Dundee's 400w Flower Box

So I decided its time for me to my game up a bit by building a new, larger flowering box. My previous thread can be found here (http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?p=4861434#post4861434) and is still ongoing, but I wanted to make a new thread dedicated to my new project. The general idea is to create a larger, more productive version of what I already have going. Anyway, I have everything mocked up in SketchUp so I will be able to illustrate the idea for now.

The Plan:
Box Dimensions(Outside)-
-2'(d) x 3.5'(w) x 4' (h)
Lighting-
-400w HPS
-400w LUmatek Ballast 120/240 Dimmable
-6" Super Sun 2 Reflector
Ventilation-
-6" S&P TD-150
-DIY Caron Scrubber(something along the lines of https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=39506 , that thread/tutorial is fantastic)
Plants-
-Strain - BOG's Bogglegum for now since that is just what I already have mothers/clones of at the moment.
-44oz Foam Smoothie/Food Serving Cups
-Hempy Style, 3:1 Perlite:Vermiculite
-Nutrients - Spurr's Formula

The Frame:

I am using good old 1x3 dimensional lumber, about $4 for an 8ft section at your local lumber yard/hardware store. The top and bottom platforms are mocked up as 3/4" plywood/OSB, have not gotten to that part of the construction yet though so I might actually use 1/2" when the time comes. You can see the beginnings of what will my ventilation solution, the huge square hole in the top panel. It will all make more sense after a few more pictures/explanations .

The Lighting:

I am planning on using a 400w HPS inside of a 6" Super Sun 2 hood and running it off a Lumatek digital ballast. As you can see, the Ssuper Sun 2(which is mocked up very close to actual dimensions) will be a relatively tight fit in the box but I think everything will be fine since I don't plan on having any real ducting and also plenty of air flow. The ballast will be dimmable so turning it down to 250w mode at times will be possible if plants get too close to the bulb or my temps get too high(summer time perhaps), whenever necessary.

The Ventilation:

The ventilation that I have planned will be a passive, negative pressure type deal. The intake will be 2-4 6" holes(gonna start with 2 I think and see how temps do, I have it mocked up with 4 just to see how it would be spaced) cut into side of the box. On the inside of the holes there will a slot/shelf that I plan on sliding in a generic Filtrete/HEPA Filter into, whatever size fits. Just to keep as much large dust/particles/whatever from getting sucked in. Exhaust will be handled by a S&P TD-150 mixvent fan with a DIY carbon scrubber(something like https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=39506 , that thread/tutorial is fantastic).

The Plants:

In my current grow I am using 16oz solo/beer cups that I have turned into little hempy cups, I plan to do the same thing here with larger 44oz Foam cups. I have it mocked up to hold 10 staggered rows of 3 or 4 plants, or 35 plants/cups total. There is a good half inch between every cup on all sides and a few inches on the sides in the mockup so I might be able to fit a bit more/less plants in. I will have to see how it goes and gauge from there once I try out those containers under the light. I yield ~15grams average per plant in my 16oz beer cup hempies once I got the plant size dialed in and I figure I should be able to get at least the same amount in these much larger containers under much more light. If I can maintain that ~15grams per plant, at 35 plants and 400watts, that should blow out that elusive 1gram per watt out of the water(being very optimistic here, I don't think this is going to happen my first run or anything hah). I am going to keep on using Spurr's Formula as far as nutrients are concerned mainly, might play around with a few additives to see what kinda results I get. I have also been wanting to try Lucas with maxibloom since I had great results doing it with the liquid nutes. More on those things later when the time comes .

The Completed Box:

This is the orientation that the box will be placed into my closet/showing the door panel that I will use to access the plants as well. So far I have just purchased the 1x3's and began making the top and bottom frame. Once I get this up and running I will probably turn my 252w CFL setup into a clone/veg/mother area just to keep it with a steady supply of plants. Ideally with the ~35 plant capacity I will be running it perpetually, probably around 5 Plants/1 week apart. That would take 7 weeks to fill it up, then I could take a week off before harvesting the first 5 and replacing them with fresh clones.

I will take some pictures of the build process along the way and of course of the finished product, I basically have everything that I need so the build process should go relatively quick. Stay tuned . Also, I feel I covered most of the bases pretty well but if anyone has any questions of course feel free to post away, more than happy to answer!

Heres a little teaser of what I have done so far . Just have the top and bottom frames made as well as the 4 corner uprights cut.

Looks like its going to be an awesome build! Can't wait to see it complete

i'm curious, what ventilation fan do you plan on using? i ask because i have a fairly similar looking setup, with the fan attaching directly to my cooltube/light and on the other side directly attached to the carbon filter, on the outside of the cab, with no venting at all. i was able to convert a panasonic wisperfan pretty easily to not only be much smaller than it's original size, but so that both the intake and exaust are perfect 6 inch holes, that can easily attach to venting, carbon filters, or reflector intakes...if you haven't yet picked a fan or planned how to attach it directly to the hood id be happy to show you how mine is set up.

it's looking good so far! i wish i had that program you are using for mocking everything up in scale, if i had that option i wouldn't have spent my first 3 months constantly hooking and unhooking my ventilation, swapping things around, weaving 6+ feet of venting all over the place in the cab, and nearly going insane...when i realized i could hook it all together without vents and tuck it in all neat i was so happy i couldnt get pissed off for a week!

señorsloth said:

i was able to convert a panasonic wisperfan pretty easily to not only be much smaller than it's original size, but so that both the intake and exaust are perfect 6 inch holes, that can easily attach to venting, carbon filters, or reflector intakes...if you haven't yet picked a fan or planned how to attach it directly to the hood id be happy to show you how mine is set up.

Click to expand...

Hey señorsloth
I'm interested to see how you modified the Whisper. I'll have to make a few more posts and maybe you could pm me so dundee's thread doesen't get hijacked. Thanks

señorsloth said:

i'm curious, what ventilation fan do you plan on using? i ask because i have a fairly similar looking setup, with the fan attaching directly to my cooltube/light and on the other side directly attached to the carbon filter, on the outside of the cab, with no venting at all. i was able to convert a panasonic wisperfan pretty easily to not only be much smaller than it's original size, but so that both the intake and exaust are perfect 6 inch holes, that can easily attach to venting, carbon filters, or reflector intakes...if you haven't yet picked a fan or planned how to attach it directly to the hood id be happy to show you how mine is set up.

it's looking good so far! i wish i had that program you are using for mocking everything up in scale, if i had that option i wouldn't have spent my first 3 months constantly hooking and unhooking my ventilation, swapping things around, weaving 6+ feet of venting all over the place in the cab, and nearly going insane...when i realized i could hook it all together without vents and tuck it in all neat i was so happy i couldnt get pissed off for a week!

Click to expand...

I was originally planning on using a Panasonic Whisperfan but I decided on a Soler and Palau TD-150 instead. The reasoning behind my switch was basically due to the price, I was going to get the 190cfm one but the size/weight/price of it was just too much. The S&P TD-150 pushes more CFM with more pressure and costs less and like I said, it already comes with 6" ducting on both sides as well as being much much smaller overall than the Whisperfans.

darkstar270 said:

Hey señorsloth
I'm interested to see how you modified the Whisper. I'll have to make a few more posts and maybe you could pm me so dundee's thread doesen't get hijacked. Thanks

Click to expand...

Here's a great thread about the panasonic whisperfans(https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=45196), this is what I was originally planning on doing before I went with the S&P TD-150 fan instead of the whisper.

Thanks for the link Dundee. I read that thread awhile back but I'll have to check it out again.

Cant wait to see this progress! I also just ordered a S&P 150 and a 250 19" cool tube. haven't wired the s&p yet but ballast works good. Thinking of going with a NGB style cab but with a fish tank on top to create an ambient noise to cover exhale of cab. really interested in the stealth part of your design. will be lurking

Hey everyone, got a few progress shots to show off and explain for everyone .

So lets pick up where we left off.

My first step in creating the box was to create the top and bottom frames as you can see there. Again, I just used 1x3's since they are relatively cheap and plenty sturdy for my purposes. The 4 posts on the left are the upright/corner supports, we will get to those shortly.

I started the actual construction from the bottom up so my next step was to attach the bottom frame to the actual floor of the box. I ended up going with 1/2" MDF for the top/bottom of the box because it was price effective and be plenty to support just the TD-150 fan and the Super Sun 2 6" hood, nothing else will be weighing down on the top. This photo is me attaching the bottom frame to a 2x4 piece of 1/2" MDF, as you can see my box is only 22"x41" so there is a bit of extra hanging off the sides, I just sawed that off after attaching.


Next step after that was to attach the 4 upright corner supports. As you can see in the photo I was still waiting on the glue on the 4th one to dry in the photo. Pretty simple stuff so far .


And once all 4 of those uprights finished drying, I flipped the whole badboy over so I could attach the top frame. I didn't attach the top portion of the frame to MDF yet because I still need to make a cut in that piece for the exhaust and I want to be able to mock up my fan/lighting setup before I actually glue/screw everything together. Here is where everything stands as of last night when I got tired and stopped building . Its taking shape!


Couple more days and my fan/hood/ballast should arrive and I will be able to resume construction since I need those pieces to get actual sizes/mounting locations and to figure the size of cuts I need to make for the exhaust/intake/etc.

A few things for those that might care, I am using a Kreg Jig for all my wood joining. Let me tell you, the thing works fantastic. I am not remotely experienced in actual building/constructing things and the Kreg Jig has made it a breeze. The joints are very, very strong and you don't have to bother with biscuits or tongue and groove knotching or whatever kind of wood joining techniques normal people use, just clamp, drill some holes and pop the screws in(I also glue to be safe, but it is not necessary). One thing to note is that you need to make sure all of your cuts are as straight as possible, it really makes assembly go a lot easier. So if you are using a hand saw, make sure you know what you are doing or use a piece of scrap material as a straight edge and practice a few cuts with it. I ruined a few 8' sections of 1x3 by making horribly jagged cuts the first time around, not a huge deal as they only cost like $4 each but I thought I would mention it for you folks who might not be woodworking people either .

Great thread 100% Dundee i am interested in building a cab myself
so i am taking a seat and watching..to see how this turns out all the best Shogun..

I've had my eye on a tent about the same size as your new cab, but it's a foot taller. I had thoughts of running a 250w light, but if you can cool that 400 I'll get one of those instead.

if u have the 400 in a air cooled hood the temp will be easier to control. my flower chamber in my armoir is pretty close to the same size and the temps get up to 10-15 deg f. over ambient with it being bare bulb in a wing reflector and fan blowing across the bulb. current soulution for me is sucking the cold air in from outside untill i can get a air cooled hood. 89 is the highest temp that i have seen in my box without sucking air in from outside and an ambient of 77 in the room the armoir is in.

good luck with the build n grow dundee. lookin forward to seeing the sog under the 400. would give me a good idea of what could be done with mine.

great job bro, enjoyed the new cab,cant wait to follow your project!!!

Hey man, just finished reading through your old CFL/PLL thread and loved what I saw! Any updates on this bad boy, can't wait to see what you're up to now!

I'm about to start running a VERY similar setup so I'm definitely interested in seeing yours!