The Mill's Pride Club

[Guest]

Another option is to build your own custom sized filter. If stealth and space is a concern, which must be true if you are growing in a cab, this can be very useful.

These two at the beg. of this thread are good examples. Depending on what would work best for you. Something hidden off to the side, or tucked up inside a cab.

 

[A-phorm]

This will be my fourth grow so I thought I would do it right this time around. First however, i have just a few questions...this is what my setup is like:

I decided to go with the 71-1/2"H x 30"W x 21-1/2"D Closet Maid cab from HD. For ventilation I purchased a 6" valueline fan, rated at 435cfm (I was going to go for the 4", but did some research and read that the valuelines are kinda weak, so I went for the 6". They're only $80 from http://www.plantlightinghydroponics.com/valueline-centrifugal-fans-c-76_629.html ). That fan is for aircooling my 400 hps.
I also purchased an Ecoplus 180cfm blower to exhaust the actual flower chamber itself. This fan will be pulling through 3 8x8 darkroom louvers and exhausting out a 13x12 carbonair filter. There will also be a 6" osc. fan to move air around. For the growing I will be using a 4 plant-4 gallon DWC with hydroton and rockwool for the medium. I decided to rig the tub with a ball valve at the bottom for easy drainage (read too many stories about how much of a bitch it is to try and drain with a canopy of buds). Now I ask you to keep and mind that this setup will be in a long closet with sliding doors so stealth isn't the biggest issue. I will be adding weatherstribing to the doors and caulking all seems to make it light tight as well as get some neg. pressure going in the cab. I thank you all for reading this before hand and would like if those people who think I am an idiot or somehow stupid for asking these questions, would just simply overlook my post and read on.

My questions about the cab:
1. As far as air cooling the hood is concerned, instead of running ducting up through the shelf my light is mounted to. Could I use 6" water heater vent pipe and run it straight through the cab from one side, into the cooltube, out of the cooltube to other side of cab, and then run ducting on the outside and mount my fan and filter on top? It just seems like it would be less restricted.
2.With the air cooling of the hood will the 180cfm blower be enough to keep temps in range. The room that the cab is in has ambient temps around 65-73F in the winter-spring and 71-80F in the summer-fall.

Any help is much appreciated and the more input I get, the faster this cab will go up and start production! And you all know what that means...grow journal.

 

[icough2getoff]

What I would do is use the 180cfm for the light ducting and the 435cfm for venting the cab. I run a 449cfm vortex usually on medium speed with a 400w, no hood, and only 2 8" darkroom louvers. You made a good call on 3 louvers. I think you'll have your cab about as cool as you can get it. I have pretty much the same ambient room temps as you and I haven't run into problems that would harm plants except root rot. When my ambient room temps went above 80F I couldn't get that water cool enough with pc fans blowing on it. You may have better luck in your climate otherwise you'll need a good water cooling strategy come summer time. If the heat becomes too much you might look into switching to coco, at least during summers. If you can grow in DWC then growing in coco is almost the exact same it's basically just a hydro medium.

I don't think you would need a scrubber on your light ventilation if you had good sealed connections and putting the fan in front of your cooltube would probably help by creating positive pressure, forcing clean air out of any openings and into the smelly cab.

Sounds like a sweet cab, can't wait to see this thing come together however you decide to put it together.

 

[Wacky Tobacky]

do they even still sell these?

i want to get a c25 setup going. i cant find these online at homedepot and i was just at lowes today and i went to see if they had any but they didnt.

 

[wintermoon]

do they even still sell these?

i want to get a c25 setup going. i cant find these online at homedepot and i was just at lowes today and i went to see if they had any but they didnt.

Home Depot switched to a brand called ClosetMaid. The dimensions are different from the Mill's Pride stuff. Generally they tend to be a little more shallow at 20.5". Still they work the same.

Definitely recommend adding a plywood back and dark room louvers.

 

[Joey Roastbeef]

Hi to all the mill pride gurus. I need some suggestion on setting up my cab. i bought this cab about 8 years ago was about to set it up but then life came at me fast and i got married. well now i'm divorced, in my own place and i grabbed the cab from my parents house.
i'm really looking for suggestions on the ventilation. my plan is to have the flowering chamber the bottom 3feet of the cab. that leaves 2'4" for the mom/clones/veg chamber. ( it's 28" wide and 2 ' deep) but this is were i want to also incorporate were the ballasts, and exhaust fan are. i plan on using a panasonic 80 cfm whiper fan to vent the whole cab. i wanted to put it in the upper part of the veg chamber and then put either a 3' or 4' pvc pipe through the floor of the veg chamber to the flower chamber.
now my dilema: i'm afraid that the 3' or 4' hole isn't going to draw enough air to cool the flower chamber with a 400watt HPS. i forgot to mention that my plans are to put an 8x8 dark room louver in the flower chamber. now some may ask what i plan on for lighting in the veg chamber? i do have a 250w MH, but using it makes me concerned not only about heat but also electricity usage. so i might just use a good number of CFL, since it's really for moms and clones. as vegging will be minimum as i plan a sog type grow. so i'm looking to keep short plants with one main cola. so i'm thinking the 250 for veg is overkill.
please post your suggestions, comments, even pic of your set-up or other ppls set-up.
i'll get pics up of the pretty much empty cab oncve i find the screws for the second door. it only has one on right no. lol

smoke it if you got it....
joey roastbeef

 

[KUSHEATER1]

after a coat of paint keep it going

 

[gonejah17]

A few pics of the new veg cab

Still workin on it, gotta get some darkroom vents

 

[Kelly.]

,.,

 

[pinecone]

from the reading i have been doing, i have seen people say that a fan system should be 3x - 5x the cubic ft of your grow space.
so 18.14 x 3-5 = 54.42 - 90.7.

so i need a fan that can move between 54 - 90 cfm?

The 3x to 5x thing applies to larger grow spaces IMO. The people with the best results running larger HIDs in cabs are running quality 4"-6" in-line fans (vortex, elicent, can) which push 170cfm+. If you are running a fluoros or a smaller HID (150w-250w) you can get away with less.

I run a 6" Vortex (449cfm) in a C13 (which is about 25ft^2 give or take).

Pine

 

[Kelly.]

....

 

[pinecone]

i am running a CFL setup now (8 bulbs / 208 watts ) and the most i would step to would be a 150 HPS.

Then I'm not really sure. You might try asking your question in the Micro Forum or posting a separate thread in this forum. Most of the people that posted in this thread are running 400w HIDs in 25ft^2 cabs.

you are running a fan that is 9x your grow space?
what are the advantages of a 9x setup over a 5x setup?

It is really a much bigger difference 5x to 9x because the in-line fans will push a lot CFMs against resistance, while the computer fans and squirrel cage blowers do not (i.e. their CFM capacity is greatly diminished with resistance).

When you put an HID in a small grow space you create, for lack of a better analogy, a large easy-bake oven. The only way to keep it cool (assuming normal outside the cab temps) is to move a lot of air through it. The small cab-400w HID application is quite different from putting a 400w HID in a larger room as the extra cubic feet in the larger room allow space for the heat to disperse away from the plants; in a cab this heat dispersion can't happen because there is no where for the heat to disperse to.

If you read though this thread you will see that big fans are the norm when 400w HIDs are stuffed into small cabinets.

i am trying to keep the cab as quiet and discreet as possible,
would a inline booster fan work? are they loud at all?
or should i only be looking at inline fans and squirrel cage type setups?

Like I suggested above - post a separate thread in this forum or in the micro-forum. You can also look at what at what other people with fluoro cabs are doing and what sort of results they are getting.

Pine

 

[FreezerBoy]

would a inline booster fan work?

Definite maybe. With 150 watts or less, maybe.

They're called boosters because they aid your real fan. They're not meant to be used alone. Beyond that, they're axials and incapable of handling the pressure of filters beyond the odorsock variety. If you're running low wattages in low temp surroundings with a low smell variety in low numbers ... maybe.

 

[Kelly.]

....

 

[FreezerBoy]

Try bicycle inner-tubes. Slit them into strips and staple/glue to both door and cab as though the strip were a 4 foot long piano hinge. Note, the strip will NOT hold up a door! you need real hinges for that

 

[Tanuvan]

The black caulk method typically works well for not only making doors light tight, but smell tight as well.

You use black silicone that you can find at your local home improvement store. Apply it to the door frame, and then close the doors. Then smooth some on the gaps from the outside so that light won't pass through. Be sure to put Vaseline on the side that you do NOT want it to stick to...(which is typically the actual door) BEFORE you put the caulk on there.

*Note, do not use the white caulk...as it glows through.

Good luck with your light proofing!

 

[icough2getoff]

This weather stripping is white so it blends in with a white cabinet, and it's light proof because it's rubber. It's what I've been using, but does start of fall off every year or so and requires replacement. The other recommendations sound good too.

 

[sumo]

Inner tube sounded interesting but you also have to seal top and bottom of doors. My C13 cabinet has been light proof for 4 years now on original 3/8" foam weatherstripping. The white looks best and is plenty light proof for plants but will leave the cabinet with a eerie glowing outline in total darkness. I fixed this by applying black electrical tape to inside of cab and foam where light was leaking through. The foam weather seal is applied to cabinet with doors off and also to one door where it contacts other door when closed. You can open cab one door at a time but have to close both doors together to avoid scraping weather seal off of door. The rest is just leveling cab, and adjusting the doors very carefully according to the instructions. My cabinet is completely lightproof.
Yea I am still going with the same cab for 4 years now. With a $500 cab I have grown at least $10,000 worth of chunky nugs. Thanks Maliboo. High Pinecone! We are much more jaded and harder to impress but we are still here. Good luck newbies. It is definately worth the effort.

 

[pinecone]

My C13 cabinet has been light proof for 4 years now on original 3/8" foam weatherstripping. The white looks best and is plenty light proof for plants but will leave the cabinet with a eerie glowing outline in total darkness. I fixed this by applying black electrical tape to inside of cab and foam where light was leaking through. The foam weather seal is applied to cabinet with doors off and also to one door where it contacts other door when closed. You can open cab one door at a time but have to close both doors together to avoid scraping weather seal off of door. The rest is just leveling cab, and adjusting the doors very carefully according to the instructions. My cabinet is completely lightproof.
Yea I am still going with the same cab for 4 years now. With a $500 cab I have grown at least $10,000 worth of chunky nugs. Thanks Maliboo. High Pinecone! We are much more jaded and harder to impress but we are still here. Good luck newbies. It is definately worth the effort.

Its cool to see some of the guys from the old days around, growing, and contributing.

I agree with everything you said with respect to light-proofing. I had redo the weatherstripping recently because some of the stuff on the door was shredded up.

Pine

 

[ft100]

glad to see the c13 boyz around. used to run a mean c13, went to a 1200 watt 4x8 tent next and still working it out. loved the c13 years, grew ak48, blockhead, and lots of ssh in there......peace smoke love to origins and self sufficiency