a little bit of wiring left (exhaust fan and ballast), but that is all. Even did a light test (had to re-caulk one spot) and we're currently running a temp test.
Got pics that I'll post in a couple of days. Downloading them from my camera as I type this. Getting real close! :D
Here some pics of the Intake and Exhaust vents.
We're going with a passive intake for now, but we made it so we could add an intake fan in the future if we decide we need it. Right now we have a small fan blowing at the intake grill and it seems to provide enought air-flow for the time being.
The bottom compartment is currently being used for storage. Plan to make it into a clone chamber sometime in the future. Just trying to get this thing to a state where we can get a grow going for now.
More pics of the inside to follow soon. :smokin:
Here are the rest of the pics.
The ducting and cool-tube are 6" while the fan and filter are 8" with 6to8" reducers to connect the duct work.
Wish we would have gotten a pic of the in-line filter before we put it together. :( Rooster came up with the idea. We took some cuttable carbon filter sheets and secured some of them inside the reducers. Cut them to 8" so they won't blow out with the fan on. We can even add more carbon sheets (on the intake side) if needed.
Have not seen anyone try this before so we hope it will work for our needs. If we run into problems we'll let you all know.
The CFLs are not in the final locations in the pics. We just placed them in there to figure out where we wanted to mount things and do a light leak test. Thanks to Jamstigator for the idea based upon his pics. :thumbsup:
The final mounting (via hooks at the top of the cab) allows us to move them up and down and even pull the excess cord length out of the cab. We cut a hole in the top and used a gromet (plastic/rubber bottom for a chair leg) to create a gasket. No pic of it, sorry.
Did a 30 min temp test with the CFLs (about an inch under the lights) and max temp was 83 on the intake side and 86 on the other side (the right) during the hottest part of the day. Ran a room temp test over night and max/min was 86/73 so it looks like we are good. Have to do another test after we get the wiring finished and the 600W HPS bulb in, though.
Enjoy! :D
Looks great! The only thing you're lacking are some plants growing in there! ;)
Hey Jams, did you ever run into a situation where your CFLs started spinning due to the circulating fan?
Our babies sprouted two days ago and this afternoon we were experimenting with the placement of the circulating fan inside the cab. We put it in a place where it it blows on the plants perfectly, but it spins the CFL pair that is closest to it. It spins so much that the lights moves too far away from the planters (small ones, not the size in the pics). The lights are about 2 inches above the soil right now.
I know that we really don't need the fan on just yet, but it won't be long before we do. This won't be a problem when the plants get big enough that the CFLs are above the fan's air flow (like in your pic).
If you ran into this, how did you over come it? We've thought of a few ideas so far, but have not come up with a great solution.
Any info is greatly appreciated!
I keep mine from spinning by bracing them against stuff, kinda, as necessary. Otherwise, yeah, they might spin and cause probs. Keep in mind that I am using sets of four bulbs, which makes them more stable. I'll show you a pic of my WalMart CFL four-way connection deal, so you can see what I am talking about. With four bulbs and the connection hardware, this makes them heavy enough that they don't blow around all that much, and with four of them, there are more ways to brace them against stuff when needed.
Oh, and before you tell me I have brown spots on my leaves, I already know. Heh. Had a power outtage for 3 days at day 30 of flowering, so they took some damage, what with high heat, no ventilation, and very little light. But it's almost day 65 now, and they're just about ready for harvest, so I'm just glad they made it at all! LED flashlights do not make good grow lights! *snicker*
Where did you find these fans?Quote:
Originally Posted by TxRooster97
Good question. ^^ I'm interested as well.
And I was just wondering if you're going to keep a grow log on here, because I know I'd love to see how it turns out. Now that we've seen this amazing cabinet, I need to see the end product.
Good luck! :thumbsup: ~
yeah the CAB is amazing...amazing enough that i am going to build it this weekend...well at least start it. I am going with a 400w HPS. Does anyone know what kind of venting i will need with this light? i dont know what to expect as i have only used a 1000w. And i am glad not to be dealing with that much heat agian..LOL
jamsigator what is your yeild in that cab per harvest??
This is the web-site where we purchased the fans. It was the best price we saw on the web and the shipping time was great. The day after we ordered, they were on their way.
http://www.espenergy.com/in_line_duct_fan.htm
Thanks for the info Jams. We'll probably rig up something, so we'll let you know what happens.
Rooster is keeping the grow log. Nothing to report right now since we're almost a week in (since germination).
Enjoy! :smokin:
Lookin very expensive hope its growing good.