Cabinet Material

[StickyIcky29A]

I'm about to build a cabinet. It's going to be approx. 4x4x6. It will house a 600w digital ballast, air-cooled with an 8 inch hood. I was wondering what the best material to build the walls with would be.

I could just use black/white poly around a frame. But I'm going to be using CO2, so I'd like it to be sealed. I've tossed around the idea of using 2x4s to make a frame, dry wall the inside and use wood on the outside. Maybe even insulate it. Maybe it's over kill.

I could always use wood or styrofoam board. But I am looking for it to be sealed. Any ideas or opinions would be appreciated!!!


Thanks
StickyIcky

 

[NiceShoes]

the 8" hood is overkill. but it's my opinion. It makes since if you had 2 or 3 inline but just one you could get away with a 6" easily. In fact it makes way more since. A 400+CFM is more than you will need in regard to a fan, an 8" duct booster fan would be perfect and cheap! So let me contradict myself and say GRAVYYYY. But realistically you could cool that hood and hood/bulb alone with a 4" inline fan or a 6" booster/duct fan. Since you are using CO2 I am assuming your filter will have separate ducting, if you even have one. So I'd get a 6" Hood and a 6" filter and 2 6" fans from Home Depot (25-30 each, I paid like 27 for mine). Put the filter/fan combo on a timer with your CO2 and one running full time for the hood.

If you go with an Inline fan, expect an 8" to be SUPER LOUD, a 6" to be TOO LOUD and a 4" To be noisy. You can get a "speedster" or a dimmer switch from The Home Depot for a buck or two and make it yourself to quiet the fan. With the inline fan's you will get a loud hum when you dim them. The booster/duct fans no-so-much. They are low voltage and seem to have two speeds, off, and full blast with the dial/adjuster/dimmer

MDF material is good for sound at least and makes a nice box. But in reality the material does not matter too much. You can get white paint w. fungicide added. I recommended this with whatever material you go with. It's a good sealer nonetheless.

About building the frame and just wrapping panda film around it... I've done it, in fact it's my current temp set up now but it's not light proof, has been very very very hard getting it as light proof as it even is now, and the negative pressure sucks, I had to remove me HPS and switch to the T5's just because no matter how many holes the negative pressure would stretch/tear the panda film. So I dumped the HPS and got a smaller fan... I don't like it....

I would just build the frame (2x4's or 2x2's depending how often it will be moved/played with). Does not need 2x4's IMO. Put up some MDF or standard 1/4" Plywood, build a solid door w/ weather stripping and call it good. KISS

If you want to get complicated the thicker the plywood the better 3/4" would be bad ass IMO, insulate/finish the interior it would be a sick cab, but in reality in 6 months your gonna wanna expand/upgrade and now it seems like that does not matter but you will wish you just kept it simple... so the wine drunk bastard is shutting up now, I am glad to give you advice if you need it,

NiceShoes

 

[Quazi]

600W seems a bit small for a 4x4 space. 600W is usually good for a 3x3 spread.

If you put it in 4x4, then you'll end up with 37.5 watts per square ft. which is 75% of the 50W per sq. ft. sweet spot. I would suggest either increasing your wattage or decreasing the size of the floorspace.



-Q

 

[FrankRizzo]

How bout two 600wers. Then you'd be at 75w psf.

 

[StickyIcky29A]

4x4 is only an approximate. I have yet to work out the actualy size. I need to get it as close to 50w psf, while accomodating my buckets. I bought the hood with the 600 ballast thinking 8inch would keep the thing cool. I also have a 1200CFM blower. I could hook it to a regulator. It's not as loud as you would think.

On the other hand I also have a 4in air cooled hood and a 265 cfm blower. But i think this to be not enough. Also I will probally be building a scrubber so the extra cfm will be welcome.

I was also thinking the 2x4s that way if i ever needed an AC, an modified window unit should fit in easier.

I will be looking into this 8in booster fan it seems like a good idea as long as it has a decent cfm. As for the material I think panda film veg room/tent thing. And wood for the flowering space. I may cover the panda film with the styrofoam board just to make it more light proof and clean it up. I like to look pro.

Thanks for all the help guys. If your still around the thread, what do you think about the height? I figure 3 feet at the finish so maybe 5 foot tall would do.

 

[NiceShoes]

Five feet height is not bad but what if you ever want to grow a nice haze or sativa dominate plant? You will be tying it back and some plants don't all respond so well to it.

The 8" Booster fans if I remember correctly have a CFM around 500. Which is plenty! Good for around 60-65 Cubic Feet (64 to be exact) which is a room 8x8x8. The A/C not a bad idea and try your 4" rig first, you never know. I've seen a 600 watt cooled with a 4" booster fan no air cooled hood and it was half a foot over the canopy.

NiceShoes

 

[de Toke-ville]

Hey Sticky, cool thread. I'm building a cab for my closet, so this is rather timely for me.

Nice shoes - thanks for the tip on the panda film. I thought about doing one of those. Just gonna use 1/2-inch MDF. attached to closet wall for stability/convenience.

Keep it green

de Toke

 

[NiceShoes]

Word, good choise.... That's what I get to do tomorrow... gonna go with the MDF... Peace and good luck. Throw up some pics when it's finished,

 

[CaptainKirk]

Hi Sticky - I built a cab out of 5/8" melamine - it's already white, but I have to admit it's pretty heavy. It was easy to mark out and rip w/ a circular saw, and I used 1.5" wood screws. If you lip the ceiling and floor, it's pretty durable.

 

[jocat]

stick with 3/4 exterior ply for both the weight advantage and the fact that unless your getting medex melamine and/or mdf your getting a good source of fermaldahyde off gassing and for a grow box that's not a good thing, your homegrown should be as healthy as possible and i only mention this to help you get there, i'm a cabinet maker by trade and the exterior ply is manufactured with safer glues than the interior product, another stupid corperate glitch. jc

 

[StickyIcky29A]

Thanks for all the help everyone!! I have heard about the gas passing into the air from wood, but I was never clear on the type. Wikipedia said MDF can or can not contain it. So no clue, lol.

But I think I'm going to go with framing it with 2x4s and using the styrofoam boards, on the inside of the cab. I have a few reasons for it. It comes in 4x8 at about 11 bucks. It's light tight. Easy to work with. Being styrofoam it insulates, hopefulling helping stabalize temps. And I say on the inside because, money permiting, I'm going to use 3/4 Ply. If not the Styrofoam will be fine, and i'll just leave so room for upgrades.

Lucky for me I also know an electrician and I now have a dedicated 20amps. Not that this has anything to do with my posts, just happy about it.

That being said what do you guys think? Anyone had trouble with styrofoam or anything let me know.

 

[jocat]

sounds like the foam board would work ok, i do think the 3/4 ply has some advantages, like....as i mentioned, weight and glue considerations, and the fact it will support shelves for ballasts, window mount ac's, exhaust fans, you can easily cover it with anything even just white paint. i have done a few rooms this way and usually start by running a 1 1/2" strip of ply along the floor and cieling, then if you can scribe your cut to match, it's easy, if your floor or ceiling is out of square real bad you could use a 2+4.jc