I am having trouble designing my 400w cab

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silentlemon

Active Member
Hey all! im new around these parts, but ive been power reading every bit of information I can soak up, and now it's my turn to try.

Im going to try my hand at at growing very plainly, with soil, in a home depot/ikea style DIY wardrobe.

So far i have a bunch of items purchased for the grow, 400watt digital ballast, generic 6" inline fan(probably insufficient enough for cooling), ducting, and random things.

onto the more pressing issues; Im definately having difficulty designing the inside of the wardrobe. It is 72" tall, 20 inches deep and 48 inches wide. im going to velcro/weatherstrip a sheet of plywood to the back and call it my door, while i caulk and foam the hinged doors shut(front as it is) then. Then in order to open, it must be turned around and a leprechaun challenged for the right to access..:dunce: not that i have many to hide this from, but peace of mind is a nicety.

I bought a batwing reflector, but when positioned correctly, wouldnt give enough room to position a homemade cooltube over the bulb, AND direct ducting 2x right angles, as the air will be coming in from the side of the cabinet, probably 2 or 3 feet to the bulb. ideas? get different reflector? etc

how many chambers should i create inside the wardrobe? perhaps start with one large, vaccuous area, grow some plants and test the waters before i build it into a perpetual machine? personally, im for building it right the first time, and some suggestions on sizing/positioning(as well for soilmix and nuts to get stored away) ie what would you do with this allotted space?

cant think of any other pressing questions in my current stupor.:weed:

attached are some pics to seeeeeeeeeeeeee
 

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covertgrow

Well-Known Member
id go with the one grow area for now as a practice run, remember, more than 1 grow area= more lights
good luck,
covertgrow
 
Bizzler

Bizzler

Well-Known Member
I bought the same cabinet.
I added 2 pc fans for intake outake.

I suggest and am in the process of doing.

Make Bottom hole passive intake. and vent one end of light through fan out the top hole.

When it smells.. get a small jar of Ona Gel...

:weed: Happy growing...And Don't Worry. 400W is Plenty of light for that cabinet....
Look at my signature and see....
 

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Young Macdonald

Young Macdonald

Well-Known Member
Hey Bizzler, 2 pc fans might not be enough it depends on the cfm of the fans hes using. what is the cfm on the inline fan your using for the cooltube. I would recomend AT LEAST 125 cfm for about 10 feet of ducting.. Home depot has some 6" and 4" ducting hangers that are real strong and should help hold your tubes n fans up.

Have you considered building a small shelf towards the top of the cab for the ballast fans and tubing? Or you could cut a few holes in the top and run the tubes out..whatever you feel comfortable with..

If you are short on cash and want a cheap carbon scrubber to throw on a 4 " duct fan HERES a great DIY carbon filter link. I did it myself and it was less than 15 bucks all from wal mart! They also have really cheap 5" clip on fans that work excellent in small spaces for moving the air around.

You could easily throw in a mother chamber in the side in no time or like i said build a shelf about 14 inches from the roof (if you have it to spare). Just a few thoughs Goodluck and get to work!!:joint: -Young
 
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silentlemon

Active Member
thanks for the AWESOME replies peeps!

@boneman - thanks:D

@covertgrow - yeah i think im going to follow in bizzler's steps

@bizzler - yeah, i think i will grab a factory built cooltube square reflector like yours, and take my batwing back, just no way it will work with the depth i am working with. funny you should mention it, ive picked up the gallon of ona gel and am going to make a scrubber from an old mesh filter air scrubber, ona is better than a stock 4x4" activated carbon/char screen on it, for sure.

@young macdonald - you bring up a few good points. i have a home depot inline 6 " fan as it is, it states 250 cfms but the guy at the ponics store said hed say half that as there is no industry standard for CFMs at the moment(hearsay?) but i tend to believe him as when he stepped up and showed me a 200$ 6" inline, it blew me away...almost.

im quite handy, so ill be putting shelves in but need to be low enough from the ceiling to provide room for hanging the light, and putting that massive 3' AC filter hanging from the ceiling with 3/4" steel strapping.

question: what should be the ideal growing size for the mother chamber? i saw a thread on IC where a guy showed the need for a 15" cavity at the bottom, 20" middle for growing, and 15" at the top for ducting/what have you. Is 20" really enough? i already have so much height, why not grow some massive plants in that huge space? or am i growing down the wrong path? hehe..
bizzler? anyone?
 

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Young Macdonald

Young Macdonald

Well-Known Member
200$ it must be a pretty good fan. www.htgsupply.com has some good ones for pretty cheap. their 6" pushes 424 cfm and is only 119.99! A great deal. You could also buy a 6" to 4" duct reducer and even go with their 4" 40 watt inline fan which pushes 170 cfm and is 99.99!!Shop around a bit, home depot has a lot of good supplies and such but i have found a lot of stuff for cheaper online just watchout on the shipping..

As for the grow chamber, I would leave that whole cab for the grow chamber but put in a shelf at the top. Your 400 watt is still goinig to need to be 1-2 feet away. Your space for the plants should atleast be 2-3 ft. depends on what you want to grow and how you want to grow it really. Are you getting mostly indica strains?

If your going to leave that whole chamber for flowering you could easily build your own veg and mom chamber out of rubbermaids or wood. You could buy 6-10 24 watt cfl's and connectors for under 25 bucks and that would suffice. Are you keeping moms or cloning off of your grow plants? -young
 
Bizzler

Bizzler

Well-Known Member
silentlemon said:
thanks for the AWESOME replies peeps!

@bizzler - yeah, i think i will grab a factory built cooltube square reflector like yours, and take my batwing back, just no way it will work with the depth i am working with. funny you should mention it, ive picked up the gallon of ona gel and am going to make a scrubber from an old mesh filter air scrubber, ona is better than a stock 4x4" activated carbon/char screen on it, for sure.

question: what should be the ideal growing size for the mother chamber? i saw a thread on IC where a guy showed the need for a 15" cavity at the bottom, 20" middle for growing, and 15" at the top for ducting/what have you. Is 20" really enough? i already have so much height, why not grow some massive plants in that huge space? or am i growing down the wrong path? hehe..
bizzler? anyone?
Click to expand...
Your welcome!!!

check out this guys link. Smaller Cabinets
https://www.rollitup.org/grow-room-design-setup/31151-check-out-home-depot-growcab.html

You'll be fine any way you design the space in your grow box. I've been flowering 21-24 plants in 6" Containers when they are 8" tall. I ran a SOG style out of mine. If you use no shelf you could do 2-3 3 gallon Pots and just grow 2-3 big plants..What ever you prefer.
I Now will use it as my Veg/Mother chamber.
Your biggest problem like I said will be heat....I think a home depot 250cfm 6" inline fan should work decent with a cool tube or Air cooled hood. They are real quiet and cheap...Those 424cfm inline fans are way too loud for that cabinet if you are trying to be super stealthy.

So i suggest: have a passive intake hole near the bottom of the Cabinet. Make 1 6" exhaust. Hook up the fan as to draw the air through the light and out the exhaust hole..

Ohh, and I bought the small Ona Block for$8.95, and put it in the cabinet when it started to smell. Worked Great!!!!!!bongsmilie
 
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silentlemon

Active Member
i got around to doing some work on teh cabinet over the weekend folks!

here are the updates:

ive put in the lower shelf,
took back my batwing and bought a 24" cooltube with reflector - white
space blanket for mid wrap around
bought sump pump for automated water overflow ejection, it will pump from a resevoir after i overfill the plants.
glued skids on the bottom for easier whole cabinet moving..
wired up the inline fan
screwed the top brace the light will hang from(partical board blows)
bought some pulleys to hang the cooltube, it will be fully height-adjustable.
glued the (faux) doors shut giving the illusion of a wardrobe with the only access being at the back of the 'drobe
lastly cut/positioned glued gasket material(3/16th" x1/4" weatherstripping) on the "front" door, the rear panel is latched on, and will be removed for access.
attached handles to the handy "rear" access door. basic OSB
next up is ducting and wiring!
 

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Young Macdonald

Young Macdonald

Well-Known Member
silentlemon said:
i got around to doing some work on teh cabinet over the weekend folks!

here are the updates:

ive put in the lower shelf,
took back my batwing and bought a 24" cooltube with reflector - white
space blanket for mid wrap around
bought sump pump for automated water overflow ejection, it will pump from a resevoir after i overfill the plants.
glued skids on the bottom for easier whole cabinet moving..
wired up the inline fan
screwed the top brace the light will hang from(partical board blows)
bought some pulleys to hang the cooltube, it will be fully height-adjustable.
glued the (faux) doors shut giving the illusion of a wardrobe with the only access being at the back of the 'drobe
lastly cut/positioned glued gasket material(3/16th" x1/4" weatherstripping) on the "front" door, the rear panel is latched on, and will be removed for access.
attached handles to the handy "rear" access door. basic OSB
next up is ducting and wiring!
Click to expand...
Good choice going with the cool tube..You will find that the extra 50 dollars or so is well worth it. Everything else looks like its coming along, now all you need is some green to filll that cabinet my friend!
 
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