[killabrown420]

Hello everyone! You guys doing alright? Hell yeah, grab yourself a bowl, some homegrown, and fire that sucker up! I'm about to show you my new box, and run down how I built, how much things cost, etc...

This thread goes out to john64 over @ OG, for his "cost of growing" thread. I picked up an enormous amount of info there, and I hope I can re-create it the best I can, but he really did an excellent job documenting just how much it costs to build one of these things from scratch. So here we go,

Lets go over some of the things I already had:
400 watt hps light
265 cfm dayton blower
dryer vent
bungee cord
Screw in hangers for light
some hemp rope for hanging light *duh don't use hemp rope, i've switched to chains
Black carbon filter cloth (for covering intake)

Things I had to buy from Lowes: ~130bucks
BUNCH of L brackets for frame, I mean A LOT!
wood screws
1x6 and 1x8 wood for frame, cheapest stuff they have
Metal roofing stuff for air-cooled hood
Triangle brace for hood (no idea what they call this)
4" plumbing grate for hood
2- 4" clamps
Velcro
Staple gun w/ staples
Black poly-wrap
Soil Mix

From hydro store: ~50 bucks
Bat guano
Mylar 2-mil
Advice!!!



Now to construction

First off we took measurements, our cab stands 3ftx4ftx6ft

So you measure out all your wood, line up the L brackets the way you want and drill little starter holes in each corner, so the wood won't split when you start screwing

Ok so now you got yourself a little frame...now just add some support, measure out the center, where you'll hang the light like so:

Now add some extra support for where the blower and ballast will be

Build yourself a little door, make sure you make the door a bit smaller than the frame, so it can open and shut right, we don't have to have it completely light-proof or airtight, that will be taken care of later.


So now we need to hang the mylar. Take your staple gun and tack that sucker up, we figured out the less staples the better, its best if the mylar hangs freely, you'll see why later.


By this time I had finished the air-cooled hood, hey looky there!






Lets mount the blower and light up there and try it out! We screwed the blower directly to the wooden support, made it light/airproof by cutting small pieces of scrap wood and glueing them to the frame. I'll have to get a better picture of this, its hard to describe


Now we got the ballast to take care of. We just built a little wood shelf, took some of the scrap metal sheeting from the light and screwed it down on top so the ballast could rest on something metallic. Then we just used a single L bracket, a couple screw in hangers and a bungee cord to finish the job...plenty of support to hold that heavy sumofabitch

Ok almost there! Now we wrapped the cab w/ black poly. We decided to layer it up so there would be no light leaks whatsover. We did this by wrapping the plastic around the sides, then again from the floor around the back, up over the ceiling, and then we just pull it down over the door and attach velcro to the sides so it stays put.



When the door is shut, the walls suck in, meaning the cab is airtight. The mylar is pulled tight by the pressure, so its ok if there are a few ruffles when your stapling it up.



*EDIT
The total cost depends on what bells and whistles you choose, but lets say for the base model it costs a little under 200 dollars.

Since then we switched the hood to the DIY cool tube which cost about 30 dollars, added co2 regulator tank solenoid flow valve and timer all together about $150.



Also switched growing style to SOG using 5" 1 gallon pots. I try to utilize my space like TICK from OG. I pretty much copied his guide on vegging and flowering...only top nuggets for me from now on. I use the same amount of soil just higher plant #'s, which means higher variety in strains which is what I'm all about.

[StoneyDanza]

BEAUTIFUL. I'm about to move to a new location and want to start a whole new setup. I have a 400w also, and made a cool tube running in a 1.5x4 Home depot cabinet. I have the same dayton blower, but still had some High temps... and I was venting into the attic. Where does the cab vent to? And what kind of temps do you get?

Giving me some great ideas for my next grow.... Howd you build the hood? Looks pretty simple. Is it effective???

Thanks

Well, that's certainly the most ominous looking 'Box of Unknown Purpose' I've seen in a while. Nice to see people building their own stuff, good work.

However, I insist you put wheels on it.

[killabrown420]

hehe, yeah lothar it was pretty sketch having a contractor coming in the house to tear down the door, with plants in the other room...but he was cool, we told him we were a couple "film" majors and that we had built this portable box/dark room to develop film in. We are college age so I think he bought it. Who cares, he made his money, had a good laugh too.

Wheels are definately on the list of alterations were gonna make. Gonna pick up some scrap 2x4's and build another base and attach the wheels to it. Next trip to lowes maybe.

The air blows out the top into a garage type structure that is attached to our house. It's semi-insulated and has a pull down garage door. I guess there is a lack of fresh air coming in besides when we open the door once a while. Its still nice and chilly outside so the temps haven't been too much of a concern, that will change in the summer though. We'll just adjust the light cycle so its off during the day.

The hood was built out of memory of an old OG tutorial. You measure the bulb, add six inches in length to both sides and get your dimensions, then basically you take thin metal sheeting, fold tabs and secure with screws or bolts. If you look at the sides I added some sturdiness to the hood by attatching it to scrap wood, which the hangers are connected to. You can get these triangular braces that you can use on the two ends of the hood. Use metal screws to bolt the 4 pieces of metal together. Add a little duct tape for good measure, at least at the beginning to help you keep it from wobbling around.

Hey, heres the cabby all done and pretty.






Got some babies under her now, the two in the back (IPXBB#3)(GreenspiritXHeavydut yfruity) are exactly 2 weeks flowering, the two in front just started last night. (IPXBB#1) (IPXBB#3) In two weeks 2 more plants will be added, (AG13)(mr nice), 2 weeks after that I have another GSXHDF clone ready, along with a Dabney Blue. 2 weeks after that I harvest the first 2 and put in any 2 I want to flower next. I'm taking clones from each plant 2 weeks prior to flowering so they are for sure rooted w/ time to take extra if there are any problems w/o disrupting the cycle.

So basically by April 7th, I'll be harvesting 2 plants every 2 weeks with no more than 8 plants being flowered at once. Harvest twice a month!!!


lets smoke a bowl!

[killabrown420]

Well I guess you have to have something like 200 posts to be in chat :( Thats kinda gay but whatever, I guess I'm a "noob" to these forums, so I'll just post away on my own thread as to not spam on others...so heres a few pics of what will be going into the new setup:
Blueberry
Mr. Nice
G13
The old setup

[killabrown420]

Some GreenspiritXHeavyDutyFruity

[killabrown420]

IPBB#1 "the itis" bud growing

IPBB#1 "the itis" bud dried

"ITIS" whole plant shot


By far the best pheno out of the three ipbb's I flowered last grow. KEEPER!

Originally Posted by Lothar of OG

Well, that's certainly the most ominous looking 'Box of Unknown Purpose' I've seen in a while. Nice to see people building their own stuff, good work.

However, I insist you put wheels on it.

"Box of unknown purpose" that cracked me up. Nice way of putting it. Great box

















Nevermind

[gr0wm4g3]

That is freaking cool! I'm gonna build a smaller one for my 1 plant grow. That's the best idea I've ever seen for making a large and effective growroom. Thanks for the idea.

but what was the "black poly-wrap"s actual name in the store? I can't find it on lowes.com

[killabrown420]

Originally Posted by gr0wm4g3

That is freaking cool! I'm gonna build a smaller one for my 1 plant grow. That's the best idea I've ever seen for making a large and effective growroom. Thanks for the idea.

but what was the "black poly-wrap"s actual name in the store? I can't find it on lowes.com

thanks man, see I didn't know the name of the stuff either...I don't think they have it online, but they do in the stores. Its black poly, or plastic sheeting, if you ask someone they should be able to point you in the right direction. Its down by the hardware isle, right before the lumber Alternatively if you didn't want to do the mylar seperate, you can use the black on white poly sheeting they sell @ hydro shops, its something like 90% reflective and is lightproof. You can buy that stuff for something like 3 bucks per ft hope this helps

killa