Thornswoods NGB Tower

[thornswood]

Hey guys.

At the moment i'm doing a vertical scrog grow in a very limited space, and i've learned that that is not an easy task at all, which is why i'm planning on constructing a NGB style cabinet, and i came up with this:

 

[thornswood]

The with and depth of the cabinet is restricted, which is why i made it taller instead. Budget is tight, and stealth is of the essence. I'm going to use 3x55W PLL in the flowering room, and 4x20-30W CFL in the veg room. The airflow is designed to be symmetrical, so that each plant gets the same amount of fresh air. The scrubber is designed to be easily refillable with activated carbon, and in a thickness of your requirements (max 3.5cm layer). The thin peace of wood that holds the pc fans in place can be easily replaced aswell, if you want to switch fans. The cabinet has space for some jars of your product and nutes or other stuff .

Please feel free to comment, and if you use my design, tell me how it works for you . *If you want the exact length of each component just ask.

Cheers

 

[blynx]

Cool design.

Do you have pll fixtures in mind? or are you building the flowering light/setup from scratch?

 

[thornswood]

Its more economical for me if i just buy one ballast and one bulb more, since i got the rest, and make the fixtures from scratch. At least i think so... i've been tampering a lot with the geometry to optimize the spread of the reflected beams and to make it "easy to construct". I believe it's "only" about bending aluminum in shape, drilling and screwing it together. Regarding the veg lightning i'm thinking about finding a place to buy philips tornado xsmall bulbs. They should emmit 1550 lumens for 23W. I havn't planned what to do about fixtures for those yet.

 

[1337micro]

Very nice design, when are you building? Can't wait to see the process/finish, great ideas, just curious how air leaves the box? (can't really tell from the sketchups). I'm assuming everything's in centimeters?

 

[Cabinet Ninja]

The plans look really good but I honestly think that you'd be better of using the extra storage space as part of your vegging section.

Good to see others rocking the PL-Ls

Keep us updated!

 

[thornswood]

Everythings in centimeters and millimeters, and i think ill start at some point this summer. It fits in size with a spot i have in mind when im moving in with my girlfriend . The air leaves and enters in the back:

The air intake is 264 cm^2 (around 40 square inches). The "channels" between the bloom and veg room are each exactly half, and the exit channel from the veg room is again 264 square cm. The area of the scrubber is 425 square cm (~65 square inch), and the exit is 272 square cm (42 square inch)

with 3x55W PLL's ill have 14400 lumens on an area of around 1/4 square meter. That is a lux of around 55000. For the small veg area i calculated something like 45000 for the bulbs i have in mind.

Thank you all for your interest and credit.

 

[thornswood]

The plans look really good but I honestly think that you'd be better of using the extra storage space as part of your vegging section.

Good to see others rocking the PL-Ls

Keep us updated!

Thank you . Well it ofcause would be nice with larger veg area, but its not strictly nessesary. One mother could take up half the space, and i could occasionally take 2-4 clones. Or plant 2-4 seeds at a time. The dimensions of the flowering cabinet is only to support 2 or 4 smaller plants anyway. And besides, i just cant figure out how to make the airflow even if the veg area extends all the way to the side instead of there being a storage part. Ive put much effort into that, in order to have every volume of space evenly exchanged with fresh air. Ofcause there will be other fans to improve air circulation and temperature, so i know i don't actually need to complicate things in such a degree as i've done. I just find it difficult to let go of the idea of symmetric airflow ^^.

 

[thornswood]

Plans change all the time. Thats the advantage of planning something in time - you get a lot of time to make sure its the right decision.

So, a number of people agreed that two pc fans won't be enough to keep both rooms cool whilst pulling through a scrubber, and recommended me to find a inline fan. Do you guys believe that aswell?

I've since read the "ventilation 101" in here, and can gather from that, that its recommendable to have a seperate cooling system for the light, since the cooling requirements for the light exceeds the optimum air exchange requirements for the plants by a large margin, such that plants growing in a "single exhaust system" suffer a bit from dehydration from growing in a wind tunnel.

So maybe i should design the cab in such a way, that i could encase the light in some kind of ventilated glass box (i've already tampered with this and got some ideas on how to execute that). However, it IS more cumbersome, both to design and build, and i'm wondering... is it worth it? I only plan on using 3x55W PLL's

 

[Hydro-Soil]

These lights really don't put off that much heat.

I'd look at mounting the ballasts on the backside or top of the cabinet as they usually need to stay around 75F for warranty purposes.

Concentrate on airflow, odor control and noise reduction of your airflow. You'll love it.

Stay Safe!

 

[Mallett]

Yeah I wouldn't worry about cooling the lights separately. They do not put off enough heat. I like your design though can't wait to see more!

 

[grouchy]

You may need another bend in your light trap. I don't think you will be able to lightproof the flower room they way you have it.