Diy grow box (reflective foam board)

[TigerSquad]

This is the box after I got it in the attic . the inside dimentions are 49"x23"x33. I used a mixture of reflective roofing board. And styro board. Both seen to be doing very well.

I have the box tied into the a.c. duct that was very close by (blocked off the vent below and redirected airflow with styro board) I then constructed a double male ended box the ent into holes cut in the duct and the box.
To have all time access to the wires. So I used hinges I found in somebody's trash and screwed it into the board. However I ran into a proble with the position of the hindg and top so I cut a small line and inserted the hinge into the styro-board that have it far more strength then just screwed the hinge onto the end of the board.
I inset all the light fixtures into a piece of roofing board 3/4" thick (also used roofing board for the floor board) vs styro-board 3/8"thickness
I used a bus terminal to attach all fixtures to main power in (junction box I wired a three-way-splitter into ) I found the terminal in a broken toy . power to 1/2 of bus then I used 12ga. Barebright to piggyback power to other 1/2 of bus terminal.View attachment 3751824 fixtures all labeled and chords are all one color for + and - currents. Ledgend is written out on board for easy refrence for wire trace. (power chord is cut at both ends and I spliced a GFI circuit interrupted for fire safty ( after all its co bed together )
Upper light panel is floating above plants and is attached by Lilly system so light box can be lower or raised for plant needs

This is a fan I pulled out of an above range microwave. (i need to wire a switch on it so I can make it run in reverse to cent out cabanit.
I was growing in my tool closet off of a work bench I constructed using only pallets and it's nails (very sturdy).
Worried about the complex workers and my landlord I moved into the attic with a box I built with materials I found or had around my apartment. I am always broke ( I smoke too much) so I had no cash to put into this project. I ran out of room for pictures so I will post the inside pics in a reply to this

 

[TigerSquad]

Here are the rest of the pictures of the inside of the box. I used heavy concrete nail anchors to use for hinges for The doors to swing. I pulled The nail out and used long screws I pulled out of a computer fan mount. I drilled holes for The anchor to sit and put washers on The machine screw to space The gap and now there are no see inset swing hindge system in it The a.c. hook-up, the bottom side of the clf box there is a floresent fixture in the middle but the buld is warm in color so I am using 10x1650 lumen cfls in a cool/daylight bulbs. I hid the wire from the light fixture with a hollow wire tube I pulled off of a lamp and fixed it to the fixture and through the bottom of the light box. (purely cosmetic I thought it looked cool lol) the tube in the bottom of the floor on the backside of the box is a tube I pulled off of a lawnmower bag to run from the fart fan in the bathrooms to the box . just under it are two boxes that house fart fans. The box sits between the two rest rooms. And so there is plenty of cool air flowing.that's very important because my attic is mofugin hooort. I temper it up there at 105*f. And the cabnit is a cool 75 ish even with all the cfls running I want more lights ( Y splitters). * on a side note I found out through testing designs as I did this with trial and error (lots of drawings and plans). But a picture frame style joint worked best. 45 degree cuts number from long point to long point . this was very strong and square as it could be. So if this helps anyone I'll be happy because it was fun building it and I proud of it. But haters gonna hate as always

 

[TigerSquad]

*Meterials:
3/8" styro-board. (Found)
3/4" roofing foam-board (Found)
1X.5 fering wood strips (Found)
1,1/2"wood or drywall scrw (House)
1" wood or drywall scrw (House)
1.5" flat headed roofing scrw (House)
2"×3/16" machine scrws (House)
3/16" nuts [Fine-Thread] (Found)
3/16" [inner-diameter] washers (House)
2"×3/16 bolt w/wing-but (House)
Small woodscrw [Coarse-Thread] (House)
Cement nail anchor [anchor only] (House)
Small Openswing hinge (Bought)
L-brackets [Large] (House)
L-brackets [Small] (House)
Conduent house mounts (Found)
3/4" All-thread [hollow] (Found-fans)
3/4" [inner-diameter] washer (Found-fans)
3/4" locknut [inner-diameter] (Found-fans)
5" Metal bracket [pre-drilled] (House)
Aluminum duct tape (House)
5 port terminal bus (Found- broken toy)
10 light socket mounts w/ wires (Found)
2' floresent light fixture
5'rubber roofing joint membrane (Found)
20' detention chord
Gfi [Ground fault interrupter] power socket male and (House)
1.5"plastic caster pullys (Found)
.5" all metal pully (House)
Heavy metal swivels (House)
3' of parachord (House)
Microwave fan [reverse switch needed]
10×1650 lums Cfl [cool/daylight] (bought)
2' flourcent tube bulb [proper color temp needed]

*Tools
3-4 Dank & Stank joints (House)
Chop Saw [fine cut bladw] (Found & fixed)
2 speed Drill w/ clutch (Barrowed)
Utility Knife or box cutter (House)
#1 Philips bit driver (House)
#2 Philips bit driver (House)
#3 Philips bit driver (House)
#1Regular or flat bit driver (House)
Wire strippers (Bought)
Linesmen pliers (House)
Right[Flush-cut] Sykes (House)
2 - 3 + Dank and Stank splifs (House)
16oz hammer (House)
20oz hammer (House)
6"Speed square (House)
12" right angle framing square (House)
Pointed Awl.
60G. sand paper (House)
80G. sand paper (House)
25' tape measure [in.& ft.] (House)
1-2 + fattys (House)
*nap time*
This project was a lot of fun and I learned a lot just by playing with the disgin of it and I can answer a lot of questions for people on a tight budget and wanna grow (like myself) so please leave comments so I can get some fees back. Thanks mates.

 

[Ace Yonder]

Not too shabby sir. Just a bit of advice (Which you may already be aware of); from the looks of it, the plant in the white bucket is gonna run out of room as soon as you switch to flower, I would start trying to train it down before the stem is too thick to bend. Also, keep an eye on temps, that many CFLs in a box that size with insulated walls is gonna get pretty toasty even with good circulation (Unless it is like, freezing in that attic, I dunno what the weather is like where you live). All in all, not too bad, I love pretty much all things DIY and I have a soft spot for CFL because that's how I did my first grow. Good luck!

 

[TigerSquad]

Not too shabby sir. Just a bit of advice (Which you may already be aware of); from the looks of it, the plant in the white bucket is gonna run out of room as soon as you switch to flower, I would start trying to train it down before the stem is too thick to bend. Also, keep an eye on temps, that many CFLs in a box that size with insulated walls is gonna get pretty toasty even with good circulation (Unless it is like, freezing in that attic, I dunno what the weather is like where you live). All in all, not too bad, I love pretty much all things DIY and I have a soft spot for CFL because that's how I did my first grow. Good luck!

Hey I appreciate it. It always cool to hear from another diyer. It's awesome to be able to build shit out of nothing. Yeah I tapped into the a.c. duct next to it and it's between 74 and 77°f
You have exp with cfl how many and what light temp and lumn did you use. I have been reading online but when i switch to flower dose the color temp have to go warmer

 

[Ace Yonder]

Hey I appreciate it. It always cool to hear from another diyer. It's awesome to be able to build shit out of nothing. Yeah I tapped into the a.c. duct next to it and it's between 74 and 77°f
You have exp with cfl how many and what light temp and lumn did you use. I have been reading online but when i switch to flower dose the color temp have to go warmer

Just relying on my shitty memory, I believe I used around 300 actual watts of CFL, mostly 2700K. I believe I kept one 85w 6500K and one 65w 5000K for extra spectrum and some UV-B (which 6500K emit and 2700K really don't), one small reptisun UV-B 10.0 CFL, and the rest 2700K. Luckily all CFL's are broad spectrum, so you can get away with pretty much any color temp. I have never used them, but the combo temp CFLs that are listed as like 12000K (like the SunGod Komee lotus ones) always looked interesting to me. People will disagree but I feel that with CFL, it basically breaks down that 2700K will give you denser buds (but not dense like HID) while 6500K/UV-B will get them frostier. Also, it's important to remember with CFLs that the smaller the bulb the closer you have to get it to the plant, as the size of the bulb is indicative of the distance its light will penetrate. It might be worth getting a little luxometer so you can see what lux is actually hitting the plants at the level of the canopy, you can snag them for pretty cheap on amazon or ebay and it really helps when positioning lights and testing different setups.

If you feel like reading through it, my whole first grow from start to finish as well as all the specs for the lights etc (I think). can be found in this thread. But remember, it was my first time so I didn't know very much, even though I thought that I did because of the extensive research I had done hahaha
https://www.rollitup.org/t/first-time-grow-advice-feedback-greatly-appreciated.766090/

 

[Lucky Luke]

Clean up all the Styrofoam and waste bits really well. You dont want even a tiny bit in the buds.

My 130w CFL micro grow if your interested.
https://www.rollitup.org/t/luckys-fridge.916437/#post-12819228

 

[Ace Yonder]

Clean up all the Styrofoam and waste bits really well. You dont want even a tiny bit in the buds.

My 130w CFL micro grow if your interested.
https://www.rollitup.org/t/luckys-fridge.916437/#post-12819228

Yeah, totally this. The last think you want is to be smoking little tufts of fiberglass insulation.

 

[TigerSquad]

Yeah, totally this. The last think you want is to be smoking little tufts of fiberglass insulation.

I'll take a look thanks

 

[TigerSquad]

Just relying on my shitty memory, I believe I used around 300 actual watts of CFL, mostly 2700K. I believe I kept one 85w 6500K and one 65w 5000K for extra spectrum and some UV-B (which 6500K emit and 2700K really don't), one small reptisun UV-B 10.0 CFL, and the rest 2700K. Luckily all CFL's are broad spectrum, so you can get away with pretty much any color temp. I have never used them, but the combo temp CFLs that are listed as like 12000K (like the SunGod Komee lotus ones) always looked interesting to me. People will disagree but I feel that with CFL, it basically breaks down that 2700K will give you denser buds (but not dense like HID) while 6500K/UV-B will get them frostier. Also, it's important to remember with CFLs that the smaller the bulb the closer you have to get it to the plant, as the size of the bulb is indicative of the distance its light will penetrate. It might be worth getting a little luxometer so you can see what lux is actually hittine plants at the level of the canopy, you can snag them for pretty cheap on amazon or ebay and it really helps when positioning lights and testing different setups.

If you feel like reading through it, my whole first grow from start to finish as well as all the specs for the lights etc (I think). can be found in this thread. But remember, it was my first time so I didn't know very much, even though I thought that I did because of the extensive research I had done hahaha
https://www.rollitup.org/t/first-time-grow-advice-feedback-greatly-appreciated.766090/

Yeah any help is a def so like I'm having a problem they are all normal coil size expect I the front were my my lady d (desil) lol clever.... But I'm gettin what look like burns on the younger two. Now it could be the fert I put in the soil but it's only 555 and the liquid I'm using is even less all organic and super thrive but I just put in the soil fert. Happy frog soil and feet fox farm big bloom consnitrate but it safe to use the whole time very low # but I'm still have a prob before I put the soil feed in. I used just water afer and plucket the bad leaves off the new ones look burned but didn't think cfls would do that their like 20" away or so. Let me know what you think I'll post pics later

 

[mauricem00]

Hey I appreciate it. It always cool to hear from another diyer. It's awesome to be able to build shit out of nothing. Yeah I tapped into the a.c. duct next to it and it's between 74 and 77°f
You have exp with cfl how many and what light temp and lumn did you use. I have been reading online but when i switch to flower dose the color temp have to go warmer

always enjoy seeing simple inexpensive DIY projects. I am surprised that foam board was strong enough to hold light sockets. I started with CFLs and now build my own T5HO and PL-L55 grow lights. I use aluminum foil and double sided foam tape to hold it to the walls of my closet. I am a low budget PU MMJ grower and always love finding inexpensive ways of doing things.thanks for a great post

 

[mauricem00]

Just relying on my shitty memory, I believe I used around 300 actual watts of CFL, mostly 2700K. I believe I kept one 85w 6500K and one 65w 5000K for extra spectrum and some UV-B (which 6500K emit and 2700K really don't), one small reptisun UV-B 10.0 CFL, and the rest 2700K. Luckily all CFL's are broad spectrum, so you can get away with pretty much any color temp. I have never used them, but the combo temp CFLs that are listed as like 12000K (like the SunGod Komee lotus ones) always looked interesting to me. People will disagree but I feel that with CFL, it basically breaks down that 2700K will give you denser buds (but not dense like HID) while 6500K/UV-B will get them frostier. Also, it's important to remember with CFLs that the smaller the bulb the closer you have to get it to the plant, as the size of the bulb is indicative of the distance its light will penetrate. It might be worth getting a little luxometer so you can see what lux is actually hitting the plants at the level of the canopy, you can snag them for pretty cheap on amazon or ebay and it really helps when positioning lights and testing different setups.

If you feel like reading through it, my whole first grow from start to finish as well as all the specs for the lights etc (I think). can be found in this thread. But remember, it was my first time so I didn't know very much, even though I thought that I did because of the extensive research I had done hahaha
https://www.rollitup.org/t/first-time-grow-advice-feedback-greatly-appreciated.766090/

not just CFLs all florescent use a tri phosphor blend and simple adjust the ratio of blue green and red to control the color temperature P@A bulbs use a red phosphor with a peak around 650nm but still produce full spectrum light form 400-700nm.the great thing about florescent is that you can adjust your spectrum just by changing bulbs adding bright red (630nm) strip light to a 6500k fixture for flowering is another way to save money. with the broad spectrum of violet and blue light (400-500nm) that florescents produce you only need to increase phytochrome conversion to enhance flowering and bright red led strip lights are a cheap way to do that.fluorescent may not give you the dense buds that HPS will but many people including myself think that they produce a better tasting product and a small cfl reptile bulb during the last two weeks of flowering helps make them really sticky (enhanced THC production)

 

[TigerSquad]

not just CFLs all florescent use a tri phosphor blend and simple adjust the ratio of blue green and red to control the color temperature P@A bulbs use a red phosphor with a peak around 650nm but still produce full spectrum light form 400-700nm.the great thing about florescent is that you can adjust your spectrum just by changing bulbs adding bright red (630nm) strip light to a 6500k fixture for flowering is another way to save money. with the broad spectrum of violet and blue light (400-500nm) that florescents produce you only need to increase phytochrome conversion to enhance flowering and bright red led strip lights are a cheap way to do that.fluorescent may not give you the dense buds that HPS will but many people including myself think that they produce a better tasting product and a small cfl reptile bulb during the last two weeks of flowering helps make them really sticky (enhanced THC production)

Is a store bought grow light close to a reptile uvb I have 1 at 75watts and it just gets too damn hott

 

[TigerSquad]

always enjoy seeing simple inexpensive DIY projects. I am surprised that foam board was strong enough to hold light sockets. I started with CFLs and now build my own T5HO and PL-L55 grow lights. I use aluminum foil and double sided foam tape to hold it to the walls of my closet. I am a low budget PU MMJ grower and always love finding inexpensive ways of doing things.thanks for a great post

Yeah the walls and the doors are crammed with 1x.5 (fering strips, very very light). And the floor and lbox that houses the bulbs is commercial roofing board. 3/4" and isn't dry to like the walls it's polyhethiline and someother stuff with a very good R* rating

 

[TigerSquad]

Yeah, totally this. The last think you want is to be smoking little tufts of fiberglass insulation.

It's an on going battle every time I open the doors it stirs up a bunch of little micro pieces. I'm going to lay plywood down around it. at least the base in all directions is setting on something solid. I designed it to fit directly on the layout of the trust's so it dosn't rock. actually its nice and level and fits in perfectly. but the loos stuff needs to get covered asap

 

[TigerSquad]

Not too shabby sir. Just a bit of advice (Which you may already be aware of); from the looks of it, the plant in the white bucket is gonna run out of room as soon as you switch to flower, I would start trying to train it down before the stem is too thick to bend. Also, keep an eye on temps, that many CFLs in a box that size with insulated walls is gonna get pretty toasty even with good circulation (Unless it is like, freezing in that attic, I dunno what the weather is like where you live). All in all, not too bad, I love pretty much all things DIY and I have a soft spot for CFL because that's how I did my first grow. Good luck!

Ok is that what "LST" is. I recently had a convo with a member about pruning and he told me LST is the way to go. I want to take some. Twine and gently tie it to the stem and tie it to something to start to slowly bending it. Good idea or no

 

[Ace Yonder]

Ok is that what "LST" is. I recently had a convo with a member about pruning and he told me LST is the way to go. I want to take some. Twine and gently tie it to the stem and tie it to something to start to slowly bending it. Good idea or no

I would say yeah, and you don't even have to be all that gentle, you just don't want the stem to really snap.(Although there are styles of training where you pinch/break the stem to get it to slump without tying it down and they recover pretty fast). But yeah, just tie it down so that the top of the plant isn't the highest part of the plant, it will redirect growth hormones into the branches that are now the tallest. If it (or any part) grows high just tie it down again. As far as what to tie it to, I would just punch holes along the rim of the bucket and tie it to that. The benefit is that as it keeps popping back up you can tie it in a spiral around the outside rim of the bucket and really make the most of the space. I'll see if I can dig up some pics I have of the process and the result.

 

[Ace Yonder]

Yeah any help is a def so like I'm having a problem they are all normal coil size expect I the front were my my lady d (desil) lol clever.... But I'm gettin what look like burns on the younger two. Now it could be the fert I put in the soil but it's only 555 and the liquid I'm using is even less all organic and super thrive but I just put in the soil fert. Happy frog soil and feet fox farm big bloom consnitrate but it safe to use the whole time very low # but I'm still have a prob before I put the soil feed in. I used just water afer and plucket the bad leaves off the new ones look burned but didn't think cfls would do that their like 20" away or so. Let me know what you think I'll post pics later

My first instinct is that it is definitely the fertilizer, those plants are young enough they should be totally fine with just the ferts that are naturally in the happy frog soil, no need to add more, and especially no need to add big bloom yet. You usually don't need to start adding fertilizer until at least 1-2 months in, at least in my experience (and more like 3 months if you're using something like Ocean Forest or Vermifire), and if you are fertilizing the soil prior to planting only do it in the bottom 1/3rd of the container so the plant has at least a little bit of time before the roots reach it. There is literally zero chance that it is burning from the lights, CFLs will only burn your leaves if they are physically touching the coils, even like 2 inches of distance is enough to prevent it (And really you want the lights about as close as you can get without touching the plants, the closer the better).

 

[mauricem00]

Is a store bought grow light close to a reptile uvb I have 1 at 75watts and it just gets too damn hott

no many of those store bought grow lights are just regular incandescent lights with a film on the glass to change the color. a reptile light looks like a CFL but uses a phosphor that produces uv light and runs as cool as other cfls. for a space that small a 9-13 watt bulb would be more than enough. just use dark classes when you working in there. UV will burn your eyes

 

[Ace Yonder]

no many of those store bought grow lights are just regular incandescent lights with a film on the glass to change the color. a reptile light looks like a CFL but uses a phosphor that produces uv light and runs as cool as other cfls. for a space that small a 9-13 watt bulb would be more than enough. just use dark classes when you working in there. UV will burn your eyes

Yup. If memory serves, this is the one I used