Started a Cabinet

Hey there. I think I introduced myself a bit ago but never got around to getting anything together. I finally got this started. I'll post some picks tomorrow as it's nearly 4 and I have to deal with a 5yo minion in the morrow.

Storage Closet from Home Depot
Dimensions
36"W x 79"H x 20"D

I was going to get the 4'W and 2'D one but I only have a small car and the thing weighed 190+Lbs.


I do not have any pots or soil yet but I do have some bag seed.

I originally planned using a dresser for stealth but it was missing a drawer that I failed to remember about. So my light money went into the cabinet and I can't remedy this issue for a few weeks.

So currently I have 2 - 26w 6500k CFLs in floodlight hoods with handy little clamps. I have a couple more CFLs I will be stringing up in there until money comes again. I will most likely be purchasing more of what I already have to further veg when I start and then buy a 250w or 400w if cash flow permits HPS and Ballast Kit. it seems they are cheaper to wire your own and I feel Google is enough to help me with that.

As far as the cab goes. I am lacking intake and exhaust. This is due to a lack of ownership of a drill and a circle hole cutter bit. Are there any cheap alternatives? I have been tempted to scour the neighborhood for an open garage and ask whoever's inside if they have a drill and the bit I could borrow. I know I am a cheapo. I'm putting this thing in my bedroom walk-in closet. Eventually I will have to fully stealth it as I am in an apt and have company over that do not need to smell my fruit. And stick a piece of plywood on the back for support and sealing purposes as the flimsy little sheet that came with it will only cut it for a little while.

It has 3 adjustable shelves and a Permanent shelf at the top about 18" down from the top.

I'm going to sleep on this and hope someone has viewed this. I've lurked here since I registered and admired not only peoples dedication to their own cabs but the dedication and support from the community. I hope for something like that too. (=

I'll post a couple pics of the cab tomorrow and pray some genie leaves soil and pots at my door.

Peace


-Edit I discovered after posting that I DID NOT post an introduction like I thought I did. It must have been at another forum. Aww well they are all green. I'll do that tomorrow/today as well. Everyone enjoy your holiday.

well your in a little predicament if u cant manage to cut holes. I have a 2' x 4' cab probably the one you were talking about it also had a flimsy back, and I had to replace it with a piece of plywood. As for holes lights and fans. Well the light Id recommend a 250 or 400. If you can buy a decent priced reflector from somewhere then you can wire in a cheap unbuilt ballast to go with it. I did that with my 150 watter for my dresser, and it works fine. I use a 400 in my cab with decent temps, but it requires ALOT of airflow. To be honest before you go doing random things to get it built. I'd make a price list of things you find online, figure out how much it is gonna cost you to get your light, fans, and reflector. Then ask a grandparent or parent if you can borrow a drill, 1/4 inch bit, and jigsaw. If they ask what its for then tell them you are helping a friend fix something, and come up with a story. Not much more advice I can give. Try 1000bulbs.com thats where I get my unbuilt ballasts. The reflector is probably gonna be the most expensive or the same price as the balast kit. I'd get a cheaper 6 inch cooltube from ebay or get a supersun2 reflector from here ecogrow.com. The supersun2 is relatively small reflector meant to fit inside cabs, and is the one I will be getting when I flip my cab on its side to do a dual 400 setup with scrog. Hope this helps some. Peace.

Thanks for the reply and advice. Unfortunately I have neither Grandparent nor parent in a 200 mile vicinity. Another unfortunate is I'm going to barely lick the Soil/Perl/Nutes. This is a prototype run and though bare minimum I'm going to have to scrape by with the lights and maybe a couple more CFLs for this first stage. This will be my first grow ever. I did have a plant in an artesian stream on a mountain about 13 years ago. I knew nothing about taking care of it. Now I have forums and legions of people with knowledge and experience.

I may be able to get a drill by other means. It's a shame I've burned the bridge with my neighbor in the next door apt but I probably wouldn't want to be borrowing power tools for a project like this from the neighbor 2 walls away...LOL

As for the fans, I may run on down to the recycling center and see what they have in the computers there. Last time I brought my cans in there I asked to look at their cases to try one of those PC Stealth Grows I've seen. So I may be able to score a few fans that way.

Would it be possible to do away with ventilation for about 3 weeks since this storage closet will be inside a walk-in closet? Leave one of the doors ajar a bit. I may try driving around and look for a truck full of Mexicans doing work and might be able to score the needed tools. (=
I'll put pics up in a bit of what I'm working with I was up late painting the inside of the cab and the wife woke me up after 3 hours of zonk. I may put one of the removable shelves up about 4' and then separate the cab vertically making a Veg Chamber and the other for flowering and then up above it a clone chamber that will get use in the future.

Grats on that larger cab. I wish I'd gotten that one but truth is I didn't have room for it anyways.

Thanks again

yes u can get by with just some open fresh air, but you need to find some way to put some reflective material around the plant so it will absorb more light. I would look at gettin an emergency blanket from the camping section at walmart they are around 3-4 dollars.

Aww that's a great idea with the emergency blanket. I could make an inverted cone under the planet and it would bounce back. (= Thank you caseyg. These are what I'm using with my bulbs. they were $12 for 2 of them and they have a nice long cord. I think I may get 2 more today as well as 2 more 26w (100w) 6500k CFL lamps today. I put another coat of paint on the lower part of the cab this morning and cheap backing that came with it until I can score a piece of ply. Gonna throw the doors on now. just waiting for the wife to wake up to watch the minion so I can go grab some earth from the hydro store.

Considering what I should do as a water overflow. I'm going to look around in here as to what people do for that sort of thing. I'll be manually watering them and not sure if they can just sit in a pan with holes in the botom of the bucket or just leave the bucket without holes. I'll read on. (=


Quick question though. These little hoods say they hold a max of 150w lamp. Since these lamps are 26w but rated as 100w could I put a Y in there for two of them?

xhanth said:

Aww that's a great idea with the emergency blanket. I could make an inverted cone under the planet and it would bounce back. (= Thank you caseyg. These are what I'm using with my bulbs.

they were $12 for 2 of them and they have a nice long cord. I think I may get 2 more today as well as 2 more 26w (100w) 6500k CFL lamps today. I put another coat of paint on the lower part of the cab this morning and cheap backing that came with it until I can score a piece of ply. Gonna throw the doors on now. just waiting for the wife to wake up to watch the minion so I can go grab some earth from the hydro store.

Considering what I should do as a water overflow. I'm going to look around in here as to what people do for that sort of thing. I'll be manually watering them and not sure if they can just sit in a pan with holes in the botom of the bucket or just leave the bucket without holes. I'll read on. (=


Quick question though. These little hoods say they hold a max of 150w lamp. Since these lamps are 26w but rated as 100w could I put a Y in there for two of them?

Click to expand...

As for watering (i could be wrong) but you always need holes or some sort of pot that drains so your soil doesnt just doesnt sit in a puddle in the bottom of the pot/bucket and builds up mildew/fungus etc etc. and for the hoods yes max of 150w using y splitters w/ 2 26 actual watters you'll be just fine. my question will the splitters and bulbs fit in the hood tho?

K2, thanks for that. I'm not too sure if they will fit or not. I'll be sure to pick up some sort of bottoms for whatever pots I throw these in for drainage. Yesterday I went and grabbed two more of the same hoods though and another pack of the same lamps. I haven't done any pics yet because there's really nothing to take a pic of yet. Cab is up and I'm trying to think how I am going to seal a 7' high gap between the two doors. It's about 3/8" wide all the way up. I wonder if I could get a large sheet of the wood that are in old dressers from a lumber yard and treat it like an insert. The problem with that is the stationary shelf at the top is flush with the doors closed and the hinges would not take the insert well enough. Spacers behind the inside of the cabs hinges to put the hinges out from the sides a small amount may do the trick but I'd still have to hide light from the what would then be a minor crack in the center. I'll read on some other projects and see some of their solutions.

Hydro shop was closed yesterday so I wen't to Lowes and they had some decent soil. I'm on a heavy budget anyways. I got the Kellogg's All Natural Soil that has Worm Castings, Kelp Meal, Bat Guano and Chicken Manure in it and also a bag of perlite.

I've read mixed messages about the benefits of perlite and how much to use in my mix. I've read as much as a 50/50 of soil/perlite should be used and then yesterday I read that a 90/10 should be used with commercial soils. If someone with experience with Kellogg's or with enough know how on a good Soil to Perlite mix for use with these soils could comment it would be appreciated.

X'ing fingers that these seeds germinate if not I may have to grab a clone or two from a friend or at least some beans. (=

Little update, sorry still no picks. Main reason being that my apt is in a wreckage at the moment.

I ran out of duct take as I was finishing up my light traps. I know it sounds jury rigged and in a way I guess it is. Low budget calls for smart, cheap efficient fun. I took the bottoms of some drawers from the dresser that I'd previously set aside to use for this project that got screwed up as well as some drawers from a dresser that was left outside the dumpster yesterday. *That's the second time shit has fallen right into place for my project...I don't know but I have a pretty good feeling that the weed God is rooting for me, pun intended.

More good news. The seeds I put into germ late yesterday afternoon 4 out of 10 of them have sunk to the bottom. So I am both happy and relieved. I'll finish the light traps tomorrow morning and grab some more duct tape, plastic cups, exchange the six small pots I got for four 3 gallon pots and a can of flat white Spray paint for the outsides of my traps.

I put in 2 5" Fans into the temporary backing of the cab. I'm not going to bother with the plywood for the time being as I can't afford a compass saw nor the wood.

I have some nylon rope and some hanging hooks that I think I will string up to hang my clip lights from as well. Also have to see about finding some weather stripping and lathed piece of white wood to screw over one of the doors along the front to bridge the gap. This will also allow me to put a lock on it although having a lock on it might bring suspicion if the land lord were to come in and request to look in bedrooms, closets, etc. Just pile up some clothes and shit that normally you'd see in a closet, around it and be good to go.Maybe place some things on top of it. Wife thought about decorating the cab's outside to make it look girly. I don't care.

That is all. I am long winded and enjoy writing on this. I'm very excited to finish the cab's 1st phase of evolution and look forward to plant in the morrow.

Thanks for listening in. Soon to watch!

Gotta clear out the closet where I'm going to put this cab and make a nice work area within.

Good call putting the fans in the cardboard. While I was reading your thread, I was going to suggest using a sharp object to poke a hole, then a serrated knife to cut a round vent holes in the cardboard.

Going cheap myself, I used barebone sockets wired to a $1 extension cord. 300 watts of cfl cost me $50 for every bit of material including the bulbs. I spent less than $5 per bulb all materials included.

Example:

This is about $25. Wiring it together is extremely simple and not dangerous, people use toaster ovens and space heaters with these cords all the time, and I had my cfl board running for a month straight (24/0) with no problems. I did find that cfl's are vastly inferior to MH for veg growth, so keep that in mind if you're thinking about upgrading.

K, so little perdicament. No sooner do I get my seeds in their little pots and get the box semi operational the Apt Maintenance man comes and slides a paper in my door saying they want to check my wall heater to see if it needs to be removed. My son also happened to blab that he had gotten bit on his hands and neck by a bug so they called Terminex and they'll be here Friday. So I'm to be entered by someone from management tomorrow about the heater and Friday sometime for the Terminex.

My question is this. Does anyone know the routine of an exterminator primarily checking for bedbugs? If so please do tell. Will they enter my closet and if so will they move around my wardrobe. The wardrobe will be put back to wardrobe status and filled with folded blankets and clothes.

Will they open boxes or check any of my belongings. Where will they spray if they do so. I have my timer set to go on at 5pm and turn off at 11am. I think what I'm going to do is just box all the extra crap I've placed and place that in my storeroom closet at the bottom under the shelf. Keep one light out since it's just 10 small cups with seed? *1 sound efficient?* And do away with the PC fans and go barebones with just the holes and a small fan. Change my times for the next couple days to 5pm to 7am ON. I picked up a large boot box from payless when I went out and that will house the cups of seed while in dark period in the storage closet until safe to remove.

I'm hoping these precious seeds make it.


As for the update well you have it. I'll take a quick pick of what I have put together to keep people interested and just because I've been saying I would. I'll touch back here and let you know how the entries playout from management and Terminex. On a side note. It seems I wasn't the only one who got that piece of paper slipped in their door today so I don't believe that I have to be worried for any reason.

Picked up some Foxfarm Grow today and PH-Down from Hydro store and an aquarium Ph-Tester and White Duct Tape from Walmart. I'm hoping this Ph tester will do the job for the time being. I may have to check the color of the test strips on a web site or something because the picture on the result paper doesn't go down very far. The Fox Farm Grow nutes should tide me over for this first month too as I can't say I'm even growing anything yet...LOL

Stay tuned for a couple picks of the setup before I take it down...@_@ My light traps are incomplete mind you so please keep scoffing to a minimum. I'll gladly take any criticism though.

Okay. As promised, some pics. There's not much too it atm but I have plenty of room. (= Next month comes the 25 or 400w HPS/MH Ballast and lamps.

These were just germed mind you lol so you won't see anything. But you can at least see my setup. It's in evolution so nothing is set in stone yet. unfinished light traps I bought some white duct tape today so I will be securing the rest of that one with the white tape as well as the top one next week some time.

I'll be keeping a close eye on the seeds within the Sierra Mist cans. As those are the 5 seeds that sunk bottom. I did plant the rest and one of those other cans has two seeds because I was lazy and didn't want to open another can.

Thanks for looking. (=