hawkwindzoo Posted July 19, 2012 Share Posted July 19, 2012 Lookin good bananabrain just hope your missus doesn,t expect the rest of the house to be decorated with such speed and diligence No, cool space man,what strain you gonna do? HWZ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bananabrain Posted July 19, 2012 Author Share Posted July 19, 2012 (edited) Nice work mate, Have you thought about a couple of locks incase the MIL has a snoop round. Yes, for sure, that's essential. But I don't want it obviously locked either. I am thinking of a few discrete options, maybe window locks, maybe for now just screw it shut from the outside. Actually maybe even an electro-magnetic lock that'd be cool just for the hell of it Lookin good bananabrain just hope your missus doesn,t expect the rest of the house to be decorated with such speed and diligence No, cool space man,what strain you gonna do? HWZ Mate, you are not wrong, she said yesterday how amazingly motivated I was to do DIY when it was 'a weed box' compared to normally haha. For now I am just gonna chuck in my 3 x autoflowering Easy Ryders to finish off - they are on about week 3 of flowering. I think I am going to do one more autoflower grow, I am also making the move from compost to coco, so together with this new box I hope that should get enough to then see me through a regular grow period. I don't have any plans to have a veg box though, so I did think about just doing autoflowering strains & starting a new one every month on a perpetual harvest type of thing. Edited July 19, 2012 by bananabrain Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bananabrain Posted July 19, 2012 Author Share Posted July 19, 2012 So I have pretty much solved my light leaks & security I hope, better still both at the same time. I figure if someone really wants to get into it, they will. So no locks, just screwtight handles, that on a regular cabinet look like you just pull them. Mother in law (etc) tries to pull it, doesn't budge at all & too stiff to be turnable, so moves on hopefully. Tightening it up pulls the door up against the P section & no leaks as far as I can tell (still plenty out the top as not attached yet). 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joint hogger Posted July 19, 2012 Share Posted July 19, 2012 thats a cracking idea for a stealthy lock, dont think i've seen anything like it also like the look of your grow cab taking shape & the only thing i'd change is the plain MDF, you can either replace it or you can paint it with something to seal it, as MDF is made with formaldehyde resins & it can cause OFF gassing which can poison the plants when heated up with the heat from a light. if you do use the 6" fan, a 1A variac running at 40% is barely audible & a clip on fan is louder :wink: 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bananabrain Posted July 20, 2012 Author Share Posted July 20, 2012 (edited) Cheers joint hogger, I am not too worried about the MDF heating up as it's only this piece at the bottom & I will definitely paint it. I will also get/make a variac soonish, Iam going to put the 4" in there for a week or so then work on sorting the 6" on low power later. Today I continued tidying up the base, attaching the top & applying more sealant. Edited July 20, 2012 by bananabrain 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bananabrain Posted July 20, 2012 Author Share Posted July 20, 2012 I finally decided on the ducting, so this is how it exits the box, using 204 x 60mm flat channel ducting... As you can see I am also getting an idea of how/where to put my reflector, for now I am not going to attach this up to the fan. Then along the ducting to my 4" hole to the outside. I expect this flat duct to reducer to be quite noisy so I will put a layer of insulation over it and then box it all in. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluez Posted July 20, 2012 Share Posted July 20, 2012 Really nice and neat work mate. I always enjoy building grow stuff and doing it properly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rustledust Posted July 20, 2012 Share Posted July 20, 2012 Looking very smart mate :applause: , want to build me one I got a similar space but none of the skills. Still thats not gonna stop me trying at some point latter in the year though. Happy growing in it mate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bananabrain Posted July 20, 2012 Author Share Posted July 20, 2012 Yeah I am enjoying trying to do it properly, I am guilty of bodging stuff a lot of the time but I was determined to make it as neat and permanent as possible. I know what will happen is I'll get it to the point of working and lose interest in finishing the last few bits n pieces like normal Tonight I just connected the fan and filter up, even without any insulation/sound proofing around it I am quite pleased with the noise levels so I will put the plants in later. After iI have finished my spliff and browsing uk420 anyway, then I can get rid off the old box tomorrow, put freezer back, keep mrs happy etc, then work on quietening it completely and sealing light leaks (again). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SSJ_Sonic Posted July 20, 2012 Share Posted July 20, 2012 Looking really good mate, enjoyed reading this good stuff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bananabrain Posted July 22, 2012 Author Share Posted July 22, 2012 (edited) Thanks SSJ_sonic, glad you like it. This weekend I have been busy... had to get the rest of the utility room sorted so it was a case of cutting the worktop, moving/hanging wall cupboards, putting freezer back & decommissioning old grow box... Luckily also had time to get room operational, I will refine the ventilation further next weekend. Did a final bit of light proofing too (can't rate aluminium foil tape highly enough for all growroom purposes) First off I attached my 4" fan and CF, linked with rigid tubing and hung from bungeees... In my loft I had a pack of 2 x acoustic foam sheets, it's about an inch thick, I used a layer of this up against the flat ducting along the wall outside the box. Then covered the whole ducting from wall to wall down to the shelf with a piece of conti board. It's not as deep/wide as it looks in the pic, there is plenty of shelf left. So, the big question, how is noise? I am very pleased so far. Now I have put boxes up on the shelf & on top & hung coats all on the side it is really good, better than my previous little box. Plus, I have yet to even box in/insulate my fan inside the box so if I get a Varaic for my 6" in there it could be totally silent. Edited July 22, 2012 by bananabrain 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bananabrain Posted July 22, 2012 Author Share Posted July 22, 2012 Temps inside are looking good, about 25C at plant level. I added my adjuster things (?) to the chains but for now I am going to leave the reflector quite high as I'm off for 4 days... Here are my 3 x Easy Ryders from the little box, about 4 weeks into flower. Not looking too bad, I have been remorsely taking little buds for the last week so hopefully me going away will give them a break to grow a bit! Oh yes, will also get rid of the ballast and put it on top. In all the haste to put up the board on the shelf & put boxes on it I forgot to route my cables through it so need to take it down again next week... plus need to generally tidy up wiring and plugs etc onto some sort of board. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dempton Posted July 27, 2012 Share Posted July 27, 2012 nice work man! I used one of these whatlock things which is a hidden lock to keep nosy guests from stumbling upon my grow room: Whatlock I got mine from mothercare, think it was about 3 quid. But it looks like you have solved the nosy mother in law problem already! Fair play All the best 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HolyMountain Posted September 5, 2012 Share Posted September 5, 2012 Very nice idea dude, Those whatlocks are a good idea too, I have a similar set up at home which they may be useful for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ganjasattva Posted September 28, 2012 Share Posted September 28, 2012 (edited) Nice Build! I like the camoflage aspect of the stylish doors that really make it look like "natural furniture" ! For that size space, two- 70W metal halides for the right and left halves of the space in the veg phase would work really great, about 5000 Lumens each, low consumption for lots of blue/par relevant light for lush vegetative growth before you go hps for bloom. You can re-fit standard building floodlights(the 400w/500w halogen) for the Rx7s in-line bulbs just by replacing the socket with a high-voltage type for the 5000V ignition current the ballasts/starters use to fire the halides up. I have converted a number of them really cheap. Then you can use daylight bulbs (5200-5600K are available standard) or even more blue light with aquarium bulbs in 10000K-20000K values for various levels of blue in the range between 500nm and 400nm. Most color spectra I have seen appear to be the best for our purposes here in the values of 10000K or 14000K which are very standard aquarium bulbs and cheaply available from hong kong aquarium suppliers on eBay. For a cab your size, you could really boost your veg with bluish bulbs on the sides - both horizontally lower down on the plants sides to encourage side branching, but also vertically in the corners. Both could be done with T5's or 2G11 type, high-efficiency compact flouros. They will also give you far fewer temperature-problem headaches than hps will is such a tight grow space. Since your reflector rig looks really well fitted for that cab size, you might want to look into the idea of a halide bulb for veg that will run on the hps-type ballast/starter setup, like the HPI-T 645 bulbs that produce 4500K which is in between neutralwhite deLuxe (the so-called, "NDL") and the daylight which start at 5200K. That is, of course, assuming that your hps is an E40 screw-in type. I gave on e to a friend who had wanted to up her wattage from 250w but since using this for veg, her results are dramatically increased so no need to waste money on more wattage. If I may offer you one tip more, you could use some reflective material between the plant stems and from the stems to the outside walls (leaning slanted on the wall) - just play with the angles to see which lights up your plants the most from below! Why waste the light that got past or through your plants to the soil? Just send it right back for use! Have a great grow and many more to come with your great cabinet! Edited September 28, 2012 by Ganjasattva Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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