Cabinet Design: help wanted

[Hovz]

I'm trying to design a cabinet that will fit a 600 watt aircooled hood with carbon filter, powered by a 6 inch inline fan. I will be looking for cabinets at homedepot and wallmart etc because i would much rather buy one then have to build it myself, seeing as i have limited tools. It will have to be complete stealth. I already own the aircooled 600 and digital ballast, i also own a 265 dayton squirrel cage fan, but it just doesnt do the job. Grow method will be SOG, and the strain ill be running is Jackherer x Nevilles Haze. I Plan on the cabinet being atleast 6 sq ft. that will give me 100wts per sq ft. Double the recommended dosage, but maybe it will help packon the buds. I will try to fit 9 plants per square foot in cutoff 2 liter soda bottles. To water i can just "dunk" them in their water one by one to make sure all the soil is used. As of rightnow i have 12 cuttings rooting in 16 oz soda pop bottles.

If anyone has any ideas or critiscism please feel free to throw it out there.

 

[FreezerBoy]

I'd run through these and see if anything grabs you.

http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=27129&highlight=600+watt+club

http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=21879&highlight=mills+pride

Do a search by Titles Only under Advanced Search for "600 watts" "Mills Pride" for other examples. The Diaries section

Because you're doing the soda bottle thing, read anything by DrBudGreenGenes.

 

[Cozy Amnesia]

What do you need help with? It sounds like you have everything in order.

Wooden cabinets are probably the most popular style cab around, and you'll find plenty of examples around this forum. It seems that the general design is to have a flowering chamber, and smaller clone/mother chamber, and an area for utilities.

Good luck!

 

[CheifnBud2]

2x3 would be a good shape. But very small.

3x3 would be a good shape. and efficent. squares are good for 1 light. Rectangles for 2 lights. Square again for 4 lights.

3x4 or 3x5 or 4x4 would be a little easier to cool and still efficent.
Mabey make the box yourself if you cant find something appropriate?

 

[petemoss]

I think heat will be an issue with a 600 watt lamp over six sq feet. I have a 2'X3' area and use a 250 watt HPS in a cooltube and a 170 cfm centrifugal fan that barely keeps the cab cool. You may have to have a separate fan and intake for your light. Check out some of hoosierdaddy's recent modifications to his cab for a good example.

 

[Hovz]

2x3 would be a good shape. But very small.

3x3 would be a good shape. and efficent. squares are good for 1 light. Rectangles for 2 lights. Square again for 4 lights.

3x4 or 3x5 or 4x4 would be a little easier to cool and still efficent.
Mabey make the box yourself if you cant find something appropriate?

Thanks for stopping by cheif, Making the box myself is not a problem but how the box appears does matter because im trying to make this as stealth as possible. Maybe its just me but wouldnt a 3x3 cabinet chillen in the corner with a lock on it look suspicious? Not that anyone besides me would be in the room but i want it to look legit. I also have a approx 2ftx4ft closet i could use and exhaust into the attic but you tell me rectangles are good for two lights.

 

[Hovz]

I think heat will be an issue with a 600 watt lamp over six sq feet. I have a 2'X3' area and use a 250 watt HPS in a cooltube and a 170 cfm centrifugal fan that barely keeps the cab cool. You may have to have a separate fan and intake for your light. Check out some of hoosierdaddy's recent modifications to his cab for a good example.

Heat was and is a issue even under 8 or more sq ft. using the 265 dayton vibrating noise making fan. I was thinking i could use a 440 sucking through a scrubber for exhaust and maybe the 265 for intake. Then i could put both of them on speed controls. But i worry about how much it will vibrate and how much noise it will putout because i want this to be as stealth as possible.

Thankyou for everyones input and again if anyone has any suggestions feel free to stop by.

 

[Hovz]

So i ended up buying the biggest closetmaid they had at homedepot which turned out to be something like 19"x48"x6ft tall. The back they provided was cardboard, so I replaced with a nice peice of mahogany wood painted flat white. I put weather stripping around the doors, but it shines through where the hinges attach on. I still need to drill some holes for passive intake but not sure how big or how many holes to make for a 600watt light and 440 cfm fan. Also any ideas on how to put a lock on this thing? I also have a friend who gifted me a black domina mother plant so if anyone knows anything about the strain or pics please post.

 

[hoosierdaddy]

I know the cardboard back freaks folks out, but when you start drilling holes and such, you would have found that the cardboard back was a Godsend. It can be caulked and sealed as easy as an expensive piece of mahogany can.

On closing the door without light leaks...
Check out the advise I gave this grower in this thread. You can do basically the same or similar.
http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=95220&highlight=felt

It is a good rule of thumb to have your intake sized twice that of the exhaust.
If you have a 6" exhaust, that equates to 28.3 sq inches of area. So, you want to have approx. 56.5 sq inches of intake opening area.
A 2" pipe opening gives 3.1 sq inches of opening area, so you would need 18 of them to provide double the area of the exhaust.
A 3" pipe opening is 7.1 sq inches, so you would need 8 of them to equal double the exhaust area.

I use two lock hasps to close my cab door. If you mount them directly to the top edge of the doors and mount the lock hole on the top of the cab, it will allow you to shut the doors tight while they squeeze in on the weatherstripping.

 

[hoosierdaddy]

This is what I do for my cab locks.
Once you have your sealing set up and the hasp screwed on the door, then you can set where to drill the holes for the lock hole by pushing in a bit while marking. Only drill two of the holes in the lock hole, because if it doesn't end up tight enough or doesn't suit you, you can always move it a bit and redrill in the other holes. Two will hold it fine.


You can see that my doors are out of whack a bit, that is from the cab being just a taste out of level, but I found it out late and sealed thing up accordingly.
You can also see that I had some overhang from the hasp mounting. You could trim that extra off for total stealth, but the cab is so tall, and it's hardly noticeable, so I left mine.

 

[Hovz]

Thanks for the help hoosier daddy, i picked up a couple hasps today. When i turn off the light i cant see any light shining through now, its really airtight. Next im going to work on light trapping some passive air intakes Im gonna get 16 x 3in pvc elbows, they will be inside the cab on the back wall pointing down connected to a short peice of pvc just long enough to connect another one facing down on the back of the cab wall to insure its light proof because no lights going to go through two 90 degree turns. Also i need to cut out the 6" exhaust hole in the top right corner of the cab. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to keep the fan from vibrating or causing any suspicious noises.

 

[FRANKENBLUNT420]

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to keep the fan from vibrating or causing any suspicious noises.

i have always hung my fan from some rubber strapping i got from my dad, they are pretty much 2-1/2' long and 1" wide, 1/8th" thick. they come with metal hooks, but i took them out of the holes and jsut screwed the bands directly into the top part of my cab with 1" screws. hung the blower from them and couldnt hear a thing after that.

it was a bitch to hang it up since i needed like 4 hands at the time, but then again i have a blower instead of an inline fan for out take. i woudl tell you to use bungee cords, but i dont know about the vibrations of the hooks against the loops youe would have to use. its the reason why i had to take the hooks out of the rubber straps i was/will use. and since the bungee cords are rounds it may be a bitch to screw tehm into the cab

if you could find a way to maybe staple the bungee cords up andn then hang the fan from there, it should work. once/if you use staples, then knot at the ends of the cords should keep them from slipping out or anything like that.

good luck with that part of things, since i know damned important. the first time i put my blower up, that things shook the whole cab (same bi cab you bought)

 

[astartes]

Something to think about if you're going to be running 100w/ft is how your plant will react to the intense light. If it leans towards the Neville's side, it may react better to lower light conditions. Good luck and sounds like you're off to a great start.

astartes