The Stealth Dresser grow: in the making.

[Hydro-Soil]

Hydro - I've ben following your PL-L C99 grow. They look wonderful, and PL-L may be the new superior CFL. Keep doing what your doing, cause making growing even easier just helps overgrow the system... I'll be watching.

Cheers,
FB

Thanks.... I'm looking forward to it myself. Total disappointment on the root mass of that run. Lava rock is not good for drip! (At least not the way I set it up)

Looking forward to posting some fat PL-L nugs in another month and a half. Running Hydroton this time so we won't have that silly little root issue from last time. LOL



SativaDreams
What's the longest flowering strain you plan on running in your cab???

 

[SativaDreams]

Looking forward to posting some fat PL-L nugs in another month and a half. Running Hydroton this time so we won't have that silly little root issue from last time. LOL


SativaDreams
What's the longest flowering strain you plan on running in your cab???

As far as the longest flowering strain... I haven't even thought of future grows since I dont even have any grow going. This blue cheese is up on the table as the first coming and maybe couple times-repeated grow I'll be doing for a year or two. As far as flowering.. I'm a fan of vegging as long as I will have room for the plant through flowering, so I may pop seeds and vege for as long as 2 months depending on how the LST goes and then flower.


I have some updates on the dresser
So I'm going with 6 x 23 watt CFL = 138 watt Dresser grow
@ 1600 lumens per bulb x 6 = 9600 lumens
this will keep the temperature down I think and the 9600 lumens isn't alot at all but we'll see how it does.

edit: forgot to include that the bulbs are @ 2700K

This is the proposed method of hanging in the dresser, If I keep it I will plastic cement all of the hinges/sockets together so that they cannot spin nor stress at the weak points.

here's a more close up of the setup

I don't think I'll have money for the 150 watter, and i found some cheap fans on newegg that cost 13 bucks for 10 after shipping with good customer reviews. I think I'll get some cheap AC adapters at 6 volts each and wire up the fans to outlets (probably use 2-4 of the fans).. I'm still trying to figure out a way to keep the fans from letting light into the setup.. a carbon scrubber is a little too costly for me and the fans are most likely too weak to operate with a scrubber on so I may buy some aluminum or plastic bend elbows and put them on the inside of the dresser.

 

[pontiac]

Reminds me of my old stealth dresser. Damn I miss it so much

Oh and this is for you:

 

[SativaDreams]

Reminds me of my old stealth dresser. Damn I miss it so much

Oh and this is for you:

Thank you pontiac

I saw that dresser you have in that gif along time ago with either an ice of chrystal strain was the name on a thread a couple years back way before i joined icmag

Just out of curiosity how did you get the drawer-fronts to stay into your dresser? looks like some sort of tape? was that all you used?

and I wish my dresser was the size of yours, mines only 31" that I can use height wise (add in light size/bucket size and its much smaller) and 2 feet width, with about a foot depth :-(

kinda small but we'll see. I may mix in 6500k bulbs if I can find them at a decent price!

maybe in the future we'll see this dresser have an HID with proper fan setup like yours!

 

[growMEDS]

Great start! :smile:

If you go hps I suggest getting or making a cool tube.
I thought the 150 sun system would be fine but it was hotter than expected.

I'll be following.

 

[growMEDS]

Oops. Looks like you got lights.

 

[SativaDreams]

Okay so I figured out a better light arrangement. I'm going to do 7 x 23 watt.

for the seedling vege I have 4 x 5500k + 3 x 2700k, then for flower I'll use 5x2700k + 2x5500k just to keep a mix

The box is still in construction as far as i'm concerned. i'm trying to figure out a good way to put mylar down.

my soil mix is going to be worked out soon. I hope to use (by volume) 60% potting soil (organic mix potting soil) + 15% perlite + 10 % building sand + 5 % cow manure + 5 % top soil + 5% bone meal + some dolomite lime

and any nutrients needed at a later date can be added via water feeding

 

[SativaDreams]

sorry to upset all the HID fans hoping to see atleast a 150 HPS grow

soon! I promise when I can afford an HPS, I will.

If anyone has been following this whole thing has been budget budget, cheap fans/cheap lighting/etc/etc.

I'm upset myself, but if you were hoping for an HPS don't doubt me! I thrive on doubt and will try my hardest to show you I can make a decent crop without!

By 2010 I hope to have a 150 watter if not sometime in 2010 when I actually have money to spend!

It wasn't that I couldnt afford a 150, but I couldn't afford the proper fan setup for it too! and I don't want to push a 150 on a setup with bad ventilation.. I don't think I'd make plants any better than with 7 x 23 watt CFLs.

 

[growMEDS]

IMO, you made the right decision with the 150 and heat vs the cfls. :smile:

 

[KickNader]

best way to run pc fans..

http://cgi.ebay.com/40W-12V-DC-3-2A-Regulated-Switching-Power-Supply-CCTV_W0QQitemZ170333206641QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item27a8a67871&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=65%3A12|66%3A2|39%3A1|72%3A1240|240%3A1318|301%3A1|293%3A1|294%3A50

its what i used for like 5-6 of em it never got warm. pretty solid and clean lookin

 

[SativaDreams]

best way to run pc fans..

http://cgi.ebay.com/40W-12V-DC-3-2A-Regulated-Switching-Power-Supply-CCTV_W0QQitemZ170333206641QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item27a8a67871&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=65%3A12|66%3A2|39%3A1|72%3A1240|240%3A1318|301%3A1|293%3A1|294%3A50

its what i used for like 5-6 of em it never got warm. pretty solid and clean lookin

hey kicknader, do I have to wire this up to a 3 prong outlet? or does it have a power adapter socket?

also one more, does it even come with the power adapter plug? and can I use it in standard 3 prong US outlets?

Thanks

 

[SativaDreams]

Okay I have some pictures up.

First is the idea for how we can make the back of the dresser (on the inside of course) flat. Originally it will have small 2" protrusions from each different drawer opening, and that would mess with the plant if it grew under a protrusion, it wouldn't get light there.. also theres glue and other potentially toxic chemicals that would be behind the mylar i don't want my plants near

So I got some 90 cent binders and cut off the middles and threw them away.
The sides I will be using for the backing

Next is the start to putting on the backing.. hmm how can we do this decently.. does 4$ in binder cases sound affordable enough?

And there's a little middle space too that I filled in with custom-size-cut pieces of the binder sides. all taped up with some fine quality duct tape.
here we can see the back wall is now flat, with the exception of some wrinkles

Now I've figured a little better lighting, feel free to critique me or suggest ideas. I just bought a 6500k 26 watt light to add to my other 7, now I will be doing 8 x 23 (all either 23 or 26 watt) CFL (total is between 180 and 200 watts.) I ordered 10 fans from newegg that I previously listed and I ordered a power supply that someone listed a post or two back.

I suppose we could just cement plastic these little fixtures into the power strip to ensure they never fall out while i'm not there and burn the plants or start fire to anything, so I'll do that next.


Next steps in the dresser:

-Finish sealing minor light leaks

-Mylar the walls (i'll be using poly-wrapping paper found at a local store.. it's definitely not the 2mm thickness, it's very thin.. but will definitely do the job since it costed me 4 bucks )

-Install fan(s) and power adapter (both waiting for the mail..)

-order seeds!

 

[THiCk]

First of all, do yourself a favor and buy a 99 cent pack of zip ties and secure those lights. Secondly, I would still go with a 150w HPS and a DIY Cooltube. Third, i would use "Liquid Nails" brand glue to secure the drawer fronts if you're still nervous about them

 

[jay-toker]

looks like u got alot more space then i do in mine but u have given me some good ideas so far. thanx for the link my friend how all works well for u.

peace toke out

 

[SativaDreams]

First of all, do yourself a favor and buy a 99 cent pack of zip ties and secure those lights. Secondly, I would still go with a 150w HPS and a DIY Cooltube. Third, i would use "Liquid Nails" brand glue to secure the drawer fronts if you're still nervous about them

thanks for the advice and for stopping by

If you haven't been following, I unforunately dont have money for an HPS setup at all, cooltube or not!

As for my drawers, they are all secured on enough to stand on them from the inside! I start with some hard wood glue, then use shoe goo for the rest (shoe goo bonds harder than plastic), liquid nails is amazing too!

as far as zip ties go, they wouldn't work because the lights would have to be held into the powerstrip at 2 axes instead of just one (zipties only hold/tighten things on a single axis)

I've since shoe goo'd the sockets into the power strip and will have no problem or concern with them anymore!

Here we see a nice dresser, nothing special just a dresser. probably no thoughts will even cross 99.999% of the minds that see it (i would be the .001% )

and from the back!

I also mylared it up last night take a look inside my new home

Let's just see what it would look like if I happened to have some 18 liter buckets in there (yes i know MONSTEROUS buckets XD the hydrostore didn't have smaller except for 1 gallon square buckets) I will probably only ever fill them about 2 gallons full of soil, maybe 3. (18 liters = 4.6 gallons!!)

I'm considering cutting off a couple inches of the tops of the buckets, but we'll see how much extra space is in with the soil, I may keep because I like the edging on the top of buckets for LSTing, but we'll see!

and a far shot

Final Steps for the Dresser:

-->install a fan on back door at the top for ventilation/exhaust/out flow.
and maybe an intake if I can find anything that can cut through the bottom of the dresser (also I need a louvre thing to point the exhaust air toward the window! I'll have to search online or if ANYONE knows where I can buy a cheap 80 mm-ish size one i'd be grateful)

-->pop seeds and grow :-D

Hope you all are enjoying the progress so far, everyone has been giving me good tips or hints, or just really positive feedback and i'm grateful

 

[brazilgal]

nice one, never thought of that one.

 

[growMEDS]

Nice progress!

 

[SativaDreams]

So with 8 bulbs on..

she looks like this

and with a testrun and no ventilation, she does this

yowza, hot temps. it got about 5 degrees hotter after another 20 minutes too. (95 F)

looks like this wont be growing for a couple months when I have cooler temps

I'm still waiting on delivery of fans later this month i'll have them installed

we'll see what the fans do, ill do an exhaust and intake... I dont know though.

 

[ScrubNinja]

Looking awesome, dude! Well done!

Here is how I do pc fans: Search ebay or your pc store for an external hard drive adapter. All the ones I've seen come with a 12v DC power supply like this:



It has the right molex plug on it so it fits right into a PC fan and they all run together in parallel. For some unknown reason I had to make a little adaptor before it'd work, but other people tell me they didn't have to do this...*shrug*. The adaptor I made looks like this, I just joined 2 wires:



I would suggest getting the highest amp one you can find. I've seen 2 Amp ones and that'd most likely be more than enough for you. You want the Amp rating of the power adapter to be equal or more than the total sum of the Amps of all the 12v fans you plan to use.

I'd also suggest researching the fans and avoiding cheap no-name fans. False economy. A lot of good fans these days come with a speed control dial which is pretty much a must for dialling in the stealth/efficiency of a smaller grow like this. You can also get aftermarket speed controllers quite cheap.

Good luck with it all, I'll pop in from time to time, see how you're going. Peace.

 

[pontiac]

Thank you pontiac

I saw that dresser you have in that gif along time ago with either an ice of chrystal strain was the name on a thread a couple years back way before i joined icmag

Just out of curiosity how did you get the drawer-fronts to stay into your dresser? looks like some sort of tape? was that all you used?

and I wish my dresser was the size of yours, mines only 31" that I can use height wise (add in light size/bucket size and its much smaller) and 2 feet width, with about a foot depth :-(

kinda small but we'll see. I may mix in 6500k bulbs if I can find them at a decent price!

maybe in the future we'll see this dresser have an HID with proper fan setup like yours!

It's kinda hard to explain but the drawers originally rested on horizontal bars (1 horizontal bar for each drawer). After dismantlement, I mounted some L-Brackets to these horizontal bars and to the back of the drawer-fronts. You'd see these L brackets in the pictures if the tape wasn't covering it, which was used just to prevent light leaks; they had little to do with the structural integrity of the dresser.

About your height problem... Not to bash your current design or anything, but I think you should reconsider your light and plant container systems. Height was one of the biggest issues for my dresser grow, which lead to several failures and disappointments (Do note, you have more restricted dimensions than I had).

For the light, I think instead of CFL's, you should wire up some over-driven TG11 remote ballast fluorescent lamps as seen here: http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=112670 They BARELY take up any height and should theoretically run cooler than watt-equivalent CFL's since the ballast is remote for the TG11's.

As for the containers, I think you should ditch the buckets and run an NGB style SWC hydroponic ScrOG system: http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=29593 Look at www.usplastic.com to find the right sized container, that is if you can't find one locally. I sure found one for my next cab (Hint- Ebb and Flow in a micro cab )

I know all this sounds expensive, redundant, and time consuming, but take it from someone who went through the pain of having to kill off his babies due to something as stupid as height issues. It's better to brace for the worst now than to experience it unprepared later. Just my 2 cents.