The Stealth Dresser grow: in the making.

[Anti]

Here's my vote for how you power PC fans:

Go buy a PSU (PC power supply) for about $15 or less. (You can get them at newegg.com)]

It already has the molex connectors so that you can add 6-10 fans if you really wanted to. (I use 3). The beauty, is that you have to buy NOTHING but the fans and the PSU. And you have to do NO wiring.

The only modification you have to do is to stick a paperclip in the plug where the green wire is and then ground it to one of the black wires... done.

And before anybody says "But it's totally overkill to use a 300w power supply for some fans" .... it only draws the power it's actually using. It doesn't draw 300w unless you have 300w worth of stuff plugged into it.

​

Oh, and as far as wiring your lights... if that gangly contraption doesn't work out for you, you can easily wire all your lights up with a $2 extension cord and some $1.50 ceramic or plastic or porcelain light fixtures:

​

 

[SativaDreams]

It's kinda hard to explain but the drawers originally rested on horizontal bars (1 horizontal bar for each drawer). After dismantlement, I mounted some L-Brackets to these horizontal bars and to the back of the drawer-fronts. You'd see these L brackets in the pictures if the tape wasn't covering it, which was used just to prevent light leaks; they had little to do with the structural integrity of the dresser.

About your height problem... Not to bash your current design or anything, but I think you should reconsider your light and plant container systems. Height was one of the biggest issues for my dresser grow, which lead to several failures and disappointments (Do note, you have more restricted dimensions than I had).

For the light, I think instead of CFL's, you should wire up some over-driven TG11 remote ballast fluorescent lamps as seen here: http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=112670 They BARELY take up any height and should theoretically run cooler than watt-equivalent CFL's since the ballast is remote for the TG11's.

As for the containers, I think you should ditch the buckets and run an NGB style SWC hydroponic ScrOG system: http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=29593 Look at www.usplastic.com to find the right sized container, that is if you can't find one locally. I sure found one for my next cab (Hint- Ebb and Flow in a micro cab )

I know all this sounds expensive, redundant, and time consuming, but take it from someone who went through the pain of having to kill off his babies due to something as stupid as height issues. It's better to brace for the worst now than to experience it unprepared later. Just my 2 cents.

I understand the l-brackets. Sounds like you didnt even need the original mounting metal bar they had, now that I think of it, if I had drills I should have done an L-bar across each drawer edge!

Alas it comes out! Yes I do see my light idea is not very good at all, especially on height restriction, I actually had 3 of those bulbs before I came with the idea to do this (bought another 3 pack and then a 2 pack) so I haven't spent near jack on my lighting, and I don't even currently have money for seeds!
So follow me for a second, I priced out the TG11 CFL setup from HS' grow:

A Fulham Workhorse 8 220w ballast - 42.20
2G11 Sockets -About $6 average I saw per
55w Dulux-L lamps 20-40$ per depending on quality/size
4 small screws (not pictured) 32 cents?

none of these include shipping either. It would probably end up being atleast 5-10 bucks per item.
we're talking 42.20 +(6$x2)+(~30$ x 2) = $114.2 before shipping

the 150 HPS at my local hydro store costs that much. Or if I knew wiring or what e-conolight/businesslight setup to get on their website then I could probably get a 150 hps for ~70 bucks.

I do like the concept of getting more height out of those CFL's, but I feel that I'm just going to cut down my buckets so that they're ~10-12 Liter size. that will afford me another ~ 5 inches in height (sorry for changing metric to standard haha).

pontiac you don't think LST can be done properly in a setup this size or maybe its a concern of overall air and space?
From some LST I saw the people kept the top of the canopy even after full buddage what looked like between 10" and 15" from the soil top! I definitely have room for that even with these CFL/big pots

I hope I don't sound like I'm disrespecting your suggestion! I'm still open to the CFL idea as it would definitely buy me more space in the dresser... I will be in an apartment with other those so smell is a concern and I don't think I'll be able to let plants get that big anyway. Just for the record, probably seedling/vege for 1.5 months then flower for 2 maximum per grow.


Also, I'm opposed to doing a hydroponic grow for a several reaons. I'm all for organic soil, damn the height restriction.

 

[SativaDreams]

Here's my vote for how you power PC fans:

Go buy a PSU (PC power supply) for about $15 or less. (You can get them at newegg.com)]

It already has the molex connectors so that you can add 6-10 fans if you really wanted to. (I use 3). The beauty, is that you have to buy NOTHING but the fans and the PSU. And you have to do NO wiring.

The only modification you have to do is to stick a paperclip in the plug where the green wire is and then ground it to one of the black wires... done.

And before anybody says "But it's totally overkill to use a 300w power supply for some fans" .... it only draws the power it's actually using. It doesn't draw 300w unless you have 300w worth of stuff plugged into it.

​

Oh, and as far as wiring your lights... if that gangly contraption doesn't work out for you, you can easily wire all your lights up with a $2 extension cord and some $1.50 ceramic or plastic or porcelain light fixtures:

Thanks for coming by Anti. I admire the depth of detail put into your cabinet and I'm sure it took alot more manhours than anyone knows. For me I haven't put in the time to this dresser I should/could have, mostly due to the lack of proper tools (no electric tools whatsoever! no drills/power this or power that, etc)

I have already ordered a small power supply and I'll see how it works.

I really like the idea of using those to make it a horizontal light setup, it would save me about 4-6" of junk space used by my outlet strip and silly adapter pieces.

As for those light setups, I was looking at those at a hardware store and was trying to figure out how they wire them up (series or parallel) and how you get those wires connected into a pronged outlet plug? (maybe they sell pre-spliced proung outlet males?)

 

[irie4i]

CFL temps are pretty painful, I know this.

A couple things to concider based on my building experience: Don't have a floor. It looks like you have almost 5 inches more space down to the ground from your cab floor. Use a false bottom, if you have soil or anything messy use 3mil garbage bags as a false floor. Take into account the intake you'll need.

Put fans as close to the CFL as possible. running 80mm fans or in anti's case 120mm fans directly over the top of a CFL bulb and balast keeps them "cool enough". Using a PSU to power fans is personal preference, I belive it's the best method.

Concider isolating the air above the lights and exhausting air into the area above them, and then thru your scrubber/exhaust. Even a cardboard shelf the length and width of your space will block significant ammounts of heat from excaping into the plant portion of your grow area. The temps in my grow/screen area are always around 80* even though the temperature above the light fixture is probably more like 95*. The plant dosn't appear to mind atall, using a small(personally; a 4" high power fan) air mover in the canopy/plant air space makes a significant difference.

Using a rubbermaid method for air circulation(three holes of equal size, two in the bottom one on the top) could probably work in your case, but I would do the math on some passive intake and 120mm axial exhaust. Not lookin' too shabby so keep it up.

 

[SativaDreams]

CFL temps are pretty painful, I know this.

A couple things to concider based on my building experience: Don't have a floor. It looks like you have almost 5 inches more space down to the ground from your cab floor. Use a false bottom, if you have soil or anything messy use 3mil garbage bags as a false floor. Take into account the intake you'll need.

Put fans as close to the CFL as possible. running 80mm fans or in anti's case 120mm fans directly over the top of a CFL bulb and balast keeps them "cool enough". Using a PSU to power fans is personal preference, I belive it's the best method.

Concider isolating the air above the lights and exhausting air into the area above them, and then thru your scrubber/exhaust. Even a cardboard shelf the length and width of your space will block significant ammounts of heat from excaping into the plant portion of your grow area. The temps in my grow/screen area are always around 80* even though the temperature above the light fixture is probably more like 95*. The plant dosn't appear to mind atall, using a small(personally; a 4" high power fan) air mover in the canopy/plant air space makes a significant difference.

Using a rubbermaid method for air circulation(three holes of equal size, two in the bottom one on the top) could probably work in your case, but I would do the math on some passive intake and 120mm axial exhaust. Not lookin' too shabby so keep it up.

Thanks for the tips irie, and for stopping through. As for a false bottom, that doesn't really make any sense at all to me. With 20-30lbs weight resting on the botto mcurrently between the two soil filled buckets and the buckets themselves (and soon another 5-10 lbs because im going to mount the PC power supply to the bottom of the drawer), there's just no way a garbage back would work.. I dont even see why I would do that anyway?

I like the idea of a PC power supply, many have mentioned this to me so far and I'm going that route for sure. However, I don't have the room for a seperate scrubber chamber, there's just not enough height at 30" for use. Also I won't have strong enough fan or fans to pull through a scrubber, I'm just going to have the dresser in proper location where smell won't be a big concern (and I have other means of hiding scent that I'm convinced will work fine.) Thanks for the praise on my work so far, I'm trying to work a minimalist budget of ~0 dollars so it's tough.

I'm still trying to figure out how to rig up my CFL into the fixtures Anti posted pics of, while still being able to move them up and down.. this could be a task I need power tools for unfortunately... I'll see. Maybe I'll just wait it out (a month or 2 :-/ ) and get a 150 hps with more proper fan setup.. that's what I really want to do..

 

[Anti]

DIY CFL wiring

DIY CFL wiring

Thanks for coming by Anti. I admire the depth of detail put into your cabinet and I'm sure it took alot more manhours than anyone knows.

As for those light setups, I was looking at those at a hardware store and was trying to figure out how they wire them up (series or parallel) and how you get those wires connected into a pronged outlet plug? (maybe they sell pre-spliced proung outlet males?)

Here's what I used:

First I cut that big rectangular socket off and wired it up. I bought it at home depot for $2. It's rated at 13 amps which is much more than your CFLs can muster. (to find your total amperage, take your wattage and divide by your voltage (120v if you're in US) (w/v=a) For example, I use 42 w bulbs, so that's 0.35 amps each, times 6. So all six of my 42w CFLs are pulling 2.1 amps through cable that is rated to handle 13. No danger.

I wired in what is called series parallel. Each socket has 2 incoming and 2 outgoing wires, except the one on the end farthest from the plug. You strip like 3/4 inches of insulation off one end and you'll have two wires (one for positive, one for negative), attach each to a different terminal. Then cut it to the length you want to space your second socket.

Wire the second socket the same way you did the first. The two wires coming from the first socket each go into a different terminal on socket #2. Now attach your original wire (the one with the plug still attached) to the other terminal on socket #2 and then cut it to the length you want.... and attach it to socket #3. Repeat til you're finished and the final one will plug into the wall.

Now they'll all turn on when you plug it in, but if one of the lights burns out, the others will keep right on keeping on.

(click to zoom)

The pic above shows you what I'm talking about. The top left side goes to the wall. The two on the far right are connected to one another. The bottom left is the last in the chain, so only has 2 wires. The bottom left is where you would start your assembly, and work your way around to the top left.
​

 

[pontiac]

Here's what I used:

First I cut that big rectangular socket off and wired it up. I bought it at home depot for $2. It's rated at 13 amps which is much more than your CFLs can muster. (to find your total amperage, take your wattage and divide by your voltage (120v if you're in US) (w/v=a) For example, I use 42 w bulbs, so that's 0.35 amps each, times 6. So all six of my 42w CFLs are pulling 2.1 amps through cable that is rated to handle 13. No danger.

I wired in what is called series parallel. Each socket has 2 incoming and 2 outgoing wires, except the one on the end farthest from the plug. You strip like 3/4 inches of insulation off one end and you'll have two wires (one for positive, one for negative), attach each to a different terminal. Then cut it to the length you want to space your second socket.

Wire the second socket the same way you did the first. The two wires coming from the first socket each go into a different terminal on socket #2. Now attach your original wire (the one with the plug still attached) to the other terminal on socket #2 and then cut it to the length you want.... and attach it to socket #3. Repeat til you're finished and the final one will plug into the wall.

Now they'll all turn on when you plug it in, but if one of the lights burns out, the others will keep right on keeping on.

(click to zoom)

The pic above shows you what I'm talking about. The top left side goes to the wall. The two on the far right are connected to one another. The bottom left is the last in the chain, so only has 2 wires. The bottom left is where you would start your assembly, and work your way around to the top left.
​

Instead of all that, just get yourself a $10 bathroom vanity light bar from homedepot:

Pretty much a pre-made version of what Anti is demonstrating.

you can choose a bar with 3, 4, 5 ... up to 10 sockets I believe.

Wiring them is as simple as splicing the 2 leads to a common extension cord as Anti has shown.

 

[SativaDreams]

Instead of all that, just get yourself a $10 bathroom vanity light bar from homedepot:


you can choose a bar with 3, 4, 5 ... up to 10 sockets I believe.

Wiring them is as simple as splicing the 2 leads to a common extension cord as Anti has shown.

good idea pontiac, but the top of my dresser is not flush, I have 2 wooden pieces going across it that would prevent anything flat from being against the top. Also I would worry about such a piece falling down and burning something!

I spent 15 bucks and instead of a vanity I bought ceramic mounts that anti suggested.

standard wiring job here.

a foam gasket type spacer I used to allow room for the wires to come out from under the ceramic pieces' flat backs. I cut a slit as you can see in each gasket where the wires go through

here's a hard to see shot of the 4. one on either side and we can see the 2 on the top

Thanks for the help Anti, and everyone else so far! This dresser is coming along more proper than if I had not come on here and I def. don't regret making a username and doing some carpentry/electric wiring

 

[cork144]

i have a 120mm pc fan and a 80mm pc fan, theyre venting enough air to keep my 70watt hps cool, when i whack in some cfls i defo need a 2nd 120mm, my cab runs quieter than my pc, so i leave my pc on at all times.

also for abit more noise pollution to conseal cab noise, take off the side of your pc, makes it sound alot more, means i also see how much dust collects and clean my pc accordingly,

 

[SativaDreams]

I will start with 4 lights on, then 6 then 8 at full flower. this will also correspond to months approaching colder weather and will maintain a constant temperature throughout the entire grow (or close)

We can see a sample below
8 lights on

here is an underview with all lights off

here we can see how they are near even spaced and about equal height

THIS is the best picture
Thanks to pontiac pushing me, and Anti giving good suggestion of cermics THIS is the fruit of my labor (and their ideas )

It reveals that there is now 19 inches between the bottom of the lights and the soil surface. If I cut down the pots I can probably have up to 20 inches (also lower soil level)


wooo! this is a huge improvement as the previous awful "gangly contraption" as Anti put it, left me with a mere 14" between soil and light. with this newfound 5 - 6" I can see much more take shape (not to mention FAR more reliable permanent light setup with minimal problems foreseeable!

Final Final steps in this dresser (stay tuned! )

--> Install PC Supply and Wire up exhaust and intake fans. (maybe 2 intake and 1 exhaust?)

--> get seeds and pop them



anyone else thing of things I could do to make this dresser more successful?

EVERYONE has been a huge help so far! I want to say thank you to everyone. Anti with the wiring instruction, pontiac with the HUGE inspiration on the over-all dresser idea and dresser itself!
and a big thanks to everyone else who has stopped by, please feel free to come by and leave suggestions or things I might want to do!

 

[Anti]

I'm happy to help if and where I can. You're very welcome.

I have to second what you said about Pontiac's cab. His dresser was one of the first stealth cabs I came across when I started dreaming up the idea of building one of my own. I still have pics of it, including that animation in a folder on my desktop called "Stealth Cabs". I based alot of my own work on my cab on these concepts.

I built mine from scratch because I simply didn't have a dresser available, nor a vehicle capable of picking one up. By building from scratch, I was able to have all my wood pre-cut at the store and the pieces fit in the car easily.

Your light setup looks good. Nice touch on the red and blue wiring. Looks all official-like.

Pontiac - I had checked out those premade vanities, but in my area they were closer to $15 each and they had too much empty space hanging off the ends to fit within my design parameters.

 

[Anti]

--> Install PC Supply and Wire up exhaust and intake fans. (maybe 2 intake and 1 exhaust?)

Nearly forgot. Don't use intake fans. Let your intake be passive. Use a beefier exhaust fan (or multiple exhausts) which will create suction within your cab. It will pull the air in without the need for intake fans. Indeed, intake fans would likely cause strange air pockets and uneven cooling in your cab. (And make it harder on your exhaust.) Just make your intake at least twice what your exhaust is. So if you have a 120mm exhaust fan, have two 120mm intake holes somewhere near the bottom of your cab and put your exhaust fan near (or in) the top. Heat rises.

 

[cork144]

you can use old drinks cans as reflectors, theres somthing about it here on icmag i think.. i saw it on youtube and theyre alright at what they do for the price.

 

[pontiac]

Good to see you're adding some vertical height to your cab; you'll thank yourself later.

Last piece of advice... get your self a portable GFCI; it might one day save you from becoming Kentucky Fried SativaDreams.

One is on sale at radioshack for $10: http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3150602

 

[MiaWallace]

Nice Dirt box! When you make it yourself you really appreciate it more.
Here's a pic of my wooden aquarium.

Ta Da! It is completely light tight! The inside is lined with aluminum foil but the dull side so it won't create hot spots.

Sorry I'm high while writing this so if I am freaking any of you out I must apologize.

My boyfriend and I just finished our last grow which turned out wonderfully and I thought that for our next grow we would show how we did it.

Our system is pretty complicated. We went to our local Home Depot and bought a 22" long 15" wide 1ft deep black toat, I drilled 6 3.75" holes into the top for the net pots. The toat is light tight so no algae will grow in the water. Then we went to Brew & Grow a wonderful little hydroponic store by us and bought:

2ft- 1/2" Irrigation Line
1ft- 1/2" Soft Line
1/2" T-Fitting
10- Woodpecker Spouts (Flow at 2 Gal an hour)

Lights:
1- EarthBulb 150W equivalent 2,800 Lumens 5,000 Kelvins
1- EarthBulb 150W equivalent 2,800 Lumens 2,700 Kelvins
3- Feit Electric 100W equivalent 1,600 Lumens 6,500 Kelvins
3- N:Vision 100W equivalent 1,600 Lumens 2,700 Kelvins

I have the veg lights in there right now and I have it on 24/7 just the veg period.

Air:
The 12" air stone is on 24/7 to oxygenate the water.

Watering:
I have 5 gallons of reverse osmosis water in the toat.
The watering system goes on every 5 1/2 hours for a 1/2 hour.
No nutes for 2 weeks because it can be harmful to the young plants.
I check my PH balance daily to maintain a 5.5 balance.
The plants atmosphere is at a consistent 80 degrees while the waters temperature is at cooling 75 degrees.

 

[SativaDreams]

Anti, you're totally confusing. First you say no intake then say double intake?
If I can figure a way to keep in darkness properly i'm going to do double intake I guess.

Thanks pontiac, I will get that to protect from a surge... but do you think I can plug that into my timer outlet thing???? It's a timer that will regular the schedule... and do you think I should plug it into the wall then plug the timer into that? or plug the timer into the wall with the surge protecter in it? anyone who knows electricity good can you help here?

Thanks Mia, it looks really nice! I bet that works well too you could totally drill more holes in the top though and get a couple more plants out of it

Also you didn't have to post all the pictures of it on here you could just link your page instead! no problem!

 

[pontiac]

Anti, you're totally confusing. First you say no intake then say double intake?
If I can figure a way to keep in darkness properly i'm going to do double intake I guess.

Thanks pontiac, I will get that to protect from a surge... but do you think I can plug that into my timer outlet thing???? It's a timer that will regular the schedule... and do you think I should plug it into the wall then plug the timer into that? or plug the timer into the wall with the surge protecter in it? anyone who knows electricity good can you help here?

Thanks Mia, it looks really nice! I bet that works well too you could totally drill more holes in the top though and get a couple more plants out of it

Also you didn't have to post all the pictures of it on here you could just link your page instead! no problem!

Its main function is not surge protection, though it claims to have that built in; a big plus as surge protectors can protect your equipment. Its main function (GFCI) is to possibly save your life should the situation arise. If ever current bypasses hot and neutral to ground, the GFCI will trip within milliseconds, a reaction time that's far quicker than fuses and circuit breakers. A real world scenario of this would be you touching a live faulty extension cord.

You can plug the GFCI into the timer if you like, but it's best have protection from the very source of your cab's power, that being the wall outlet.

About your passive intake situation. Your intake's opening area should equal or exceed the opening area of the exhaust fan. For example, say you have a 4" PC fan, which has an area of ~12.56 in^2... That means you should cut an intake(s) that has a total area of at least ~12.56 in^2. This could mean cutting another four inch hole or cutting 4 two inch holes for intakes.

 

[SativaDreams]

Its main function is not surge protection, though it claims to have that built in; a big plus as surge protectors can protect your equipment. Its main function (GFCI) is to possibly save your life should the situation arise. If ever current bypasses hot and neutral to ground, the GFCI will trip within milliseconds, a reaction time that's far quicker than fuses and circuit breakers. A real world scenario of this would be you touching a live faulty extension cord.

You can plug the GFCI into the timer if you like, but it's best have protection from the very source of your cab's power, that being the wall outlet.

About your passive intake situation. Your intake's opening area should equal or exceed the opening area of the exhaust fan. For example, say you have a 4" PC fan, which has an area of ~12.56 in^2... That means you should cut an intake(s) that has a total area of at least ~12.56 in^2. This could mean cutting another four inch hole or cutting 4 two inch holes for intakes.

There is no ground for the bulbs.. so would this GFCI even help anyway? There's only two wires "hot and neutral" Which to my knowledge has always been standard on any household lamps with regularly small wattage bulbs. (only two contact terminals on each bulb too, no where for grounding anything)

so my wire from all the bulb fixtures is only a 2 prong.. would it help then to get the GFCI??

 

[pontiac]

There is no ground for the bulbs.. so would this GFCI even help anyway? There's only two wires "hot and neutral" Which to my knowledge has always been standard on any household lamps with regularly small wattage bulbs. (only two contact terminals on each bulb too, no where for grounding anything)

so my wire from all the bulb fixtures is only a 2 prong.. would it help then to get the GFCI??

Yes it would because during electrocution YOU become the ground connection, which would cause the GFCI to immediately trip (with the rare and unlikely exception of you touching hot and neutral at the same time, in that case the GFCI won't detect anything and you'll be in the mercy of a fuse or circuit breaker).

Again, you'll most probably never get electrocuted to begin with, but like in an incident I recently had (GFCI saved my ass), you just never know.

 

[SativaDreams]

but like in an incident I recently had (GFCI saved my ass), you just never know.

Do you think it would save me in the case that hot and neutral rubbed against eachother until they one day made contact? would it trip then and stop sparks from flying or not really? (I've checked my wiring while doing it and after and see no reason to believe this will happen, but anythings possible) I'm just curious.

I'm a fire safety/grow safety fanatic so I'll definitely get that.