Everyone can build a growbox

[BudDavis]

Hi there!

Welcome to this thread. My wife got sick listening to my about this project, so I thought I go to a place where people have similar interests. Also I hope to get some input, ideas, or hints when I start screwing things up.

For a couple of reasons I wanted to build my own growbox. I started growing in an Ikea Pax, switched to a Homebox Twin, and was never really 100% satisfied. My job isn't really demanding at the moment, so I had some time to plan this and yesterday I finally started.

The plan is to get a box with sizes of approximately 180cm * 100cm * 70cm. With these dimensions I can still roll the box through a standard door without disassembling it (I moved home 8 times in 8 years, thats why this point is important). I am building this in a storeroom in the basement of a multi family house. Noise isn't an issue, because our washing machine is in the same room, but smell is, because the air flow goes from the window inside the building. Light is a small issue, because I usually have the room lights on while being there, but you never know, so I plan this box to be light proof.

I got some OSB boards, wood slats and a lot of screws. OSB because I was told it's not too affected by humidity. The wood slats because I wanted it to be very robust. I still had an electric drill and a small toolbox with a small selection of other tools. Here a pic...



After 2 hours of screwing everything but the doors were in place. Since I haven't been doing anything but typing on a keyboard since college I am pretty proud about this performance.



Since I also have to spend some time with the family I gonna stop for now. I also have to plan air intake and buy a couple of hinges for the door. Will continue in a week or 2. Until then I welcome all ideas for a lightproof air intake.

 

[hestah]

Nice build! I love following cab builds.
Good luck, the size seems perfect too.

 

[AP KUSH]

subscribed, happy building

 

[gdbud]

for my intake I made a opening in the back that would fit a furnace filter then I fitted a box with grills for the inside of the cabinet inside the box I installed cardboard baffles to block the light that the filter did not stop.
Since the pots I use are about the same height as box it does not interfere with plants at all.

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showpost.php?p=3529024&postcount=154

 

[BudDavis]

Update 2nd week

Update 2nd week

Thanks guys, and welcome.

@gdbud: dude, thats some seriously sophisticated growbox you got there. I think I will use your idea for the intake, but instead of attaching it to the wall I will put it on the floor. It should be ready the next time I update this thread.

So, I have been a bit lazy this week. The only things I did were attaching the doors and painting the inside of the box with primer.



During the next 2 weeks I will paint the inside with some white wall paint I still got here. The intake and outtake are next on the list as well as adding some magnet snappers for the doors. I think that in 3 weeks the box will be ready, unless I get stoned again .

 

[roxanne]

Nice box

Nice box

That's a nice box you got there man, hope it goes well.

 

[gdbud]

I am bumping this thread just to see how your cabinet is coming along.

 

[shagdawg420]

 

[BudDavis]

Update Box 2.0

Update Box 2.0

Wow, half a year later ...

sorry guys, got stoned, started a grow in a half finished box, caught some pest and had to abort, and started finishing this project. Last week I even started a new grow, but had no time to upload photos and do a proper update. Quite some things happened.

The critical thing to do was to get the intake fixed. Im 100% I could have avoided catching pest last time, if I had a lightproof intake with a simple air filter. Those bugs go where it's light and warm, so a grow box in the basement is paradise.

So I got these tube parts and covered one site with some nylon I stole from my wife. The tube parts do a 90 degree turn, which already swallows much light. So I drilled some new holes in the box floor (the old ones were to small and increasing size of holes can be painful with my tools), covered the old ones with tape and plugged the tube parts into the holes. And this is how it looks.



But since I can't put plants on this, I build a little cover and painted the bottom black. The paint said not shiny, but it still reflects light. Not good and together with the tubes, nothing goes in or out of the box (light-wise). Here is a photo of the cover standing next to the intakes.



And here you see the box floor with cover in place.



To be continued (due to image limit) ...

 

[BudDavis]

Update Box 2.0 part II

Update Box 2.0 part II

When attaching the doors to the box the first time I left no distance between door and box. So it was really hard to close the doors and they wouldn't keep closed with just magnets. So I re-did the hole thingy, but this time I placed 2 credit cards between door and box before screwing them together. Perfect results, doors close easily and stay closed, even without magnets. But during the process I damaged the doors a bit.



During all this time I also bought a new cooltube and a new ballast. The cooltube is smaller and its closed, the other one was pulling air from some leaks. The ballast is my new pride. A Lumatek 250w/400w/600w/660w dimmable digital ballast. I never used anything bigger than 250w, so this will be fun for me. The outtake fan is dimmed, I guess its running on 30%-50% of its originall 400cbm/h or so. Filter is a 240cmb/h model, so it should be a good match. Right now the box runs on 250w light with a MH bulb.



The box is really quite, not 100% stealth, but close. Its leaking a little light at the outtake, but thats covered with some boxes, so air can flow but light gets caught.

Right now there are 18 little plants growing. I plan on using 12 of them in 3.5l pots. I thought about using the 6.5l pots or even the 11l pots, but they are too massive and the plants wouldn't have enough distance to each other to make use of the soil. Which brings me to my next project: "Everyone can build a dry box".

No, really, I plan to build a dedicated box to dry my stuff, because I don't want to waste the box for drying with that nice little ballast. And since it was fun, I will post that one in here as well.