first cab large armoire let build this thing!

[Windowshaker]

I am putting together my first cab for my first grow. It was to be a freezer until I discovered my better half would be happier with this armoire in the bedroom versus the freezer idea. So I picked one up used for cheap. Currently it has basically 4 compartments 3 drawers and a keyboard drawer. It is wired throughout and even has some small lights in it that I am sure will go. Tentatively the top left is the flower chamber,
The top right mother chamber,
The bottom left and middle compartments could be altered by removing the keyboard drawer and the divider that makes the little middle compartment by the drawers fairly easy I think. If needed.
And then the bottom left could be for rooting clones. The three drawers could be gutted and used as utility. Or the bottom left could be gutted and be moms and clones and the top right be used as a utility area for like the carbon filter if needed.
Please help a new grower out.
I want to setup a perpetual micro sog Dr Bud style.
I had planed to use cfl bulbs however i would do a t-5 like in the clone or mother if i needed to for space. Also I could be convinced to run a hid like a cmh or an hps like a 250 maybe? but have been planning on cfl. how many should i run? 42's? 26's?
It will sit in an air conditioned bedroom. venting the hot air outside of the room will be hard how necessary will that be? cfl better here?
I am mechanically inclined and handy with tools. but my health is poor and it is hot so progress is slow sometimes sorry.
My needs are personal for close family and would need something like Dr Buds original yeilds in the mountain cabin 3/4 to 2 ounces a week. i am certain i will need to run a few more plants than he did to get the same yeild due to my inexperience?
if I were to try to design this cab to vent from compartment to compartment or what not. What size fan and carbon scrubber would I need and I might would buy larger and get a controller and slow it down if i keep the budget down.

Thanks to the whole community I am learning by reading every day!

 

[Windowshaker]

Also I could open the left side and do a more traditional grow if the sog for a first grow is to ambitious?

 

[DU420]

Nice cab mate, if you really want to run Dr bud style and need 2 oz a week I'd remove that middle partition and keyboard draw and have the whole left side as two separate flowering cabs,top right as mother cab and bottom right as clone cab after removing the drawers. Depending on how stealth it has to be I'd run a long carbon filter through both flowering cabs and into an inline fan coming out the top of the upper flowering cab and then the same setup for the mother and clone cab. And don't forget to account for fan space inside the cab for air circulation, I made that mistake on my last cab and had to redesign. As for how many watts thats up to you probably equal to the docs wattage would suffice but a little more couldnt hurt. Best piece of advice I've gotten lately was to remember that the doc is a ganja guru and until you've got a bit more experience only try to learn from him not emulate him and expect the same results. Good luck

p.s I assume you've read all the docs threads but if not that might be a good place to start. And it doesn't hurt to read them again just to be sure

 

[e_24]

Wow that cab is fuckin sweet for an ngb style cab. I am so jealous! Good luck man, I bet its gonna be a sweet build!

 

[izzybud]

i was looking for something similar to this before i started my grow. didnt find anything close to this. very nice!

 

[cody2white]

Look at s & p for your fan. They are really quite and push a shit load of air. A+ in my book. Also make sure you double your intake size to exhaust size

 

[Windowshaker]

Thanks every one for the comments. Please keep them coming. I am not sure if I should have put this in the design forum? I am getting together my shopping list for the build. But I have not figured out what all I need and what sizes. Here are some size numbers on my cab.
Top left big 22 deep x32 1/2 wide x28 1/2 high
6.4 square feet
11.8 cubic feet
Top right 22 deep. 16 1/2 wide x 28 1/2 high
3.2 square feet
6 cubic feet
Bottom left could be
22 deep x 32 1/2 wide x 24 high
6.4 square feet
9.9 cubic feet
It currently is divided into 2 compartments and a wierd double pullout keyboard thing that is 6x 32.5
Bottom right is 3 drawers 1 is 12" and 2 are 6"
I thought the drawers could be the utility area and maybe the carbon filter? However as someone said I could gut the lower left and have two flower chambers on the left moms in the top right and maybe gut the drawers for a clone rooting veg area. Or I could put the utilitys there and do the clones somewhere else like in the cabinet under the sink in the bathroom it is huge and mostly unused. I really would like to keep it all together if I could.

Given theses dimensions what size carbon filter do I need and fan. like to vent the whole cab. also can i vent it into the air conditioned room (central plus and window unit the room is very well cooled) or am i gonna have to vent the exhaust outside?

Also when I get it running I think I want to do some sort of flood and drain watering like the Dr is doing now. So should I just put my pop bottles in plastic containers and do this manually or how hard would it be to automate this either on a timer or something I turn on and off?
Thanks all

 

[Guest304546]

good luck with the build man, AND your first grow, ...and welcome to the hobby too.

i have just 2 suggestions, ...one, buy a much bigger exhaust fan than you think you need AND be very careful posting pictures of your ink, ...LEO trolls this site and you'd hate to be identified by a picture of your tat's.

peace, AD

btw, i've built 3 cabs and modified a few closets myself and i can tell you that the smaller you go, the more difficult it is to maintain your environment so think and measure twice before making ANY decisions that can't be undone.

...here is a link you should explore, i'm sure you can find something that applies to your situation.

[URL="https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=40637"]ICMAG'S OFFICIAL ~DIY~ LINK-O-RAMA [/URL]

 

[Sym]

Very nice find you got there! I would love to find a unit like that.

I think if it were me i might consider taking out the shelf dividing the top and bottom left side to give you more height to work with. Bigger plants would be easier to get the amount you are striving for. Then you could run a small HPS or CMH and depending on your budget it would be the perfect footprint for some LED lights. Then you could have clones and moms in same room and bottom right for utility... just some thoughts.

Good luck! cant wait to see your progress.

 

[DU420]

Just my opinion mate but I just did a little math( which is not my strong point but bare with me) you've got 4.9 sq ft per shelf on the left side now(trust me I did the calculation 4 times to make sure), you should be able to fit 55 20oz bottles per shelf thats allowing space in both back corners of both top and bottom shelves (where I assume you're intake is) for a 150mm desk fan in one corner and your carbon filter in the other. So that's 110 bottles all up if you can manage 5g dry per bottle and harvest 10 bottles per week you should end up with around 1.8 oz per week. Where as if you were to remove the shelf and put in a hid the only viable(in my opinion) grow would be a scrog in which if you had a 10 week strain + minimum 5 weeks veg you'd need to harvest 30 oz dry to get your 2 oz per week. HID just doesn't seem viable to me, but like I said just my opinion. Not to mention that by the time your scrog finishes your mother plants will be out growing their home

 

[Windowshaker]

Just my opinion mate but I just did a little math( which is not my strong point but bare with me) you've got 4.9 sq ft per shelf on the left side now(trust me I did the calculation 4 times to make sure), you should be able to fit 55 20oz bottles per shelf thats allowing space in both back corners of both top and bottom shelves (where I assume you're intake is) for a 150mm desk fan in one corner and your carbon filter in the other. So that's 110 bottles all up if you can manage 5g dry per bottle and harvest 10 bottles per week you should end up with around 1.8 oz per week. Where as if you were to remove the shelf and put in a hid the only viable(in my opinion) grow would be a scrog in which if you had a 10 week strain + minimum 5 weeks veg you'd need to harvest 30 oz dry to get your 2 oz per week. HID just doesn't seem viable to me, but like I said just my opinion. Not to mention that by the time your scrog finishes your mother plants will be out growing their home

I am not sure on my math I used a calculator on a web page to do it and I didn't really question it. Plus I was a bit impaired at the time this all occurred.
any way your more than likely correct.
I am sure I could get by with less than the 1-2 zips a week, but it is a goal. You and others have commented that I need to run two flower chambers with this cab to have a chance at pulling any weight. I am leaning towards going this direction.

As far as lighting
An hid would probably be a real problem without venting outside the structure. Cfl seems the route. I am planning on mixing spectrums. I haven't decided on how many and what size. At least 26 watts I know. Really 42 watts or bigger is what I have been planning along the way.
At a local farm store today I noticed they have some really large cfl's with integral ballast and regular sockets. 105 watt 6500k for 25$.
Unfortunately the largest 2700k they had in stock was 68 watt for 19$ also the had 42 watter's in both spectrum's for 10$.
should I run one or more of these larger bulbs and some smaller ones? all bigger? all 42's?
Thanks everyone for the advice and warnings!
With these larger cfl's a reflector starts to become more important, right?

 

[Windowshaker]

I have been stewing on this cfl business. If I used one or a combo of powerful cfl's in the center of the flower area and like 42 or 26 watter's around the perimeter. Then I could put the more mature plants around the perimeter and the younger ones in the middle. Creating a sort of stadium of green effect with a level floor. This seems an efficient method to me.

 

[DU420]

I've read that the 105w cfls are the most efficient so probably just three of them mounted in each cab should do you. Now just to clear things up a little did you want 2 zips a week or 2 zips a month?

 

[Windowshaker]

I've read that the 105w cfls are the most efficient so probably just three of them mounted in each cab should do you. Now just to clear things up a little did you want 2 zips a week or 2 zips a month?

Well in short I currently consume a min of about 1 1/2 zips a month of kine bud (pretty good smoke I have about 3 sources 98% of the time it is seedless. I guess it might be considered mids to anyone that has real dank or potent medical.) I would consume more at times if it were available. I also have immediate family in need that i would supply gratis. So basically I ran across the original DR bud thread in it he pulled between 3/4 and like just over 2 ounces a week.(this cab is much bigger than what he had then) That seemed like it should take care of the needs around here
Could I live on less? sure. If I am gonna do this I to be able to enjoy an ample stash without the worries and the hunting and the sketchy situations. second I want to be able to help some others out. Two zips a week sounds greedy i guess, I am gonna share. And this is not a commercial endeavor!
Sorry for rambling on. The gist of it all in the end is I want to produce the best quality product that I can. past that I want to pull as much from this cab as it is gonna give, the lights are gonna be on etc the same time regardless of yield. Just trying to break into the craft so to speak I guess?
thanks again everyone!
Also the idea of keeping a few mothers and having some variety with the ability to run some of each at the same time with this Dr Bud micro cfl sog business. Like I have said before I know that he is a guru and my results would likely be less. On the flip side he has been putting it out there for years albeit with plenty of haters and plenty of praise and enough documented grows that I have faith that it is gonna work!

 

[TexMex McDirt]

Man thats a nice armoire to build out. If I would offer any advise it would be to really pay attention to your ventilation. You fill that thing up with lights, even CFLs, and it will get hot as fuck in there. Not sure what your stealth requirements are, but a PC fan ain't gonna cut it in there. Good luck tho man, I will keep an eye on this build, I love cab builds.

Happy Farming, Stay Safe!
Tex

 

[Windowshaker]

Thanks for stopping by Tex. I checked out your setup briefly very nice. I am wanting to incorporate a drying box into my setup now because of yours.
I am making some slow progress so bear with me please everyone. Its hot here! and my health is not real great. back on the point. I gutted the lower left of the cab. I have gathered up some supplies. I picked 10 42 watt warm white cfl's and 2 68 warm whites(all home depot had on the shelf) 19 porcelain fixtures. Two bags of ffof soil, a light timer, some panda plastic and some reflective mylar a ph test kit blah, blah, blah. today.
I am still trying to figure out ventilation. I am pretty sure I am going to run some sort of carbon filter/ scrubber. I am just overwhelmed with ideas and opinions on fans filters intake methods. Please feel free to comment on how you would do this anyone! I won't promise to use it verbatim but I am reading and listening and studying! I am telling anybody about this grow other than on here. So this is my source for everything as like I said I have not mentor to talk to.
Thanks Everybody

 

[Windowshaker]

well I am slowly figuring things out one at a time. I guess really this cab is closer to Dr Bud's cfl to a next level cab. If i remember right that was 11-1200 watts of cfl so I am thinking line the walls with 42's maybe a 26 here or there and run 1 or maybe 2 68's in the middle. I am thinking vertical for the 68 and horizontal for the 42's. In short counting clone/mother lights it could add up to 1200 watts or more of cfl easily, but only if i can keep it cool.

I have decided to remove the drawers entirely and find a cabinet door and put on it. In doing that I have a four compartment cab. The two larger ones for flowering and the smaller ones mom/clone/veg using both if needed and possibly using one for a drying box? or it could be utility?

Ventilation is my concern right now. I have fretted over the #'s and think I might need a fan as large as the Panasonic whisperline FV-40NLF1 or S&P td200 or the ultra quit 200. these are 8" fans! that just seems unreal? if I need that size I am fine with that, I am even ok if that size if it gives me an appropriate level of cushion. I just don't want an unnecessarily large fan. And I really want to buy the right one the first time.

If that size fan is what I need I would maybe do two 4" pvc passive intakes and one 4" duct from each flower chamber and one 4" passive in the lower small chamber connecting 4" duct to upper small chamber and a 4" duct. all three 4" ducts into a manifold. Or would I have to run as many 4" ducts as 4" passive intakes??!?! The ducts and Intakes would be on the rear of the cab. The manifold could even be large enough to house the carbon filter to pull through it, or it could be manifold - fan - filter. Also Phresh makes an inline carbon filter sized for this sort of air flow. If I used that it would make it easier to run a duct up to a passive vent duct from the room it is in to the main part of the house. that would get the heat of of the room it is in(whole house central window unit in room with grow cab) This manifold fan scrubber etc in this scenario would be on top of the cab disguised by totes or boxes etc the duct to the other room could be hidden in the same manner using a shelf above door height, I don't think it would be to out of the ordinary I could use the storage space as it is.
Thanks again everyone for the ideas and keep them coming.

 

[Windowshaker]

I really need some help with the fan and duct etc size selection. these worst case #'s that have me looking at these 450+ cfm fans. thats like 15 air changes a minute!(thats if I all four chambers its around 30 cubic feet I think) I am sure the actual number of changes might be a few less, but that seems like to much to me. Is this the sizes I need or should I go smaller? how much smaller? help please!
Thanks

edit to add other ideas without having to many post
I have the back of the cab and i am fitting plywood to it. I really only have 23" floor to ceiling in the lower chamber and 28 1/2" in the top, in short this leads me to believe that "dailing in a strain" Dr Bud style would be different for each chamber 5 1/2" means the top is like 25% taller than the bottom percentage wise that's a bunch. I suppose I could make notes for both cabs (seems tedious) or since I intend to run several different moms I could segregate by those who nee d the extra height. Or should I look at t-5 or pl-l for the lower? I really didn't want to do that because I am sold on Dr. Buds notion to buy cfl's at home depot and no questions asked replace them. In short I am sold on the cfl and at the same time I am fretting over all the minute details trying to insure that my cab works!

 

[DU420]

Hey window, are you only using 1 fan to vent the whole cab? Did you give any thought to the set up I pointed out in my first post with 2 fans, 1 for each side. You could get away with a 4' inline for veg/clone side and a powerful 4' or possibly a 6' inline on the flowering side. As for you different sizes in your top and bottom chamber why don't you use the taller chamber for more mature plants that are taller and the shorter cab for younger plants. Or if your running multiple strains use the taller cab for sativa doms and shorter cab for indica doms.

 

[Windowshaker]

DU420
Thanks for the reply. I guess I forgot about that suggestion, thanks for reminding me. I have a lasko blower fan that is about 1/3 larger than the stanley blower I have seen others use in cab's similar to this. my lasko I a lot like this one http://www.amazon.com/Lasko-Innovators-Comfort-Performance-Pivoting/dp/B000NNH9LW/ref=pd_sbs_hg_6
I had completely forgot about this fan. I used it at work before I retired. I am strongly condsidering trying to plumb in this fan and do a diy carbon filter for it. The reason I am leaning to this is I have the fan and the scrubber's are real expensive to build. I then would have a feel for the cooling needs of the cab, if the lasko is too loud I could then order a quiet fan based on how the cab react to the air flow this fan produces. One problem with that is that I haven't found a cfm rating on this fan(not sure these types of fans are even rated for cfm)

As far as the scrubber is concerned your idea of a long one going through both chambers is good, but I don't want to cut any more holes in the hutch than I have to. It is used and is a mix of wood and laminated press board. I am trying not to compromise it any more than necessary. I think that I will vent in and out from the back of the cab. I am working on figuring out my light traps. In through passive light traps. out through ducts coming out the back as well. to a manifold on the top the fan then diy carbon filter. camo these items on top as large storage bins.
clear as mud? lol

now that I think about it the mothers won't need as much ventilation as the flowering chamber. I may do a computer fan for the mother chamber. I am holding of on removing the drawers an putting a door in that area for now. i may root clones under like 1/2 small cfl's in the large drawer if cramped for space. and storage/ utility for the two smaller ones.
I can get rectangle ducts that you make out of two L shaped peices from home depot. both flowering chambers could share one or a combo of three would guarantee both flowering chambers were light proof from each other.

I have seen light traps made out of sheet metal. I may try to make one of these. Or have thought about trying to make one out a pastic storage tote.
again thanks for taking the time, let me know what you think.