Red's back

Greetings freinds,

I've been away for a while now and am just starting a grow. I have to say that I've missed many of my old friends since I've been offline and hope to see them pop into the Lodge from time to time.

I do have to apologize for my abrupt disappearance. I had a nice little grow going with LUI and Thai Lights when I had the sewer back up while doing washing on Easter weekend last year. The check valve in the sewer line blocked up and I had to get a plumber to fix it. There wasn't any damage luckily. I had been putting off getting started on some home renovations so this was the kick in the pants that I needed to get a contractor in, I ended up with a friend of my brother in law who does good work. I shut down cold and when we had the dumpster in the driveway, I chucked out all the old junk and dismantled the HPS grow cab.

I'm just getting my account going and will be posting pics soon.

RG

Hey there, I referenced a thread you had a while back somewhere about a rubbermaid grow and was able to get alot of information out of it. I finally decided to go with an NGB style box which I should start on within a couple weeks, but I figured I'd say hello.

I'm trying to get my account going as well and thought I'd say thanks to those that have provided me with information in my early, noob stages.

Welcome back RG.

Looking forward to seeing what you're gonna be runnig

Hey Red, just thought I'd say I've learned so much from reading your Rubbermaid thread. Great info! Looking forward to see what you've got going on now.

damn happy to see you back, Red!!

i didn't post much (if any) on your threads, but i did learn a lot.

thanks!

Glad to see your alright.
Can't wait see what you got behind the curtain next.

Hell yeah! Welcome back Red! Your rubbermaid info was a great start off point for my own grow experience, I referenced your tutorials and information many a times since my first grow. Thank you again for all the insight and info you shared with this community!

Whats up bro gald to see ya back, I never posted in your thread but lurked around and have seen your grow linked many a times here in the micro section.. Stop by my grow and let me know what you think

Yo Red, good to see your well and all is good with you. Nice to see a new thread/grow being started, take it easy man

OH THANK GOD, your back!
I thought your little plants got mad and gained up on you and smoked you.


Welcome back mate!

RedG - The Rubbermaid legend.

Welcome back brother.

I just wanted to drop in and say hello because I learned a thing or two from your thread :]

And remember.. If the women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy!

What up Red?

Your rubbermaid thread was/is a major inspiration for me. I'll be watching for good things from you soon!

welcome back RG the rubbermaid guru

What

What





Wow, I'm overwhelmed by the warm welcome!!! I guess you guys missed me or something.

I sprouted a few beans the other day using the damp paper towel method with 100% germ rate. There's two of each kind going so I should have a good chance of getting at least one female. The beans are LUI, Atomic Thai Lights, Dutch Treat and Shiskaberry. The DT and Shiska's are self made seeds so we'll have to keep a special eye on them.

I struggled with the picture editor so you'll have to be happy with the few pics so far. I'll get some better details up of the box as we go along.

Yea the new picture stuff is confusing... Nice start so far! I'll be around here for sure, I want to see what goes on since you're trying a different route...

HPS/CFL Cabinet

HPS/CFL Cabinet

This is my HPS/CFL cabinet tucked away down in the utility room. It's in the back of the laundry room so it's out of sight out of mind.




The top part of the cab is an intake and exhaust ports with fans and muffling.
The lights are in the next section with a glass sheet separating them from the grow area.
The bottom area is the grow section.



I can grow nice tall plants with 39 inches of head room. It's 2' wide by 1' deep with a moveable shelf.
You can see the intake at the floor of the cab with the air exhausting through the vent/scrubber.




The light section contains a 4 fixture lamp, $16 from Home Despot. I have a 150W HPS that will be going in here later.
I misplaced the mogul socket and can't find a replacement at the local hardware stores. This view is looking through the glass sheet.
These lights are sealed inside the light section with the intake and exhaust on the top.
Currently there is 4 x 26W CFL for 50 W/Sqft.
I can stick 4 x 42W for 75 W/Sqft. There's room for a 150 HPS with 2 x 42 W for something like 117W/sqft.



Here is the light section ventilation. I use a single 65CFM AC computer fan from Radioshack.
I've lined the inside and the back with a fiber furnace filter to act as a light trap and a muffler.
The intake is just light trapped out the back and the hole itself.





This is the grow section scrubber with a 65CFM fan mounted on the outside of the cab.
I just found this cold air return duct filter which comes with replaceable filter cartridges.
I took some spray glue and sprinkled aquarium carbon onto the filter.
If this proves to be not enough carbon, I can fill the cartridge and tape another one ontop of it.




This is a recent change to my air intake to the grow section. On the first build of this cabinet I was using a 4" duct adapter with flexible ducting on both the intake and exhaust. Since I changed the space in the top cabinet to a muffler/light trap, I needed to increase the intake size to double the exhaust size. You and see that the intake is now 5"x5".





My design separates the light cooling and the scrubbing using separate fans.

If you really think about it, you want a high airflow over the lights so the fan has to be as unrestricted as possible.

The air exchange rate in the grow box doesn't have to be all that high so it can be blocked with a carbon filter.

That's the trick to my design.

redgreenry said:

My girls started to stink through the scrubber so I made up a fresh cartridge today. I didn't document how I made my scrubber so here it is from scratch.

I'm using a Vent Guard brand vent cover with a filter that I found at the local hardware store. The cover flips open to take a replaceable filter which is just some felt like material on a paper frame.





What I do is cut the outside off of one filter so it fits inside the other piece.



I use Elmers Spray adhesive which I think is contact cement in a can. Each filter piece gets a light coating, just enough to make a layer of carbon stick to it.

I sprinkle aquarium activated carbon evenly on both pieces and fill the bottom piece with the sides about 1/4". What I'm trying to do is make it so the carbon doesn't slide inside the filter when it's verticle.



Here's the bottom piece with 1/4" of carbon and the top with about 1/8" that has been lightly shaken off.



Put the top piece on the bottom piece and tape it up.

Now I took the "spent" cartrige out and got the tape off without wrecking it. The carbon was still stuck to both sides and came off with a light rub. It's now been refilled and I have a standby ready to go.

Click to expand...

redgreenry said:

My temps are a bit higher at 30*C at the top of the box since I put the 150 and the 2x42W cfl's when I started flowering. Having the remote ballast stuck in the intake space didn't help and I had the intake and exhaust coming out the back so I'm sure there's a bit of cycling of the hot air between them. I also had the airflow blocked a bit with that furnace filter material that I was using as a light block.

I did a little mod to the cabinet that I've been wanting to do for a while. A nice piece of hard cardboard was supplied with the cabinet as a cheap backing board that I didn't use in the cab build.

Today I made an intake and exhaust duct out of it. It as fun to build because I scored all the bends on one side and folded the corners so it's a lot like a duct made out of sheet metal. Now I have the intake air coming in from below and the exhaust directed straight up.

Click to expand...

redgreenry said:

Hey fellahs,

It's been a while since my last grow and I'm getting the urge to get one going again. I've been off work sick with a cold so I've had a chance to work on the old growbox.

I mounted a medium socket base for my 150 HPS light. Now I can run a mixture of HPS and CFL's. Here's a pic of 238W of lights in a 2 square foot area. I plan to run the 150 with 2x42 CFL's for a total of 21,400 Lumens. This puts my growbox at the top end of the optimal lighting range of 8000-10000 L/sqft.



Now I'm getting ready for seedlings and have 4 x 13W CFL's installed. I sure like the easy access to the lighting chamber for swapping out bulbs!

Click to expand...

Hey Thundurkel,

pull up a chair. I'm just getting the grow going and the seedling stage is a bit boring. I've had good luck running a 2 plant SCROG in this cab. Typically I would veg for 30 days and apply the screen just before flowering so that the stretch would fill the screen. The drawback of doing this method from seed is that a male wastes a lot of time and kills 1/2 the growbox. Fooling around with sexing clones is just as bad.

This round I'm going to grow the plants up to a half decent size and flip to 12/12 fairly quickly. I'm not trying for a max yield grow, just a fast turnaround on this run.

I've seen your recent grows and Dr Bud's show as well. I really surprised with the results you guys are getting with the 20 oz bottles. I don't drink pop so I gotta do something else.

Basic Rubbermaid Tub Design

Basic Rubbermaid Tub Design



Here is a quick cab that I threw together to get my current grow going. I'm not going to be using this right away because I got my HPS/CFL cab assembled. I will be using it as a mother cab, veg cab or drying box depending on what I'm doing with the in big cab. This took me an evening to assemble so it's not an intimidating build by anymeans.

I like using these 68 Litre tubs, you see them everywhere and they are under $7 each and the smaller ones are about $4 which uses the same lid and has the same bottom shape. If you mess one up, just go get another one. I would recommend anyone that want's to make any sort of growbox to consider making a prototype before making your good box. The plastic is easy to cut and drill. The only real tools you need is a drill and a utility knife. I used a jigsaw but it's not necessary.




These plastic light fixtures are only $1.50 each and four of them fit nicely into the bottom of the tub. The first thing I did was lay out the light fixtures and marked and drilled the mounting holes then drilled the center holes for the wiring with a 1" drill bit.






I then cut out the slots for ventilation in the light tub and the bottom of the small tub where the scrubber goes.
The alignment for this is a bit tricky. What I did was set the small tub on top and I drilled 4 holes in the corner and screwed the two tubs together. Very carfully with the drill and a small bit, I drilled marking holes where I wanted to do the cut out so the two tubs matched.



Now for the wiring. I got some heavy duty rubber extension cord from the bulk wiring at the hardware store and cut four foot long chunks. There is a black, white and green wire. Only the black and white are needed so cut off the green. Wire the fixture first with the black wire going on the gold lug and the white wire going on the silver lug. Pass the wire through the holes in the tub and screw down the fixture. I bought a package of assorted machine screws which really came in handy. All the wires are connected with wirenuts to an extension cord.



The next job is to put the tubs together with pop rivets. Then seal the to tubs together with duct tape all around the inside seam.




I took double sided carpet tape and lined the inside with Emergency blanket. Here's the lights working!!!



The ventilation is done with a Hamilton Beach Tru Aire filter duct taped to the lid of the top box. These things work great. I've used them for drying many a crop and will do fine while flowering too. You can cut the filter and shake out the old carbon and refill it with new stuff when needed.



I drilled a bunch of holes in the bottom for intakes.



Here's the finished cab. I've tested it with 4 x 26W CFL and 4x42 CFL and there's no problems with heat. All the heat rises into the upper box by convection and is just cleared away by the scrubber.

Don't throw away the lids as they are very useful. With another smaller box and a computer fan and a window screen, I can make a really nice scrubber that works even better than the Tru Aire.

Stay tuned, I might make some improvements as the grow progresses...