Stealth Cabinet w/ lots of pics

[FrankRizzo]

-3 S&P fans

I could be wrong, but I think these are the fans he is using. Fullmetal?

http://www.solerpalau-usa.com/applications.html

 

[Anonymous7o2]

Nice Setup Bro, You really got a nak for DiY Cab Building, you did great on your researching, hope it produces just what you have in mind, i'm sure it will, when you get here to sincity maybe we can exchange some ideas, and some fine smoke! till then i'll be workin on my wood version of your cab, might be changing it to metal after watching this one come together so clean, but a plasma cutter damn i'd be scared to set fire to something or cut some fingers. All in all great work bro!!


mAc

 

[Goldenseed]

Hey!!!

Just wanted to give you credit for the nice Cab!!Everything fits together...it looks like you bought a finished "Grow-Box".....what else can i say then Great Job!!!!

Greetz Goldenseed

 

[snowman06]

nice job fullmetaljacket and by the way I love that movie to. Kind of fucked up the part with the sniper and the end and how they beat that obe dude up with the soap in the sock.

 

[FullMetalJacket]

Thanks Snowman, Goldseed, common, eyes , sensi and Anon

Anonymous, would love to meet up in sin city when i get there. I actually don't know anyone there, should be in october, hopefully you are still active in the forum then...Good luck on the build. I actually saw an unused supercloset on craigslist in henderson there w/all the upgrades including CO2 for a good price a few days back. If i bought any mass produced unit that would be the one i would get.

 

[FullMetalJacket]

Thermoelectric coolers are no where near efficient enough on the large heat-load scale of this cab. What you could really use is a tiny wall unit and glue the vent flap shut as all your ventilation is controlled by the dampers and CO2 controller.
For $500 or so you could get a twin hose, but I bet a little 5,000 BTU cheepo wall unit would do it.
parts express has sound deadening material in small quantities including adhesive-backed acoustic asphalt.

Now you got me all excited about my ammo-box ballast.

1 . I disagree that my cab has a high heat load REMAINING based on the heat i removed already.
2. And I do not understand "glueing the vents shut".
3. Those twin hose units dont keep the air separatre so they wouldn't work for any closed enviroment.
4. 5000 BTU not the best idea, but i could probably work with a 500 btu window unit - (explaination why i don't included below)

Thanks for your input though and adhesive-backed acoustic asphalt may be useful in some type of appliaction.


ThermoElectic Devices:

***I wrote all of the below so feel free to post it anywhere if you think someone may have some valuable input. And I don't mean yes or no, I mean why or why not and some sort of logic to support their stance.***


In laymans terms, thermoelectric devices are basically a small plate that exchanges heat from one side to the other. Most often each side of the plate has heat sinks, one that gets cold and one that gets hot. They use these in small dehumidfiers, some mini-fridges, high end computers, wine coolers etc. These devices are not the most effecient and are less effecient than a compressor commonly found in AC units.

To make these devices as effecient as possible you need to dissipate the heat from the hot side. Fans can be used to do this. The cooler you get the hot side the colder the cold side will get. These devices are cheap, silent(except for a fan to cool hot side), and available in different sizes or wattages. They are also neat because if you change the flow of the current the hot and cold side changes. They are easily controlled with a volage regulator to get precise temps. So accuarte that they are the choice in labratory and scietific research settings for cold plates and cooling/heating chambers.

For more detailed info on what a thermoelectic effect is visit:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermoelectric_effect

--

First, the reason I am looking into this technology for cooling and dehumidifying needs is because I want a fully contained cab with complete enviromental control. I have a 36 cu ft flower chamber and a 5000 btu airconditioner and 20 liter dehumidifier are overkill(smallest devices i could find that were quality). They are also loud, very large, expensive, draw a lot of power, and would require a fair amount of work to vent properly while keeping them in the cab. If you refer back to my drawings in my first post you can see how i would se-up my cab if i did use these large items. I would loose stealth though because of the size and noise.

My temps are fine without venting the air in the cab at all due to the cooltube. Temps max at about 91 (with CO2 this is fine) with my cooltube fan running at 75% speed. But my humidity will most likely be an issue. I like my hudidity around 40% or below for flower, especially late flower. Since I live in an area where ambient relative humidity levels are very low, simply exhanging my air hourly would definitely lower my humidity levels into the desire range. But as I stated earlier I would like to have complete control over the enviroment in the cab. Less ventalation equals less noise, odor issues(even though im carbon scrubbing), and CO2 waste. Plus its cool as hell and make the cab usable for scientific research on growing.

--

I would build my own device with parts all found on ebay and I am thinking around $150 total. The challenge is getting the right size/wattage. The cold side would be in the flower chamber and the hot side would be in my utility area. That is very important because like AC the devices in their entirety generate more heat than cold.

I have purchased a 26 watt EVA-DRY dehumidifier that uses this technology and is like 6"L x5"D x"8H. It is 26 watts including the fan and removes approximately 10-14oz of water over a 24 hour peiod according to the manufacturer. I do not think 10 oz in 24 hours is enough but if someone disagrees, please do share. Another problem with it is that it so slightly raise the temps as the air comes in, hits the cold side air sink(removing the humidity) and then passes over the hot side heat sink. Each air sink is approx 2" square inches.

I was thinking going 100W with 1 7" x 4" heat sink on the cold side and one 9"x 5" heat sink on the hot side. If I do a good job of cooling the hot side air sink I would definitely think I could remove 80-100 oz of water in 24 hours. I would think this would be more than enough. Well I stated i would only have the cold side in the flower chamber, i would have a smaller 4"x4" hot side in the chamber to reheat the air after i dehumidified it. This would also enable me to control the heat of the smaller one to use it as a heater, or cut power to it and use the dehumidifier as an "AC" device. All of this wouldn't take up any more space, just the regulation of diiffernt wattages to the TEC(the transfer plate).

I found a few alraedy constructed devices on ebay that can be modified and have more specefic heat measurements if you want to look at them, they are vey informative on how they work as well.

search ebay for "thermoelectric" or...

http://cgi.ebay.com/Huge-Swedish-Th...ryZ42910QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Another device from electronic supplier:
http://www.allelectronics.com/cgi-bi...C_DEVICE_.html

I am not sure these in the above links are large enough to meet my needs but might be. Maybe i can use a few of them. I think making my own would better suit my needs, be more effecient, and save money.

I may not need any additional AC or dehudification at all in my cab but i think building one of these and getting some accurate real world test results in a grow cab would benefit the world of people who grow in small places. Plus it would definitely be a nice addition to my cab.

Has anyone see these used in grow cabs or have knowldge of these in genearal?

Thanks

 

[FullMetalJacket]

FMJ,
I am still curious what sort of air supply you are using for the plasma cutter.

Btw...the Hoosiers own you, and you know it!

Plasma Cutter:

The plasma cutter is a Hobart 250Ci. I paid $650 for it new but they have a great resale value used. Someoneone offered me $550 and they will pay shipping. So I am essentially renting it for a month for a few projects... I will be selling this one and you can't even tell I used it. You are correct, it has a built in aircompresser so no additional air supply is needed. What you saw in that pic was the whole unit. It is the "weakest" model they make but it is rated for 1/4 inch steel i believe, so it cuts my 16 guage cabinet like buuuuttttttter. Basically cuts at the same speed i used to draw my circles with a sharpie. I did all the cutting right there in my carpeted room in 10 min. There was no smell except when i hit the silicoln sealent as it almost combusts because it heats up so quickly (i should have waited to seal the cabs). I did not need gloves or a eye protection(welding helmet) as i just looked ahead of the "plasma" as opposed to at it. If anyone uses a more powerful plasma or welding torch or uses it alot the eye protection is a must, you don't want to burn your retenas up obviously.

Yes you can rent them at many welding places, unfortunately none in my area rented them. I didn't try a router but did try a dremel(sucked) and a $130 jig saw with carbide blade and it was hard to make
circular cuts and cuts were not real clean. I returned the jig saw and ate the cost of the blade.

The dremel kit was $120 for the XPR model dremel, jig saw attachemnt, door planer, flexible extenter,and circle cutter attachments. It came with all the attachments, bits, etc. Well it proved useless for the large cabinet cuts; I used it to drill holes, shape foam, shorten I hooks, cut holes in res lids, and numerous other things. Overall a decent tool for small projects.

 

[cjk]

wow. in for this one. great work.

 

[hoosierdaddy]

For some reason I am unable to access the 4th page of this thread.
Trying to post to see if that works.

 

[krepis]

What a inspirational design. Everything is very clean and stealth. Like the fireproof heavy duty aspect. Will be watching this for shure, you should do a grow diary also once the cab is ready.

 

[alpinestar]

So this is where i am now...still a lot to do..

nice

 

[Able Mind]

clean fucken work;profesional job well done!

 

[Definitive]

What a inspirational design. Everything is very clean and stealth. Like the fireproof heavy duty aspect. Will be watching this for shure, you should do a grow diary also once the cab is ready.

Definitely heavy duty no doubt!

 

[Murderapolis]

Wow... Can you build me one? Sick cab bro keep it up. Any new pics or have you started a grow?

 

[icough2getoff]

This is an amazingly clean and professional looking cab. Very nice job, I think you just set the bar a little higher for stealth cabs

 

[Dr.Seuscio]

great job looks like your a truly skilled craftsman thanks

-Seuscio

 

[softy 12pack]

hey. i like your cab. in fact i been running one suprisengly simmilar. my sankusky is 36x18 and i WISH i had 24" i'm still working on dialing my plants in but its been stealth and turn key since i made it. by reading your thread i'm almost certain you build your own pc's and have been for a while. se you just have to look at the large sandusky cabs as big pc cases. and as a gamer i can build me a pc. I run a 400w run 4 2" intakes in 90 pvc elbos with thin filter. i also run my cooltube "paas through" get usually 2 degres over room temp. also using tnjundland duct boost fan for that. and my exhaust of course panasonic wisper 80cfm is working great. homade carbon filter attachment thanks bleaunth. no clone veg area i do that in a large tower pc case. lights only a little over half way up i use the top area for drying herb.

my 36x18x72 sankusky cab holds 8 round 3 gallon pots or like 10 2 gal bags. so far i'm getting 1/2-1 zip per.

i just used self adhesive duct insulation. however i have been troublshooting plant deficancys and outgassing is always in the back of my mind.

the only diferance really from yours to mine is i would proably still use 4 2" intakes at the very bottom. but i wont be using co2
i added up all my cab costs once i think it was less than $800 and 10-100 times better than anything available on the market. and i especially like the no cheep chinese junk, we think alike. ohh yea and the first thing i did was grab a hammer (big) and remove all the shelves. and i too burnt out my dremmel on this, lucky for me it was the 5'th and last hole. tin snips may work aswell after you get a start.

 

[IKILL3RI]

FullMetalJacket

Awesome Design bro, Looks like you put lots of hours and hard work into your Grow Room. Keep up the good work.

 

[green_thumb...]

hey wheres the rest?

 

[twowordz]

Oh right... where are the updates???