Newbie's first stealth cab design + Sketchup

[Guest]

I picked up a sink cabinet the other day and am finally starting the project I've been thinking about for years. Having a lot of fun thinking about the possibilities.

It's 3'w x 2'd x 30" or so tall and came without a top, which makes things convenient right now. It's unfinished, so I get to do that too.

Going for an NGB-style with a 250 HPS (digital based on experienced friends' suggestions), with a scrubber and cooltube inside the box. I feel this is ambitious but reasonable based on my research.

Getting one of those S&P 125 5" inline fans, going to have to do some conversion for the 5", but it's oddly 2" smaller in length than the 4" fans and the same diameter (except in the nozzle of course!). For 10$ more, this power can't hurt. It moves something like 194 high 147 low, I'll get a speed controller if needed, but the extra power may be needed to scrub, right?

Built a 12" long, 6" diameter (outer) DurbanPoison Scrubber (props for the DIY!).

So I want to ask the experts for advice. I played around in sketchup, and came up with a preliminary design.

I was having trouble meeting my early goal of having everything inside the box as I wanted the large scrubber to make sure odor isn't a problem (top priority security-wise). I think I have come up with a solution that involves sacrificing space intended for three mothers down to two such that I can preserve the whole flower space.

I really want to pull on the scrubber and push through the cooltube such that I can avoid putting heat on the fan, as I hear the s&ps can shut off and have ABS blades.

My next step is to paint the inside with white roofing paint, I got this stuff cause it's advertised to reflect and be temp/weather tolerant. I'll stick a picture below in case anyone has experience with it.

Any input greatly appreciated. Check out my sketchup.
~A


Sketchup

Closed Cab

Open w/ Scrubber

Roofing Paint

Edit: Oh yeah, sketchup has no ducting on it, but it's scrubber->fan->cooltube->exhaust

Also image embedding.

 

[K.J]

Very nice design. It's similar to mine in some ways, like the 250w and the NGB inspiration. I presume you're buying clones or growing from seed? Or do you have a veg cab too? Or are the mothers/clones going in the box with the scrubber? If so, what lighting are you using on them?

So the final exhaust hole in the side wall, that's 5"? For best negative pressure and air flow, you should try and stick with the formula "intake area should be twice the size of exhaust area". So you might want to add a few more inches of intake area, or reduce the size of that exhaust hole.

Looks good so far. I'm pulling up a chair.

 

[Guest]

K.J. thanks for checking it out! I've been reading your thread and am finding a lot of inspiration there.

The room with the scrubber will be a mother room; I had initially hoped to use the whole room, but I decided I could sacrifice space for one mother to fit the filter and part of the fan, since the flower space is my primary concern. I'm hoping to get some clones from a friend to get it started, if not, I'll have to look into seeds.

I'm undecided on the lighting in there for now, but it will be some sort of fluoro. I was planning just sticking in a few fluoro tubes, but I should research CFL, as I can no longer fit a 2' tube in there with the fan set up like it is. Your cab is giving me some ideas in this direction, but the space will be too small to do any real vegging.

Right now my exhaust is 4", as that will be the easiest ducting to fit going out of the bake-a-round cooltube. I have three 2" intakes, so I may indeed need more (4pi out, 3pi in, no good). I was thinking of using one of those 8x8 darkroom louvers instead of the intakes there, does anyone have experience with that? I am concerned it might be too restricted and I would be better with more pvc light traps.

Out of boredom waiting for some parts to show up, I've worked on the sketchup a little more to help me visualize the space ducting and light traps will eat. This doesn't reflect the intake expansions I need to make, I'd love some suggestions.

I'm also concerned a bit about trapping light on the exhaust, though this may be doable with just a little extra flex duct and flat black paint?

~A

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

that's a nice cabinet to work with. the drawing looks good too. I read somewhere your fan will be more efficient pulling through the light and the scrubber.

 

[river rat01]

looks good man.
if the noise from the fans is a problem, just set up an aquarium next to it. the pumps and water filter will make enough noise to cancel out you're cabinet.

the light on the tank could also cover up your light leaks too.

 

[Guest]

Disco, River, thanks for dropping by!

Disco: I think you're right about the efficiency, but I want to do it like this for a couple reasons. First, my fan is going to have ABS blades, and lacking experience with how hot the cooltube will actually get, I want to minimize the amount of heat I'm sucking into the fan. Second, space-wise, it would be much more difficult to pull both and exhaust without a lot more ducting and flower-space sacrifices. Finally, if in my newb-ness I build some duct paths that aren't initially perfect airtight, or come undone, I want minimal ducting in-between the scrubber and fan, so smelly air isn't sucked into the exhaust path. This way, a leak would more likely cause clean air to blow back into the cab than suck smelly air into the exhaust.

My fan is rated at something like 196/149 CFM high/low, so it should be able to handle this; the exhaust path will be as simple as I can make it with light trapping. Anyone have advice for how to trap light on exhaust without losing a ton of space or adding a ton of impedance?

River: I've actually been researching an aquarium. Might be the perfect thing to legitimize this awkwardly-sized cabinet, and might provide some entertainment when I finally harvest some heads!
Looks like a project in itself though, so I'll worry about that once it's all together.

Thanks for the input guys, I'll post progress once some more parts show up!
~A

 

[Guest]

Killing time... sigh

Killing time... sigh

As I wait for some equipment, I've thought enough about darkroom louvers that I want to give them a shot. Anyone who has experience with those <20$ 8x8 adoramas, I would love to hear from you.

So here's a sketchup of the setup with louvers, any comments on their placement?

 

[bambam]

Looks nice bro. To much building for me but nice never the less! A+ to you, cant wait till you start cranking out the smoke! Keep us up to date man! And welcome to growing! And really let me know when you get started.

 

[SmokeToLive]

Looks like a good start dude. Mine is in pieces right now. When the roads clear up I am going shopping for some industrial strength glue.

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

Here's an idea with the intake hole(s) in the floor. Intake should be centered on the grow floor.

Cut a board 1/4" smaller (length and width) than the floor of the grow area. Use spacers to mount this board 1/2" or so above the floor. This board will allow intake air into the chamber and diffuse the light coming in to and exiting the box. Use a board 1/2" to 3/4" thick to support whatever you're growing in.

 

[Basviola]

When making a light trap

Can you simply put some kind of a labyrinth of some hard carton?
______ ____
in -> I___ I_____I I__
I___________I____ --> out

would this trap the light?
How big should the hole/passages for the light be compared to the exhaust?
Would it be a good to use f.eks. a small pc-fan to help the air throw the labyrinth?

I have heard that you can tie a knot on the flex-pipe from the cooltube that would work as a light trap. Anyone??

Really nice setup you are planning there... Very sweet!

Are the mothers and clones supposed to be in the section with the scrubber?


Peace

 

[Basviola]

Hehe,,, that drawing did not worked out very well, but anyway! =)

 

[Guest]

Hey guys, thanks for responding.

Disco: I thought about doing a floor intake for a long time, but I think I have decided to go with a darkroom louver on the back, and one on the front of the interior wall, to move air through both chambers. Since I am putting the carbon filter in the back of the mother chamber, this way lets me force air to move somewhat diagonally through the flower room, across the plants, and likewise across the mothers.
I'm pretty sure it will work; I'm pretty sure several different options would work, this one just appeals to me.

I got the louvers, they're pretty nifty; I'm going to have to take them apart and figure out a way to have a piece of filter cloth to keep pests and dust from sucking in.

Basviola:
Pretty much any sort of baffle-type light labyrinth will work fine, just make sure you paint it flat black, so light can't bounce through it. I was going to make something, but I decided to buy the cheap louvers, the 8"x8" Adorama louvers are pretty cheap and a safe bet; just going to stick some sort of filter cloth or batting in one of the layers to stop debris and pests. These louvers have several layers you can separate, depending on how much light blocking is needed, so I hope I can get some cloth in there and maybe take a layer off to maximize airflow.

Another cool thing I got: These kidco magnetic child locks. They mount inside the cabinet, totally invisible from the outside, but make the doors require a magnet to open. Should help me keep a good seal and help add a little security. The ones I got are adhesive, but they do support screws, so I will likely do that. These appealed to me because no drilling thru the door was needed; IE nobody will see the lock.

My s&p fan will be here soon, bout time to start putting the ventilation system together, will be back with some pictures pretty soon hopefully.

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

I really like the magnetic lock idea, might try this myself.

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

Oh yea, nice scrubber! That thing looks like it will take care of the big stink. I just made a micro scrubber out of mesh pencil holders and it seems to do the trick for low to medium stinks. I'm vegging some Sour D and Tangerine and these may max it out. I may have to wrap some carbon fabric/filter around it. TGIF

 

[Guest]

So, now I have the fan, a s&p mixvent 125. On high mode, it's rated for 190 something CFM and moves a ton of air, I am pretty happy with it and hope it will be plenty for my ventilation setup.

Getting the 5" ducted one looks like it was a good call. It's a little smaller and significantly more powerful than the 4" versions, and cost me ~10$ more. It fits really beautifully over the end of the DIY scrubber.

I'm getting a router controller in case I have to turn it down, but the impedance of the scrubber and ducting may ultimately be enough.

Hopefully going to get some HVAC work done this weekend and can post a real update. I'm getting bored sitting on my hands waiting for components, but it's better than rushing in and making a design mistake.

Thanks for reading,
~A

 

[Guest]

Time for a bit of an update.

I now have most of my parts, including the ballast/socket, DIY cooltube, DIY scrubber, fan, louvers, and cooltube. Also cut some wood to make the shelf, wall, and insert the louvers. Pics below of progress.

Next step is to reinforce the shelf and line of the wall, will probably use larger-sized square dowels and wood glue to frame it out, should minimize light leaks. From there, it's paint/seal, ventilation, and onward into actually learning how to grow the stuff.

More detail:

Doing a bit of a redesign from the most recent sketchup; I think I can fit the fan up on the shelf, shooting straight at the cooltube, such that I can have enough space to easily remove/replace the cooltube, and can dismount the fan to clean it. I thought the ballast was gonna be bigger We'll see how it all fits in once I get the structure solidified.

Going with inexpensive bulbs for now, they're soon-to-be-acquired. May upgrade to grow bulbs later. I'm told 2700k flower, 6500k veg are good goals to shoot for, but have also heard 3000-6500 is the best range in color temp in general for cannabis. Any comments?

Here are pics:

Overall progress:

Fan:

DIY Cooltube:

Mother room, scrubber, louver:

 

[Mountain High]

nice work! its coming together. one i thought is you might get some caulk and seal up all the joints and cracks to ensure no light leaks... especially from flower chamber to mom chamber.

 

[banjobrain]

Pretty sweet, dude! Thanks for the replies on my threads. After looking at your sketch ups (which are remarkable) and your photos, it all makes sense now...

I don't know if you read my post, but here's my ideas...Since the mounting of an in-line fan seems like something I don't really want to deal with, I was thinking about having one end of my tube open -> into my utility room -> through the scrubber attached to a 273 dayton blower -> exhaust outside cab. A 273 dayton might be overkill, but it's only slightly more expensive than the next smaller size (190 or something) so I figured I'd better have it and not need it, than need it and not have it...you know?

Now, with you mentioning heat in regards to the fan...do you really anticipate that being a problem?

I see why you might want to do it that way in your cabinet as your space is limited, but since I'll be building mine (someday) and am going to factor in some extra height for the scrubber in the utility room.

I don't want to build this and then blow out fan after fan due to the heat build up...What do you think?

 

[Guest]

Pretty sweet, dude! Thanks for the replies on my threads. After looking at your sketch ups (which are remarkable) and your photos, it all makes sense now...

I don't know if you read my post, but here's my ideas...Since the mounting of an in-line fan seems like something I don't really want to deal with, I was thinking about having one end of my tube open -> into my utility room -> through the scrubber attached to a 273 dayton blower -> exhaust outside cab. A 273 dayton might be overkill, but it's only slightly more expensive than the next smaller size (190 or something) so I figured I'd better have it and not need it, than need it and not have it...you know?

Now, with you mentioning heat in regards to the fan...do you really anticipate that being a problem?

I see why you might want to do it that way in your cabinet as your space is limited, but since I'll be building mine (someday) and am going to factor in some extra height for the scrubber in the utility room.

I don't want to build this and then blow out fan after fan due to the heat build up...What do you think?

Hey mate, thanks for dropping by. I am following your thread too, but guess I'll respond here since you ask more questions.

The fan I'm using is rated 190 something CFM. I almost went bigger, but a friend advised me to go with this one and just try to minimize my ducting. The truth of how it will work out should be unveiled in a week or two; I'll definitely let you know. I agree that erring on the size of large is smart; I think the 190 is big enough, but my space is a bit smaller than what you're planning. Again, we will see. I may have to upgrade something and should have space for it if needed. Mathematically, I have a total of under 18 cf, so 90cfm should meet 5 exchanges/minute; I am hoping the ducting impedance will allow that to still be met with the 190 fan.

About heat and fan; there are a few things to look for. First and most importantly, many fans have cutoff temperatures at which they will turn off for safety reasons. If yours has this, you'd better not hit that temp. Second, is just the concern over what the blades are made of. Clearly metal will deal with heat better than plastic; but in most cases if you're moving enough air the plastic shouldn't have a problem. Just doing this the first time, I want to play it safe, and it's easier for me to keep the scrubber in the box and "pull" on it with this setup.

If I understand your setup right, your utility room will be sealed and passive intake through a cooltube? That's the initial plan I was going with until I realized my height restriction. I think it should work great if you seal rigorously.

Good luck again, can't wait to see your progress,
~A