I had a cabinet I have been using for a few years, perfect really for this.... internal measurements are 80cm x 80cm by 39cm deep

First job was to clear it out, then strip out the shelves and the doors and give it a clean with fairy and hot water.

Next job was too install the mylar reflective sheeting, I bought plenty for my drobe but never used it as it was white inside already (except the doors), I had to go b&q to get the adhesive and the wallpaper smoother so total cost so far - £10.52

I cut it to size before installing rather than trim an oversized piece down later I thought this would be easiest. It not perfect but its pretty damn good considering there's screws/cams etc underneath it. I pasted the wood rather than the mylar as that meant I didnt have to get paste all over the floor

I wasnt bothered if the mylar was a few mll short at the corners as I intend to run a bead of silicon round it anyway.

hi 1976 ill watch this with interest see if theres any good tips for my build.
all the best mate

Next job is the ventilation I am using PC fans and a power adaptor all from maplins, the 80mm fans are £8.99 each and the Mains adaptor was £10.99, I also got a 4 way Extension lead which cost £5.49, total cost at maplins - £34.46

cheers newbudda, we'll see how it goes ... hopefully I will post something someone finds a help!

the mains adaptor I bought has output voltage through 1.5, 3, 4.5, 6, 7.5, 9 and 12v DC I found the fan will work between 4.5 and 12v and I think 6v is best for low noise pollution.

At full speed it can change 1 cubic metre of air a minute so with my drobe being 0.8 x 0.8 x 0.39 = 0.25 cubic meters at full speed it changed the air four times a minute so (Im guessing now) if I switch it down to 6v then it will chane the air once every 30 seconds ish .... even it it was 5 times slower Im sure it enough.

I made a wiring loom to run from the mains adaptor to the fans, I had some wire, pin headers, solder etc already so this cost me nothing.

this is good m8, I'll keep checking in. Kep it up pal

Legion.

Luckily I have a 79mm hole saw through work (the fans are 80mm) unluckily it was loose and maybe in future I will check it before I use it, I already cut 2 holes that could have been slightly smoother before I figured this out, one of the holes is top right and one top left, I kept them both on the same side so I didnt have too many wires running about

here's a shot off the fans fixed in place with a couple of drywall screws from both inside and out

on this picture you can see I have now siliconed all the corners with grey silicon, I have also installed the 4 way extension lead, i drilled a 8mm hole to feed the wire through (also had to remove plug to get it through hole) the mains adaptor is all powered up now and fans are running at 6v.

I already have a 125w blue invirolight, it was out on loan but it came back a few hours ago so i got a couple of hooks fixed to the top and hung it with easy rollers its about 20cm from the top of the reflector to the top of the cabinet and about 45cm from the bulb the the foot of the cabinet, if i need it higher I can remove the easy rollers and use a short chain.

this is as far as I got on this fine sunday afternoon, the cabinet is fucntional but I need to address the light leaks so in the next phase I will fit door stops with draught excluder (P section)

will also at some point look at making a home made carbon filter for the extract any maybe beefing the power up some so we still have negative pressure once filter is fitted.

you can see from the pics its hardly light leak free .... but the temps are good and the air circulation is good .... to be continued

A true craftsman, that is top quality mate, why don't mine ever look that professional!!

looking mint that there veg box, nice job m8

Healthy

very nice man makes mine look well done

thats a real nice box you have there mate , very tidy looking

Tidy box, I need to get something going myself...

proper tidy, thread and box. really like the way you lay your posts out. like more the way your setin up your cab.

Nice one established1976. keepin eyes peeled

cheers people, thanks for the kind words ... just doing some light proofing now on the doors will post some more asap

been thinking about the extraction too and am considering either stacking up 2 fans back to back to beef it up .... or having one either side of the filter (once I made it) so one will push the air through the filter and the other will pull it through on the other side and out of the cab .... I shall post everything here anyhow when I get round to doing it.

I could run the extract fan faster than the intake, I guess if I switched it up to 12v and added a resistor on the feed to the intake fan the correct resisitor would drop the voltage to say 6v so one was running faster than the other but off the same mains adaptor .... I would rather have them all running at 6v though its much quiter so 2 on extract at 6v and one intake at 6v

This is sweeet, dude.

Ill be here till the end of this one.

Nice work. Interesting too since I'm at the (finally) finishing my veg closet stage. Couple of questions if I may. You mention using silicone on the edges, that's for light proofing I assume ? What was the stuff you used, cos that's the one bit that's got me slightly flummoxed, my veg closet is my cupboard under the sink, and there's a gap between the sink unit and the top of the cupboard that I'll need to seal. I was thinking maybe using summat like a grouting gun, is that similar to what you used (and is what you used cheaper and/or easier to use). Cheers (and my finished effort won't be half as good as yours, tis a very nice job).

Boojum just a normal silicon gun should be fine to use with some normal white silicon seal just smooth off the edges after youve done it with a bit of card

I guess it all depends on the size of the gap but grout would probabaly work too

Nice progress there established im kinda doin a similar type of unit with same parts would like to see how you do the light proffing with the p seal as thats what i used but still have little light leaks on joins

very nicely done mate will be watching with interest

top job on the Veg Cabinet keep it up

looking good there m8,

the only thing i would change would be to put the extension lead outside of the cabinet and drill some holes and feed the leads through the holes in to the cabinet to give you a bit more room and in case of any spills.

apart from that,

I did consider mounting the electrics outside somewhere but I decided it was more important to have it all self contained

For the light proofing we shall be using 15mm x 25mm length of planed timber and some door & window draught excluded (P profile)

The timber was £2.92 and the Draught excluding strip was £5.93 total spend - £8.85

firstly we are going to fit the timber across the horizontal lengths at both the top and the bottom of the door, when fitting we need to ensure that the gap between the timber and the doors is about 2-3mm, you could use a piece of card or something to space it ... I did it by eye, when the batten has been fitted and I have checked that the gap is ok (2 -3mm) along both the bottom and top lengths I then add the draught excluder P section to the timber. I found it easier to remove the timber add the P section and then fit it again.

As you can see from the 3rd picture when the door is closed there is a nice tight fit , the P section fills the 2-3mm gap nicely

PS I held the timber in place with screws, there's 3 in each length just now, I intend to add some more once Im sure everything is in the right place!

Next I need to seal the vertical lengths, I could have used timber again and copied exactly what I did on the horizontals but it doesnt actually need it this time as I can apply the P pection direct onto the side of the cabinet. First I close the doors and mark with a black marker where the door runs down the inside (see pic1) then I removed the doors to make it easier and added the P section to both sides.

Next the center, we simply add another batten to the inside of one of the doors so it hangs half over, we dont need any P section on this as it would stop the doors from closing flush with each other.

**edit** double post

Next I add a bolt to both the top and the bottom of the right hand door (as this is the door that closed first it has the timber on it) when positioning the keep (pic 1) we made sure it was in such a place so that it pulls the door real tight against the P section. I bought the bolts for my drobe but never used them so for this build they cost me nothing.

I had to remove the cabinet lock so that the doors would fit flush against the timber, it will go back on but this is all I got time for last night. I also siliconed the inside edge of the 3 timber battens to stop light coming though between the timber and the cabinet. I have a few small light leaks to deal with mainly on the center batten (between the 2 doors) but at least now it doesnt look like Im hiding the holy grail in the cabinet now!

Before and after ........ more tweaking to follow .....

(PS the large hole at the top middle is where the lock belongs)

looks great mate,
well done, quality job

Now to fix the left hand door so it stays closed (the right door has the bolts)

We bought 2 'Double Roller Catch' from b&q they cost 53p each (Total cost £1.06)

We simply fitted one to the botton and one to the top of the door in such a fashion that it pulls the door tight against the P section (light proofing)

I chose these as I thought the pull would be greater on this style door catch than say a magnetic one or any other type I saw at the DIY shop.

Nice build, good step by step pictures and etc

thanks newbudda & andrewss

I will keep posting updates, I have sneaked in a 2" flouro tube (just for unrooted clones) I found that on a hot day it was running at 28c with the enviro which made my 4 little babies wilt a bit they seem alright under the flouro temps are about 23c could do with being 25c i believe but I seen my first root today If when I deem them fit for the enviro it is still running about 28c I will fit another 2 fans (bear in mind its in a room with a radiator), I already got 2 in anticipation same ones as before, I also have 2 push button switches so I can switch one pair or both pairs of fans with the 2 push buttons and finally I got a more powerful mains adaptor the one i got is fine for 2 fans but may possible struggle with 4. I have changed the easy rollers for chains so I can get the enviro higer in the cabinet ... only thing left to think about really is to filter the smell on the extraction but that will be done when needed. I'll post as soon as any of the new stuff goes in ... tbc

Great job mate, its even inspired me to try my hand at a mother room

comin along fine keep up the good work ,cant wait to see how it does a grow

"Inspirational".

i love it, good work sir. now to get of my arse and do mine. hope to see some results soon. you are a

Top light proofing there...

Thanks guys !

Today I fitted a filter to stop any unwanted smells escaping the cabinet. I was thinking of making one but for the hassle I cheated and bought a miniture Odorsok. Its 4" diameter and 12" long, cost £25 from local hydro shop.... I also had to modify the extraction and fit a 4" wall flange.

First off I removed my extract fan, I also bought a 2nd fan (same model as last time from maplins). My plan was to fit 2 x 80mm fans inside the 4" wall flange kinda like a home made inline fan. Because of the square edges they wouldnt fit inside the 4" (100mm) wall flange so I trimmed them down and bit and pushed them inside the flange. Its a nice tight fit and I doubt it requires any adhesive or fixings to keep them in place. If you look closely at the 3rd picture you can see the 2nd fan behind the first...

In the first picture you can see I have fitted it to test it before fitting the odorsok

In the 2nd picture you can see I have used some duct tape and electrical tape to keep the odorsok attached to the 4" wall flange.

Once the odorsok was secured to the wall flange then the whole unit was screwed back up to the top right corner of the cabinet (see pic)

Couple of notes :

I swapped the 300mA mains adaptor for a more powerful 1000mA version as I now have 3 fans in total and the old one was just about powerful enough for 2 but no more.

I have yet to test for negative pressure but I assume it will be ok, obviously the odorsok will restrict extraction somewhat which is why I have doubled up the fans. If need be I guess I could run the 80mm intake fan on the spare 300mA mains adaptor at a lower voltage than the 2 extract to reduce the airflow in (If needed)

Nice, interesting filter, does it still extract ok?

i know ill catch some flak, but here goes;

your box is a nightmare to be honest. there are a few problems that can be catastrophic in no time flat.
first is that you have the plug strip inside the box. thats just a bad idea seeing as how you will have high humidity in the box, not to mention a possible water leak. electricity and water dont mix, in any fashion.
secondly, you have your extraction fan right above the fan pumping air in. i guess you havent been taught that airflow will follow the shortest distance possible, so most of the air is going to hit only the plant on the right side of the box. you need air going across the box. you should have put the intake air hole on the left side, lower, front corner. the extraction fan should have been placed at the opposite corner, or the right, upper, rear corner.
third, youre runnin a cfl. cfl's, even 200 watt beasts (which i have 2 of), are only good for plants that will be only a foot tall. and even in sog gardens, plants will reach 18" or more by harvest time. 200 watt cfls produce 20k lumens, but at 1 foot, you only have 10k lumens. and ill tell you from experience, 200 watt cfl bulbs dont stay cool to the touch when they are on.
fourth, the box is gonna run hotter than you will probably be expecting, so heat is going to destroy your grow. unless you turn the thermostat down, but when you do that, you eat more power thru the a/c unit.

if it were my box, i would have put the strip on the back side, so i can easily plug/unplug things when i need to, and remove it from a harsh enviroment. i'd also get a light tube and invest in an hid light/ballast. 6" light tube with a 6" fan on the end will effectively cool a 400 watt hid without having to touch the thermostat. and like i said, id put my intake/exhaust holes on opposite sides, at opposite height.

thats a strong statement just there ... you come across as arrogant to me ... maybe you need to tone down the negativity on your future posts.



As you will know if you read all the posts I considered the location of the electrics (inside/outside) and as I said last time it is more important for the unit to be self contained, its a 'stealth cabinet ... it would hardly be very stealth with all the wiring externally. As for water ... there will be no liquid water inside plants are watered outside the cabinet. For me personally high humidity inside the veg cabinet isnt a life/death situation, Im quite happy with 60% RH inside, Im not one to fit 'mini foggers' or such like, when my seedlings/clones are young they will be in a propagator which maintains its own high humidity (currently 80% plus)



again this wasnt an oversight ... if you read back ... "I decided to keep them both on the same so I didnt have too many wires running about". I have yet to fit a light baffle and circulating fan, you'd be suprised at the route the air takes already, I guess it bounces off the walls as when the lids off the propagator all the plants are moving with the breeze.



Again you obviously either cant read or you too lazy too .... this is a clone/veg/mother room ... this cabinet for me gives me a 3-4 week heatstart on the next crop, its not to flower in and most of the time its not going to be doing 100% of the veg this is just to get the small plants going then they finish the veg under the hps in the flower drobe (18/6) before going 12/12, I also intend to keep some bonsai mothers in it, my 125w blue envirolite is plenty sufficient!



where the hell do you get that from? It currently runs at max 30c usually below 28c and thats in the middle of the day in a room that has central heating, its 8am and currently 25.2c it will get hotter towards noon yes ... I dont know where you getting some of your responses from ... what made you think I have a/c?



again if you READ before you post you will know I already have a 5" cooltube, 600w digi HPS, 2 x rvk, primair controller, etc etc etc in my flower drobe ....

yep no problems there, still not tested for negative pressure but the extract feels fine, these odorsoks are the best things to have as far as maximum airflow is concerned (even if they do have other weaknesses)

im an honest individual, and you are easily slighted because maybe you dont have high self esteem. i dont know, but i was correct in saying your box is a nightmare.

how stealth can your box be if it catches fire? just curious...

and how stealth can it be if you have to take the plants out of the box to water them?

you have 2 fans with 2 wires each, for a total of 4 wires. each fan needs its 2 wire feed, so you will always have 4 wires. besides, all you have to do is turn the fan around for it to push the other way. what does that have to do with wires?

your 125 watt envirolight is garbage. you could cut a week off of veg time if you had either a larger cfl, or an hid with more lumens. try to place them closer to the plants also.

for the heat...that was just a base assumption.

your other box is a waste of space in my opinion. its too tall to house what little you got going, or youre not going to have a strong enough light to properly develop flower sites towards the bottom of the plants. you are not a very efficient person, but thats ok, cause ignorance is bliss.

for a stealth box maybe you should have put more thought into it. for starters the plug strip should be higher in the box. you should have put simple crown molding inside the box to run your wires behind. the holes for fresh air are in the wrong spot. for a box built for clones/early veg, it should have been more squat, while being longer, and not as deep. flouro tubes would have also run cooler, drawing less watts and been more effective than a single bulb. a shorter, longer, less deep box would also be easier to conceal, further promoting the stealthness of your operation.

im from america, where we have a/c units.