Thedude4552s' Perpetual multi-chamber Grow Cab Build

The Dude 4552 said:

Alright. So I found the right tool for the holes: A handheld cut-out tool. Its kind of like a handheld jigsaw. I will be drilling the holes for tomorrow but for today:

I added a dry erase calender for keeping track of lighting schedules, watering schedules, nutrient concentrations and a myriad of other statistics. Right now it's just a hint as to whats inside...

I realized the stupidity of installing a chain lock on the outside of a wardrobe so I removed it and installed one of these key-latch type locks. Works like a charm.

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I've also started work on my Zen-inspired DWC cloner. Today was the trip to petsmart.

Ingredients:

Two plastic shoe-box containers w/ lids (1 for humidity dome) $5.00
One Whisper 20 Gallon air pump $18.00
One BubbleAir Bubble Tubing 36" $10.00
One 6" Air Stone $5.00
One 25' length of 3/16" vinyl tubing $2.50

Take one of your shoe box containers and make a small hole using a screwdriver or drill towards the top of the container. Make the hole wide enough to fit the air pump hose through the container like so:

Once the tube is in the container you can connect an air stone to it. An air stone is a circular disc used in aquariums to both make a aesthetically pleasing volcano of bubbles in the water, but also can give oxygen to the roots of a cloning plant by keeping the water aerated. Attach the end of the hose to the air stone.

Now I bought this air stone just in case as I wanted to experiment with a new bubbling technique.i purchased what is known as a bubble wand. It is 36" long and is a tube with miniature holes that bubble. Hooked up to a 20 gallon air pump, I imagine this would do a fantastic job. A airstone disc like this only bubbles in one area whereas this tubing, as you can see, will wrap around the entire container keeping it nice and aerated.

The other end of your tubing is attached to the air pump. Now in my case I have to attach the hose to an anti-siphon filter to regulate the amount of air coming into the bubble wand, and then into the air pump.

Join me tomorrow for more cloner construction and exhaust construction!

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I'll be following this one I promise you that! I'm excited to see how this all turns out. Keep us posted and keep the awesome pic updates coming! +REP to you sir

Tom

420weedman,

Yes I plan on spray-painting the box black on the outside.

Being as I am primarily working on the clone chamber at the moment, I'll fill you in on what lighting I am using:


It is a 20" Satellite 40W SunPaq with Lunar light aquarium fixture. I had 23" of clearance so I had to go searching for a suitable fluorescent fixture. I found this 20" 2-in-1 Power Compact fluorescent.

One 40W lamp produces 3X the lumens of comparable 40W fluorescent tubes. The unit also includes a moonlight-emitting LED that simulates the 24-hour cycle of natural sunlight. So if the lights are on 18/6 the plants get simulated moonlight for 6 hours a night!

It is also only 2.5" high which gives me 10" of vertical plant height and 23" of horizontal plant width in this particular chamber. Good for clones and a bushy mother plant for cuttings I am sure.

The light is $50.00US on ebay, the replacement bulbs (once a year, they say) are $20.

I may get another one shipped when Im working on the veg chamber, well see...

Alright, Construction update!

First of all, safety first. When drilling into wood with a high-powered tool like this one, sawdust will be flying in all directions. That's why The Dude says:




Goggles and a mask! You dont want to get woodchips in your eyes or in your lungs now do you?


OK, I used two tools for cutting intake and exhaust holes: The intake holes are 2" in diameter so I used a 2" saw hole drill bit.



All you do is take the nail attachment, screw the 2" saw into that attachment and screw that into your drill.



Now the clone/mother chamber has Two 2" passive intakes, so I drilled 2" holes near the bottom back of the wardrobe.



I also cut Three 2" intake holes in the veg chamber.

Now for the exhaust I used my JobMate cut-out tool with circle attachment.





Now I set the circle attachment to drill 5" holes for the exhaust. I chose 5" because I plan to install rubber coupling into each hole to minimize vibration and to work with my plug-and-play exhaust concept.



I wanted a grow box that could be disassembled into a regular wardrobe for moving purposes and so each part could easily be removed and replaced (if needed). So the plug and play exhaust system idea is a whole ventilation setup (shown in the previous post) that is attached using only hoseclamps. To make the parts easier to remove I cut the hole 1" bigger than necessary so I can fit a rubber coupling in to attach the duct. No tape, no caulking, no air leaks. The coupling will especially come in handy when I install the inline fan because I am sure they make a good deal of noise...



I just kept the pivot marker (the black dial) in place and drilled around to create a semi-perfect circle.





So a 5" hole for exhaust and two 2" holes for intake in the clone/mother chamber.

The veg chamber has one 5" hole for exhaust and three 2" holes for intake.

The flowering chamber has one 5" hole for the inline exhaust fan that goes to the carbon filter and one 5" hole for the fan intake.

The filter/power chamber has one 5" hole to vent the filtered air out of the roof of the wardrobe.




The fans will be mounted on the inside of the container. By the way I am holding up the fan in the picture so its not as aligned as it will be when its drilled in.


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Now the cloner:

Using that same 2" saw hole drill bit from earlier, I cut six 2" holes in the lid of the plastic shoebox container.



Now that is one hole. By the time I finished 5 I managed to crack the flimsy plastic container. So 5 of the holes are still fine but one needs some DIY fixing. I'll work on that for the next update.

Until next time!!!

I love watching a grow box develop! Thanks for all of the awesome pics, and don't be afraid to keep 'em coming

Tom

Well I will be doing sanding and painting Thursday, so watch for that...

Oh I most def will be checking in as much as I can, I'm subscribed so I shouldn't miss anything

Tom

Construction Update!

So today I sanded and cleaned the holes I drilled the other day. I also took some pictures of the construction process for the exhaust and intake.



Now on the outside back of the wardrobe I will place my 2" elbow PVC pipes. To seal the holes and keep the pipes in place I have 2" coupling to fasten everything in place. In case I need to move the wardrobe I can remove the coupling to remove the PVC. No tape, no mess.



Obviously the smaller end goes into the intake hole from outside and the plastic coupling goes on the inside, like so:





Now the intake isnt completely fastened right now as I don't need to install them yet. This was just for demonstration.

So that is the intake setup.

As for exhaust, today I sanded and fitted the rubber coupling into the main exhaust system:







So the bottom of the coupling will have the inline fan attached with clamps. The top of the coupling filters into the power-filter chamber where I will install the filter.

Here is the filter I am using for this particular cab:



I have 15" of clearance in the power/filter chamber. Now the filter from top to bottom is 12" plus the 4" flange can fit into the rubber coupling roughly 1-2". The filtered end of the filter will vent through to the ceiling through ducting.



I have to do some fixing on the ceiling hole later on once I have the filter.

Join me tomorrow for some more cloner work and a small home depot trip.

One thing I noticed looking in the box:

There isn't enough width space for the bake-a-round as the glass for the cooltube. Any recommendations for another product that can be used in its place? It needs to be smaller than the 14" the bake-a-round takes up...

Dude, you are too funny! I'm over here gigglin like a little SISSY cause I know what you mean. That shit is on the box to move units. lol

Love the play by play, makes the thread almost interactive. Thanks man!

Glad I caught you online. I am female and never built anything. However, I try to fix things around my apartment. I wanted to grow inside a closet but the wardrobe I think is better because of moveablilty. I have studied many logs and they are nice. I must tell you how appreciatative I am for all the time you take in your journals. Yours is by far the most detailed and easy to understand. I have decided to follow your guide and copy your designs. I have a question for you.

Is this wardrobe build something a girl can go alone or will I need help? I am a nurse and have the up most respect for you guys. You can build anything. I saw a saying on the site that said, "If she does not find you handsome, she better find you handy." And handy you guys really are.

I am not afraid of using power tools, but I am not that strong. I do not want to tell anyone about my grow when I start unless necessary. I plan to start in Feburary and is trying to learn everything I can. I decided to learn from your grow out of all the rest. You do a wonderful job.

Another couple of questions.
Is the cool tube something to cool the lights? Can you buy one or do you have to build it?
I was going to buy a homebox tent, but after the problems with escaping gases from the tents I decided to try to build something myself as I think I can do anything if I try. Any suggestions?


Thanks for giving us your time and information. I really appreciate it.

hi...i just sent you a PM.


i've used store bought wardrobes and after my sog cab collapsed i vouched NEVER EVER to buy another store bought anything again.

i've just rebuilt my cab.

with that said....make sure your cab is sturdy... i mean real sturdy. especially with hydro methods.

use corner braces and some cross beams to make it more sturdy.

fucking fake ass wood!

i almost freaking cussed out the people at the furniture i bought it from. 250 down the drain and they wouldnt even give partial refund for such low quality built shit....

but its all good and well now, ive learned my lesson.

LoudBlunts said:

hi...i just sent you a PM.


i've used store bought wardrobes and after my sog cab collapsed i vouched NEVER EVER to buy another store bought anything again.

i've just rebuilt my cab.

with that said....make sure your cab is sturdy... i mean real sturdy. especially with hydro methods.

use corner braces and some cross beams to make it more sturdy.

fucking fake ass wood!

i almost freaking cussed out the people at the furniture i bought it from. 250 down the drain and they wouldnt even give partial refund for such low quality built shit....

but its all good and well now, ive learned my lesson.

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thats good advice for him, but i dont know why u think you would get a refund ... it was designed to hold clothes ... not water or soil

um....it wasnt even fully set up yet....

it collapsed when nothing was in it.

yes it was that flimsy.

sauder brand

LoudBlunts said:

um....it wasnt even fully set up yet....

it collapsed when nothing was in it.

yes it was that flimsy.

sauder brand

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well then id be getting a refund, whats their reason to deny ?

they dont stand behind the quality of their products


which taught me a lesson to never buy any store made shit! i build all my shit now with real wood.

i was going to be an asshole and return all the pieces of wood. broke and all in front of their door and a leave a note on it for potential customers to see....

but i decided to take the less dramatic route and gave them the finger and just kept the wood and used it for a bud dryer box.

i still dont under stand ... they didnt offer a replacement ?
they just said "yea our shit sucks, your loss" ?

he didnt say our shit sucks...

but he did say he couldnt do shit about it


im sure if i proceeded to act an asshole, he woulda done something about it...but didnt feel like the headache was worth it.

i took the $250 L

LoudBlunts said:

he didnt say our shit sucks...

but he did say he couldnt do shit about it


im sure if i proceeded to act an asshole, he woulda done something about it...but didnt feel like the headache was worth it.

i took the $250 L

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i dono man, losing 250$ is a headache ... i woulda gave him a headache too.. then the manager ..ect

"playin with my money is like playing with my emotions man"