[I2KanGrow]

So, I've been playing with Google Sketch-Up, and I've been fascinated with the elegance of the NGB box... put the 2 together, and ya end-up doing what comes naturally - I've made modifications!! Let me show you what I've come up with, please comment on these mods!!


What I've done is removed all of the "plumbing", and replaced it with a "baffled manifold chamber", nestled between the grow and mommy rooms. THis 3-section chamber would exchange hot air with cold, baffle and isolate light between the rooms and the box exterior (no glowing holes - the cabinet intake needs farther mods!), and scrub the smelly air in 1 process.


The hood is 8"x10" @ the top, 20"x22" @ the bottom, and will accomodate a Bake-A-Round cooltube. I needed to rivet 2 pieces of metal together, because I couldn't find sheetmetal large enough for my pattern (without it costing a fortune, that is - these sheets cost around $7.50 @ Lowes). After posting this, I'm gonna try to cut-it-out... wish me luck!!


This is the backside of the MicroBox.

I like the idea of having all of the venting relegated to 1 side of the box. I also want to have separate air circulation systems for the cabinet, and the light/cooltube, which should allow me the ability to vent both the MicroBox and the light with smaller, quieter computer fans. All air would be "pulled", that is to say, the cabinet fan would be located in the top-most section of the baffles, and the Cooltube fan would be located on the exhaust side of the cabnet wall.

Air would be scrubbed by pulling it thru a smaller (say 6"x6" or 6"x9") rubbermaid box that would be cut into the floor of the top-most section of the baffle. this would be sealed w/ window weatherstripping, and would be easy to lift-out, in order to to easily replace the carbon. This is very similar to Red_Greenery's scrubber, the design of which I think is pure genius!!! See Red's Thread for more details. I like the idea of creating a chimney-of-sorts, within the box, I think it will actually aid in circulating air. The light baffles would probably be made of luan, and the chamber would be painted flat black.

This is a work in it's infancy - comments?????

[thescissors]

NICE work with sketchup! One thing ... seems like you sacrifice some floor area for the new vent idea,,,, are the intake/exhaust ports actually on the back side? not sure i understand that part...


obviously i love sketchup too!!

[I2KanGrow]

Hey Sciss -

I gotta tell you, you're the one who inspired me to play w/ SketchUp - it sure does a lot for a freebie!

I probably wasn't clear on that point - as far as actual grow area when compared to the NGB cab, there's actually a bit more width and height in the the mother and utility rooms - and there's more height in the growroom. The floor area of the growroom is the the same as the NGB. My box takes-up more area (it's outside dimensions are 11 inches wider & 5 inches taller) overall, however, because of that 3rd chamber and my desire for more height for a bigger utility room, and more growspace in the growroom.

For my purposes, the amount of actual grow floorspace on the NGB is about perfect for my needs.

About that middle chamber, the front will be sealed-off with a solid yet removable door (for access to the carbon-filled rubbermaid). the backside of the entire cabinet will have a non-removable panel on it, with the exception of the cutouts for the chamber & cooltube intake/exhausts. air will be drawn-in thru the bottom square hole on the back, sucked thru the 2 growrooms (the blue arrows), back into the chamber (the red arrows), then drawn thru my scrubber and out the top square hole on the back.

Does that help??

[thescissors]

Originally Posted by I2KanGrow

Hey Sciss -

I gotta tell you, you're the one who inspired me to play w/ SketchUp - it sure does a lot for a freebie!

I probably wasn't clear on that point - as far as actual grow area when compared to the NGB cab, there's actually a bit more width and height in the the mother and utility rooms - and there's more height in the growroom. The floor area of the growroom is the the same as the NGB. My box takes-up more area (it's outside dimensions are 11 inches wider & 5 inches taller) overall, however, because of that 3rd chamber and my desire for more height for a bigger utility room, and more growspace in the growroom.

For my purposes, the amount of actual grow floorspace on the NGB is about perfect for my needs.

About that middle chamber, the front will be sealed-off with a solid yet removable door (for access to the carbon-filled rubbermaid). the backside of the entire cabinet will have a non-removable panel on it, with the exception of the cutouts for the chamber & cooltube intake/exhausts. air will be drawn-in thru the bottom square hole on the back, sucked thru the 2 growrooms (the blue arrows), back into the chamber (the red arrows), then drawn thru my scrubber and out the top square hole on the back.

Does that help??

yes, thanks, but how does the cooltube factor into the center "chimney stack" deal?

edit: it looks like its a seperate vent idea, which would actually work well... if you drew in fresh outside air and pushed out hot cooltoob air, with no mixing with the box-air, thered be no reason/need to carbon scrub that air....

[I2KanGrow]

Yup - you got it.... the cooltube is it's own separate cooling "zone". That's how I think I'll be able to get-away with using 12V fans only - I'm hoping that I'll be able to forgo the Dayton shaded-pole route (too expensive).

...Although, I'll certainly get one if I must!!

[I2KanGrow]

Here's a pictorial step-by-step on assembly of my NGB hood. I couldn't find any information on the design of the original hood in the sticky, so I decided to "roll my own", so to speak:

This took some time, but with the pictures in the orig. NGB thread (THANKS Gantz!!), a pencil, paper, rulers and a calculator, I was able to design the hood, drafted in post #1, and cut-out, here. All cuts in the sheetmetal were made with a power handsaw (sabre saw), fitted with a fine metal blade.



I accomplished the bending by clamping the hood between a piece of angle iron and a piece of wood, right on the line where I wanted the bend, then I just bent it by hand... nothing fancy here!!

The hood actually bent quite well, not perfect, but good enough! - I'm now ready to stick it all together with pop rivets.



Fitting the cooltube:

I created a hole template by calculating the ratio of the "rise and run" on the hood slope, then distorted a 4" circle in Photoshop to reflect the calculations - the ellipse didn't look right...


...but it ended-up being a pretty great fit!


Here's a rough-in of my Bake-a-round tube loosely fitted into the hood, to give an idea of how it'll all come together in the end. I'm torn between gluing mylar or painting white - but I'm leaning toward white paint. I'm trying to design a "bat-wing" insert to put behind the Bake-a-round tube in order to deflect the light better, perhaps I'll mylar that portion only.

Total cost so far:
Bake-a-Round - Ebay $17.00
Sheetmetal - 2 pieces - $13.08, Rivets - $3.97, Washers - $1.97 - Lowes
TOTAL - $36.02

Any suggestions, or comments out there???

[thescissors]

Originally Posted by I2KanGrow

Here's a pictorial step-by-step on assembly of my NGB hood. I couldn't find any information on the design of the original hood in the sticky, so I decided to "roll my own", so to speak:

This took some time, but with the pictures in the orig. NGB thread (THANKS Gantz!!), a pencil, paper, rulers and a calculator, I was able to design the hood, drafted in post #1, and cut-out, here. All cuts in the sheetmetal were made with a power handsaw (sabre saw), fitted with a fine metal blade.



I accomplished the bending by clamping the hood between a piece of angle iron and a piece of wood, right on the line where I wanted the bend, then I just bent it by hand... nothing fancy here!!

The hood actually bent quite well, not perfect, but good enough! - I'm now ready to stick it all together with pop rivets.



Fitting the cooltube:

I created a hole template by calculating the ratio of the "rise and run" on the hood slope, then distorted a 4" circle in Photoshop to reflect the calculations - the ellipse didn't look right...


...but it ended-up being a pretty great fit!


Here's a rough-in of my Bake-a-round tube loosely fitted into the hood, to give an idea of how it'll all come together in the end. I'm torn between gluing mylar or painting white - but I'm leaning toward white paint. I'm trying to design a "bat-wing" insert to put behind the Bake-a-round tube in order to deflect the light better, perhaps I'll mylar that portion only.

Total cost so far:
Bake-a-Round - Ebay $17.00
Sheetmetal - 2 pieces - $13.08, Rivets - $3.97, Washers - $1.97 - Lowes
TOTAL - $36.02

Any suggestions, or comments out there???

looks great! and great idea about the seperate "zone". perhaps a pair of fans in push/pull config to give more cooling power... the other thing you could to do increase effectiveness is to separate the intake/exhaust air on the back of the unit with some ducting so the in comes in low and cool and out goes out high and hot... avoiding the mixture of the two would be a high priority for myseff!

[The Most High]

Thats the best homemade reflector I have ever seen. I cant wait to see what you build next. keep us posted!

[Vagabond_Grower]

yea that looks good very nice work lots of care into it nice design you got going on too
what size light are you going to flower with? keep us posted and stay stoned
peace vagabond

[I2KanGrow]

Thanks, guys - I appreciate the encouragement. This is a longer-term project (translation: when I can afford to buy parts & have the time to build!). I'm not in a huge hurry, I'm doing my 1st. ever grow using a Red_Greenery rubbermaid setup, which works very well... but, I like to tinker in the shop, and this seems like the next logical step in "growth".

Vagabond:It's my intent to follow in the footsteps of the designer of the Overgrow NGB Marijuana Stealth Cabinet . As such, I'll be placing a homebrew 150W HPS/MH switchable light system into it. The way things are shaking-out so far, I'll probably purchase the lamps & sockets @ Pro Lighting.com, and purchase the transformer/cap/igniter thru Plant Lighting Hyponics.com. The thing I most want to accomplish is bringing my electric cunsumption down - I currently run 260W CFL, if I can do the same w/ a 150W system... well, then I WIN!!!!