300 Watt Stealth Dresser build (with pics)

[botany]

Hello fellow reefer smokers!
I've decided to turn an old dresser into something more useful, a grow cab. This is my 3rd grow, it's been around a year since my last grow, and was looking for something stealth but could yield a good amount of bud. Hopefully my scrogging skills are up to par for this project.

The dimensions of the dresser are 48" (w) x 15" (d) x 24" (h). I am going to use (2) 150W HPS lamps with remote mounted ballasts inside of DIY cool tubes. Below is the dresser: ugly, I know...

To access the grow area, I must remove rear cover which is just a peice of 2'x4' MDF

The inside has been caulked and light sealed and painted flat white with latex paint. I did not paint the floor...

I guess I didn't see a point since I don't expect any light to penetrate the canopy. I drilled 2" holes in the floor for intakes and used (2) 90 degree black pvc pipes to seal off any light that may escape, it seems to work well. Have a look.

The Lamps will be cooled by a 70CFM bathroom exhaust pulling air through cool tubes and a carbon scrubber. See for yourself. I haven't installed the lights yet, but I plan on ordering the vapor tight light from e-conolight and disassembling it, can't get any better than 20 bucks a light!

I would prefer to mount the lights at a right angle to the back wall of the dresser, however the cool tubes simply will not fit at that angle, so unfortunately I have to mount them parrallel with the rear wall

I haven't decided what genetics to go with yet! however I will update everyone as soon as I make the decision.

Any comments or suggestions are highly appreciated. Be safe and happy growing to all!

botany.​

 

[Quazi]

Hello botany and welcome to IC!

It looks like you're on the right track with your conversion so far.

There are a couple of issues that I see already which you may want to consider.

1) It looks like you have your cool tubes all mounted and taped up... how were you planning on mounting the lamp within them? You've gotta attach the socket to something and wire it. You also may want to consider some smaller tubes so you can get them positioned in there correctly instead of parallel to the wall. Your light is going to throw in a couple of small areas across the depth of the cabinet instead of across the entire length of it.

2) The single bathroom fan sounds like a decent plan. However, it will probably end up rather noisy. In addition, I don't see any room/plans for a filter/fan to be hooked up in there. You will want a filter to control odor if this is to be a stealth operation so start thinking about that now. Also, where are you going to set your ballasts and electrics? They will get fairly hot so you'll want to figure out some way to cool these. In addition, the CFM rating on the fan will drop very, very quickly once you are pulling through curved intakes, ducting, and filters so plan ahead.

3) Where do you plan on vegging your plants? In the limited height you have, it may be a pain in the butt to squeeze some pre-vegged plans in there and start a ScrOG on them.

4) Your intakes along the floor look pretty good so far. However, you are going to cover a considerable amount of the intakes with the pots of your plants unless you plan on elevating them. As it is, you're strapped for vertical room so I'm guessing you won't want to elevate the plants too much. Also, is there a reason that you have an uneven amount of intakes on one side compared to the other?

Another thing I noticed is that you have the dresser blocked off underneath by boards on three sides. When the cabinet has its back up against the wall, it is going to be choked for air on the intakes.

5) You will probably want to put your dresser on rollers or something that slides on carpet easily. Rotating it out and opening the back may seem easy now and it probably is. However, you're probably going to want to visit the plants pretty regularly when you first start to check conditions and temperature. The added weight of the pots/soil/plants/lights will make moving the dresser quite the pain.

You're on the right track man.

Good luck in your travels! I'm pulling up a chair to see how this turns out.

-Q

 

[Guest]

Yeah putting the light perpendicular to the cabinet would throw light to the parralle better but if ya don't have the room, you don't have the room. Looking awesome so far.

If your temps are in check you could add a couple CFL's for side lighting to make up for the lights but something tells me you're going to grow some fat nugs with them as is.

BTW bath fans get really noisy in short order in my experience.

 

[botany]

Hi Quazi and JackPackage! Thanks for checking in on my progress, and I genuinely appreciate your advice.

Quazi, To answer your questions:

1) It looks like you have your cool tubes all mounted and taped up... how were you planning on mounting the lamp within them? You've gotta attach the socket to something and wire it. You also may want to consider some smaller tubes so you can get them positioned in there correctly instead of parallel to the wall. Your light is going to throw in a couple of small areas across the depth of the cabinet instead of across the entire length of it.

I hooked up the 1 cool tube to test for position and angle. Preferably I would mount it at a right angle, but I will have to look for other glass tubes. We will see and I will keep looking, I was thinking of mounting the lights at 45 degree angles.

2) The single bathroom fan sounds like a decent plan. However, it will probably end up rather noisy. In addition, I don't see any room/plans for a filter/fan to be hooked up in there. You will want a filter to control odor if this is to be a stealth operation so start thinking about that now. Also, where are you going to set your ballasts and electrics? They will get fairly hot so you'll want to figure out some way to cool these. In addition, the CFM rating on the fan will drop very, very quickly once you are pulling through curved intakes, ducting, and filters so plan ahead.

The bathroom fan IS noisy, and I am not happy with the CFM rating that it has, I do have a stanley blower sitting around that I am debating about using. I just have to figure out a stealth way of attaching it. The stanley has alot more power and is quieter. If you have any other suggestions I would be happy to hear them. The bathroom blower is currently attatched on the side and exhausting via a 4" hole in the side of the dresser. I can hide the blower easily though, and I was thinking of insulating the exhaust to quiet the noise. A carbon filter will be mounted vertically along the rear corner of the cab where the last cool tube is to be mounted. The ballasts are to be mounted under the dresser and out of the grow area.

3) Where do you plan on vegging your plants? In the limited height you have, it may be a pain in the butt to squeeze some pre-vegged plans in there and start a ScrOG on them.

The cab will be used for both veg and flower, I will be purchasing fem seeds for sure and training will begin as soon as possible.

4) Your intakes along the floor look pretty good so far. However, you are going to cover a considerable amount of the intakes with the pots of your plants unless you plan on elevating them. As it is, you're strapped for vertical room so I'm guessing you won't want to elevate the plants too much. Also, is there a reason that you have an uneven amount of intakes on one side compared to the other?

Another thing I noticed is that you have the dresser blocked off underneath by boards on three sides. When the cabinet has its back up against the wall, it is going to be choked for air on the intakes.

I thought of the plants covering the intake holes, but the pots will be set down the center of the cab, I believe that spacing the pots 12 inches down the center should allow for airflow, as the intakes are offset from the center. As for the uneven intake holes, I am using a prefabbed floor from a previous grow for the left half of the cab, and I believe I will be sealing the 2 center holes because they are not light proof. Honestly I'm not 100% sure if the intake airflow is enough, but air does move through them quite freely when the cab is sealed and the exhaust fan is on. Without straining the exhaust blower at all. Anyone that has dealt with bathroom fans know that any restriction in air flow makes them much louder, and when i close up the cab there is no change in exhaust sound. This is just my half ass idea that the intake is enough but I dont have any hard proof.

5) You will probably want to put your dresser on rollers or something that slides on carpet easily. Rotating it out and opening the back may seem easy now and it probably is. However, you're probably going to want to visit the plants pretty regularly when you first start to check conditions and temperature. The added weight of the pots/soil/plants/lights will make moving the dresser quite the pain.

I haven't thought of using casters.. thats a good idea.. but I was just going to use the furniture mover discs.. I'll def consider attaching caster wheels though, great idea!

 

[Guest]

I wonder if you could get a wire shelf from the closet section of home depot and build a little space between the bottom of the pots and the floor of the cab? It might make it a bit tighter but would let a lot more air through just getting the pots up a couple inches above the intakes.

Or those little snap together black wire cubby hole things.

 

[FreezerBoy]

The secret to fan stealth (after quieting the fan as much as possible) is to pin the blame on something else. There's no such thing as a silent fan. Consider aquariums, box fans, air purifiers, white noise generators ... These don't need to be loud, or even as loud as your fan. They just need to be visible to play scapegoat. My fan's obvious the moment you enter the garage. Because it sounds like, and emanates from, a tired old freezer people just assume it's freezing stuff. If people see the fan, aquarium, or radio, they'll blame the fan, aquarium, or radio.

 

[botany]

Hey FreezerBoy, thanks for stopping in. Good tips.

Just wanted to update and say that my lights came in, will be installing them this weekend. Will post pics soon!

botany.

 

[botany]

**Update**

**Update**

Well got the 2 lights installed and setup. Had to go parrallel with them for lack of room. Again, they are (2) 150w HPS lights. Temperatures seem stable in the mid to high 70s. I ordered the vapor tights from e-conolight which were extremely easy to disassemble and rewire and for $20 dollars each you'd have to be smokin crack not to buy them Pics below!




I installed caster wheels, which makes moving the dresser an absolute breeze. Really it was worth the 6 dollar investment!




The ballasts have been mounted underneath the dresser, they get pretty warm and actually discolored the carpet before I installed the caster wheels. However now they are raised 2-3 inches and should be fine.




I ordered seeds from seedboutique, they took less than a week to arrive here in the states and everything came plus some freebie seeds. I chose Skunk #1 feminized from Sensi seeds, has really good reviews and should work well for the my limited space. Also they were a steal at the price, 10 seeds for around $40, can't beat that with a stick! Second choice on genetics were Big Bud from Ministry of Cannabis, I look forward to growing this, supposedly just puts on tons of weight with rock hard nugs! Cant beat that either!





Thanks to everyones input, I'm still tweaking this system before I pop any seeds. I'll probably post a diary but don't hold me to it.

To all of the newbies out there, I hope my build can inspire you to take your time and plan your construction. Don't skip any details and be thorough, you will reap the rewards in your harvest! This dresser is coming out way better than I had planned, it's super stealthy and I'm confident it will keep producing.

Good Luck and Safe Growing to everyone!

Botany.

PS: Please tell me what you think!​

 

[botany]

I also wanted to give a shout out to Quazi I definitely used some of his ideas from his DIY Cool Tube thread.

Quazi, your DIY threads are very informational and helped alot to gain ideas. Thanks bro!

 

[one Q]

botany, pleas put that ballast inside a metal box of some kind. That exposed unit makes me nervous. You can get very small metal tool box and rig it up to stay under that dresser and still roll. Please.

 

[CheifnBud2]

Make it a well ventilated metal box.

If the carpet is changing color that means its getting hot enough to possibly burn.

Wouldent want to see all that hard work fail because of an overheated balast, or be a fire hazard for that matter.

 

[one Q]

Im must say that having your ballasts right at your vent entry point is BAD. You;d be better off putting them inside the cab - right at the IN end of the cool tube set up. At least there the heat is escaping the cab. Now, the way you have it, the heat from the ballast gets sucked into your Intake, heating the cab.

Maybe you can make a partition underneath and lessen the heat intake? IDK. looks good other than that to me.

 

[Quazi]

Thanks man!

I'm glad to know that I've inspired others to go DIY.

I'd second the motion to put those ballasts in a project box. They're the little metal boxes that you can put electrics in. A small one will fit the ballast without any problem. They cost almost nothing and are very easy to mount. No reason to create a fire hazard near a grow.

As far as having them near your intakes though: meh. You said your temps are around the mid-70s so it sounds like you've got enough ventilation to take care of the heat buildup.

Be safe man!

There will be green in there in no time.

Great parallel setup. It'll be interesting to see how you fit the filter in the setup.

Keep on keepin' on.

Can't wait.

-Q