[mpd]

So, I decided that I am not going to sit around and watch my business fly down the tubes and wait and see if my new book is going to be a success or not. I am a take charge guy who is down to his last $10K or so in funds, so it was time to get it in gear and make a new move.

I decided to go ahead and enter the "murky" world of dope-based commerce. You know what I am talking about; those fucking pothead kids who ride around yellin' about cheese and shit. Hey, fuck you chuck. We smoke excellent gold and none of that b.s. weed. We can't keep up with them, so we might as well profiteer off of them in a way that is consistent with the tenets of true communism and economic servitude, cuz' that's America cousin.

I spent a lot of time on a new cabinet design. I started on this design back in the summer, but money was tight and my old lady was being a douche bag about it, so I waited and spent a lot of sleepless nights thinking about it, each and every piece; focusing on functionality, quality of construction and providing the user with a value that was beyond anything I have attempted before in all of my five years of growing, inventing and construction.

I took my design over to Casa DePot and bought the wood. No cheap shit for this kid. I spend real cake - almost $600 on the materials. VB Grade finish on the plywood. Full 1/2" thickness to provide insulation. Real rosewood for the exterior trim boards. This project is going to be quality through and through because it is going to spend time in my house and there isn't a piece of furniture in my house that we didn't drop serious bread on. My dinette set in the breakfast room has chairs that way over 90 pounds each. Solid monkeypod wood from Thailand. I shelled out $800 each for them 15 years ago.

This piece is going to be a faux dresser. It will be 4' wide by 2' deep by 2.5' high. It will look like a dresser that has stuck drawers. I made one once before for a friend who didn't get around so good and had/has nosy-assed neighbors who are constantly poking around his house. It had to be quiet and that one had to look like an old broken piece of furniture in the form of an end table, but you could grow an 18" plant in there that nobody could smell, hear or see.

Same principle here. There will be no noise. There will be no light leaks. There will be no smells. It will sit with antique dolls on top, even though the top will be hinged to open up. The front will pivot and drop flat, for full access. Like I said, the design took some time. This is my new mission for the holiday weekend. Build out the ultimate cabinet project and grow some serious ganja in a four-station perpetual garden that has room for 4 moms, vegging and cloning. Total wattage will be around 392 watts. Bloom will be 70 watts/SF with CFLs so we can get close, keep the heat down and still have some fun.

If it turns out the way I think it will, I will eventually film the working product and advertise it for sale here. I'm sure I'll spend about $585 on all the electronics and fans and whatnot, but we'll get there step by step.

A kid has to have a plan.

kwim, vern?

[mpd]

Cuts are almost done and I'll start assembling the cabinet this afternoon. I hope I did my measurements right; otherwise, I'll be supporting the local termite population.

Here's the first construction photo. This is the shell of the beast only. No trim work and no drawers. The idea is to illustrate the space and functionality.


Here I show the bottom sliders mounted so the box flip-down front doesn't dig into the carpet too deeply.

[ArcticBlast]

tagged, you're a very well "spoken" person, i'd be surprised if your book didn't do well

Well, i'm here for the ride! will this story have pictures, too?

ArcticBlast

[mpd]

Welcome to this humble thread and thank you for the kind words, or so I hope I may be allowed to take them.

Pictures? Oh, God. Not the inevitable shit with the phone cameras. I still have some shots of one of my god kids playing football on one of them that I never took off the damn phone.

I'll try, but technical shit confounds me. I've got most of the frame panels done. If someone will just hold them in place I'll get the frame finished and hang the friggin' outside walls. We could get there from here. I'll take some as soon as it looks like something other than an erector set that got dropped from an F16 going at Mach 2.

That's me, Mr. Techno-Wizard.

[mpd]

Okay, the basic cabinet is done now. It looks like it would be a folding table in its current state. I finished work tonight with a coat of KILZ Primer as my base interior coat of paint. Normally I do two coats of KILZ on my walls, but this would be overkill probably.

Tomorrow I will be putting on one thick coat of elastrometric roofing paint on the interior as the finish coat. I use this paint because it has better light diffusion properties than plain primer (and plain primer is great, don't get me wrong) but we are talking about a quality build out, so that means a high-quality interior paint finish that will last for years and years, taking whatever I throw at it; or so it is to be hoped.

If the paint will cure up tomorrow I will go ahead and put the trim package on the cabinet. The trim lumber (rosewood) will hide all the construction gaffs that I have made (a rather clever design feature for this new line) and give the finished case good the look of a high-end piece of furniture.

The production models will offer either:

1. no exterior finish (buyer finishes it anyway they like).
2. painted finish (lower cost than no finish, as the cost of lumber goes down).
3. Stained finish (two (2) different stain schemes).
4. Poured epoxy finish (top poured epoxy) and stained finish option (will add cost and time to cure).

I took pictures of the basic box tonight. Tomorrow I'll take a couple of the KILZ primed cabinet (to document the step for sales literature) and one of the completed interior with the elastometric paint job complete.

Once I have the trim package on I'll take those pictures and then post the whole lot of them.

The trim package will include the faux drawer fronts for the front, the trim boards for the top, bottom and sides. I also have a false post (decorative) that holds the front in place so that nobody accidentally pulls it open by tearing off the drop-down trim board that hides the sealing and sound insulation system - which is first-rate as you will see in the pictures tomorrow - that I am hoping will demonstrate the true value of this line of boxes I am developing.

The concept is simple; people who live in apartments or homes that want to grow but do not want (for whatever reason) to go with a closet grow or an outdoor grow would have these high-end pieces of furniture that can be used as either surreptitious grow boxes or home safes; their use is up to them.

The business end is a simple business plan of offering three (3) standardized unit sizes:

1. The Presidio - the box measures 48" wide by 24" deep by 36" high and has two-chambers. The mom chamber will easily support four (4) queens plus a generous area for vegging and the ventilation and power systems sub-cabinet area. The bloom chamber area will support four (4) plants with a staggered SCROG system area that features a pull-out garden box to make maintenance (feeding, etc.) a snap. I figure this one will end up with a price of around $1,500 on average, with an upside to around $2,199 for loaded finishes and lighting options.

2. The Del Monaco - the box measures 36" wide by 24" deep by 30" high. Split design ala' the Presidio, with room for three (3) queens, while the bloom chamber is designed for two (2) blooming bush-style plants at a time. This case-good will look like a lowboy or a dresser. I figure this one will end up around $1,000 with an upside of around $1,500 for loaded finishes, lighting options and other goodies.

3. The Carnahan Estate - the box measures 21" wide by 24" deep by 24" high. Single chamber box with a complete ventilation and lighting system designed for ultra stealth. This unit will look like an end table and have a flip-top access system (as do the others as you will see in the photos). Unlike the Presidio and Del Monaco, this unit will not have a fold-down front apron, but will come with an attached lamp (to explain the cord). This unit will end up around $500 and I expect it to sell the most as many people who want to grow some smoke (or protect their valuables) would be attracted to the design that is simple, relatively inexpensive and offers a high degree of functionality and quality.

That's what I'm working towards - I'll include one more model that is a more vertically-oriented cabinet with HID and LED lighting options. If it turns out to be a commercial endeavor, great. If the ultimate deal doesn't look like it will cut the mustard (or be too hard for me to sustain as a business) then it will be a pleasant diversion and the guy who ends up with the cabinet will be quite happy I'm sure.

That's where I am with this project so far.

[mpd]

So here are the rest of the construction photos. The first one shows another prospective of the cabinet shell. The lower swing out shelf is actually the front of the box. When the box is fully trimmed out, this will have false drawer fronts attached, trim and knobs.

The top (open in first photo) is the top of the box. It will be trimmed out with rosewood moulding around the edges (hiding the gap you see in the second photo). This is where the epoxy finish comes into play for that part of the deal. I'll pour the top using a 2-part epoxy (hot top) and put neat things in it.

The second photo shows the box with top and front closed. My intention here is to showcase the quality of the construction (such as it is) and quality of the materials that went into the construction program.


Here we are all closed up. Note the gap at the top - this is where the trim boards will go and cover this all up!

[mpd]

This next series shows some of the inner touches. The one photo shows how I did the joints. This cross-joint gives me a double-seal around all edges. No light leaks and no air leaks. It all works only one way.


The second photo shows the hidden piano hinge. I used a piano hinge on the front wall and on the top. This gives us a real nice box without having to rely upon the standard 4-screw hinges which always end up twisting and then nothing fits. The box also has hinge plates to hold everything open that needs to be open so that you don't have to worry about the top slamming on you when you aren't looking and we all know how that happens...


Joint detail...

[mpd]

Finally, we have to paint out. I made an error. Instead of doing 2 coats of KILZ and then the final coat of elastometric paint, I did one coat of KILZ (first two photos) and then I did the first coat of elastometric paint. Well, it wasn't one coat coverage, so I had to do a second coat with that super expensive paint (second two photos).


From another angle - note the spottiness of the coverage...


In production, I'll do two coats of KILZ and then a coat of elastometric and that will be the end of that.

The final coats...


And this one...


Tomorrow, I will hang the lights and things will start to get interesting.

[mpd]

Today's work was to design the light boxes. I would have done this months ago, but there would be the inevitable field adjustments. In the current case, I wanted to do the light box with the lights paired back-to-back and run the wires down a center wiring channel, but that ended up with a distance of 10" between lamps, so I had to ditch that idea and move on to Plan "B".

I was grateful for the opportunity to see what would work and what would not work. I intended to purchase these 60 watt lamps that are available at Home Depot that would end up reducing the total number of lamps, but...

Walmart offered an unbeatable price on the 42-watt units, so I went with those. If they turn out to give shitty performance, I can trade up to the 60 watt units and bring the total wattage up to 360 watts in the bloom chamber. That seems excessive, but we will test out the systems and see what we get.

So, I built two angle designed light panels, each one holding three (3) fixtures (note initial two construction photos below).


I then drilled out the panels to provide ease of access to the electrical wiring.


I used a drill for this that was left to me by my deceased FIL; he bought it in 1955. Still works (barely) and it gave me a laugh or two compared to the battery powered powerhouses out there today. (Editor's note: the drill previously owned by my deceased FIL has bought the farm and was enshrined in a manner that was fitting and proper, given my feelings for the man; in other words, I shitcanned it without further ado.)

The wiring is cut down extension cord wiring and it is fairly easy to work with, so there's no big mystery with the set-up. Once the wiring was checked, I took the stuff back off and did two (2) coats of KILZ and a coat of elastomeric roof paint (both being ultra-white) to give us some great reflectivity.
Here's the mounted angle boards ready to receive their respective light fixtures (simple surface-mounted closet fixtures that cost $1.79 at Casa DePot)...


Here we have two of the giant T-4 CFLs in rack to give us an idea of how they will go about concentrating light for the benefit of a certain plant.


Here we have the lights all racked up in battery and ready to go. Note the simplicity of series wiring being used to concentrate all the electrical into two (2) rack cords, instead of having to resort to six (6) rack cords to get the rack in battery and ready to fire.


Once that was done I went ahead and assembled the units back and did a test. Along the way I whipped out the DAP latex caulk and did the righteous thing on all joints. This is great caulk and is most easily applied with your fingers, so now we have ultra-tight boxes and the lights are in.

DAP and me were meant for each other...


I'll hang the combo thermometer and humidity meter to keep track of things.

More on the next installment when the ventilation arrives.

[mpd]

Here's the second set of photos showing the completion of the light set construction for the bloom chamber. These are 42-watt CFLs and we can see that they put out some watts, ohms, volts and current - the whole nine yards. The net chamber size for the bloom chamber is 23.5" wide by 21.25" deep by 34" high.

Let's see a little sunshine...


Another angle...


How bright is it in there? Trust me, you need yo' frickin' sunglasses Maynard.


OMG, it blots out the camera's ability to distinguish anything other than INCREDIBLY BRIGHT FRICKIN' LIGHTS! Oh My F!#%!@%$cking God!