First Grow/ PC Case

First time post, long ass time lurking around and just absorbing information. Tried a DWC grow awhile back but didn't end up working out so well.

Recently I've moved to a new location and have decided to restart my endeavors. Today I came across a free server case and figured it a sign since I've been contemplating this. Below are the pictures of the case I have. The dimensions are 16" tall x 25" deep x 8" wide. These are the specs when looking at it face on as in looking at the front where the buttons would be. The picture is of the case laying on its side.

The only concern I have is will there be enough of a height clearance. I would mount a bulb to the side and run it along the top. I would like to find some sort of pot for soil that is shorter and wider. Is there a minimum height necessary for the roots or can they grow horizontally?

I understand that I would be better off going with some sort of scrog method. With the height concerns should I go with only a couple weeks of veg and then right into 12/12 in order to minimize the height and determine which are females? I plan on vegging 4 to optimize my chance of getting at least 1 female. Do you think it would be possible to do 2 small females in scrog even if their branches intertwine with each other?

Which bulbs should I get for veg/ flowering, watts & color? I have seen it many times in posts but would just like an answer.

Thanks guys.

What you need is an autoflower strain. Alternatively, you can just veg for 3 weeks then go into flower, all while topping and LSTing at the same time.

So today I popped out about 30-50 rivets so that I could take out all of the guts. I'm left with the gutted case. I have some basic design questions displayed in the diagram I drew in paint. What should I line the case with in order to light proof all of the little holes and what not? The best bet would probably be to just cover it all in electrical tape since the underside is black, duct tape would look weird with it's bright gray underside.

I'd prefer not to spend $ on mylar. I heard that "space blankets" are made out of mylar and are available for like $2.00. I could just buy a high gloss white spray paint and coat the inside too.

The red X's represent where I would want to put fans. The one farthest from bulbs an intake and the one right next to the bulbs an exhaust. If the exhaust fan is near the bulbs it will assist in keeping temperatures cool right?

The black is the power strip and the white the bulbs I will be using. Still unsure as to what wattage and color CFLs.

The brown pot is where I will put the base. I would like to move it left more where the black arrow indicates once I start weaving the plant. Will the lights on the right entice it to stretch too much towards the light? The green arrow.

My doubt in the height makes me hesitant to mount the power strip+CFLs to the top.



The second picture is a little compartment hatch that I could open to access where the black arrow is pointing to. I can remove this as the front leaks light, but could this allow me easy access to something?

Any help, thoughts, comments greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

I ran the dimensions on the box and its 1.3 cubic feet. I have found a 40mm fan that is 7.x cfm for $3 each. That means they would circulate all the air in the case approx every 10 seconds or so? I know that if I get 2 there is a chance 1 might not work or I need some more later on so I'm going to get 4. If I don't like them it's only $12 and can replace them later on.

Hey man start the plant to the slightly to the left, and bend the main stem right along the length of the case to maximise your space.

Depending on what lights your going with you may want to invest in better fans, 40mm is tiny. I run a 65w bulb with 2 exhaust 120mm and 2 intake 120mm and its still about 27degrees (C) in there

Jeesh these are a lot smaller than I thought , hey that's on me. He gave me 4 for $10 which isn't that bad regardless. Since these are so small I'm not going to use them as my primary intake/exhaust fans. Maybe I could mount the lights on top and lay a plexi glass piece below them and develop some sort of a cooling tube along the top with these little guys? Any thoughts on that idea, I saw it done in a previous PC grow on here and it cooled the temperature pretty well and plexi glass doesn't absorb that much of the light.

Hi Austin,

Good start so far!

For lining the inside, I would recommend black and white poly! Some people call it Panda film.
I picked some up from the hydroponics store just the other day, $1 / ft of it, and each ft you get
is 1'x10' because it expands as it unfurls.

For your bulbs, you are going to want 23-26w 2500k and 6500k bulbs. 3 of each? I've never done a pc
grow so you will have to research the number of bulbs, or experiment for yourself. But definitely stick
to those colors and sizes. The 6500k are used for vegging, and the 2500k are used for flowering.

You could easily try mounting a piece of plexi-glass, I'm sure it would work well.

Thanks MisterMan, do you think it would be best to mount the lights along the side or along the top? Any previous experience with lights both/one way?

https://www.rollitup.org/stealth-micro-cab-growing/530699-cl-cks-micro-grow-cfl.html

server cases are epic man , check out my setup

I'm trying to figure that out myself right now!

My power bars each have a slots on the back to mount them,

I'm using Rubbermaid containers, so I'm thinking of putting a door on it. If I do that, I will be mounting on the top.

I think with you it really doesn't matter, a pc case is small in the first place and a 23w bulb puts out a lot of light!

Well I opened my trunk today and found that I had a few spare fans in there! I broke apart some xbox's a few years ago and for some reason the cooling fans were in my trunk. I attached an image of them. I believe I have 3 sets of 2 fans. I found 2 in my trunk and think I have a third laying around somewhere. I could mount these along the top, front and back, and then plexi glass below the bulbs? This would give me a better cooling set up.

Then I could possibly use 2-4 of the smaller for an intakes. As I write this I am thinking that I don't want to use one of the xbox/ any of the smaller for exhaust is that I would like some sort of DIY carbon scrubber on the back to help mask the smell. Developing a scrubber for possibly 2 different sets of exhuast/ for anything other than a simple 120mm fan seems pointless...
View attachment 2204752

Man I'm sure that would work real good.

I made my own carbon scrubber, but I have a 150 CFM 120mm fan it is attached to.
I would recommend picking up a decent 120mm fan, they are cheap. You will also
need a fan controller so you can change the speed. They can get pretty loud

I just put some doors on my rubbermaid, gonna post pics soon..

Man you signed up here a long time ago

MisterMan32 said:

Hi Austin,

Good start so far!

For lining the inside, I would recommend black and white poly! Some people call it Panda film.
I picked some up from the hydroponics store just the other day, $1 / ft of it, and each ft you get
is 1'x10' because it expands as it unfurls.

For your bulbs, you are going to want 23-26w 2500k and 6500k bulbs. 3 of each? I've never done a pc
grow so you will have to research the number of bulbs, or experiment for yourself. But definitely stick
to those colors and sizes. The 6500k are used for vegging, and the 2500k are used for flowering.

You could easily try mounting a piece of plexi-glass, I'm sure it would work well.

Click to expand...

http://www.energyfederation.org/estarlights/default.php/cPath/4249_2602

The ones I'm looking at are in the 3rd row, 2nd and 3rd column. Should I go with the 23w or 27w, they are both 2700k. This is suitable for flowering correct? If I went with 6 x 27w I'd get another 1,000 lumens which is like another bulb over the 23w. It's a subsidy the gov't offers on bulbs

For vegging should I run 3 x 2700k & 3 x 6500k?

lol, I luv this site.

I've got 4 or 5 unused pc towers, 3 tall, 2 short...and 1 (one) bagseed I got just the other day after rollin' (TM) a doob for a friend. lol. It's difficult to find any bagseeds nowadays with all the sensi available, so when I saw this one I came back to this site which I stumbled on a year ago.

I also have a box of cfl lights I picked up at a home show for 10 bux. A bunch of different cfl lights to make the upcoming transition from incandescents. I'm not sure which light specs are usable/best, but I had good results with just regular short florescents (desk study lamps) before.

Anyone want to guess what my yield will be?? LOL

Seriously, this will be fun as hell. I grew a nice scrogged plant about 8 years ago with 2 short florescent bulbs (not sure what the specs were), but I used just outdoor soil, epsom salts, rusty nails, some miracle grow, and I pissed in the bottle for extra nitrogen. lol true story. Harvested early, cured and smoked it (b/c an argument with a whacked out female neighbor made me nervous and I ripped out and trashed the plant cuz I thought she might rat me out). I didn't care for it much, but my gf thought it was good. I think my curing process was poor, b/c the buds were def crystallized, harry, and stanky as fuck. lol. Miss those days in Mexico. And this time it will be total stealth and no showing my awesome plants to anyone in real life. Do people use IP/randomizers-surfing-web anonymizers here, or is this site totally secure?? Just a thought.

Sorry to ramble, but this brings back good memories of days and weed past. So on to the present and future.

I have many questions which I will research and ask for help with.

1. How are you attaching the lights to the inside of the pc cases? Glue? Screws?

2. Do you use the pc power supply to power the pc fans and lights, or are you wiring direct to 120v supply?

3. Which cfls do I need, or can I use just about any?

Last year I scanned a thread here for cfl specs/lumens/watts I will reread, but if someone has the quick answer, i'd appreciate it.

I also have a vegetable garden outside, so I will probably just start this first bagseed in soil, but I will probably move to hydro/bubble on 2nd attempt. Not sure here either. Rockwool wicking sounds easier than airpump/aeration etc. But that can wait. I will do soil this time as I just threw the bagseed in a wet paper towel with distilled water about 30 minutes ago. lol. I will do soil with this one, so just need to work out constructing the stealth pc case, lights, and fans.

Hope this isn't a derail too much. I thought I'd start my own thread, but then figured we could work this stuff out together.

If that bagseed pops tomorrow, it will be on like donkey kong. lol

Initially, I can just pot it and fire up 2 or 3 cfls and not worry about completing the stealth case for a few days.

What's up Mark?

In response to bulbs look at the post above yours and read it, it gives what colors you are going to need for vegitation (growing) and flowering (actually forming the bud). I placing a powerstrip on the inside and running the cord out of the back so it won't be that noticeable.

The issue I'm going to be working on in the next hour or so is wiring the fans. I'm going to mount the power strip as seen if you look at my previous posts.

So I've come up with a wiring scheme for the various fans. I decided to use "PowerPlug" this will allow me to easily disconnect the fan if something goes wrong and replace it. It's the orange plastic peace attached to the fans.

I don't know how to mount the xbox fans to the case. The opening along the top, both on the front and back, are wider than the fans. Anyone have any ideas on how to mount these? I bought some locktite repair putty. It's used for all repairs and can bond metal to plastic. I'm thinking of cutting some up and just applying it to the top of the fans & the case. I should probably line the inside with cardboard and light proof it, cut out the holes and what not before I start mounting things in place.

Also included is an updated design idea which I am going for.

View attachment 2209806View attachment 2209808View attachment 2209809

Finally hooked up the xbox fans and light blocked most of the case. I used a 12v 1amp to run the 4 fans (2 sets) and they were WAY TOO LOUD. Instead I used an 8v .8amp and it is barely even a whisper while still generating a nice amount of air movement. These are only used to cool the CFLs and keep the temp in check. I understand it's not completely necessary but it couldn't hurt.

View attachment 2211207View attachment 2211208

Looks good, Austin.

So different volts will deliver diff noise levels. Interesting and this is why I was thinking of using the pc power supply which has a bunch of diff voltage outputs if you meter them out or check the schematic usually on the power supply case. Oh, you're using phone chargers??

My one bagseed did not pop/germinate (it didn't look like a healthy seed to start), so it looks like I will have plenty of time to build this pc case properly, as it's difficult to find seeds when most people are toking seedless sensi nowadays. But I know a couple people with raggier weed with some seeds.

What are "PowerPlugs" (link?). Do they have a circuit breaker too? I can't find them w/ google.

They are the little orange things that are used to connect spliced wires. Apologies that this is a pdf link but is a perfect display and explanation: http://www.desertelectric.com/pdf/powerplug_brochure.pdf
I personally thing this is better than having a bunch of random wires spliced and electrical taped together. It also allows for an easy disconnect if I ever need to replace them or anything like that.

The lower voltage doesn't provide the fan with as much electricity as it can handle, therefore it slows the RPMs down and results in them being quieter. The PC power supply does have different outputs. Besides being able to power a few fans and maybe an electrical thermometer of some sort it's not going to be too much help IMO.

So, my one bagseed that I thought wouldn't pop, did pop a couple of days ago, when I put the cup, with the wet paper towel it was in, on my computer box for a little extra warmth. The next day I noticed a slight pop, threw it back in the paper towel and the next day it was ready for Fafard's organic potting soil and a 16oz party cup. I then took 2 of my cfls (3 ways, 14w, 19w, 32w) out of their lamps put them in some desk study lamps and clipped them to my kitchen cabinets and turned them lights on full blast...lol. Today, I noticed that the first two leaves (cotyledons?) are just breaking through the soil. Like I said before, it will be and it is now on like Donkey Kong now that the one seed I have to my name has popped. lol. Pray for pussy? I mean pray it's a female!! lol

So, now I really do need to get this pc stealth case built and functioning withing a few days. I need to buy a light timer today.

Yeah, the Powerplugs look like a good solution for wiring mess.

How about the front intake ventilation? I can see that venting the rear of the case is no problem as there is already a hole or 2. But how do you plan to vent the front fan through the case? Cut a hole or do you have one already?

Also, I will buy carbon filters to place in front of the exhaust fan to dampen odor and light.