First diy stealth cab cfl soil grow

[Aerandir]

Ok so I found this cab by the side of the road some time back with the intention of growing something in it, and I finally got around to getting some work done.

First, I had to reinforce the back, which was weak and I didn't want to have to worry about it so I strapped some 1x2 to the back and it's solid now.

Next I mounted 2 octagonal boxes to the underside of one of the shelves (I realize now I will probably need to add more, but that won't be a problem) and wired up the bulb receptacles. I ran wire from one of the boxes to a plug (totally not up to code lol) which I will plug in to a power bar on a timer.

Next I started with the reflectix. I couldn't find my tape measure so it's a little short on the side near the door but i will just overlap a ton from the door. I realized the top of the door leaves a gap from the top of the cab so I have to leave extra there and eventually add a strip of wood to close the gap. Then I cut a piece for the bottom of the shelf with the bulbs.

Then I realized I'm a noob and I need to borrow my friends planner to trip the shelf down because the thickness of the refelctix means it doesn't fit anymore.

So that's all I have so far. Next steps are some kind of chain device to raise and lower the shelf, build a carbon filter and install the fan I have (80 cfm bathroom fan).

I need to think the rest out a bit more...

I could close off the bottom and put mothers there, I could split the right compartment in 2 and use half for mothers, half for cloning/veging and the other side to flower. Ideas or suggestions welcome. The other thing I have to do is figure out how to get airflow through the right compartment (because the fan will be pulling air from the left side) into the left without letting light through.

The other thing is if I want to combine cloning and veging into one step, I either need to go aero/hydro or find some kind of medium I can just add soil around to flower. I guess that would work... those jiffy things?

Pics coming up as soon as I figure em out...

 

[vanslyke]

thats a really good cabinet to get a little grow op goin. get some Y-adapters for the light sockets and get 4 cfl's goin instead of just 2.

 

[Aerandir]

Good call, I was thinking as I wired them that I shoulda got dual sockets but Y-adapters will do the trick.

Forgot I had more pictures that wouldn't upload last time... maybe I shoulda mounted the sockets a little farther from the side. obviously it will be straight once I fix the shelf but it's definitely touching now.

 

[Demosthenese]

no way will it burn. I have my 400w cooltube touching reflectix and it is fine and it gets much hotter then a cfl ever could.
as soon as you have power going in you should get a smoke alarm just in case for right above the closet.

 

[Aerandir]

Sweet, that's good to hear, especially when i get 4 bulbs in there. So here's my dillema... ventilation. i have the two chambers and I want to vent them with one fan. So I have this crazy idea, but the one problem is light isolation... somehow I need a path from one chamber to the other with no light transfer. The pic is an idea, the idea being that the lights will be mounted on shelves so the light won't go up and through the hole in the top, but the reality is there will be some light up there. Another idea would be running duct from one to the other through the open space in the bottom, and painting the inside black, maybe?

The fan is a 100cfm bathroom fan, I have a bunch of 4" duct, and a coffee can carbon filter to put in there somehow...

 

[Demosthenese]

with cfl you shouldn't have too much of a problem because the light has no intensity after a few inches. You can use black carbon filter in layers over the holes, or use reflectix to build a vent cover to reflect the light away. The way that the light fucks with the flowering is there is a hormone responsible for flowering that is destroyed by light itself. It's always present, but until it builds up to levels requiring 12/12 (ish) the plant won't flower. Moonlight has no intensity either so it doesn't fuck with the flowering. I've read yes and no to comeplete light proofing being the best way to maximise, and certainly aim for as good as you can get, but i've found the carbon filter over the holes blocks light really well and still allows for good airflow.

also, unless the door to your cab is airtight and you've comepletely sealed the inside edges, i would think a lot of the airflow into the cab will be through cracks and holes if your fan is at the bottom of the system. You'll certainly get a little movement through the right side chamber from the intake, but you'll be fighting the hot air's desire to go up against the cold air the fan will be pulling in through cracks in the bottom and the chamber. I don't know, since the venting in your system isn't really about fighting hot air temps from lighting it might not be the end of the world. I have two 50cfm fans mounted in mine, and you can feel a very slight in draft at the bottom intake despite the fact the thing is no were near airtight. You can certainly also feel the air going in through the door cracks too though.

 

[Aerandir]

Anyone else out there have some creative ideas for venting? I want to make sure I exhaust all ideas before constructing anything.

For the moment my 100cfm fan is blowing out my window so I can smoke in my room without my roomates caring lol

Edit: Fucken baked... didn't notice the terrible terrible pun. Fuck it's bad. lol

 

[Demosthenese]

wow. i have the planer but now u can't have it. u must pay for that pun

 

[Aerandir]

Is it prime time? I dunno... bump

 

[Aerandir]

Alright so I've decided to go with the setup I showed in that paint drawing because I found the SICKEST fan at work to use overtop of the hole between the chambers. It's a (large) computer fan with a cover on one side with a port that I will put facing down to pull air up through the right chamber and blow it over to the left chamber. It should also help with light blocking AND I can even put a filter over the port if I want to further block light and keep smell down.

I got the planer so I will be fixing the shelves asap too.

Unfortunately I have almost no free time until after the 21st. I'll add some pics once I get the shelves fixed cuz I should be able to do that some time this week.

 

[whitenugz]

Alright so I've decided to go with the setup I showed in that paint drawing because I found the SICKEST fan at work to use overtop of the hole between the chambers. It's a (large) computer fan with a cover on one side with a port that I will put facing down to pull air up through the right chamber and blow it over to the left chamber. It should also help with light blocking AND I can even put a filter over the port if I want to further block light and keep smell down.

I got the planer so I will be fixing the shelves asap too.

Unfortunately I have almost no free time until after the 21st. I'll add some pics once I get the shelves fixed cuz I should be able to do that some time this week.

I do not believe yoru coffee carbon scrubber will do the job. How many plants do you hope to put into this? My 200 cfm carbon scrubber had a hard time with my 4 ladies that were 3-5 feet. I had to add extra smell good products around the set up.

 

[Aerandir]

I do not believe yoru coffee carbon scrubber will do the job. How many plants do you hope to put into this? My 200 cfm carbon scrubber had a hard time with my 4 ladies that were 3-5 feet. I had to add extra smell good products around the set up.

It's pretty small, I was going to start with 2 and see how that goes...

The good thing about this cab is that if I do it the way I'm planning, it's actually venting into a lower chamber so if smell becomes a problem I can close off that section and add more filtering of some kind. Thanks for the heads up!

Edit: Also, because of the way I'm doing it, I'm hoping to make the doors as airtight as possible with overlapping reflectix and weatherstripping if I need it.

 

[Demosthenese]

shouldn't be a problem man, it should be mentioned that you smoke in that room and thus the faint, even occasional strong odour of pot wont really matter. You'll only have what, 4 plants a t a time in their? 6? in terms of who it stealthed from wont you get owned by the visual more then the smell lol? either way its really easy to add carbon filters, the problem is that they reduce your fans output signifiganty, so a 50 or 100 cfm fan is reduced by like half at least, although thats the stoned estimate. It's alot; my cool tube was hating being vented through carbon filter. it runs the whole cab like 5 degrees C hotter at least. Im probably going to end up with a big tupperware on top of my cupboard, venting into that and then filtering through large carbon filter covered holes in the top of the tupperware. I think the next grow in there will smell substantially more then the ones i have now, because there's about 30 plants in that cabinet (well clones and young plants and flowering plants) and it smells, but much less then even hitting a pipe or something, let alone hitting a joint. Faint vegetable smell and faint pot odor, certainly more concentrated if you close the door and windows in that room for a while. If you can just get the vented air out of your room the smell wont even matter.

I think that the main thing with your vent is to move the air arround. You're doing cfl, which will certainly raise temps a little bit, but i doubt that the air temps wll be too high to grow in, even without ventilation.

 

[Aerandir]

Alright so I've finally had some time to work on this again. I got the fan in place, and an outlet to power the lights and whatever else I might need.

I still need to get some silicone to seal the fan box so it's airtight.

Next steps are the two extra fans and wiring for that (I have an old adapter that will be perfect for the computer fans.) and the carbon filter. Then I need some kind of raising/lowering system for the lights (Either chain, or if I'm feeling cheap rope) and the rest of the reflectix. Then at least one side will be totally done and I could start germinating while I finish the other side.

Am I forgetting anything construction wise? I have a timer for the lights.

Anyway. Pics coming asap.

 

[Demosthenese]

sounds good dude. you won't need to germinate though, unless u'r planning on ordering seeds; i can give you rooted clones that will shave like 4 months off of your startup time. You can let some of them grow into mothers while you flower the rest.

 

[Aerandir]

Heh, sick, forgot that.

The one thing I think I forgot was screen or rope or something for ScrOG.