[ReikoX]

A few weeks ago my neighbor was throwing away an old coral reef light. I asked if I could have it, and he said yes and that it worked he just upgraded to LED. This light was six feet tall and had three 150-watt MH and eight 39-watt T5HO. I took it home and stripped it apart. I then bench tested the components and sure enough they worked. Well that got the old juices flowing and I thought about building a cab with these lights.

I've been reading a couple of vertical threads and decided to give vertical a shot. My first thoughts were to do a vertical tree grow using the T5HO lining the walls around the plant, but the design was getting too complex. Next I thought about doing a stadium with the three bulbs hanging down the middle, but wasn't sure I could cool it. Then it hit me, two cabs with the 150-watt on a flip-flop. After doing a bit of research I found out that my ballast will work with a CMH bulb, and I finally settled on the Phillips Master Color protected bulb at 3000 K.

The next step was to find a place to put it. I have all my cabs in a spare room that I've always called my workshop. I have a futon in there I never use, so that is where I will put it. And, since it is in my workshop, I decided a workbench would be perfect!

Time to fire Sketchup and do some modeling. The overall dimensions are about 75" W x 30" D x 35" H.



Each grow chamber is about a 30" cube. In the center are two drawers that can be used to store nutrients or as a drying chamber. Also in the center are the ventilation and electronics.



The grow is going to be a vertical coliseum. The coliseum us broken into three sections that hold 10 plants each for a total of 60 plants. The coliseum is on a lazy Susan to allow me to easily move each section to the front.

[ReikoX]

Since it is vertical, I chose to use a 7" Honeywell fan with three speeds. This will be directly below the bulb blowing up and should act as a cool tube. The main extraction fan with a carbon filter hides in the center console behind the drawers.



Air comes in from the bottom back of each grow chamber, it is then pulled through the light trap, through the filter, then pushed up into the electronics section and out the back. I chose a S&Park TD-100 but the design can accommodate a 4" Vortex if the TD-100 isn't up to the task.

[ReikoX]

All of my previous cabs were designed to fit the grow in the cab. This time I'm building a cab around the grow.

This shows the coliseum and the light distribution. The outer sphere is 12" from the bulb while the inner sphere is 8". Each plant is mostly within this sweet spot.



The pots are 3x3x8 mini tree pots, MT38.

[ReikoX]

Building Materials:
I plan to make this out of melamine. It's a plastic laminated piece of particle board. It's used in kitchen cabinets and furniture. It requires no sanding or finishing. It is water resistant, and cheaper than quality birch plywood (though still not cheap). It can be difficult to work with, chips easily, and requires special glues, finishes, and tools.

Medium & Nutrients:
I'm going to stay with what I know best. I'll stick with the Fox Farms Coco Loco with the Bio Canna line of nutrients (Vega, Florez, Boost, and Rhizotonic).

Automation:
One of my buddies suggested a motorized lazy susan. I thought it was too complicated and error prone. The same thing could be said for Blumats or drip irrigation. Not to mention I really enjoy spending time with the plants.

Cycles:
I plan to run this as a perpetual, but I want to first run a monocrop through it to get things full. Getting 60 healthy clones from the same plant will be tricky with my micro cabs. I may have to veg out several clones just for that purpose.

Outlets & Timers:
Each grow chamber is going to be equipped with a four outlets. One set will be hooked up to the timer and the second set will be always on. The timers are going to be in-wall digital timers. I will use two separate timers instead of a true flip-flop circuit since I had the ballasts anyway.

Temperature Control:
Each side will have a themostat and the fan will have a speed controller. This will be wired like my other cab so when everything is cool, the fan runs on the speed controller. When either is too hot, the fan will fun full speed.

Questions, comments, or concerns?
I'm still at the point where I can make changes to the design. I value opinions and will consider them all no matter how silly.

Vibes++

[firetech89]

Awesome design. Plugged in. Interested in seeing the double stack coliseum. G'luck ReikoX

[ReikoX]

My tree pots came in today. I used upside down pots to simulate the top row.There are 30 total pots for each side. The bottom row has 12 while the top has 18. There is plenty of room for the fan in the center. It fits within a 30" square and represents one of the two grow chambers.

[ReikoX]

I wanted to make sure everything fits together correctly, so I made a 1/4 scale model of the workbench. I used Sketchup to print out the pieces then cut them out of the foam core. Everything fit as expected. There are a few corners that are not square, but considering I just traced pieces it fit pretty well.



The foam core was cheap and I bought way more than I needed, so I decided it would work well for my template. Again I used Sketchup to print out a full size template (from several pieces I had to tape together) and traced them out. These will aid me in my layout, as I can trace out the location of the holes quickly. I plan to make a wood template and use a router to cut out each piece. This is going to be the most difficult part to build. I'm not decided on the material I'm going to use. It may be melamine as well.

[Flowdandada]

Sick project! I'm gonna keep an eye on this thread, for sure!

[blynx]

Cool design! Looking forward to seeing this in action!

How much distance between the upper tree pot soil line and the top of the cab?

[Dropped Cat]

Good to see you model/prototype this design.

I used cardboard for my mock ups, but foam core is better as i see here.

Do you have sheet metal skills, I wonder.