[nuglet]

Hey guys, this is my first post, and my second attempt at growing. With Overgrow gone, this seemed like the new place to hang out

I have decided to build a covert, horribly over-designed cabinet.

This is what I am working with.




I found it outside with a free note attached.
The rough (within .5") inner working space is: 16.5" x 28" x 31".

I want to use a simple hydro setup and *hopefully* scrog on a 15" square net (one inch gaps, made from .5" PVC).

Here are some rough designs of what I would like to do. These show the inner, usable space only. Stuff should be pretty much to scale.



To start:

My idea is to cut off the fronts of the drawers, and attach them to a piece of .5" plywood. This would then be applied to the front of the dresser, once the existing drawer braces are removed. Hinges would be hidden on the inside of the cabinet, and a sunken lock would be applied to the side. I am also thinking about redesigning the leg assembly to include a few more inches of high (as my ventilation is going to be on the bottom).

Does this even seem feasible? I would like to split the width of the area and have one section be for a mother and the other, larger section, be for flowering/cloning. With 28" to work with, I thought a 10" devision for the mother would be sufficient. This will leave about 17.5 inches for the flowering section. Mother doesn't need to be very large, as I will only require about 3 clones each grow. So... is 10" x 12" of space with fluorescents going to suffice?

Another devision would occur about 5" from the top of the dresser in the mother area. This would hold timers and air pumps. A third devision, also in the mother chamber, would section off a 6" by 25" for blowers and carbon filter.

So far I have:

Mother section @ 10" x 10.5" x 25"

Flowering section @ 17.5" x 16" x 31"

A chamber (1) along the top for timers and pumps, accessible from the front @ 16" x 10" x 5"

A chamber (2) along the back for blowers and carbon filter @ 6" x 10" x 25"



In both the mother and flowering sections, I will install sliding trays on the bottom and mylar to all surfaces.

Two 70 or 150 watt (still can't decide) HPS would be enclosed in a homemade hood with a sealed glass cover and constant air suction. This would be achieved with a smaller size blower and expandable hoses on either end. Routed to the top of the flowering section these hoses would attach on to black 1.5 or 2" ABS piping. I am trying to design this setup so that all intake ventilation is on the bottom of the cab, and exhaust on the top left.

Is 1.5"-2" a large enough exhaust for these lights. I am thinking the pipes could be as long as 6-8' from intake to exhaust. What size (smaller the better...) of blower could I get away with?

4, 18" fluorescents would be installed into the mother section horizontally.

I am making the ballasts for these lights, so I am thinking off combining them all into a small box and having it somewhere remote. Maybe include power for fans/blowers as well, So as to only have one cord going into the cab.


Anyways, that about where I am right now. I think I know what I want to do for the rest (hydro, carbon scrubber design) but I need to rebuild the cab first and get some exact measurements. Once that basic remodel is done, I am going to CAD this out with exact measurements.

Here is a basic design for exhaust on both the lights and grow sections.
Not very complete yet, as this part is proving difficult.



As I said, I am a noob when it comes to this, so I will probably be asking a lot of questions.

???

In a box this size, should I use two 70 watt or two 150 watt HPS?

Are 4 fluorescent tubes (24 watt each, 900 lumen i think) going to be enough for my mother?

I need to find small blowers, but my luck is nil. Any ideas?

I can't figure out what to make a carbon scrubber in that would be small enough..?

Has anyone bought from 1000bulbs.com? It was the only place I found that sold ballasts cheap.



So, yeah, I am pretty stoned right now, so if any of this doesn't make sense, please tell me; and yes, I need many suggestions! Lol!

Thanks guys,

-nuglet-


er... yeah/ ok.

[pieceofmyheart]

Welcome to Micro Grows!!!!


Great job on the design, Mtnjohn has a micro-hydro-scrog grow in a cabinet about that size. He has pics somewhere.....

[bounty29]

1000bulbs is a good company, just be warned, if you get the quad tap ballast, the one which can operate on several different voltages, it is quite large. I wasn't expecting that. For that sized flowering area I'd say one 70w HPS with some floros. 150w would be over 75wpsf, which is good and all but you might have a hard time with the ventilation.

[nuglet]

Cool, thanks bounty! I think I might try a 150w with hood/glass and a seperate ventilation system... and some 26 watt fluoro's. Are the plugin type fluorecents ok to use? To me, they seem like they might be easier to install and more powerful...

fluorecents in question: https://www.businesslights.com/produc...roducts_id=884

I need to figure out what kind of fans can fit in the alloted 6" of space... :(

But --- my biggest question, will a space of 10" x 12" x 20" be enough space for a well-pampered mom?

Lol. I just spent the last 4 hours reading almost every post in the 150 watt thread. Hopefully, in the coming months, I too will have something to show off :0

[mushupork5]

YES, that is plenty of space for a mom. the space concerns you are going to have are with the hydro setup. height is your biggest concern right now. you will want to leave about 10" from the screen to where your light is (relative max in teh box). 3 gallon DWC buckets would work, a small ebb&flow will work, a drip system will probably work. you'll have to know your stuff though. a SOG soil grow with single cola plants (no veg from rooted clone) will probaby be the best thing for that space.

[nuglet]

Humm. I am worried about having too many plants tho. In theory I never want more then 3 at any time. Two flowering/vegging, and one Mom.

With my space, I figured it out like this: I have 30" of height for everything. The light and hood will take up at least 5". 2-gallon, 8 inch pots (?) will take up 10" (?). 5" from that is the scrog screen... that leaves me with 18" from screen to light.

Question; with such a small box, would it be more efficient to just hard mount my light(s) to the top, and not bother moving them up and down?

I am confident i can handle the cooling of this setup, so I am wondering when using a glass cover for the light, I can pretty much have buds touching it (as long as it doesn't burn the back of my hand)?

And, I am also thinking of using pipedream's DWC setup, simple, cheap and proven. If I am even thinking of hydro, I need to get... ec meter? tds? ph testers? whats the simplest I can go with for nutes? Hydro is new to me. I understand the basics, and have read a ton about it, but I don't know exactly what equipment to purchuse.

I would like to build my cab so that I can take clones from the one side, pop them into the flowering section till they root, then transfer into 4 inch net pots and turn on the HPS. Since I am going to scrog, can I get away with using water-wands to support my plants?
With clones, am I leaving the original medium or removing it once I transplant into the netpots?

[Underground Man]

I have a dresser with the same footprint but a bit more height.

2" diameter is way to small for ducting. 4" will be sufficient.

Definitely 150hps over 70(s) in that 1.8 sqft space Also, If you decide you want more lumens go with a 250 instead of 2 150s.

Don't underestimate ventilation needs. You may be able to get away with computer fans if you use very short straight through duct runs and/or isolate light cooling from room ventilation but it will be hard. I tried to use 4" muffin fans at first but failed, so I bought a centrifugal and have never looked back. Centrifugal fans are relatively big though about 10 inches in diameter and 5 inches thick, but they suck hard (in a good way)! I use a 250 hps, but when you add up your watts you are in that neighborhood too. You can save yourself some hassle by just getting the centrifugal first.

WHen I did my dresser at first I was planing on making two compartments but ended up just making one for space and simplicity reasons. I was also planning on doing hydro but scratched that for the same reasons.

I also put my dresser on wheels and made the door on the back instead of the front. I think that was easier than making a door with the drawer fronts attached to it. Since your cab has that lower moulding you could put wheels under there and they would be out of sight.

I hard mounted my light, but only becuase I have a dished screen. If you are lighting a flat plane scrog you definitly want to be able to adjust the light as your buds grow.

I'd get ph/tds meter(s), calibration fluid, storage solution, ph up, ph down. I think Lucas formula is simple and cheap, if you want to use it just get some GH micro and twice as much GH bloom.

I ordered waaaaay to much nutes lol, don't get the 2.5 gallon jug of bloom like I did. 1 gallon bloom, 1/2 gallon micro is probably plenty if not too much.

I am just a newb too.

Are there any updates for this cabinet? Any new pictures? I'm working with a similar space and want to see what you've done with it. Thanks.

any updates?

[highonthechroni]

Yeah! Would be great to see ya pull off those plans!