Stealth Cabinet Build (78Hx48Wx24D)

Backstory:
I've been growing for a bit over a year now with two Growbright tents I purchased from HTGSupply. They're the small size (20Dx36Wx64H). In the veg tent there's a shelf and two 4-bulb T5 units which allows me to be veg'ing around 16 plants in 1.5 gal containers. In the flower tent, I've got a 250-watt HPS and can stuff 8 1.5gal containers in there (though it is REAL tight).

This works ok, but the problem we've run into is that the wife and I just CANNOT seem to keep ourselves from harvesting way too early. When we're out of bud to smoke and fiending, we have been known to cut a plant down at 4 weeks of flower to get high for a night or two. It's ridiculous really.

So.. after much contemplation, I've decided that the only real solution is: Grow More! Hopefully we'll still be able to pick a few early, but allow the majority to fully finish. To do this, I'll need a new cabinet. Lets get to that...


Cabinet Details:

First off, I need to give credit where it's due.. I had been procrastinating for quite a while, until I came across this thread. I'm not doing aeroponics except when I clone (cuz it gets CRAZY hot here and I don't know how I'd keep my res cool without spending a ton of $$), and I'm only doing one cab at the moment, but cruzer101's setup is my inspiration.

Now, on to the parts...

Cabinet w/ shelves ($362 on-sale/shipped):

Steel Double Door Storage Cabinet (requires shelves), 48w x 24d x 78h, Black
SKU:TNNJ478BK
UNIT PRICE:$214.49
WEIGHT:134.00 lbs(s)
Four Shelves for Steel Double Door Storage Cabinet, 48w x 24d, Black
SKU:TNNJ24SBK
UNIT PRICE:$126.49
WEIGHT:80.00 lbs(s)

FAN ($77 shipped) :
TD-100 S&P TD Series Inline Fan. For 4 inch round duct - 101/97 cfm (high/low).
*I have a 5" and 6" TD series fan and LOVE them. They are very very quiet, which is key for me.

Filter ($55 + shipping):
CanFilter 2600 w/ 4" flange

Ballast ($139 + shipping):
Lumatek 120v 400watt HPS/MH (w/ cheap bulbs)

Reflector (cheap):
Bake A Round from ebay.


After a grow or two with two flower areas to get ahead, I plan to retire my current tent and flower only in the new cab. I also may eventually want to condense down all the way to a single cab for veg & flower, so my thought is to install one shelf as high as it will go and hang the light from that. I will also cut my cooltube/filter vent about halfway down the back of the cab on one side. Was thinking I'd mount the filter on the outside and blow into it with the fan on the inside of the cab sucking through the cooltube.

I figure that by doing this the exhaust sound I hate with my current tent setups will be muffled by the filter and if I do eventually decide to veg up top and flower below, I could just lower the shelf the light hangs from... we'll see.


So, that's it for now. All the equipment above was ordered today and should be here within the next week or so (hvacquick.com actually shipped this afternoon! Love that place). Will post pics and progress reports as things move along.

I'd love to hear what thoughts people have re: my setup. My main limitations are stealth and the single 15amp circuit I have in my office.

Thanks!

Congrats Man!

Ya did it alright, and you did it in a size that should yield you 6 to eight Oz's per harvest.
Keeping girls in veg means you can get that every couple months.

I doubt you are going to have any problems finding a bowl when you want it.
Tough part will be (as you know) waiting for the first harvest.

I am excited for you, This is awesome.

Your ideas sound great. Those filters can take up precious flower space.
First time around you can use the MH to veg with too. Heres an idea, if you want to instead of buying an expensive bulb you could easily switch between bulbs during flower, HPS 4 days and MH 3 days... just an idea.

You know that I will follow along. You are growing in soil right? I have considered soil, this is perfect I can learn from someone who has the same setup as I do and vice versa.

Very Cool.

cruzer101 said:

Congrats Man!

Ya did it alright, and you did it in a size that should yield you 6 to eight Oz's per harvest.
Keeping girls in veg means you can get that every couple months.

I doubt you are going to have any problems finding a bowl when you want it.
Tough part will be (as you know) waiting for the first harvest.

I am excited for you, This is awesome.

Your ideas sound great. Those filters can take up precious flower space.
First time around you can use the MH to veg with too. Heres an idea, if you want to instead of buying an expensive bulb you could easily switch between bulbs during flower, HPS 4 days and MH 3 days... just an idea.

You know that I will follow along. You are growing in soil right? I have considered soil, this is perfect I can learn from someone who has the same setup as I do and vice versa.

Very Cool.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the feedback cruzer, glad to have you along for the ride.

We're thinking along the same lines re: using a 400watt MH bulb the first time and I did order one as well. My cloner only has 8 sites and I don't really want to make a bigger one just yet, so I figure I'll let them sit under the 400watt MH until I've got the sucker full, then switch over to the HPS.

If my yield is anywhere near what you predict, I may repeat this each go-round as I will have enough to smoke and not have to make such a quick turn-around.

In an attempt to get all the way through the first harvest, I'm going to keep my current setup going and pick at that while the new cab does its thing.

I am using soil. Fox Farm Ocean Forest. It's all I've ever tried and haven't found a reason to change. Will post more details in a forthcoming grow log once everything's up and going.

Ok... so here's what I'm working with right now. As I said above, the plan is to keep this running (and fully stocked... need to work on that part) while I do my first grow in the new cabinet. Eventually I want to consolidate everything (including cloning and storage) down to two cabinets... maybe even one.

Pictures are of my clone area which is just a small aeroponic cloner (Daisy Cloner 8 site) sitting on a file cabinet in the closet. I have a single T5 above it. I've various strains in there... Mixed up some seeds a while back, so that's why some say "?" while others have the actual strain name ("Avalanche").

Then I have my two tents. The one on the left is veg and flower on the right. To the right of the flower tent is our storage/watering station. We have a tub under the rack and we put the plants on the bottom shelf to water. Drains right through and when we're done w/ all the plants, I dump it in the bucket and take it outside. Eventually we're going to put in a sink in our laundry room so we don't have to buy water or dump it out back.

Then I have a shot of the flower tent open and finally the veg tent w/ shelf and dual T5s. Note on the flowering tent... we don't usually go to flower w/ such small plants. We're playing around at the moment with some things.

First equipment for new cabinet came today! Soler & Palau TD-100 fan.

Ballast and cordset arrive Friday... cabinet & shelves shipped yesterday. Coming by freight, so not exactly sure when they will be delivered.

My shipment took about a week.

Thx. Should be perfect timing as we have houseguests this weekend who are leaving Monday. Hopefully I'll be able to start building by middle of next week.

By the way, nice choice on the fan. I was looking at that exact one, well that and there TD 125
I think it makes less noise then any other inline fan on the market.

Then I got cheap and bought a 4" duct booster at 110 cfm. I can hear it but it isnt that bad.

They are great. I remember going to the local shop when I was considering growing, the guy plugged in a 4" Vortex fan and I about had a heart attack with how loud it was. Thought I'd never be able to do this and keep it stealth enough. It's not really any louder than the computers I have sitting next to my tents.

Cab Update: Freight company called today! Cabinet being delivered tomorrow. I have house guests through Monday, so I don't think I'll get much done. Will post pics as things arrive and I have time.

Got some deliveries today!

Arrived:
Cabinet
Ballast w/ cordset
HPS and MH bulb
Carbon Filter

The only challenge I see is that the MH bulb is FAT. Not sure it'll fit in the bake a round (should be here early next week). So I'll have to see what I can do there. It wouldn't be the end of the world if I go HPS-only as that was the original plan and the MH bulb was a cheap afterthought, but it would be cool to veg a bit before switching.

Have houseguests through Monday so I don't expect to be able to start the build before then, but will try to sneak a few box-porn pics tonight.

Box-porn... RIGHT ON!!!

Ok - here's some shots of the equipment. The blury brown boxes are the cabinet. Note the MH bulb... I think it'll be too fat to fit in the bake-a-round. Trying to find specific measurements on-line. Bake-a-round should be here early next week. If it won't fit.. maybe I could just mount it somehow in the cab and have the exhaust duct sucking right next to it. Not sure if that'll work or not.

Should be able to start the buil mid-next week.

Bake a rounds are 4 inches across, Sorry to tell you that football is not going to fit in there. Standard cool tubes are six inches across.

cruzer101 said:

Bake a rounds are 4 inches across, Sorry to tell you that football is not going to fit in there. Standard cool tubes are six inches across.

Click to expand...

Ya, I didn't think so. Oh well, I'll have to see what I can do. I do have a regular 6" cooltube, but it's in my flowering tent right now with my 250 hps. Not sure I want to go through the hassle of changing everything so I can veg for a couple weeks under MH. I may end up just running the HPS in the DIY coolube on 18/6 till I've got all my cloning finished and I'm ready to switch to flower. Save the MH bulb for down the road once I condense my current flowering tent into the new cabinet. Then replace the DIY with the "real cooltube".

Are all wattage MH bulbs that fat?

Naw, There are a few companys that make them in smaller sizes heres a link:
http://www.specialty-lights.com/metalhalide400.html

My opinion is the time in veg to prepare for flower isn't worth the trouble.
If I was growing 5 or 6 foot plants well ya then it may be worth it but floros will veg a plant to a foot tall nicely.
Then if I want more size I veg with the HPS. Works fine.

If you were going to flower in all three areas and wanted to veg them all together then ya I would use it.
I just figure it is a back up in case the bulb burns out. I have a cheap reflector for mine.

Ok.. houseguests are gone, planted some rooted clones for the current flowering tent this afternoon and I'm moving on to re-arranging furniture in the room I'm using to accommodate the new cabinet.

Hope to get that done tonight and then start putting the cabinet together tomorrow or Wed. Bake A Round showed up and as we noted, will not fit the MH I bought. To make things easy, I'm going to proceed with configuring the cabinet with the 4" DIY cooltube and HPS.

Feels like I'm going in slow motion! I want to be up and running so bad.

Make sure you pick a wall to mount it against. Its not a free standing job.

cruzer101 said:

Make sure you pick a wall to mount it against. Its not a free standing job.

Click to expand...

I had thought about putting the cabinet at an angle in a corner of the room to give some more space for air behind the cabinet. It won't stand up by itself??

Well you could angle it but you need a brace of some sort.
Sure it will stand by itself but I had trouble with the door swing until I mounted it to the wall. It has levelers on the bottom but I couldnt get it right. (i am kinda picky) Beside its much safer.

The solid welded cabinets don't have this issue but they are $700 and up.
Actually I didn't realize it until after I got it but still a bracket isn't much.

Thanks for the tip! I will get something similar to what I used to secure the large furniture in kids rooms to the wall. Like a strap or bracket that secures to the cabinet and a wall stud.