Stealth Cabinet., Ikea's finest. Options

[bananabrain]

So I have a dilemma, I can't setup a decent grow with my HPS as I'm selling my house, having viewings and potentially a survey etc. But what I can do is build a stealth cabinet. In the future this will just be used for vegging clones/mothers etc, but for now I am going to do a full grow in it also.

Obviously with strangers coming in and out of my house this has to fit the following criteria:

- silent
- light proof
- smell free
- innoccuous
- easily stripped/removed if neccessary.

I also want it to be:

- well made, no bodges
- safe and properly wired etc
- well vented & well lit

I really hope I can achieve all this

As you can see by the design that follows this has been heavily influenced (copied?) by established1976's cabinet with a few mods of my own.

It is based on an 'Effektiv' ikea cabinet, brilliantly the white ones are reduced to £48 as they are end of line. White may look cheap in your house but it saves fucking about with mylar...

Anyway this is what it looks like in the catalogue, dimensions are 85cm W x 43cm D x 94cm H:



This post has been edited by bananabrain: Mar 29 2008, 12:45 AM

[bananabrain]

The overall plan is:

2 x 125W envirolites, probably with some extra 20W compact fluoros as well.

4" RVK Fan in the loft extracting air from the cabinet and blowing it through a 6" Odorsok which I had already.
(And yes I know about how you should suck through a c/f but I'd rather fill my tiny growspace up with plants than filters.)

12 cm PC fan to help with air intake, plus another one to move air around in the cabinet.

All electrics to be housed in the bottom of the cabinet, safe from water leaks yet accessible.

So to begin.

First I ordered a couple of 12cm PC fans. These are ultra low noise ones by a company called Noctua. They don't move a huge amount of air but they're practically silent.


Then I got started on the base, fitting it together nothing like the ikea instructions

I chopped up one of the shelves (which won't be needed) to section this off into two sections - the front to house plugs and timers etc and the back part to handle the air intake. As you can see in the pic below I made some dodgy baffle bits, these probably aren't essential given where I will position the cabinet but I figured it wouldn't hurt.

Incidentally this is upside down. Later in the project I will seal this up with a bit of plywood or the intake fan won't work properly and there'd be light leaks etc.



Flipped over to its correct orientation you can see how it will be in practice. You can notice two things here. Firstly, how I managed to bleed on it and secondly how I fucked up the routering on the right side I think that my vents may be too small, so when the cab is finished I will see how it's working and enlarge if neccesary.

[drumski]

hmm just had a little look into the dimensions of the Effektiv;

Width: 85 cm
Depth: 43 cm
Height: 94 cm

Envirolite for the win with the height restrictions, i'd even go as far as advising you to look towards lowryders. I've heard good and bad about LR, but anything is a success if it stops you having to buy off dealers, right? There's a few threads regarding training MJ plants with bonsai techniques if you take a look around, this could of be of help to you if you're willing to put in the effort ofcourse.

I think that you are going to have to get your thinking cap on regarding getting rid of the smell with such a small space, maybe put the RVK outside of the cabinet itself (assuming you're going for the RVK+Carbon Filter option) hidden inside a prop or something.

Will the cabinet be near ventilation?

[bananabrain]

Next I assembled the top section and attached it to the base. The vertical bit I only fixed at the bottom, so I can rotate it down as in the pic to gain access to the plugs n stuff. When it's folded up it looks normal and there is no light leaking out because I'd sectioned off the front section.



Next I pretty much followed established1976's cabinet in the way I've made it light tight (hopefully). I used P section draft excluder up the vertical edges and also on strips of wood along the bottom and top of the cabinet.



Then a bit of wood down the middle of one door with a bolt at the top and bottom. On the other door I put some double roller catches, again at the top and bottom.



Finally I stuck some knobs on and shut the doors. Looks like it should be light proof but I will have to test it. I also need to fit an inconspicuous lock to prevent unauthorised access...

[bananabrain]

hmm just had a little look into the dimensions of the Effektiv;

Width: 85 cm
Depth: 43 cm
Height: 94 cm

Envirolite for the win with the height restrictions, i'd even go as far as advising you to look towards lowryders. I've heard good and bad about LR, but anything is a success if it stops you having to buy off dealers, right? There's a few threads regarding training MJ plants with bonsai techniques if you take a look around, this could of be of help to you if you're willing to put in the effort ofcourse.

I think that you are going to have to get your thinking cap on regarding getting rid of the smell with such a small space, maybe put the RVK outside of the cabinet itself (assuming you're going for the RVK+Carbon Filter option) hidden inside a prop or something.

Will the cabinet be near ventilation?

Yeah, as I'm gonna flower in it this time I will be growing lowryder 2s, I've had lowryder before and it was OK. Annyway I don't really like killer strong weed anymore and prefer something more mellow.

As for the extraction and smell and what not, read on for my next installment

[bananabrain]

Next up I got my 4" RVK fan and stuffed in into a plastic box full of old pillow stuffing. To the intake and output I attached a couple of metres of acoustic ducting and then to the endof the output I attached a 6" carbon Odorsok.



Then I clambered up into my horribly filthy loft and hung it from bungies while trying to avoid inhaling fibreglass and asbestos dust



Browsing through the screwfix catalogue I discovered this thin ducting, 225m x 25mm. I figure this is much less conspicuous than the round stuff as it looks kindof like electrical trunking.

So at the top, in the loft it connects to the acoustic ducting/RVK like so:



Then with the boards back up it extends through the ceiling into my garage like this:



It does look much more obvious than I was expecting, partly as it's so clean and white... however I have decided to put some some much needed shelves in front/over it to hide it completely. I turned the fan on and it barely makes a sound, result. With it connected to the box it should be silent.

Should sort out the lighting in the next day or so, pending some rearrangement in my garage I hope to get it all connected up and working as soon as...

[Blabblabberbab]

Top job mate - get something better than lowriders in there

Bang on little box with all principles sound (you may need 2 x fans to move air in the box and 2 x intakes, as I know how wimpy silent pc fans are - but your 4" RVK might pull enough air for it not to be a problem....)

B

This post has been edited by Blabblabberbab: Mar 29 2008, 10:27 AM

[estpaul]

WOW, id give you a pat on the back if i could, top job, seriously, and ill have to copy the idea of the box with the extractor fan inside, just to keep things silent, what else can you use other than pillow stuffing?

cheers for the idea mate, good luck with the grow

EP

[Hashishin]

You may have to see how it goes with the odorsok , it might be Ok. You will just have to see if it gets rid of the smell well enough as flowering cannabis plants do stink somewhat.

H.T.

[established1976]

Looking good

Id be tempted to make a scrog screen that will help a bit, I use mine purely as a veg cab so limited headroom really isnt an issue for me.

This post has been edited by established1976: Mar 29 2008, 04:42 PM

[bananabrain]

Thanks for the comments people;

- yes I might use another PC fan in the bottom, I'm hoping the RVK will pull enough though - also as it's in an unheated garage with a stone floor I'm hoping this will help keep it cool, even in the summer.

- other than pillow stuffing in the fan box you could ue anything I guess, cotton wool, bubble wrap, polystyrene beads maybe, probably fibreglass insulation would be the best.

- the odorsok worked quite well last time, plus I'm not too concerned because it's venting into my loft space, which is a bit drafty, so hopefully any skunky smells should dissipate and not be noticeable in the house. I will be sniffing about in my shared passageway on regular occasions though

- a scrog screen could help, I might just tie them down to the pots instead, I'm not sure yet. Because I will be growing from seed it might be better to do so rather than try and separate the males/females once intertwined.

Didn't do much to the cabinet itself today, just a bit of wiring and then plugged in an envirolite to see if the box was light tight in a dark room. It isn't of course, so I will have to piss about with another roll of draft excluder and some ingenuity.

What I did do today however was spend a good 5 hours sorting out the garage where this cabinet is going to go, plus putting shelves up to cover the ducting. It looks bang on in situ, I'm sure noone will even notice it. Well I fucking hope not

[bananabrain]

So it's been a few days with no update, I was away for a bit, then busy getting stoned, but now the cabinet is pretty much finished.

Progress was as follows, I whipped the top off and cut a hole for the vent like so:



I found this refelective aluminium in B&Q, it was totally overpriced but I bought it anyway, getting a discount because it was bent at the corners. With a bit of bending and cutting with shears I fashioned a somewhat crude reflector like so:



I decided to fix this to the top of the box with the lights also fixed to the box and raise/lower the plants as required. So in situ it looks like this:

[bananabrain]

With all the wiring in place etc I sealed up the bottom bit with plywood:



Then spent ages pissing about with draught excluder. Lessons learned:

1) do this last, I had to take a lot of what I'd done off and start again as it was getting damaged
2) cut it as precisely as possible
3) if in doubt use shit loads everywhere.

I found I needed it round the door frame as well as the edges of the cabinet, as shown here:



You can also see I added a lock, I took off the double roller catch things as they weren't really helping anyway.

Nearly done. Almost as if it were planned there is an RCD wall socket right where I need to plug the box in.



So Plugged in...



While the plants are small I will use the shelf as shown. I cut the edges off to ensure airflow from the vents at the bottom. When the plants are bigger my watering can and other bits and pieces will live elsewhere.

It's *nearly* totally light proof. You can only see light leaks if you're actively looking for them with all the lights turned off, so it's good to go. I will get some plants on the go and then work on getting it 100% sealed with sealant etc.

Here it is in situ (before I added the lock, but otherwise unchanged)




Something I have noticed is that at the moment it's a bit cold in there, only about 10C with the lights and fan on. This is a good thing as it means I will be able to add some more lights, maybe another 250W of enviros, giving me 500W in total. I will think about if/whether to do this depending on how my plants are getting on.

[Jim_jim]

Top looking drobe mate, well done.

I especially like that ducting from screwfix, it’s very stealthy,


But you said that you might have to have a survey done of the house , but won't the surveyor see the ducting in the loft

This post has been edited by Jim_jim: Apr 17 2008, 11:49 AM

[bananabrain]

Top looking drobe mate, well done.

I especially like that ducting from screwfix, it’s very stealthy,


But you said that you might have to have a survey done of the house , but won't the surveyor see the ducting in the loft

Nope The way my house is built is a bit odd, the roof above the ground floor garage is not the same as the roof above the whole house. Well it is but they're separated. Hard to explain, but if you saw my house from the outside it would be obvious, I won't be posting a pic though

Now, whether the surveyor would want to take ceiling panels down in my garage and go into that roof space is a different story. I would hope not because 1) they are asbestos 2) I'd have to take shelving down to gain access and 3) they're probably lazy b#ggers. At this rate with the current housing market it won't be a problem anyway