# New Cabinet Grow - 9'x4'x18" - Complete Build Journal - Lot's of Pics



## jsgamber (Mar 10, 2010)

Hello All and welcome to my cabinet build! Last Friday I spent 2 hours putting this together only to have it wiped out before final submit; so here goes again. This time all pics are loaded into my albums and have all been annotated. I think this time I'll do several posts in stages rather than one big post. 

Once this journal is complete, I will be moving over to the DWC room to start my actual grow.

First, the objectives of the grow which support my design:


Semi-stealth anybody coming in the garage assumes it's a storage cabinet.
Perpetual with a harvest every 2 - 3 weeks
Easy to build/modify, in other words modular
Economical...DIY on everything I can
100% Self Contained - by request of my wife! 
Pull up a seat, pack a bowl of your favorite chill weed and let's get going.

Here's what we're going to build:


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## jsgamber (Mar 10, 2010)

Before we can build this bad boy, we need to get the space prepared. To my wife this means:


adding more storage
easier to get to things
remove the clutter
To me it means:


Arh, Arh, Arh.....More Power!
Complete control of design as long as I satisfy the above requirements!  (at least she didn't say "No" when I asked if I can grow weed in the garage...compromise, gotta love it).

Fortunately for me, I have a 9' ceiling in the garage. Unfortunately, there is only one single light socket with CFL bulb for a light and 3 electrical outlets, 2 of which are dedicated to the sprinklers and to the garage door opener. Fortunately, they are all on 3 separate circuits; 15, 15 and 20amps. Time to rewire and add some new fluorescent light fixtures (after all I'm going to be spending more time out here).

Everything is run using 3/4" sched 40 PVC electrical conduit. I love this stuff!! To start out simple, I rewired the single socket outlet by the sprinkler timer.







I decided to run the shop lights on the same circuit as the garage door opener so I needed to run a switch-leg down and install a double-pull switch. This switch box is also a junction box for circuit #1 which will run to the grow cabinet.






Now 6' over to the right we have GFCI circuit #2 which will also run to the grow cabinet. The plug right under the left cabinet is wired to the shop lights for under cabinet fluoros's.






Everything now runs up and over to the garage door opener which is circuit #3. Here I pull the switch-leg, circuits #1 and #2, wire up the plug for the shop lights and continue running all circuits to the cabinet.







Whew we made it! 3 circuits for a total of 50 amps. This allows me to have a little redundancy in the system. The cabinet will be hard wired, meaning I'll be running the conduit into the cabinet.






By the way all the cabinets you see above were located from the North Wall to the East Wall. The North wall is the traffic pattern from the kitchen door to the garage door. I had so much crap piled in front of the work space that I could never work!! The grow cabinet will be on the South Wall.

Ok. Now that everything is cleaned up and reorganized. Let's get that cabinet built!!


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## jsgamber (Mar 10, 2010)

Actually it starts with 3 Costco shelf units. The unit to the right is the one I built for the wife's requirement of "more storage". Building this is what gave me the idea for this plan. Unit 2 and half of unit 3 make up the grow cabinet frame.






So what happened to the 2nd half of unit 3? It turned into more storage *and* a workbench. Now the wife is getting really happy!!


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## jsgamber (Mar 10, 2010)

Notice that the keyholes used to join the side rails to the uprights.






You can also use a 5/16" bolt to also "lock" in as well.






Because all the structure is in the metal frame, I could easily use 1/4" plywood to cut down on weight and cost. Here's a series of pics putting the panels up:










Here we are. Right now everything is primered. I'll put a coat of exterior white on it once it's all together.


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## sirsmoksalot (Mar 10, 2010)

Great job keep it up!


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## jsgamber (Mar 10, 2010)

Thank you sir. Running out to start putting on the door frame...and maybe the doors. Hopefully pics later.

jg


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## jsgamber (Mar 11, 2010)

Okay this part of the build had me the most concerned. The plan is to attach a wooden door frame to the steel cabinet using hose clamps with a 1/2" piece of foam sandwiched between the wood and metal to minimize light leaks. Yes we'll have some tape appearing soon.

It's really a basic butt joint frame using 1"x2"x8' furring strips ($0.84) each. Since the cabinet is 9' tall and the wood strips are only 8', I decided to build 2 frames stacked on top of each other, 6' and 3'. I won't need the top flowering chamber for awhile so I'll worry about it later. 






Pre-drill (to avoid split-ends...I just hate that) and screw it together






It's together and it's actually has square corners!






The "tricky" part. "So why didn't you just drill holes into steel and bolt it together that way?" Well I thought of that too and actually bought the bolts; I really didn't want to drill through the steel. Okay the first one took about 5 minutes to get shaped ( ok more like 20). But once I had the first one done, I was like Edward Scissorhands with two needlenose pliers and whipped the other 5 out in just a few minutes.






It's installed and it's pretty dang secure!






Here's a close up of the hose clamp.






By the way, you can see some of my grow supplies are starting to arrive. I'll probably be starting the grow journal tonight along with pics of the doors.

Thank you all who have stopped by to view.


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## KolorBlind (Mar 11, 2010)

Looking very awesome man, I love ground up builds like this. I may have to resort back to the garage one day soon. before I found that ambient temps were the biggest pain in my ass. If its too hot outside, its too hot in the cab, same with cold. But there are ways around it, any ideas yet on how to combat ever changing ambient garage temps?

Oh, I also had a non insulated garage that faced west and the door had windows. SO dont let me freak you out, my situation before was not optimal haha.

KB


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## jsgamber (Mar 11, 2010)

Hey KB welcome to the room!

You bring up a great point regarding the garage door that I hadn't considered yet! +rep

Fortunately the garage walls are insulated with a bedroom directly above but the fiberglass door is not. I'm in SoCal/OC and the sun makes the paint peel off of the front door! I'm gonna look into that rigid foam insulation if it becomes a problem!

Shortly I'll be getting into the lighting and ventilation part of the build. I've got a few tricks in regards to ventilation I'm going to experiment with.

More to come!


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## jsgamber (Mar 18, 2010)

Doors have been added to the lower mother chamber. I used 1/2" foam adhesive for light proofing the doors. I also screwed a center piece to the left door; again for light proofing.


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## limzim2010 (Mar 18, 2010)

jsgamber said:


> Okay this part of the build had me the most concerned. The plan is to attach a wooden door frame to the steel cabinet using hose clamps with a 1/2" piece of foam sandwiched between the wood and metal to minimize light leaks. Yes we'll have some tape appearing soon.
> 
> It's really a basic butt joint frame using 1"x2"x8' furring strips ($0.84) each. Since the cabinet is 9' tall and the wood strips are only 8', I decided to build 2 frames stacked on top of each other, 6' and 3'. I won't need the top flowering chamber for awhile so I'll worry about it later.
> 
> ...


have no idea, a lot, that's for sure. I mainly use them between 3 and 7 volts, so it's very dependant on the speed you run them at aswell.


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## jsgamber (Mar 18, 2010)

Parts:


5" hurricane lamp chimney from Michael's
2 x 1.5"-2" hose clamps
250wMH bulb
socket
standard wire clothes hanger
Cut the hanger just below the twist just below the hanger loop. Straighten it all out and bend around the ends so you don't keep getting poked.

After measuring everything, taking into account access for ducting front/back, bend the wire starting with the drop section where the socket will attach with hose clamps. From there it's just hold it up to the chimney and bulb and make the bends to the bulb stays centered in the tube.

Notice the two small loops where the hanger will screw to the top of the cabinet. They are bent up around 30*. As you screw the frame to the top, this bend causes the wire inside the chimney to "cinch" everything up to the top of the tube and keeps the bulb centered. With the excess length of wire at both ends, I formed 2 "springs", with a "T" bent into one side. This keeps the chimney from swaying back and forth and keeping the bulb centered in the tube.







Socket end detail:






Bulb end detail (note the "T"):


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## jsgamber (Mar 18, 2010)

First I screwed the socket end into the top of the chamber, screwed in the bulb, slid the chimney over and screwed the bulb end into the top. Everything cinched up just like it was supposed to.


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## jsgamber (Mar 18, 2010)

Well we couldn't just let it stand there. I pulled the light back down and hung Mylar on the top and back, rehung the light and plugged her in. Looks cool but it's actually getting warm. Now to take it back down and get the ventilation going. But this is where we stand with 250wMH lighting for Moms and vegetation:











Time for . So what do you all think? More to come!

jg


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## 10jed (Mar 18, 2010)

Hey JG,
not to be a negative shot in your thread here, but I think your going to have a real hard time keeping temps down on the upper shelves. I have a small veg-mom-clone cab that is stacked, and even with simple floros it was real tough to get it dialed in. If you can find a way to channel air in between the areas you might have an easier time at it. Also, I know nothing of Cali homes, but here in the midwest we almost always have a basement or a crawlspace. If you do, you will probably find that there is nice cool air hanging out a few feet below ground and if you can bring your intake through the box sill and into the lower level of your home you may help your ambient heat issues.

Good luck with your grow!

Jed


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## KolorBlind (Mar 18, 2010)

Lookin great man. Jed brings up a good point about the crawl space temps. I have one friend that grows in an attic and had to tap his AC vent to pull in cool air. I also have another friend that grows in a closet, and his intake is a hole drilled through the floor into his crawl space. 

My main concern is the 250w MH for moms & veg. Not that it wouldn't work, but I think its a bit overkill. Even if you cool tube it perfectly, all that hot air has to go somewhere, which I imagine means back into your garage. After running for a week or more you will notice the temps in the garage coming up, which in turn will raise the cab temps. If you have this venting outside or into an attic then its no biggie, but most people vent back out into the garage.

As long as its pretty stealth, you could probably just make a habit of leaving through the garage every day for work, and coming back in through the garage as well. That way the door would come up a minimum of twice a day, hopefully letting any stale hot air out.

But even with hot temps and no air exchange in the garage, this will still be doable for you. Temps will be high but your plants will live, they just might not get as big as they would if temps stayed around 75-80F.

If you decide to replace the 250w MH, you can really cut a lot of heat out. Hell 100w of CFLs would keep the moms alive and clones thriving. I have 2 26w CFLs keeping 3 moms alive right now, with zero problems. Just dont get rid of the MH and put 200-250w of CFLs in there, because it would actually be hotter. CFLs have their ballasts attached, and it looks like yours is remote so 250w of CFLs would be hotter than that 250MH in your case. If it were me, I would use 3 or 4 42w 6500k CFLs. One for all my moms, one for all my clones, and 1-2 for my plants in veg. I would save the high HID wattage for the flower cab where it will be most useful.

Best of luck whatever you do, I'm subscribed so Ill check back in on ya from time to time 

Peace
KB


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## jsgamber (Mar 18, 2010)

Welcome Jed & KB,

You guys gave the perfect segue into my next area of focus. +rep to both. 

The hope is to exhaust everything to the outside of the garage. The wall behind the cabinet leads to an empty space underneath the staircase so that is an option to draw from. The garage door is west facing and get's pretty hot in late afternoon. I will be installing rigid foam. Other than late afternoons, the garage stays relatively stable (hopefully).

Here are 3 drawings of an idea I will be working with. The plan is to create a passive air chamber on the back of the cabinet. This chamber will draw air in from a common vent. Inside the chamber will be painted black and will have baffles in place to keep light from moving in. The cool tubes will be closed system and won't share the air from the grow chambers (just in case I want/need to use CO2 later on).

The following drawings should give you an idea of what I'm planning. I've already got some changes in mind so this is not yet final.

This shows passive intakes, the red spots show exhaust point each with it's own fan. This also shows the detail for the cool tube.







This shows the passive air chamber. Which will be mounted on the back of the cabinet. After I drew this I realized I didn't take into account intake for the cool tubes as well as the exhaust point on the right side of the cabinet (facing front). This will be corrected.







This shows the air chamber attached to the back. Again red spots denote exhaust points. Red arrows represent ducting all of them feeding a main exhaust stack which will then be directed to the outside of the garage. Each exhaust point will have a flapper valve installed to prevent backflow of air.







Comments are certainly most welcome!!

jg


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## KolorBlind (Mar 18, 2010)

Everything looks pretty well planned to me man. i especially like the intake chamber. The only issue I see is with the initial opening for your intake. Hard to tell from the sketches, but it looks like the chamber all ties into one hole for intake. As long as the size of that hole is roughly 2x the size of all your exhaust holes, everything should be ok. Otherwise your fan will get bogged down and start to get louder. You will still keep negative pressure, but it wont be pulling as much air as it could out, which may result in higher temps and like I said, a louder fan.

But Im sure you will work any kinks out, you have already gone to great lengths just to plan it all out and put it together step by step. Just dont rush yourself. I get a good plan in mind then do the dumbest thing, germinate some seeds haha!! Once those seeds have germinated, you are on THEIR time! I have had to rush into many half-assed setups due to this, but usually things work out in the end.

Oh also, you mentioned that you hadnt accounted for cool tube intake.....wont they just intake air from the cab? They should technically be your exhaust unless you have multiple fans. You should have your cool tube pull all the air out of each cab through the intake holes. That way a constant stream of air is going through the bulb resulting in cooler temps because it doesnt allow the glass to heat up. I know most people I have seen use cool tubes just pipe them directly into their exhaust hole, but something different may work as well. Ill keep an eye out for what you decide on.

KB


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## 10jed (Mar 19, 2010)

KolorBlind said:


> As long as the size of that hole is roughly 2x the size of all your exhaust holes, everything should be ok. Otherwise your fan will get bogged down and start to get louder. You will still keep negative pressure, but it wont be pulling as much air as it could out, which may result in higher temps and like I said, a louder fan.


yes, this is a good point. you can make your intake adjustable though so you can tweak it. Assuming you are using a light trap that is. you could use a flor or ceiling register vent or just a series of holes with a piece of tin or wood that swivels on a screw.



KolorBlind said:


> I get a good plan in mind then do the dumbest thing, germinate some seeds haha!! Once those seeds have germinated, you are on THEIR time!



I think many of us do that on our first grow... I've got a jar full of home made hermie beans to prove I did it!!! But yeah, be patient if you can... another excellent point. Sometimes it takes a ner-full rebuild to get things right with a DIY cab.

Jed


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## jsgamber (Mar 20, 2010)

Until you gave me the ratio I wasn't quite sure what size openings I would need. 2:1 makes it easy with a 4" hole saw. 

Each grow chamber is roughly 16 cu. ft. With large lamps in a small space as well as lot's of turns and flappers, I'm thinking I should shoot towards exhausting at least 10 times the volume of the chamber each minute. I'm thinking three 80cfm 120mm case fans; 1 to run the cool tube and 2 to exhaust the cabinet.

I also have the option of pulling air from the cabinet through the cool tube. But a closed system on the cool tubes allow me to run co2 on the chance I can't keep temps down. I'm going to run some tests to see what works best.




KolorBlind said:


> Everything looks pretty well planned to me man. i especially like the intake chamber. The only issue I see is with the initial opening for your intake. Hard to tell from the sketches, but it looks like the chamber all ties into one hole for intake. As long as the size of that hole is roughly 2x the size of all your exhaust holes, everything should be ok. Otherwise your fan will get bogged down and start to get louder. You will still keep negative pressure, but it wont be pulling as much air as it could out, which may result in higher temps and like I said, a louder fan.
> 
> ..
> 
> ...






I like adjustable. I'll need to consider air velocity throughout as well. I should also consider the ability to tweak each chambers input so one doesn't take more than it's share. I will have fans inside the space to stir the air up a bit.

I'm hoping that this setup makes it easy to adjust things along the way. At least that was one of the initial objectives.




10jed said:


> yes, this is a good point. you can make your intake adjustable though so you can tweak it. Assuming you are using a light trap that is. you could use a flor or ceiling register vent or just a series of holes with a piece of tin or wood that swivels on a screw.
> 
> I think many of us do that on our first grow... I've got a jar full of home made hermie beans to prove I did it!!! But yeah, be patient if you can... another excellent point. Sometimes it takes a ner-full rebuild to get things right with a DIY cab.
> 
> Jed


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## jsgamber (Mar 20, 2010)

Before I go too far, I want to run a quick ventilation/temp test with the light running. I cut three 4" holes along the top. All should act as exhausts. But for this test the center tube will be exhaust through the cool tube and the two outside holes will be intake. This gives me a 2:1 ratio.








Here's the rear mount point. 4" inline flapper (to prevent back flow) mounts to the back of the cabinet. 3" of flex ducting connects a 4" (5" square) landscape drain grate with the grate portion cut out.







This is the perfect mount point for a 120mm fan.







Looking through the flapper. The flapper sticks through to the inside of the cabinet enough to attach the flex ducting going to the cool tube. You can see how the grate was cut out using a chisel and a few taps.








 *Fry's Electronics*  Yes this store has good prices and lot's of crap to buy and every 2 years or so I find myself drawn in to buy something and something always goes wrong!! They have over 50 case fans for sale with 90% of them all covered in every known color LED (I want dark!). The price tags have all the specs printed on them to make comparison easier. "Hey what's this? 79.14cfm @ 2,000rpm @ 30dba for $4.99....SWEET!" so I pop 3 of them in the basket.






After I hook it all up, the fan runs sickly and will barely draw up the flapper!! WFT?!? 40cfm @ 950rpm @ 19dba? I'd really even doubt if this fan pulls 40cfm!! Another trip to Fry's to exchange for the $7.99 fans I should have bought instead. 






More to come.


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## goofygolfer (Mar 20, 2010)

great read great build scribed


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## jsgamber (Mar 22, 2010)

Family obligation took my whole Saturday, so Sunday morning I hoof it back down to Fry's to take care of the fans. Did you know that it takes 50 minutes to exchange 3 fans?

After walking back and forth with 4 different people, we finally get to the "big guy". All I was asking from the start was "Do you have the 71cfm $4.99 fan that goes with the price tag (and printed on my receipt too)?" The first 3 people I talked to tried to hand me the $5.99 32cfm fan. They just couldn't understand that I needed 80cfm.

Anyhow, "big guy" get's me back over to the exchange area and says to start the return process for the fans. Next thing someone brings over 3 77cfm fans (with green LED's) which go for $9.99. "Big guy" walks over types in a few things and hands me a credit slip and says "just take this over to the cashier." Four minutes from meeting "big guy", I'm walking back out to my car.

Fry's can you please train your employees better? 


So here's what we're working with. Now for the test.


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## jsgamber (Mar 22, 2010)

Okay today is Tax Prep day so I'll be doing some multitasking. 

So let's recap the test. My goal is get temps to stay between 75 and 80. For the test, I'm going to start with exhausting through the cool tube using the two other exhausts for intakes just to see what airflow will work and to get an idea of minimums. I've read a lot of thread on ventilation but some times you just have to see it work for yourself in your environment.

I've added a quick piece of flex ducting from the cool tube to the exhaust port. I ran out of hose clamps so the duct tape is only temporary. If this works, I'll make it cherry.  You should also notice that all the corners of the cabinet have been sealed up with duct tape.






We have the fan mounted and it's running in all of it's green glory! I'll be snipping the LED's but it looks pretty cool for now!






Here's our pre-light baseline temperature - 70* @ 47rh






After an hour or so we are at 80* @ 40rh...hmmm. Gotta tweak some more.







I tried all sorts of different things to tweak including adding in a 9" fan to stir the air up a bit as well as adding 2' lengths of flex ducting to the intakes so air would be drawn in down at the bottom of the cabinet.






Well no matter what I did, the temps kept climbing and finally topped out at 84.7* Well if you look closely on the right side of the above pic, you may see the hint as to what was wrong. Any guesses?


Answer: *The Ballast*. When I tested the light earlier, I only had it running for 15 minutes before shutting it down. The ballast was just barely running warm. I didn't realize that it's heat builds up slowly over time. After all this is my first time running this equipment.

Okay so stupid me, in my haste to get things set up (wife keeps asking me "_how are the taxes coming...are we getting money back_?"), I didn't take the time to splice in 2 feet of wire in order to move the ballast outside of the cabinet during the test. Yes the final plan calls for ballasts being outside but...ok, ok, it was a stoner moment.  But now I know and it's all good!


*Conclusion:*

Here's the final test setup. Ballast is outside. 3 x 77cfm fans exhausting out front door propped open to simulate intake (the plastic at the top of the door is to force air to drawn in from near the bottom).











And the final result?  75.7* @ 40rh 






An hour later I turned off the 9" fan and closed the door (no intake!!) and the temp only went up to 76.4*. SWEEEET!

The way I look at it, I can drill six 4" holes down at the bottom of the cabinet for passive intake and all should be perfect!

Watcha guys think?


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## goofygolfer (Mar 23, 2010)

i think it should be fine thats how sl2 does it passive intake holes in the bottom of the cabinet


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## jsgamber (Mar 23, 2010)

Good to know Goof.

I'm hoping that this method will keep the 2 flowering chambers cool using 430w Son Agro bulbs. I have flexibility in that there are higher cap 120mm fans that can pull 120cfm. I can also add another exhaust port/fan as well.

I did another quick test last evening to see what happened with the light on and no exhaust fans running. Temps started at 70.7* and went up to 78.3*. I then turned the exhaust fans on and it took roughly 15 minutes for the temps to stabilize at 73.9*. I may consider putting the exhaust fans onto a cycle timer so they go on and off every 30 minutes.

The 9" fan does a good job moving air around the cabinet. Here's a question, should I run the inside fans 24/7 or only during lights on? My thinking is wind still blows at night, right?

One thing I forgot to mention is that I can easily keep my hand within an inch of the cool tube so that gives me maximal height in the cabinet.

There's an brief update in my grow thread if you are interested.

jg


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## KolorBlind (Mar 23, 2010)

Man everything looks great! Congrats on finally tackling your heat issue, thats always a huge barrier.

The only thing that makes me feel I need to chime in is the lack of filtering smell. Is this your first time growing or do you know what to expect on smell? I only ask because I see people all the time assuming that it wont smell too bad and then they are begging for quick scrubber advice about 3 weeks into flowering. I saw that you want this to be stealth, whereas anyone can see it and assume it is just a storage cab. The problem is, in weeks 3-8 of flower, with no filter, they wont even make it INTO the garage to see the cab before they mention the strong odor. Mark my word you will be able to smell it from your driveway, back yard and inside your house.

Now some strains are very low odor, but the key word there is odor. Just because it doent stink like Sour Diesel doesnt mean it wont stink. The odor MJ gives off is a natural defense mechanism. Even with a great carbon scrubber, a tiny air leak caused my Diesel Ryder SOG to stink my entire house up to the point that I could smell it before entering the front door. And I had the cab in a closet in a back bedroom!

I dont mean to freak you out, I just want to make sure you are considering everything before you get started. That last thing you want is the wifey down your neck saying "I thought you said it wouldnt smell!" i know that was always my wife's #1 concern. If you live in the boonies, or if you smoke a lot and the majority of people that come over smoke too, then it can be doable. Most people will just think it smells like weed because you smoke and not give it a 2nd thought. Its when you have family, or friends that dont smoke come over that it gets problematic. If you continue this without scrubbing your air, I HIGHLY recommend you buy a large canister of Ozium air freshener. It is by far the BEST at eliminating smoke and other strong smells. We use it when the grandparents come over, and they have never said anything, and they are the kind of people that would say something if they even thought we were smoking.

So just a fair warning, always be prepared. The #1 reason people get busted is by opening their mouths, and I am a firm believer that the #2 reason is lack of odor control. IF a neighbor smells it once, no big deal...probably a skunk. If a neighbor smells it every day, and its stronger when he nears your garage...then you have problems. You will have a bit of time (roughly 6-8 weeks after planting) to know how strong the smell will be, and by then you will have to act fast. 

Feel free to let me know if I am crazy, and ranting for no reason. If I have missed something in the form of odor control that you are planning on I apologize, just wanna make sure you are able to enjoy your harvest 

KB


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## jsgamber (Mar 23, 2010)

Gawd Dayum KB! Great Post!

A post like yours is important in every new persons grow journal and everyone who happens to saunter in here over the next 100 years should always understand what they are in for. I am a first time grower but not my first time around plants, and I do love the stink but I do need to make it go away. Since this is DIY I'm going with https://www.rollitup.org/do-yourself/101248-best-diy-ez-walmart-carbon.html. It's so elegant and will work beautifully with my 4" vent system.

Sunday (on the way home from Fry's) I purchased a 4" x 10' PVC tube for $8.99 from Ace Hardware. I plan on cutting pieces of this in everywhere I need a straight run. This includes the loop inside the cabinet which will eventually run through the cool tubes. Where the cost of 4" fittings is reasonable I'll do as much outside cabinet work in PVC which will eventually run out a vent on the north side of the garage. For me this is like working with really BIG LINCOLN LOGS. 

As you can see, this project is a "build up" starting with the mother chamber. Between getting the garage in order, building the cabinet, working tons of hours and reading through this site learning/designing/planning, I have resisted the urge to go running out and get a couple of clones to stick under a lamp without being ready to go. My mother/clone chamber doesn't need to be fully buttoned up to go into production since I can cycle through the clone->mother->clone phases perfecting my craft, getting the nutes/temps/ph dialed in. Something else I considered is that I'll have lots of extra cuttings for me to choose 2 babies to go into flower every 2 weeks. Many dispensaries close by are always out of clones. Maybe they will trade clones for bud? It's kind of why I chose 250w in that space to give that extra light for a little bit more vigor.

Again KB thanks!


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## boseke420 (Mar 23, 2010)

mind if i join in bro lol im kinda new here dank ass setupp bro i wanna c how your whole cabinet turns out lol so keep it up bro better get ur money so da wife dont kick ur cabinet in lol


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## Mrcool360 (Mar 23, 2010)

Hey man nice grow! Check out my Grow in my Sig!!


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## 10jed (Mar 27, 2010)

KolorBlind said:


> Man everything looks great! Congrats on finally tackling your heat issue, thats always a huge barrier.
> 
> The only thing that makes me feel I need to chime in is the lack of filtering smell. Is this your first time growing or do you know what to expect on smell? I only ask because I see people all the time assuming that it wont smell too bad and then they are begging for quick scrubber advice about 3 weeks into flowering. I saw that you want this to be stealth, whereas anyone can see it and assume it is just a storage cab. The problem is, in weeks 3-8 of flower, with no filter, they wont even make it INTO the garage to see the cab before they mention the strong odor. Mark my word you will be able to smell it from your driveway, back yard and inside your house.
> 
> ...


This is a great post and I totally agree with your #1 and #2 scenario KB. Security is key for most of us! Another wrinkle for you on this too js, is that once you add carbon filters, even little walmart pencil cup filters, you are going to be taking a LOT of cfm's from those little PC fans. In my setup I run a 90cfm 120mm fan similar to what you are running. I would say that I am utilizing probably about 20-30 cfm with the filter. Just be prepared to change/ditch those fans because I'm betting you will be struggling once you put a carbon filter over them. NOT trying to rain on the parade brother, just hoping to prepare you if that ends up being the case. I am also a little confused on how you are running your cooltubes... are you running cabinet air through them or are you pulling outside air? Are you pulling or pushing? Best case scenario for cooling lights is to push air in case you develop a leak in your ducting. I know you said that you can get your hand an inch away, but ideal would be totally cool to the touch. Cooling the light further may make your carbon filter > pc fan situation more doable.

Just some food for thought my friend! Good luck.

Jed


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## jsgamber (Apr 13, 2010)

Just look what you did Jed, you humiliated me and told me my designed sucked and made me go crawl in a hole and cry for over 2 weeks. 

Only Joking!!

Well partly. The last two weeks was crazy and full of drama and at some point I'll catch you up on that. Needless to say it's kept me from my project but the wheels are back on the cart and we are rolling again.

Jed, honestly you did get me thinking a bit. I think what I've done is pretty trick and you'll like what I've done. I have lot's of pics and a few questions along the way. I still need to prep the pics for upload but I had to put this up to show you what I'm flying on...OMG!

It's called HKS. Pic one is without the flash and pic two is with the flash. My first hit was with my vape and I wasn't thinking and loaded a regular hit. It was the sweetest, fruitiest cough-fest I've ever experienced in my life. It definitely is in my top 10 all time eye-watering cough's ever!











For those of you following along with my New Cabinet - 9'x4'x18" - Complete Build Journal - Lot's of Pics head on over for a surprise!







peace


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## EvlMunkee (Apr 13, 2010)

Hey jsgamber,
Love the thread! Well documented and makes a reader feel like he is there for all the thought processes as well as the construction. Good narrative skills as well.
Although you started with a general plan and focus, you are wisely considering the advice of other growers. These guys here are really good about giving us a heads up. Good designs need to evolve and adapt to changing and unexpected developments along the way and you have displayed a willingness to go with the flow.
I have built a cab for inside the house in a small room and was warned several times about the heat and a need to prepare for it. With some good advice from the folks here at RIU I did what I could without a total rebuild since I was further along in the project before I posted. Planning for adaptability is a good plan and I can see that you have considered that.
My biggest surprise that I didn't consider was the heat buildup in the room here. It is a smallish bedroom and when the exhaust is expelled in to the room, the room gets warmer and of course the intake air is warmer too. It creates a vicious cycle and the only way to deal with it is to cool the room independently and slow down the chain reaction. Unfortunately, in my situation, I will not vent intake or exhaust outside as I want to be totally stealthy and that eliminates the possibility of ducts to the outside. I can only vent free air into and out of the room through ostensibly normal methods.
Ok...nuff said about mine. Excuse me for rambling.
Great job so far on you cab. Good plan....good execution! I wish the best of luck to you. I'll check in again to see what you come up with next. If you get some spare time, check out my cab in the sig. +rep dude -EM


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## Favre2Harvin (Apr 13, 2010)

*So could you explain this again, you have 2 intake fans blowing fresh air in and only 1 ehaust fan blowing hot air out?? everything looks nice *


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## 10jed (Apr 14, 2010)

jsgamber said:


> Just look what you did Jed, you humiliated me and told me my designed sucked and made me go crawl in a hole and cry for over 2 weeks.


Hey! Mission accomplished!!! Thanks for having a great attitude about this. I am truly only trying to be helpful. I have been around this block a couple of times and the ventilation is always the biggest challenge.

Jed


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## jsgamber (Apr 14, 2010)

Okay so Mar 24 my life boiled over.

Believe it or not I have been working on average 72 hour weeks for the past 2 months (including working from remote since I'm a systems guy). I have had 15 days of personal/sick time over the last 18 months. My company switched health care providers a/o 1/1/10 so I'm reconnecting with all new Drs after 15 years including psych and rheumatology. During fall/winter of 2009 I also volunteered on average of 15-20 hrs per week with school, coaching, etc. Just prior to Mar 24 I also had 6 toenails removed and a molar extraction.

All the above happening while trying to keep family life at peace (teenagers) and work on this project. Believe it or not it has been this project that has helped "keep me together" by having something else to focus on...it has given me great mental relief.

I was supposed to go to Vegas with friends on Mar 25-28 but since I'm a one guy department and we have 3 critical projects going on all due within 6 weeks and so we were going back and forth on whether I should take those days off. Mar 24 went to work and suffered a pretty bad panic attack (the heart attack feeling kind). I've had them before and I have my coping methods but this time my boss helped me through it (she's really cool). Needless to say after getting my head back, she said it's time for you to get out of here, and so began a two-week mental holiday.

I ended up going to Vegas after all. Spending time with life-long friends, playing poker were just what the ticket called for. I had a great time and actually spent a lot of time in the hotel room sleeping.

After getting home, the first week was spent sleeping and reconnecting with family (it was spring break). Apparently my body was worked!! We traveled to see my family and week two was spent reconnecting with local friends and trying to get this project back on track. 

I am now back working half-days in the office and feel 50 times better. Funny what happens when you get your sleep, nutrition and spirit back in balance. This week I'm going to start back into running (no more toenail issues). My boss and I are working out a whole new schedule (the company has to make some changes on my account) because having me healthy and happy over the long term is much better for their bottom line than killing me trying to keep things going on an artificially accelerated schedule.


So now with that out of the way, I have a secret. We're growing now! So sit back and enjoy the next few posts on how I continued from this point to getting the ladies growing!

peace


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## jsgamber (Apr 14, 2010)

As I said previously, Jed got me focusing on ventilation. As it was, the cabinet was holding temps okay but I wanted to see about getting the cool tube cooler. Even though I could get my hand withing 1/2" of the glass tube I still couldn't touch it for very long so that's where I focused.

I went out to Micro Center and picked up this 120mm fan http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0274204. It's 38mm rather than 25mm thick and it definitely pulls air at 133cfm and I'll use it to run the cool tube as a closed loop.

To create the fan mount, I used two 5-inch garden drains with the grating cut out and then taped to keep air flow smooth and then drilled four holes to match the fan. These pics were taken before purchasing the new fan.


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## jsgamber (Apr 14, 2010)

As a review here was my first attempt at my cool tube and venting it. The problems, air leakage, access to the bulb wasn't good, no reflector, light too close to lid causing Mylar to pucker, and over all not polished or complete. Besides I can bend a hanger much better than that!!  So hang on to your hats.


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## jsgamber (Apr 14, 2010)

_I used a 5"->4" reducer to connect the glass tube to the 4" PVC ducting. The piece of weather strip foam is just a sample. The foam is attached to the inside rim of the 5" end and covered over with aluminum tape. This will slide over the glass tube. The white arrows show a channel which will let the wiring out.







The 4" end will then slide over the flapper valve. I used 3 layers of Duck tape to make the seal tight.





_


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## jsgamber (Apr 14, 2010)

For a simple reflector, I shaped a piece of sheet metal into a half cylinder. Using pieces of hanger wire, I created 2 hooks and slipped each onto a 5" hose clamp.


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## wonderblunder (Apr 15, 2010)

You have an interesting way of doing things...........


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## jsgamber (Apr 15, 2010)

Here's a big part of the change. Still the same concept of hanging the bulb socket from the outside of the tube. I was high and thinking of different things and discovered that the balance point from front to back is about a half inch from the edge of the socket. This get's a lot of wire out of the way and gives access to the bulb from inside the tube. The wire is bent with the right amount of spring, based on the close proximity of the balance point, keeps the bulb floating level in the center of the tube.

Why a hanger? I have lot's of different gauge wire around the place. But none of it, even doubled up, had the same stiffness, "springy-ness" but still easy to bend into shape properties that the hanger wire has. Go figure.











Only a stoner would come up with this to position the bulb within the tube. You guessed it, the part of the hanger you thought I'd throw away turns out to be the best part!  But you'll have to wait for me to write the next reply to see it work.


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## jsgamber (Apr 15, 2010)

Step 1 - slide 5" hose clamp over tube
Step 2 - insert reflector between tube and hose clamp
Step 3 - hook the socket/bulb assembly over the tube/reflector at the top of the arc
Step 4 - slide 5" hose clamp over tube, reflector and wire hanger
Step 5 - tighten hose clamps (tenderly...speaking from personal experience).









Step 6 - Insert spring to keep bulb from swinging in the tube. As it turns out, it's a bit off center which allows me to raise or lower the bulb in the tube by spinning it around. Right now the bulb is closer to the top.







Step 7 - Slide the reducer collar on the socket end. Remember the channel to slip the wires through







Step 8 - That's it. I've added the flapper valve and a 90* elbow to show what will connect. The flapper will screw to the back of the cabinet. The PVC elbow will have to be rigged with a bit of 4" pipe and more Duck tape to create a slip seal to the tube. Next slide please....


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## jsgamber (Apr 15, 2010)

The flapper valve is screwed to the back of the cabinet. Next a 4" PVC 90* elbow will be connected to the flapper on the outside of the cabinet. Notice the same foam/tape trick?







Everything in place. View looking up from the floor of the cab.







Side view







Front view






Everything fits nice and snug. The cool tube is hung using brass hooks and chain. The PVC is hung using plastic strapping. Both 90's slide off easily to get access to the bulb.


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## jsgamber (Apr 15, 2010)

Mylar! Passive vent intake. 3 in, 2 out.








Sneak Peak


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## Boyz N Da Hood (Apr 15, 2010)

wow man i just found this and i've got 2 say i like the creativity  i'm designing a grow box right now and i had a question as 2 how ur connecting all the fans at different levels.... i dont know much about electricity oh and where did you get the 5 inch garden drains at??


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## dank nug (Apr 15, 2010)

fuck yeah man its looking great. 

subscribed!


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## Miss MeanWeed (Apr 15, 2010)

I love this stuff


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## jsgamber (Apr 15, 2010)

dank nug said:


> fuck yeah man its looking great.
> 
> subscribed!





Miss MeanWeed said:


> I love this stuff





Boyz N Da Hood said:


> wow man i just found this and i've got 2 say i like the creativity  i'm designing a grow box right now and i had a question as 2 how ur connecting all the fans at different levels.... i dont know much about electricity oh and where did you get the 5 inch garden drains at??



Thanks folks! I have to say this stuff is great for the mind! It's fun working with a concept, figuring out what you need, taking 2 hours to walk through Lowe's or HD until you see something that seems to work perfectly! I've been buying lot's of different things to try out on small scale and if it works go back and buy everything to fill the rest out. Needless to say, my return bag is getting pretty big for all the stuff that didn't work or pan out. But to be fair to Lowe's/HD I always exchange for store credit.

I'm getting ready to update my grow journal (see my sig). Just to give you a teaser, I already had a first day disaster and almost lost 2 ladies. All the PVC ducting in the back had fallen over and pulled all the fans off. What was the result? I'm typing that up right now...stay tuned.


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## SensiStan (Apr 15, 2010)

Hey Gamber, 

LOVE the layout of this cabinet and i must say your cooltube idea (every stage of development) is F***ing GENIUS . its scary how good a low budget growroom can turn out just by using a little brain power,A LOT of planning and some innovation  

IM subscribed although i forsee all the action moving onto the actual growing of your plants now so maybe il hang around your grow thread more than the actual development from now on. Once more GREAT JOB you have been a wealth of good ideas


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## DoWorkSon (Apr 15, 2010)

if u cant duck it fuck it! hahah! i like the little setup! im subd in on this one! good luck man!


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## jsgamber (Apr 15, 2010)

Boyz N Da Hood said:


> wow man i just found this and i've got 2 say i like the creativity  i'm designing a grow box right now and i had a question as 2 how ur connecting all the fans at different levels.... i dont know much about electricity oh and where did you get the 5 inch garden drains at??


Hey Boyz, I forgot to answer your questions. First the 5 in garden drain grates are with plumbing by the large 4" PVC connectors in the drainage section at both Lowes and HD. They come in various sizes as well as tall ones http://www.homedepot.com/Building-Materials-Plumbing/NDS/h_d1/N-5yc1vZarfvZ5zd36Z117/R-100147954/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053. They fit 4" PVC connectors perfectly.

All the fans are basic 120mm PC case fans that you can purchase at any computer store. for this cab I'm using 2 80cfm fans for the cab and one 130cfm fan for the cooltube. I have an old 230W PC power supply which will drive all the exhaust fans perfectly and the plugs are all stock. If you are using an ATX power supply you will have to jumper the power switch. I don't have that link handy but it's pretty straight forward. Nice thing with a power supply is that all reds are red all yellows are yellow, etc so you can actually cut everything out and splice in the power how you want.


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## Boyz N Da Hood (Apr 16, 2010)

nice man thanks i was looking for way to vent the box i'm building and PC fans def. seem like the way to go


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## jsgamber (Apr 16, 2010)

Boyz N Da Hood said:


> nice man thanks i was looking for way to vent the box i'm building and PC fans def. seem like the way to go



http://www.scythe-usa.com/product/acc/022/dfs1238_detail.html

Model DFS123812H-3000. Pulls 134cfm at 49db. A bit loud but in my setup but the PVC dampens the noise. Mine ran $14.99 at MicroCenter. I'm thinking of getting 6 more for the two flower cabinets. 

peace


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## EvlMunkee (Apr 16, 2010)

Holy shit, js!
I had a lot more catching up to do than I thought!
I thought I was here a couple of days ago and it looks like you have done 2 weeks worth of work. Well....it would take me 2 weeks anyway.
They must know you pretty well by now at Lowes and HD. When I did mine I was at Lowes at least every other day and had to come up with a lot of scenarios to explain my project and get advice. I am not blessed with the indepth knowledge of all the crafts that you seem to have...just a basic understanding. I live near a small town so I always saw the same people and we only have a Lowes out here.
Otherwise I have to drive to the city and it is quite a bit further.
Anyway, you have done a hell of a lot since I was here last and you seem to be on a roll. *Ain't this fun!!!*
I can see you are having a great time with it. It really does take you to a place where you can put everything else out of your mind.
I don't have any technical questions but I did wonder one thing and it is a little bit off topic. What program did you use to draw your plans? It looks vaguely familiar but I can't place it. I have several that I have used in the past but mostly use AutoCad.
Ok dude ...helluva job man ...*5 star thread for sure!*
munk


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## Danielsgb (Apr 17, 2010)

Damn Gambler, Can't believe I didn't catch this one earlier. Looks bad ass. Ventilation is a pain in the ass. The Cool Tube design is sweet too. I'm working on one now but yours gave me a hint or two on mine. Building stuff for my grow room is my physical therapy. My next project is gonna be a Fridge w/ 150w HPS Cool Tube. I'm thinking your cabinet would be a great inspiration. 
Daniels


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## Hulk Nugs (Apr 18, 2010)

Very nice idea 

I will be watching


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## jsgamber (Apr 19, 2010)

EvlMunkee said:


> Holy shit, js!
> I had a lot more catching up to do than I thought!
> I thought I was here a couple of days ago and it looks like you have done 2 weeks worth of work. Well....it would take me 2 weeks anyway.
> They must know you pretty well by now at Lowes and HD. When I did mine I was at Lowes at least every other day and had to come up with a lot of scenarios to explain my project and get advice. I am not blessed with the indepth knowledge of all the crafts that you seem to have...just a basic understanding. I live near a small town so I always saw the same people and we only have a Lowes out here.
> ...


I'm telling you Munk I'm having a blast! Since cloning is my next step, I think I'm going to practice on some of my outdoor plants. We re-landscaped our yard with a California Native approach but to keep costs down we focused on hard scape and did minimal plants hoping to add more along the way so we are sparse on plants right now. I was thinking of experimenting on those for a bit while things are going well with my ladies.!

The program I use is Google Sketch Up. Download for free at Google.com.




Danielsgb said:


> Damn Gambler, Can't believe I didn't catch this one earlier. Looks bad ass. Ventilation is a pain in the ass. The Cool Tube design is sweet too. I'm working on one now but yours gave me a hint or two on mine. Building stuff for my grow room is my physical therapy. My next project is gonna be a Fridge w/ 150w HPS Cool Tube. I'm thinking your cabinet would be a great inspiration.
> Daniels


Man don't I know it. But because all this stuff comes apart so easily it's easy to reconfig if something doesn't work right. Case in point, I wasn't happy with the air flow for the cool tube so in 5 minutes I changed out for a 130 cfm fan. 



Hulk Nugs said:


> Very nice idea
> 
> I will be watching


Hey Hulk thanks for the kudos and welcome aboard!


As a reminder to all, I'll stop by here and add updates as I tweak the Mother cabinet (need to make some changes) and as I start to build out the first Flower cabinet. So head on over to the grow journal for the latest. Getting ready to post updates in a bit (editing pics is a pain sometimes).

peace


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## kRoNiiK (Apr 21, 2010)

Thank you firstly for this thread. Lots of great info as I am currently on my 1st grow also! 

2ndly, Thank you KB for this post! Im about 2 weeks in & figured it wouldnt smell my house up! Im happy I came across this early! 

Thanks again


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## jsgamber (Apr 21, 2010)

kRoNiiK said:


> Thank you firstly for this thread. Lots of great info as I am currently on my 1st grow also!
> 
> 2ndly, Thank you KB for this post! Im about 2 weeks in & figured it wouldnt smell my house up! Im happy I came across this early!
> 
> Thanks again



Thanks for stopping by kRoNiiK. Unfortunately none of the pictures are mine at this point. Same with my Grow Journal. Hopefully Admin will fix it soon.

However, check out my albums. All the pics are annotated so it should give you an idea what's going on until they fix this.

peace


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## jwop (Apr 21, 2010)

none of the pictures go with the descriptions ... and they all look like random pictures of weed from the internet ... i don't even see the cabinets or the garage


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## jsgamber (Apr 21, 2010)

jwop said:


> none of the pictures go with the descriptions ... and they all look like random pictures of weed from the internet ... i don't even see the cabinets or the garage


See previous post from me


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## Mr.Drug (Apr 29, 2010)

im way to lazy to make one like this is anyone in langley bc who would like to make this ill pay them or figure out a price


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## Danielsgb (Apr 30, 2010)

I'm starting a fridge grow construction thread. I'm gonna use some of your Cool Tube design if you don't mind
*




A Medicinal Refridgerator*

Any comments and advice would be great. Your cabinet is super cool, and you are on a great cabinet.
Daniels


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## stelthy (May 1, 2010)

Hi dude, Am well interested in your grow cupboard, like you I like to build and modd. everything looks great, however I do have a little concern in some places lol, (some of the connecting pieces to the MH bulbs) if for whatever reason a cooltube fan fails fire risk is at an all time high! Also I'd like to know what the ambient temp of your garage is on average night and day, and then the difference in temp with your system on during night and day.. My only worry for you is depending on your location and the climate I would try and disguise the heat signature that vents out of the garage - if there is one. I mean if you live in a location that has relitavly cold night times a foggy mist may appear where the hot expelling air from the grow cab meets the out side air. Appart from that man I really like what youve done so far keep up the good work - STELTHY


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## stelthy (May 1, 2010)

jsgamber said:


> Step 1 - slide 5" hose clamp over tube
> Step 2 - insert reflector between tube and hose clamp
> Step 3 - hook the socket/bulb assembly over the tube/reflector at the top of the arc
> Step 4 - slide 5" hose clamp over tube, reflector and wire hanger
> ...


In step 8 on the left that L-bend pipe is very close to that 250w MH if the fan does ever stall this looks like a likely fire hazard, correct me if I'am wrong but is there a way you can install a malfunction saftey complete override cut-off mechanism ? to avoid burning your cupboard,garage etc... Don't wanna piss you off cos it looks like youve worked really hard so far but I would feel gutted if that happened to me so I thought I'd give you a heads up 1st so as to speak  - STELTHY


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## jsgamber (May 1, 2010)

OMG. MY pictures are back!!

Hey Danielsgb and stelthy. You guys must have dug deep to find my post while I waited for the site to get back together again. So welcome.

Danielsgb feel free to use what I've done. BUT be aware of what stelthy says and what I've done to make changes (not many).

First off, I'm replacing Duck Tape with Aluminum tape everywhere ventilation is concerned. It doesn't stand up to heat well at all. I used Duck Tape to build up the PVC connecting to the cool tube. What happened was what stelthy predicted. The tape started to fail causing the seal to fail. Also the duck tape literally "baked" itself stuck to the glass. When I tried to remove it, it cracked the glass.

It's all back together again but this time Aluminum tape. It reflects heat well, it maintains the seal and everything is cool again.


On the temps, my garage stays between 70 to 80 degrees and in the middle of summer could climb up to 85. The only external walls are the garage door and the side which is 8' from the neighbors house. There's a bedroom right above. The garage door is west facing so it heats up in the afternoon. I'm planning on installing 1" rigid foam insulation on the inside of the garage door.

Eventually everything will vent outside. I haven't had many visitors lately so the full need for stealth hasn't been needed...yet.

peace


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## Danielsgb (May 1, 2010)

I smoked this morning. Saw the post and thought I had posted that on my new Fridge thread on accident. I added a bunch of your pics to journal in starting more research on it late last night. I was confused with the "Don't wanna piss you off cos it looks like youve worked really hard so far but I would feel gutted if that happened to me" comment. Thinking my project is on the ground floor, and these are pics of* jsgamber cabinet.*
I will take that advice into account.
Daniels


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## jsgamber (May 1, 2010)

Danielsgb said:


> I smoked this morning. Saw the post and thought I had posted that on my new Fridge thread on accident. I added a bunch of your pics to journal in starting more research on it late last night. I was confused with the "Don't wanna piss you off cos it looks like youve worked really hard so far but I would feel gutted if that happened to me" comment. Thinking my project is on the ground floor, and these are pics of* jsgamber cabinet.*
> I will take that advice into account.
> Daniels


What's nice about this site is sometimes you can read a thread and see something that's "about" to happen because of your own personal experience. Stelthy saw it coming.  But me being so behind in my posting haven't come back to tell any tales yet. And I have plenty. Don't forget to check out my grow too. There will be some drama there soon as I catch back up the last 2 weeks.

peace


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## Danielsgb (May 1, 2010)

I've been sub'd patiently waiting for an update on the grow.
Daniels


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## jsgamber (May 1, 2010)

Danielsgb said:


> I've been sub'd patiently waiting for an update on the grow.
> Daniels


Okay, Okay, Already. Fingers are warmed up...here I go....


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## canniboss (May 1, 2010)

If you want a cheap but powerful fan/blower to run your cooltube and a carbon filter check out "stanley blowers" you can get them at any hardware store for well under $100. They are super powerful, stealthy when boxed up and easily modified to fit your needs.


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## jsgamber (May 1, 2010)

canniboss said:


> If you want a cheap but powerful fan/blower to run your cooltube and a carbon filter check out "stanley blowers" you can get them at any hardware store for well under $100. They are super powerful, stealthy when boxed up and easily modified to fit your needs.


Oh I'm certainly checking them out.  Wife just got another credit card bill so gotta go slow for now.  I was just at the hydro store looking at them up close to see how I could build the same thing for less...ya know...DIY 

Thanks for stopping by!

peace


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## maddprof (May 1, 2010)

Hey Dude, nice cabinet.

Couple of suggestions you might want to consider:

You can take an old cell phone charger and wire it up to your PC fans to provide power instead of hooking up that full on PSU (those things put off heat as opposed to a cell phone charger), just be sure to wire in some resistors just to be on the safe side. In addition to this, to solve your delemma on how to run the fans (30 on/30 off), just hook up a rheostat to control the fan speeds. Slow the fan speeds down and they'll be quieter too.


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## jsgamber (May 1, 2010)

maddprof said:


> Hey Dude, nice cabinet.
> 
> Couple of suggestions you might want to consider:
> 
> You can take an old cell phone charger and wire it up to your PC fans to provide power instead of hooking up that full on PSU (those things put off heat as opposed to a cell phone charger), just be sure to wire in some resistors just to be on the safe side. In addition to this, to solve your delemma on how to run the fans (30 on/30 off), just hook up a rheostat to control the fan speeds. Slow the fan speeds down and they'll be quieter too.


Hey maddprof welcome and thanks for the suggestions.

The PSU is a 220W so hopefully not too much heat. I'll be adding six more fans to the mix.

I've committed the sin of getting more involved in the grow than the build so I'm just putting out fires (figuratively). Check out my new reservoir in my grow.

I'm using magnetic ballasts as well (keeping costs down). I'm mounting all of this on a piece of plywood including pumps, ballasts and the PSU. The ballast puts off 10x more heat than the PSU. Since all electrical will be cooled together, I don't think the PSU will have much of an impact compared to the ballasts.  Hopefully.

I still have to clean up the electrical and start on the next two chambers. I figure I'll be cloning in about another week or two so need to have the flower areas set or at least one.

stay tuned....


peace


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## Danielsgb (May 2, 2010)

I got my air system done for my Cool Tube. I think I got it right with stelthy's advice taken into account. I put more pics up on the sig link. Take a look.
Daniels


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## jsgamber (May 2, 2010)

Danielsgb said:


> I got my air system done for my Cool Tube. I think I got it right with stelthy's advice taken into account. I put more pics up on the sig link. Take a look.
> Daniels


Don't you just hate it when someone steals your idea and makes it better! I don't! That looks sweet. Now I'll have to go check out the rest of the pics.

Keep it up bro!


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## SensiStan (May 2, 2010)

What you want my friend, and im jelous because you live in america and they wont kill you on P&P for this . 

Is one of these : http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/MOLEX-SATA-HDD-DVD-Bluray-12V-5V-DC-AC-Power-Adapter-9B-/350240385069

and one of these : http://www.frozencpu.com/products/1024/bus-81/SunBeam_Multi_Fan_Power_Port_MFPP.html?tl=g34c17&id=cs2Je2b2

now i think you love me ?


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## jsgamber (May 2, 2010)

Oh SS you know you are my favorite! 

I hadn't started thinking of wiring details yet but seeing this got me excited...until I ran out and looked and saw that my 130cfm fan pulls .5 amps! I'd only get to plug in 3 without overloading it. 

The PSU has a variable speed fan running in it and it's running slow and very cool. But then again it's driving only 3 fans for a total of 1.1 amps.

I am a computer pack rat and so I already have a couple of fan controllers lying around from old PC builds.

Great minds man!!!!


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## SensiStan (May 3, 2010)

ahh if you like your pc's heres my most recent idea. A heatsink fan (with the little motherboard mounts) to be mounted on the inside of a stealth cab. more to come on this as my next grow will be far from a scroungers guide  more like ROCKAFELLA SKUNK haha oh my that is so the name of my next cabinet haha , thanks for presenting a space where i can muse out loud


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## jsgamber (May 3, 2010)

So here's the latest. Needing a solution to the growing water temp issue I needed some inspiration. I ran across this post which I give credit *https://www.rollitup.org/dwc-bubbleponics/313745-best-damn-reservoir-you-can.html
* 
Also here's my quote on what I did:



jsgamber said:


> Hey Boom,
> 
> Thought I'd post my Work In Progress. My water temps have been steady at 74-75 so I needed to get moving on a plan because the roots are starting to brown up. Here's the results.
> 
> ...






Here are the pics from my first stage. I needed to get something together so no time to tape or take pics. Also it was a "proof of concept". 


















So yesterday went to work on rez number 2. Here are more detailed pics of construction.

1" rigid foam insulation. This stuff is bug, mold and mildew resistant. It's easy to work with as well.


My drywall T-square comes in handy. Sides are 7" high.


All the pieces. Now for assembly.


The bottom is two pices "doweled" together with toothpicks. The tape will provide structure (like re-bar and concrete).


Bottom is together.


Now the sides


Sides together now the bottom.


All together. Now for tape.


The final product on the right. Notice the work light just in front? I put this inside the box with the light on, cord coming through the slot. Took the whole thing into the bathroom and turned the lights off. It stayed pitch black in the bathroom so no light leaks!!


The inside was spray painted black and the rez set in place. Notice I use that pesky 1/2" foam around the edge of the lid. This gives it that final light proofing!


Both coolers easily stay at 66* by throwing in a frozen water bottle every 2 or 3 days when it gets to about 69*.

It works perfect!!

peace


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## EvlMunkee (May 6, 2010)

Hey js,
Nice lookin little res. I bet it could keep beer cold for days!  A great idea for those with temp problems.


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## jsgamber (May 6, 2010)

EvlMunkee said:


> Hey js,
> Nice lookin little res. I bet it could keep beer cold for days!  A great idea for those with temp problems.


That's it dude! My new Earthquake Preparedness Plan. Keep beers in the rez for emergencies!!! 

Actually speaking of emergencies, our refrigerator just went out. The Evaporative Cooling fan went out meaning it's not blowing cold air into the fridge. The replacement part won't be in until tomorrow so we've been living out of ice chests and I don't have any ice bottles to throw in. Thank goodness these are working out well!

peace


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## jsgamber (May 6, 2010)

Ok time to seriously attack this humidity issue. I can't be sure what effect 38-44% RH has been doing to the plants but it can't be good. Now how to make it for cheap and still be effective.

It started with a post on another site using a pet water dispenser, sponges and a PC fan. The real issue is the possibility of mold/mildew with the sponges so I hoped to improve on it. So I need a wicking material that resists mold/mildew but has great capillary action. What fits the bill perfectly is 5/16 braided poly rope with nylon core. I cut a 12" piece and hung it up with about 1/2" of one end sitting in the water and within 3 minutes the rope was soaked the entire length. SWEET!

So the rest of the materials:

10" length of 4" PVC
2 pieces of white vent filter
braided poly rope
window screening
Aluminum tape
120mm fan

Using aluminum tape, mount the fan on the end of the 4" PVC so it blows into the PVC.

I cut 3 exhaust holes in the front. I also cut a notch in the bottom that fit's over the lip of the water dish.

Next I cut several lengths of poly rope so that they fit snugly together when laid side by side. I then sandwiched the rope between two sheets of vent filter, then sewed up the sides and across the top. *Do not sew anywhere else across the rope or you will disrupt the capillary action by "pinching" it.*

Next using Aluminum tape and the window screen, create a "pocket" inside the tube that will hold the rope assembly against the exhaust holes making sure all air passes through the wet rope. Not shown is how I sealed up the bottom of the tube letting only the ends of the rope come through the bottom and into the water. Note in the final picture that the tape isn't on the bottom yet. All the air was leaking out at first and bypassed the moisture.

Tube and wicking material


Fan


The inside "pocket" (this is an earlier pic). I've adjusted the screen even closer to the exhaust holes causing a tighter seal.


The result? Before 44% RH. After one hour 58% RH.


The downside. The cats needs a new water dish for vacations.


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## newport78 (May 8, 2010)

Truly, Truly, Beautifull. Now time to go read the grow journal XD


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## jsgamber (May 13, 2010)

As you can see below, Larry OG is getting close to the top of the cabinet. This means I need to start thinking about clones and soon after flowering so it's time to get serious about finishing this cabinet up!

Remember from the first post that part of the deal was to also reorganize the garage and keep my wife happy.  Well all of my experimenting has crap all over the place so the only way to clean up is to finish up. 

The plan: clean out the chambers (they have been temporary storage and also my "electrical" cabinet), re-inventory my supplies, clean up my work space (so I can kick some ass), install the upper cabinet door frame, seal up the chambers (light and air), drill vent holes, hang Mylar, install doors, finalize interior electrical, finalize exterior ventilation.

Also I'm going to take some advice and relocate the mother/clone/veg chamber from the bottom to the top. Reason being is that heat rises and I'd rather deal with heat issues with the Mom's rather than the flowering chambers.

Here we are after clean up. If you notice, I have hanging storage shelves so the only way to get the full cabinet is to stand on the other side of the garage and take the picture up from the floor.


Here is my temporary electrical area. Yes it doesn't look very safe (and it isn't...I already tripped the GFCI once). Note the small plywood panel everything is sitting on. I'll be mounting all of this equipment on these plywood panels and hang them on the walls somewhere...not sure yet though. 


Here's the current mom chamber to be moved to the top. Oh did I mention I still need to finish taping up my reservoirs. Also it's time to get a couple more made (adding to "to do" list)


The middle chamber.


The top chamber (standing on tippy toes).


Man I *love* this aluminum tape. So here's what I did to seal things up. I bought a roll of Duck Easy Liner I got from Lowes *Duck Solid Easy Liner*. It's 20" wide so I cut up 2" strips and taped them into the corners using the aluminum tape. Here's the top chamber.


Top two chambers done.


While I was doing all of this work, my ladies were sitting in the kitchen. It is sure nice being able to move these reservoirs around. Unfortunately I finally pooped out at 1:00am and couldn't get the body to move anymore. Fortunately, we just replace all of the incandescent floods in the kitchen with CFL floods so the ladies should survive the night with no issues.

After 5 hours of sleep I forced myself out of bed because I wanted my ladies back in the cabinet before I went to work. I was able to get the 7 holes drilled, the Mylar hung, rehung the cool tube/light and wired everything back up. Since I don't have doors hung yet and I was late to work, I figured running the cool tube open ended wouldn't hurt...and it didn't.  I have to say looking *up* is pretty cool. I can't wait to see what 3 full chambers with 250/430/430 watts running is going to look like!!!


The wide angle view.


A thought I was having. My first though for the cabinet exhaust was to make a long run across the garage to the external vent on the opposite wall. However, the wall behind the cabinet leads to the empty space underneath the inside staircase to the second floor. I think if I just drill a 4" hole in the wall and terminate all the ducting to it I should be able to safely dump that air in there and let the house heating/cooling system deal with it. The other thought is to pull the air in from under the stair case and go ahead and dump the exhaust into the garage. Any opinions?

More to come!!

peace


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## Danielsgb (May 13, 2010)

Good to see you got the moms up high. Mum should be able to look down on her daughters. On that exhaust I'd go for dumping it under the staircase. But I'd look for it's effect on your heating/cooling as you mention. Would it help with more hot air in the winter or take more cooling in the summer? If you wanted to get even fancier you have the ducting to both directions to change by summer/winter. I'm in MT so we have HUGE extremes both ways. Sorry if that's no help, but the cabinet is coming along nicely.
Daniels


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## Mr.Natural (May 13, 2010)

A thought I was having. My first though for the cabinet exhaust was to make a long run across the garage to the external vent on the opposite wall. However, the wall behind the cabinet leads to the empty space underneath the inside staircase to the second floor. I think if I just drill a 4" hole in the wall and terminate all the ducting to it I should be able to safely dump that air in there and let the house heating/cooling system deal with it. The other thought is to pull the air in from under the stair case and go ahead and dump the exhaust into the garage. Any opinions?

All right JS, looking good dude . Love that humidifier !! You seem full of ideas !! way to go..

Just a thought have you considered odor yet ? don't know if thats a factor but...might think about it while routing that exhaust...

Lots of luck on your cabinet and grows.


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## EvlMunkee (May 13, 2010)

Hey js!
Great lookin cab there dude! You're gonna have a fantastic setup when you're finished.
I agree with Mr. Natural on the ventilation. It would be a great place to dump it but....will you have to scrub it first? I wonder if an Ozone generator would work in a place like that? Just thinkin out loud.
Everything looks great though js. Keep it up Bud!


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## jsgamber (May 13, 2010)

Danielsgb said:


> Good to see you got the moms up high. Mum should be able to look down on her daughters. On that exhaust I'd go for dumping it under the staircase. But I'd look for it's effect on your heating/cooling as you mention. Would it help with more hot air in the winter or take more cooling in the summer? If you wanted to get even fancier you have the ducting to both directions to change by summer/winter. I'm in MT so we have HUGE extremes both ways. Sorry if that's no help, but the cabinet is coming along nicely.
> Daniels


You made my wife giggle because we have two daughters. 




Mr.Natural said:


> All right JS, looking good dude . Love that humidifier !! You seem full of ideas !! way to go..
> 
> Just a thought have you considered odor yet ? don't know if thats a factor but...might think about it while routing that exhaust...
> 
> Lots of luck on your cabinet and grows.


Thanks Nat and glad to have you aboard. I have to give lots of credit to the people on this site. Almost everything is inspired one way or another by the people here and then I just put my little spin on it.  The whole point of this is therapy and letting my creativity run wild. I'm glad you're enjoying this thread. Make sure you check out Dan and Munk's grow too. Dan took my cool tube and made it look even better! And Munk's cabinet is the sickest thing going on this site...I think he must be OCD because he is soooo neat!  But it's paying off for him with some nice buds!

Pay it forward man and improve on what I do.



EvlMunkee said:


> Hey js!
> Great lookin cab there dude! You're gonna have a fantastic setup when you're finished.
> I agree with Mr. Natural on the ventilation. It would be a great place to dump it but....will you have to scrub it first? I wonder if an Ozone generator would work in a place like that? Just thinkin out loud.
> Everything looks great though js. Keep it up Bud!


We all must think alike.  Since I don't have the doors on the Mum (I like that word) chamber yet I pulled out a comfy chair, turned all the lights in the garage off and stared up at all of the light blazing out of that reflecting space and relishing the work. Then I looked over at my shop vac and remembered I switch the hose from input to output all the time. We go from the 50's in Winter to 90's in the Summer so not near as extreme. But even so, heating the house in winter and then letting the house help out with HVAC in the Summer.

Heck I'm going with the Zen DIY Walmart Carbon filter. I have all the parts. Moms don't smell at all so I have another month to worry about that. But it better be sooner. 

peace


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## EvlMunkee (May 16, 2010)

*"Make sure you check out Dan and Munk's grow too"*

Hey js,
Thanks for the plug! 
Nice little humidifier you got there. How long does it last between fill ups?
Cab's looking awesome dude!


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## Danielsgb (May 16, 2010)

EvlMunkee said:


> *"Make sure you check out Dan and Munk's grow too"*
> 
> Hey js,
> Thanks for the plug!
> ...


 Thanks Js for the plug too! I guess great minds think alike Throw in a  mind and we can pull off most anything.
Daniels


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## Malenki (May 25, 2010)

What did you do for the passive intake? Are those dark room vents?


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## jsgamber (May 26, 2010)

Malenki said:


> What did you do for the passive intake? Are those dark room vents?


Don't you love it when you have a straight man!  Hi Malenki and welcome. Right now I'm in the throws of solving my ventilation/humidity issues once and for all!

To answer your question, the passive intake is just 3 holes in the back of the cab covered by a standard grill from Lowes. But that's gonna change!! 

Okay all you thermodynamic guru's, what do you do when you have high temps and low humidity and you want low temps and high(er) humidity? You build a swamp cooler aka evaporitive cooler.

Here's my thinking, I've been trying to add humidity to a space that keeps having it's air "refreshed" 2 times per minute. It's not going to happen. So why not just make the air coming into the cabinet cooler and more humid? Duh! 

Here's what I'm looking to build:


This guy actually built this to be portable and cool what ever room he was in and was able to drop room temps by 5*. Assuming a standard room of 10x12x8 is 960cf and my cab is 2x4x9 or 72cf, this should be overkill. 

Since it's possible I'll be using up to 5 gal of water per day for evaporation, I'll be adding a water suppy with a float valve to keep water to the pump. On the exhaust side I'll be hooking up 4" pvc which will run to the passive intakes of all 3 chambers. I am planning on using a 100cfm fan to put some positive pressure to the passive intakes so that the chambers don't draw "dry" air from any of the leaks in my cabinet. I'm gonna go out and get parts today so hopefully I'll have something to show over the next few days.

Between life and trying how to keep clones alive, I haven't been posting much. I keep getting sidetracked into looking at everyone else's grows!  As a quick update, I've relocated the doors up to the top. The hinges weren't on right and the 1/4" plywood is a bit too flimsy to make a really good door with no air/light leaks. I'll be using 1/2" plywood to build the doors for the two flowering chambers.

That's it on the cabinet. Time to go update my grow thread and show you guys how bad I am at cloning! 

peace


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## chainseeker (May 31, 2010)

Hey Js hows it going now? Just read the entire build and I have to hand it to ya job well done. I have something u might try it worked wonders on my cab I would love to see if it works on another cab. Here's how it went with mine. I was having bad temp prob's. Well just about everyone had a solution, which I love the input but unfortunately none seemed to work. So at the time I had 1-65 cfm fan with a diy filter I had 2- cpu fans for circulation and 1- 8 inch fan also for circulation. Sometimes I'd point the fans on the lights or just try different things. You obv know how it goes. Well I went back and reread all the advise I had received. The thing that kept getting me was that everyone mentioned the fact that heat rises. I kinda got sick of hearing that actually because thats why the exhaust is on top and intakes on bottom so obv I knew that. Well I started thinking and smoking LOL and thats when it hit me, it came to me in ? form. I had to ask myself - How do you expect the heat to rise and get sucked out the exhaust while all those dam fans are mixing up all the air in the cab. So I shut off all fans except the exhaust at that time temps were 93. I left for 30 min and came back to find the temps at 82 already. Another 30 min's 79. Now she goes from 83 right before the A/C kicks on to 77 after it's been on a while. I even asked some of the best growers i could find on this site and they all said that the air moving from the intake to the exhaust would be sufficient air flow so no prob's with circulation. Also IDK if you got an answer to whether or not you should have the exhaust fans on 24 hrs. I say yes this way no smell gets out plus your plants still get plenty of fresh air while lights are out. Now I wish I could run a smoke test and see what happens to the air as it runs through the cab and then put the fans back in and see what happens. Nice and smooth without em and total chaos with em. Well I've taken enough of your time sorry about the long post I could've gave you the short version but I just felt like rambling and couldn't stop. So I'll go check out your grow now. Peace!
Chain


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## jsgamber (May 31, 2010)

chainseeker said:


> Hey Js hows it going now? Just read the entire build and I have to hand it to ya job well done. I have something u might try it worked wonders on my cab I would love to see if it works on another cab. Here's how it went with mine. I was having bad temp prob's. Well just about everyone had a solution, which I love the input but unfortunately none seemed to work. So at the time I had 1-65 cfm fan with a diy filter I had 2- cpu fans for circulation and 1- 8 inch fan also for circulation. Sometimes I'd point the fans on the lights or just try different things. You obv know how it goes. Well I went back and reread all the advise I had received. The thing that kept getting me was that everyone mentioned the fact that heat rises. I kinda got sick of hearing that actually because thats why the exhaust is on top and intakes on bottom so obv I knew that. Well I started thinking and smoking LOL and thats when it hit me, it came to me in ? form. I had to ask myself - How do you expect the heat to rise and get sucked out the exhaust while all those dam fans are mixing up all the air in the cab. So I shut off all fans except the exhaust at that time temps were 93. I left for 30 min and came back to find the temps at 82 already. Another 30 min's 79. Now she goes from 83 right before the A/C kicks on to 77 after it's been on a while. I even asked some of the best growers i could find on this site and they all said that the air moving from the intake to the exhaust would be sufficient air flow so no prob's with circulation. Also IDK if you got an answer to whether or not you should have the exhaust fans on 24 hrs. I say yes this way no smell gets out plus your plants still get plenty of fresh air while lights are out. Now I wish I could run a smoke test and see what happens to the air as it runs through the cab and then put the fans back in and see what happens. Nice and smooth without em and total chaos with em. Well I've taken enough of your time sorry about the long post I could've gave you the short version but I just felt like rambling and couldn't stop. So I'll go check out your grow now. Peace!
> Chain


Great minds man! I noticed the same thing too and so I also stopped using internal fans...for now. One of the issues I think happens is my passive intakes are not finalized so they just pull air in from any old direction. Stay tuned to my next posts and hopefully I'll be able to show you something bitchin!! By the way stay tuned means NOW!


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## jsgamber (May 31, 2010)

My Plants need your help tonight. They have been out of their home for 2 nights. They need a water change and have to go back into there home. Please read how you can help!! 

Just so you know, I have been working my ass off this whole weekend on my cabinet. I've rebuilt my cool tubes, I've designed my passive intake registers and finalized the ventillation design. I have all the parts, I've cut all the holes and fitted everything. I just need to put it all together.

It's gonna be an all nighter. I've got the radio blasting, the pipe filled and ready to go. I'm starting out with the before pics of the cab. I'll set the timer for 45 minutes and if someone checks in to this post and asks to see progress, I'll snap some shots and put them up, no annotations or anything. Just quick and dirty. There will be major transformations through the night so help keep me going!!  If nobody asks for pics, I reset the timer and then I keep going and will post results at the end.

Here is what the cab looks like now:






Here's a taste of my creations over the weekend. I'll go back later and give the build details but I know you all like to read the last page frst anyways. 

New Passive register


Cool tube redisign (top old, bottom new)


Cool tube re-installed


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## jsgamber (May 31, 2010)

See how unhappy they are?


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## pwizzle (May 31, 2010)

Actually they don't look too bad man!
They seem to be holding their vigor so I see them bouncing back fairly easy
What all are you trying to accomplish tonight?
Happy Memorial Day RIU! and all the fellow vets out there.
Oh, and that cabinet is lookin good, nice job on building it.


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## chainseeker (May 31, 2010)

45 min your late!


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## Danielsgb (May 31, 2010)

I'm up and watching. Put my main 3 to bed and watched my 2 queens wake up.
Daniels


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## jsgamber (May 31, 2010)

Sorry I'm late. The plan for tonight:

Seal all cabs.
Mylar all cabs
Vent the new flower chamber
run ventillation in the back
Build and install second passive intake register and install
Clean up electrical before I kill myself or someone else


Last 45 min:

Clean out cabs vacuum and wipe down
1st pic shows new mother chamber and how it's sealed with aluminum tape
2nd pic shows orig mother chamgber with duck tape...it sucks and fell apart
3rd pic the white strips are a new mold/mildew resistent shelf liner. It's flexible and won't let the tape tear if under stress. Helps to block air and light
4th pic assembly line, adding tape
5th pic installing


Back in a bit


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## jsgamber (May 31, 2010)

This is working for me and keeping me moving. I've got at least 20 hours under my belt so far and I need to get this done for this reason:

My "supply center" in the middle of the garage floor. Everyone walking around and not happy.


My workbench is out of hand with build crap





This hours progress. Need just a bit more tape to seal everything up. I LOVE this aluminum tape. The only downside is that it's a bit hard to peal the backing off so it just takes up time. After this is done, it's Mylar time!


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## jsgamber (Jun 1, 2010)

So much for 45 min. But you guys already bailed anyways.  Well I'm still ticking.

There was more taping up to do than I thought last update, but it's finished.

The Mylar is up in the middle cabinet. Next is the lower.

pic 1 - 3M Adhesive for hanging Mylar. Very forgiving and let's you retack many times. Just watch overspray on neighboring Mylar. 
pic 2 - cutting. This pic looks very strange
pic 3 - Hung. Still need to cut the vent holes

Next update Lower Mylar and hopefully some major ventillation work!!


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## jsgamber (Jun 1, 2010)

Well as it goes the spirit and mind are willing but the body is saying "fuck you". Way to much bending, squatting, stooping, getting down, getting up after everything else this weekend. I have to remember that I'm 50 with arthritis so I need to be a bit more moderate.

I think I made great progress and things are turning out spif. Now that most of the "dirty" part (wood cutting, metal cutting, spray adhesive) is done, I can get to some of the "fun" stuff. The Mylar had to go up so I can insert all the duct work without having to wrap the mylar afterwards. Even though I won't be in the lower cabinet for another month, all of the duct work is conjoined and in order to make everything "closed" it has to work together from the beginning.

Here are the final cab shots for tonight. After taking them I went ahead and used a razor to cut out all of the holes. I still have to do a water change and Larry needs a hair cut. 



Since I'm working with the ladies, I'll send my updates to my grow journal so head on over there for a bit. Since the camera is handy, I'll give you some good root porn shots. 

Plan for tomorrow...build this. This is the ventillation design plan. We'll see if I can pull it off.



peace



PS. I shouldn't have sat down to write this. My body said done so I'm off to bed. I'm usually up by 6:00am so let' see what we can finish.


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## bgsixxxniner (Jun 1, 2010)

nice ima try that...what kind of lights r u using?


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## bgsixxxniner (Jun 1, 2010)

hey that cool..i like tha mylar...i think ill try just mylar and skip tha painting step...like u said when u get old ur body just says NO on its own....smokin does help get me motivated though....


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## jsgamber (Jun 2, 2010)

bgsixxxniner said:


> nice ima try that...what kind of lights r u using?


In the mother chamber I'm using 250W MH HID lamp. In the flowering chambers will be 430W HPS HID lamps.



bgsixxxniner said:


> hey that cool..i like tha mylar...i think ill try just mylar and skip tha painting step...like u said when u get old ur body just says NO on its own....smokin does help get me motivated though....


Me too. I've used that adhesive spray on other projects and I love it. It's very forgiving as far as lifting and repositioning. However watch for overspray getting on your newly hung pieces. I use a large piece of cardboard to cover and protect the mylar. Regarding the paint, I only primered the wood (actually I had my kid do all the painting). I just didn't like the idea of unprotected wood in in a hostile environment especially when humidity takes off. Thanks for joining in bgsixxxniner!


As far as the update, my body needed to take a break tonight. Also I needed to get the water changed and then take cuttings for new clones. Larry OG won't fit in the cab anymore. This morning I woke up and took care of the water change. I figured that would let the water sit through the day and stableize before putting in a bunch of new clones.

Check out the updates in my grow journal for clones. 

peace


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## SensiStan (Jun 2, 2010)

Wow cabinet overhaul !  all iv gta say is rather you than me buddy although iv had my fair share of dog work. i had people in my room to come treat the damp issues in my apartment building so at 7am i had to be up and moving an entire grow to another room somehow the girls survived and everything is still intact and flourishing but what a goddamn job (and i have to do it again on weds cuz thats when theyre coming to actually do the work ). im gna be doing a lot of "adjusting"" in the near future to to compensate for my rapidly expanding indica bushes lol. well donw on all the good work tho, id help if i could but im very very far away


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## CabinetBuds (Jun 5, 2010)

WOW!! I am subbed!
Your Cabinet looks great! I think you have put a tonne of work and thought into this! I think it is a little too complicated for me but I really like your res! The whole thing is awesome and I think once you get through your first grow you will really start to see results!!

Keep up the great work and all the pics!
Later
+ Rep


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## jsgamber (Jun 5, 2010)

SensiStan said:


> Wow cabinet overhaul !  all iv gta say is rather you than me buddy although iv had my fair share of dog work. i had people in my room to come treat the damp issues in my apartment building so at 7am i had to be up and moving an entire grow to another room somehow the girls survived and everything is still intact and flourishing but what a goddamn job (and i have to do it again on weds cuz thats when theyre coming to actually do the work ). im gna be doing a lot of "adjusting"" in the near future to to compensate for my rapidly expanding indica bushes lol. well donw on all the good work tho, id help if i could but im very very far away


Hey SS, Well as you say the "dog" work is done...hopefully. Did you check out the ventilation plan? I'll be working on that today and I bought all the parts for my DIY Humidifier. You'll sh*t your pants when you see it! 




CabinetBuds said:


> WOW!! I am subbed!
> Your Cabinet looks great! I think you have put a tonne of work and thought into this! I think it is a little too complicated for me but I really like your res! The whole thing is awesome and I think once you get through your first grow you will really start to see results!!
> 
> Keep up the great work and all the pics!
> ...


Hey Cab thanks for joining and thanks for the rep. Back at you for the wonderful job you are doing on your grow.

This is one of those "forest and trees" deals. The cabinet is the sum of it's parts. Even though, over all, it seems complicated look at the details that work for you and plagerize all you want! Look at Danielsgb grow and you'll see how he took my cool tube idea and made it better which forced me to go back and retrofit my design to his! It's total collaberation!

Building "coolers" around your reservoirs is a matter of buying a 4'x8' sheet of rigid foam insulation from Lowes, cutting it up into sides and and a bottom. I used toothpicks to hold it in place until I taped it up. Instant custom cooler in less than 30 minutes!! That is as long as you are having water temp issues like me. 

peace


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## jsgamber (Jun 5, 2010)

I've already measured the dimensions and cut out the parts making sure to add an extra 1/2" on the bottom edges to create "bending tabs" to screw the unit to the back of the cabinet.

On one end you will have the point where the duct extension will attach. To cut down on leaks, measure a perfecty 4" hole in the center. Use a large drill bit in the center to drill a "starter hole" for your jigsaw or tin snips and then make several cuts along the radius and remove as much material as you can. If you have better tins snips you can cut the hole directly. Mine are too big so I ended up creating multiple cuts to the circle and bending away the excess leaving a perfect hole.

Insert duct extension, bend back all the tabs and tape it up. Don't forget to tape up the seam along the duct extension to stop air leaks.

For the sides, I didn't think I could get a really good straight corner by bending the entire length. Instead I made a cut along the edge leaving 2" inches. This is enough to bend nicely and holds it shape nicely while taping everything up.

Bend back the 1/2" tabs along the bottom, pre-drill holes along the tab and mount the sucker on the back of the cabinet. 

peace


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## jsgamber (Jun 5, 2010)

Under the staircase. 

This is the wall directly behind the cabinet. Use a stud finder to see where the studs *aren't*. Drill the hole, install a connector, then wrap an blue ice block around the hand you just strained. 

I suffer for a form of arthritis called Schleroderma, which roughly translates to "hard skin". Basically it's tightening up all the connective tissue in my arms and legs and reducing my "range of motion". With arms, hands and fingers outstretched I can only bend my wrists back 10* where normal is 90*. I can't wipe off counters (normally, I have to use my fist to grasp the rag) or do "palm" type push up. Occaisionally when I trip and fall forward I'll try to catch my fall with my hands only for them to become hyperextended and pulling on everything all the way up to above my elbow where all the forearm tendons and synovial tissues attach themselves.

In this case, I was using the hole saw to cut the 4" hole in the wall. I was in an awkward position and when the saw got caught into the wall it caused the entire drill to torque around taking my hand and wrists around the world. I didn't bawl or anything but I had some big ass tears coming out. OWWWWWWWWW!!! Once I taped my hand up with some blue ice, I finished off by spinning the drill around and bracing it against my body. Then went and took a huge hit of home made hash oil. Great Pain Killer!!


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## jsgamber (Jun 5, 2010)

Let's get some ventilation going. This night I bit off more than I can chew with the goal of being able to vent out under the staircase before bedtime. Just as a temporary measure, I used the flex tubing to make the run but this will all be replaced with PVC. But I'll tell you one thing, even the flex tubing has a huge impact on reducing the noise level of the fans. Now when I walk in the garage, all I hear is the air pump!! 

pic 1 - 5/4 reducer which is one end of the cool tube. Looking inside.
pic 2 - 5/4 reducer attached to inside of cabinet
pic 3 - 4" PVC Tee. I forgot to re read my plan so this is supposed to be a Wye in order to better direct the airflow so this will change a bit. Basically the 5/4 reducer comes out the back where I slide over a 4" PVC connector, next with a fan assembly, next followed by the Tee.
pic 4 & 5 - Temporary ducting in place. The duct going to the wall is the cool tube exhaust and the other duct is running cool air off the concrete floor to the cool tube intake.

Since this setup is stable for now, I'm gonna go build my humidifier. The humidifier will be attaching to all of my passive intakes. More pics to come!!

peace


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## SmeLLyTreeZ (Jun 6, 2010)

Damn bro thats very impressive! I really like some of the ideas you have on here, shit all of the ideas actually! I'll be improving my cab next grow and definitely putting some of your ideas to use!! Hope you don't mind 

I was trying to go through and get an idea of what you've done so far. So say for the top cab, you have 3 4" holes in the bottom that lead out to that passive intake box you made. "is that gonna be pulling air from anywhere special?"

Three 4" exhaust holes at the top of the cab, one for the cool tube which is vented by a 120mm and two 80mm fans for the two corners, then you basically vented those exhausts with ducting into the wall? I'm just trying to get the idea down in my head, I know this is a vague description comapred to the work you actually put in lol.. I kind of just threw my box together and didn't really plan ahead like I should of but thats going to change next time around!! I'm gonna have to look through your whole thread again tomorrow for now time to light up! + Rep for such a great DIY thread!!


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## Danielsgb (Jun 10, 2010)

That new vent system looks better. Sweet again. Check out the new stuff I did to mine.
Daniels


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## jsgamber (Jun 16, 2010)

I thought I'd run through a few assemblies.

Here's my inline fan.


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## Danielsgb (Jun 16, 2010)

I use a jig-saw, but God I love those 5" squares
Daniels


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## jsgamber (Jun 16, 2010)

This was a fun little project. Early on I had purchased a 32 gal rubber trash can which I was planning on using to "prep" water like we do the fish tank. Since I'm now using straight tap water, I was going to take it back until I repurposed it. 

So some basic principals. Evaporation requires energy (usually in the form of heat). As water evaporates it "steals" energy (it's why your body feels cold when it's wet). The more evaporation, the more heat is "stolen" and the end result is cooling. However, this all works well as long as the air is dry, allowing the surrounding air to "collect" vapor. However, once the surrounding air becomes "saturated" with water vapor, the process stops and actually begins to reverse a bit. When you start to see condensation, that means air is too moist. The process of going from vapor back to water will actually add heat back into the process!! This we don't want to happen.

So the trick is to get warm dry air to pass through something moist. As the air passes through the moisture, it causes the water to evaporate into the air causing the air to reduce in temperature as it rises in humidity. So how do we do this?


Since I'm not using the lids that came with my reservoirs, lets see what we can make. We need to build a frame that will hold the wetting medium in place. Pics below show "before" frame, "Hogs Hair" filter (1/2" thick) and poly filter, and what it looks like when cut out.



Temporarily fit the frame to the inside of the trash container to draw the cutout holes and then make the cut!


Here's all the parts. We are ready for assembly!



Voila!



So how does it work? I have a 5 ft water pump ($21 at ACE Hardware) which sits in the bottom. I used clear 3/8" ID tubing, 3/8" barbs and Tee's and hose clamps to make the connections. I ran the tubing up from the bottom to a Tee and then ran a ring of tubing around the top of the container. I was going to use some spray emitters in the tubing to wet the pads, but the pump doesn't have enough static pressure to push the water through so it just dribbled. Instead I drilled 1/64" holes in the tubing and that works perfectly!



I added a fan to help "pull" the moist air through. I may not need this as the negative pressure in the cabinets should do the trick as long as everything is air tight. I added foam strips under the lid along the edge to create a seal once the lid is put back on and snapped down.



It's hard to see, but you can see the water running through the "Hog's Hair" filter. But it doesn't leak!! Next pic shows the pump on and water spraying onto the pads.



And now to hook it up! The flex tubing is temporary until my main duct system is in place. But it's now hooked directly to the passive intake on the back of the cabinet.



The end result. Cabinet started at 79* and 44%RH. After 30 minutes, the temp was 74* and 55%RH! It works!!

So after using this for over a week, it's interesting to note that it does't always drop the humidity. A lot of that is dependent on external ambient conditions dealing with dew point, air temp, etc. But overall it keeps the humidity up anywhere between 3% to 12% higher than the surrounding air.

I probably won't hook this into the flowering chambers since mold in my buds wouldn't be good. But it fits the bill for the mother/clone/veg chamber. In fact it works a bit too good since I have some powdery mold starting to show up on my leaves. This is probably a combination of the humidifier and me spraying the plants. Now it's a matter of dialing it in with the proper fan speeds and such.

What do you guys think?


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## Danielsgb (Jun 16, 2010)

Sweet once again. Keep it up.
Daniels


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## chainseeker (Jun 16, 2010)

Very nice job JS. I wonder if this could be scaled way down to keep the stealth of the cab? Again great freakin job contrats on the successful build.


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## jsgamber (Jun 16, 2010)

Okay time to get serious about venting and duct work. You'll notice me using flex tubing along the way. I just use this to test things. However, the final ducting will all be 4" PVC. The smooth inner surfaces definitely cut down drag and air friction.

At this point I'm using flex tubing to get the cool tube exhaust to the port in the wall. Some shots looking up.



Up until this point, I had been connecting things to the cabinet using the inline backflow fittings (like the one attached to the wall in the first pic above. However, I found that sanding the hole a bit bigger, I can get the 4" PVC to slide in and give a really good tight fit. I then use a straight coupler which my inline fan assembly fits into perfectly.



It's coming together nicely. You'll note all my 12v wires are all ghetto right now. Once I get the ventillation up, I'll start making clean power runs to all the fans.


Notice all the tubing coming down. Since all connections are semi-permanent, making adjustments is super easy. I have many options on where I can pull "clean" air and where to dump "dirty" air.

We'll talk a bit more about the overall "air plan" in a bit.


It truly feels like you are sitting in line for "Space Mountain".


So whatcha think? 



peace


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## CabinetBuds (Jun 16, 2010)

WOW!!
A lot of thought went into that!!
Nice work!


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## jsgamber (Jun 16, 2010)

Okay the next post isn't for the squeemish. If you don't like blood and stitches...move on.

I was working on one of my side projects to insulate the garage door with rigid foam (pics coming up shortly). I was cutting the foam with a utility knife while yacking with the wife (about good stuff)  and just lost concentration for one second and fffffffttttttt, the knife just laid right into my thumb which was carelessly sitting in the way while holding the straightedge. The foam boards are 4ft wide so you have to shift your hold on the straight edge as you move along the cut. I usually hold things down with my knuckles since it keeps the fingers out of the way....like I said careless.

I thought about just wrapping it up and letting nature take its course but I figured it was deep enough where the skin flap would probably turn black and fall off leaving a big hole in my thumb. Add to it the skin flap would eventually dry out and start getting caught on everything like a huge hang nail. So off we went to the emergency room for 4 1/2 hours, $100 deductible, a nice conversation with a cool doc and 4 stitches...3 of them directly in the nail!

It's pretty funny I can go all day working and come away with scrapes, cuts and bruises that I have no idea how I got them. This one got my attention!!!! Thank goodness I've taken about 10 First Aid/CPR classes (keeping me from freaking out) so I had serious pressure on the cut from the start. Isn't marvelous when special training just "kicks in" and you do the right thing without thinking about it!!







This is all just a day in the life of a DIY Cabinet builder!!  As you can see it hasn't slowed me down...much.



peace....and for goodness sakes be safe!! It just takes a split second to die!!


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## CabinetBuds (Jun 16, 2010)

Man!!! Take care of that thumb!!! I did something very similar one time.... Only I opted for no stitches. Well it kept bleeding for like a week or more before it finally closed up! Well I think you did the right thing!!


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## Danielsgb (Jun 16, 2010)

Damn, Good you took care if it right. That would have taken forever to heal good. Can't be slowing yourself down too much. You have Girls in need of their own spots. hehe
Daniels


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## SensiStan (Jun 16, 2010)

Haha looks like you've been working hard, things are finally taking shape for you i hope  exceptt you thumb which has probably changed shape heh heh heh ... dont worry we all do it i nearly cut my finger off with a stanley knife when i was wiring the flex connector on my reflector. just let the scar be a reminder of the effort youve put in


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## SmeLLyTreeZ (Jun 18, 2010)

Looks real good, damn there's a lot of work into this cab!


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## vairocks (Jun 18, 2010)

@ jsgamber - u gt sm creativity man...keep it up...superb ! jst loved ur wrk n d detail of it....wts ur zodiac sign ...? best of luck fr ur kompletion n growth...


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## Learninglots420 (Jun 20, 2010)

This thread was an awesome read! Thanks for sharing all your info, as well as everybody else who helped you on this. I learned a lot and will be back to keep up ;D


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## Stealthboy (Jun 21, 2010)

Very impressive build! I have a question for you about this rigid ducting. It makes sense that you are using it for reducing drag. However I wonder if you might be better using flexible ducting inside the rooms if you ever intend to change the height of the lamps. I imagine you have considered this, but do you plan to move the lamps, or the plants, to keep them inside the brightest area around the bulb? Or is the system going to be totally fixed, in which case how will you deal with over-vigorous growth into the bulb and prevent burning?

Keep it up man, subbed for info


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## jsgamber (Jun 22, 2010)

CabinetBuds said:


> Man!!! Take care of that thumb!!! I did something very similar one time.... Only I opted for no stitches. Well it kept bleeding for like a week or more before it finally closed up! Well I think you did the right thing!!


I never knew just how useful my left thumb is!  I went to go get my stiches out and when the nurse cut them, the wound popped open again. She looked at me sternly and asked if I had kept it dry. Looking back at water changes and all the other crap working in a hydro environment I had to fess up (if you go back to my grow journal you'll see pics with the bandage off). New stitches and water tight tape for me.



Danielsgb said:


> Damn, Good you took care if it right. That would have taken forever to heal good. Can't be slowing yourself down too much. You have Girls in need of their own spots. hehe
> Daniels


I'm an idiot after all!! 



SensiStan said:


> Haha looks like you've been working hard, things are finally taking shape for you i hope  exceptt you thumb which has probably changed shape heh heh heh ... dont worry we all do it i nearly cut my finger off with a stanley knife when i was wiring the flex connector on my reflector. just let the scar be a reminder of the effort youve put in


 
Hey that's it! I just needed a bigger scar to make my war stories more dramatic. Can't you see me in 30 years (in an old geezer voice) "...back in '10 during the great marijuana war of California ...."




SmeLLyTreeZ said:


> Looks real good, damn there's a lot of work into this cab!


Yeah and sometimes I wonder when it will end.  The worst part is all the stooping, bending, reaching, twisting, etc. I try to run 3 miles a day with no issues, but working on this cab for an hour makes my body feel like I ran a marathon. But truly it's satisfying work when it's all done (and the pain isn't that bad ). 



vairocks said:


> @ jsgamber - u gt sm creativity man...keep it up...superb ! jst loved ur wrk n d detail of it....wts ur zodiac sign ...? best of luck fr ur kompletion n growth...


Leo. Does that make any sense for you? Next time you look my horoscope up, keep in mind my creativity is "iterative". The idea may be good but it takes several times to get the right implementation. 



Learninglots420 said:


> This thread was an awesome read! Thanks for sharing all your info, as well as everybody else who helped you on this. I learned a lot and will be back to keep up ;D


Thank you for giving me your time and welcome to the collaboration! Make sure you go through those guys journals too. They have ideas and information that I have used along the way. Also they have taken some of my ideas and made them better!



Stealthboy said:


> Very impressive build! I have a question for you about this rigid ducting. It makes sense that you are using it for reducing drag. However I wonder if you might be better using flexible ducting inside the rooms if you ever intend to change the height of the lamps. I imagine you have considered this, but do you plan to move the lamps, or the plants, to keep them inside the brightest area around the bulb? Or is the system going to be totally fixed, in which case how will you deal with over-vigorous growth into the bulb and prevent burning?
> 
> Keep it up man, subbed for info


Hey Stealthboy! Make sure to check out my grow journal to see how my cabinet functions and my use of mini reservoirs.

My chambers are 35" high and my reservoirs are 9" high giving my 26" of grow space. Because of limited space, the lights are fixed in place so rather than lowering lights I just raise the plants. Besides 250W is a bit too intense for clones close up.

In my mother/clone chamber this height is perfect because the moment my mums hit the ceiling they get chopped up into clones.

My flowering chambers will be running SCRoG and I'll be putting my clones straight to flower as soon as their roots are established. The flowering rez will be 13" high (with screen) so I'll have 22" to grow buds! I hope they hit the lights 'cause I want an excuse to have to cut some samples!  However, I'll probably put a screen around the tube to deflect.

With the mini rez's, I can re-arrange them any way I want to get the best lighting.


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## jsgamber (Jun 22, 2010)

Let there be light in the first flowering chamber. In other words, let there be HEAT!!

After getting my 430w Sun Agro hooked up, I closed up the cabinet and sealed it up with Duck tape to run a test. I don't yet have the door seals in place. Unfortunately we hit 100*!! My mother chamber above hit 91* and fried a couple of my clones. I'm thinking I may have AC in my future!


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## gumball (Jun 22, 2010)

what if you had your cool tube drawing the air from within the cab, working along with the exhaust? But only do it for this one cab. It would be an easy and cheap test, even if you dont have caps for your holes, just use duct tape. that or try to shuffle lights so that the hotter higher wattage lights are on top, decreasing heat and wattage on the way down. i think you already thought of that though, cant remember, so many threads... everything is looking good though, excellent duct work, you should do HVAC!!!


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## jsgamber (Jun 22, 2010)

Did I mention my garage door is west facing and is made of aluminum and is in direct sunlight for about 4 1/2 hours. By 4:30pm the door can't be touched, the temp for the first 3ft inside the door is 95* plus making the back of the garage between 85-90*.

To solve this, I installed the same 3/4" rigid foam insulation that I built my rez coolers from. The result is amazing! Garage temp at noon (before direct sunlight) was 75*. At 4:30pm it was 76*! 




Now to garage ventillation. The garage has two vents on the north (cooler) facing wall. After much consideration, my plan is to exhaust out the upper vent and let the bottom vent remain passive. I'll be building a custom fan box over the upper vent.


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## jsgamber (Jun 22, 2010)

gumball said:


> what if you had your cool tube drawing the air from within the cab, working along with the exhaust? But only do it for this one cab. It would be an easy and cheap test, even if you dont have caps for your holes, just use duct tape. that or try to shuffle lights so that the hotter higher wattage lights are on top, decreasing heat and wattage on the way down. i think you already thought of that though, cant remember, so many threads... everything is looking good though, excellent duct work, you should do HVAC!!!


Hey gumball,

I tried that test on my 250w chamber and it actually got worse. The cool tube works best if it's drawing it's own clean air rather than dirty air from the cab. It just took higher cap fans on the exhaust ports to keep things in check.

I may be looking at using those Ultra Kaze fans on the exhaust ports for the flower chamber! Either way I'm going to need some more air flow!

But before I can test it out, I need to get the doors sealed up!

Keep throwing out ideas (cheap please)  But like I said, It may come down to AC. Time to find some cheap portable units.


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## Danielsgb (Jun 22, 2010)

So you gonna try those fat 120mm's? They aren't quiet, but the 134 CFM might help. Good Luck
Daniels


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## jsgamber (Jun 22, 2010)

Danielsgb said:


> So you gonna try those fat 120mm's? They aren't quiet, but the 134 CFM might help. Good Luck
> Daniels


Oh I already have them for the cool tubes. But I bought the 100cfm for cab exhaust. I may need an upgrade and I may need one that takes me out of PC case fans 

But I still have some testing to do. I'll know better once the ambient temps are good and I get that flower cab set up. Those flower cabs need to stay at most 85* but I'd prefer 80*. At least I won't have to worry about keeping humidity down. 

I've been doing quite a bit of research on ventilation with fans, static pressure, Equivalent Duct length, etc. Here's a pretty good guide http://lib.store.yahoo.net/lib/rewilliams/ventilationfanguide.html. I've also been trying to nail down how much cooling I will need based on HID lamp output and ran across this article as well http://www.aquaculture-hydroponics.co.uk/admin/web-inf/uploads/documents/cooling-bound.pdf.

As my research is nailed down I'll fill you all in!


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## gumball (Jun 22, 2010)

jsgamber said:


> Did I mention my garage door is west facing and is made of aluminum and is in direct sunlight for about 4 1/2 hours. By 4:30pm the door can't be touched, the temp for the first 3ft inside the door is 95* plus making the back of the garage between 85-90*.
> 
> To solve this, I installed the same 3/4" rigid foam insulation that I built my rez coolers from. The result is amazing! Garage temp at noon (before direct sunlight) was 75*. At 4:30pm it was 76*!
> 
> Now to garage ventillation. The garage has two vents on the north (cooler) facing wall. After much consideration, my plan is to exhaust out the upper vent and let the bottom vent remain passive. I'll be building a custom fan box over the upper vent.


are your other walls insulated in your garage? how much did insulating the door help your cab temps? i know, i am full of questions!!


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## jsgamber (Jun 22, 2010)

gumball said:


> are your other walls insulated in your garage? how much did insulating the door help your cab temps? i know, i am full of questions!!


Yes as well as sheathed in OSB with 5/8 drywall over that. The mum cab used to climb up to 90* and now it goes no higher than 80 (and that's probably when the garage door is open for awhile) but mostly stays around 78*. Garage ambient temps are currently around 73*. Bottom line, it was a significant difference for the afternoon temps. I only used 3/4 foam at a cost of $8 per 4x8 sheet.

By all means keep the questions and comments coming!!!! If I get no comments I don't get motivated and if I don't get motivated I do no work and I have no pics and if I have no pics I start to feel guilty which reminds me I need to keep growing weed....wow what a nut case I am!!


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## SnOoPXIV (Jun 22, 2010)

try getting a air conditioner and another thing i know you are gonna have a problem with is space you should of just made it 1 shelf and just of made a 3 different separate cabs thats unless if you are gonna use bush master b4 you are gonna flower nice DIY tho keep it up just remember dont let failure bring you down perfection takes practice. oh and for the venting you should try venting the hot air thru your houses ac vents


jsgamber said:


> Yes as well as sheathed in OSB with 5/8 drywall over that. The mum cab used to climb up to 90* and now it goes no higher than 80 (and that's probably when the garage door is open for awhile) but mostly stays around 78*. Garage ambient temps are currently around 73*. Bottom line, it was a significant difference for the afternoon temps. I only used 3/4 foam at a cost of $8 per 4x8 sheet.
> 
> By all means keep the questions and comments coming!!!! If I get no comments I don't get motivated and if I don't get motivated I do no work and I have no pics and if I have no pics I start to feel guilty which reminds me I need to keep growing weed....wow what a nut case I am!!


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## SnOoPXIV (Jun 22, 2010)

the more the venting curves the less efficent its gonna be unless you get a 400 cfm or higer cfm fan and remember the cool intake air should be coming from the bottom of the cab and the hot exhaust air going up. then after you fix that problem get a small oscillating fan to keep the air stirring around


jsgamber said:


> Oh I already have them for the cool tubes. But I bought the 100cfm for cab exhaust. I may need an upgrade and I may need one that takes me out of PC case fans
> 
> But I still have some testing to do. I'll know better once the ambient temps are good and I get that flower cab set up. Those flower cabs need to stay at most 85* but I'd prefer 80*. At least I won't have to worry about keeping humidity down.
> 
> ...


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## jfa916 (Jun 22, 2010)

dam thats a nice set up great job


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## jsgamber (Jun 23, 2010)

SnOoPXIV said:


> try getting a air conditioner and another thing i know you are gonna have a problem with is space you should of just made it 1 shelf and just of made a 3 different separate cabs thats unless if you are gonna use bush master b4 you are gonna flower nice DIY tho keep it up just remember dont let failure bring you down perfection takes practice. oh and for the venting you should try venting the hot air thru your houses ac vents


Hey SnOoP! I'm positive AC is in my future and I'll be going into that shortly. As far as space I'm hoping it's a matter of timing. Since I'll be growing ScrOG, the only thing growing upward will be buds. The main stem will grow "coiled" up underneith the screen while I train the branches to come up through each hole in my screen. Also as soon as the clones establish their roots, I'm going straight to flower with no veg time so hopefully the main stem will stop growing at about the same time I fill my screen with bud sites and the plant then concentrates on fattening up flowers rather than growing longer. It's all an experiment and a learning experience. Hopefully you'll stay around and help keep me on course through my trials and tribulations. 



SnOoPXIV said:


> the more the venting curves the less efficent its gonna be unless you get a 400 cfm or higer cfm fan and remember the cool intake air should be coming from the bottom of the cab and the hot exhaust air going up. then after you fix that problem get a small oscillating fan to keep the air stirring around


That's been covered in past posts in this thread. Hence 4" PVC with smooth walls to reduce drag, 3 hole passive intake on the bottom of the cab with 2 exhaust ports in the top each running 130cfm fans and a cool tube with independant inflow and outflow. Minimal turns, etc. etc.

I'm not trying to be a jerk but have you read the entire thread and looked at all the pics? We also covered the oscillating fan.



jfa916 said:


> dam thats a nice set up great job


Thanks jfa. Don't forget to check out my grow to see the cabinet in action!!


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## cindysid (Jun 23, 2010)

I can't wait to see how your first grow turns out!


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## jsgamber (Jun 24, 2010)

cindysid said:


> I can't wait to see how your first grow turns out!


Well head on over! It's the second link in my sig!  The more the merrier!


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## jsgamber (Jun 24, 2010)

Hey Gumball, Just so you know you had the idea I was looking for! I just had to open my eyes!

TEC is the ticket! Most worries are about getting rid of the heat but I'll take that worry if I can generate a reasonable amount of cooling. Here are some good links that I'll be using as reference. The first one is how to build a water chiller using a Peltier device. This would be much better than throwing in ice bottles every day!!  The second link is a variation of what I'll be looking at building.

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=89199
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1986696/diy_peltier_portable_refrigerator/

Based on that here is my rough design on paper:



In Orange County we have Orvac Electronics which should carry all of this stuff. I'm gonna head down there hopefully today to pick up some materials!


I'm so excited...I get to build my own AC! DIY ROCKS!


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## jsgamber (Jun 24, 2010)

Here's a quick shot to show my temp cycles. This was taken at 6:30pm, just past the hottest time of day for the garage. This is a wireless thermometer with the sensor inside the cabinet. This was the result of insulating the garage door.


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## Danielsgb (Jun 24, 2010)

jsgamber said:


> Hey Gumball, Just so you know you had the idea I was looking for! I just had to open my eyes!
> 
> Based on that here is my rough design on paper:
> 
> ...


*Sweet*, I'm waiting to see his, so you do one too and I'll have something else to try to copy and mod. I will incorporate it somewhere. Heat is always my Enemy.
Daniels


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## jsgamber (Jun 24, 2010)

Okay this idea has got me buzzing! I was trolling over at Gumball's journal and this picture hit me in the head!!!













Do you see any place in the following pic where this wouldn't work like the shitz?


My thinking is having a two chamber unit like Gumball's I just imbed the heat side into one of my existing exhaust ducts. I could even build a seperate unit for each chamber each seperately controlled! WooHoo. 

So now for some questions. I'm thinking I should get a Peltier with a pretty high delta-T that runs about 80watts? Does this sound right?

Since this is a straight voltage device I'm wondering if you can use a regular PC fan controller to increase/decrease the voltage to increase/decrease the cooling I would need (eventually put things on a thermostat).

Any other considerations?


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## SensiStan (Jun 24, 2010)

Haha ingenius my friend , i've gotta say i loved that heatsink idea aswell and almost forgot to give gumball +rep for it  You seem to have your design tweaked almost to perfection, so as i said on your other thread , cant wait to see the shit you're gna have growing out of that beast of a cab


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## jsgamber (Jun 26, 2010)

SensiStan said:


> Haha ingenius my friend , i've gotta say i loved that heatsink idea aswell and almost forgot to give gumball +rep for it  You seem to have your design tweaked almost to perfection, so as i said on your other thread , cant wait to see the shit you're gna have growing out of that beast of a cab


Well pull up a seat 'cause I'ma gonna builda onea. 

Pics from a bit of play time. There is a good amount of heat from the hot side and a good amount of chilling from the cool. At this point it's hard to tell how effective the cooling will be until I can insulate the two sides from each other.

Fortunately I had a supply of passive (non-fan) heat sinks available to me. I hope these work well since I will be cooling them by running duct air through them.

First point of business is to get the two heat sinks attached to the Peltier module. Time for the Dremmel!




Wish me luck!


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## jsgamber (Jun 26, 2010)

First stage assembly complete. A bit of dremel work to cut out some of the fins to put in the tightening nut. I was able to use the original screws. Second pic shows the module in the sandwich. I did a quick plug in to verify hot and cold and labled. Now to build the enclosure.


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## Old Goat (Jun 27, 2010)

JSGamber,
I see you've many friends here and I too have followed this from time to time. In my humble opinion someone (including me) should have given you this below advice.
Please do your self a favor. Stop the heat issues and also use a MUCH better light. One with more wattage or the same and so cool cool COOL you can touch it with your hands after it's up and running. Ceramic Metal Halide. Please take the time to check it out. It's gonna save many head aches. *Especially check the color charts.* The range is far Superior to any on the market.
I'm using 2 X 400 watts and kicking the butt of my old 1000 MH............
Did I say they arre very cool running??

http://www.growlightexpress.com/ceramic-metal-halide-bulbs-9/mastercolor-ceramic-metal-halide-250-watt-87.html


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## big stoner 420 (Jun 27, 2010)

genius +rep


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## Danielsgb (Jul 8, 2010)

OK, I had a random idea thinking of the Peltier, and water temps. Could 2 heat sinks, with a fan pulling, and it's cool side's cooling each side of a res. work? I haven't done Hydro, and it was a coffee and  idea. Hope it gives you an idea.
Daniels


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## jsgamber (Jul 8, 2010)

Danielsgb said:


> OK, I had a random idea thinking of the Peltier, and water temps. Could 2 heat sinks, with a fan pulling, and it's cool side's cooling each side of a res. work? I haven't done Hydro, and it was a coffee and  idea. Hope it gives you an idea.
> Daniels


Yes. In my Google search quest, I ran across this post to use the peltier and an acrylic water block and tubing to create a water chiller:

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=89199

This was for an aquarium use and the guy was able to keep water temps at 65* while ambient room temps were at 79*. Just what I'm looking for.

It's funny you should mention this. I did finish my peltier AC unit up and it's way cool!! But it's way under powered!!    

I tried again last night lighting up my flower chamber with 430W of light. Chamber hit 90* and when I turned on the peltier it did briefly go down to 89* but then went back up to 90*. 

I've got all the pics on my camera and I'll try and get them updated.

So yes I may convert my peltier into a water chiller and buying a real AC unit. Throwing in bottles of ice is getting tiresome.  Also I'm not all that timely either so my water stays on average around 72* (65* if I put an ice bottle in).

So now I need to run some calc on light/heat output per bulb and convert to BTU using those chart links I posted earlier. I don't want to spend a fortune and all I need is to get my flower cab temps down to 85* max (even at the worst ambient temps I can expect during the night). Right now I'm guessing around 6,000 - 10,000 BTU of cooling for all 3 chambers. But it also has to be small and somewhat quiet and hopefully not too expensive.

By the way, that peltier pull some serious Watts!. I've been using a 250W PS to drive eight .5 amp fans and two .7 amp fans. When I plug in the peltier, the fans drop RPM's by about 1/3!!!! I guess I need to find another PS to run this bad boy off of!


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## jsgamber (Jul 9, 2010)

Okay let's finish with assembly. Fitting the foam that seperates the heat sinks and basically seperates the cooling and heating chambers. 



Building out the sides and closing it up.





Here's the finished product, the fan is for pulling air across the heat side sink. The blue pieces are scrap plastic from some of my rez lids. I was able to fit these inside so that the air was redirected into the heat sinks...kind of like a funnel. Any open slots were taped up so air would only flow throw the heat sinks.




Here's the chiller "installed" for my flower chamber heat test run. First pic is the heat exhaust (fan) and inflow for cooling side. Second pic shows the hook up to the passive input register box. Yeah I notice that 180* bend and I don't like it. But it was a test.  On another topic, you should notice that I replaced the "T" on the exhaust for my cool tube into a Wye. The thinking is that junctioning two airflows together at 45* is better than at 90* with the Tee (kind of the "go with the flow" approach).



As I stated just above, I'm concerned about the 90* "T" connections and if it's possible the connection is disrupting and reducing the airflow. This pic shows a test to see if airflow is better for both chambers when I take the T out and push the upper exhaust away from the lower exhaust so as not to disrupt airflow. This could be another "tuning" point for me. I've got some other considerations to work with as well.



Still need to work on "light proofing" the doors. I just bought some 1 1/2" garage door weather stripping which has a 45* edge. Hopefully this will be what I need because everything else is tighter than a drum.




Hopefully more in a few days.

peace


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## Danielsgb (Jul 9, 2010)

Nice. Looks sweet. I hope I works how you want. Glad to see the Peltier and water temps, wasn't a hair brained scheme. Top Notch as always.
Daniels


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## Vento (Jul 10, 2010)

jsgamber said:


> 4" (5" square) landscape drain grate


Hi ya  

Can i ask whare you got that Landscape Grate ?... Do you know who makes them even ? ... any help with this would be appriciated .... Been looking for two 6" versions for a while to connect ducting to to go thru plater board rather than cutting a 6" hole and just poking the ducting thru and using tape to seal ... Diagram ..

View attachment 1037155 

A supplyer name or a product name or code would be of grate ... i mean Great  Help 

Thank you 


EDIT : BTW .... this whole build is amazing ... hours of work... and it looks awesome .... Come work for me


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## Learninglots420 (Jul 10, 2010)

Wow, it's looking great! I just got caught back up on the thread and you have done a lot.


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## Danielsgb (Jul 10, 2010)

Here's a 10 pack. 
*Lot Of 10 Nds 5" X 5" Black Square Grate & Adapter*

It's a NDS 5" sq. Grate Black. I get them at Lowes or Home Depot around the PVC Stuff
Daniels


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## jsgamber (Jul 10, 2010)

Vento said:


> Hi ya
> 
> Can i ask whare you got that Landscape Grate ?... Do you know who makes them even ? ... any help with this would be appriciated .... Been looking for two 6" versions for a while to connect ducting to to go thru plater board rather than cutting a 6" hole and just poking the ducting thru and using tape to seal ... Diagram ..
> 
> ...


Thanks bro! I get these at either Home Depot or Lowes. They are right next to all the 4" PVC fittings. Here's the link from HD's site (it's the 10-pack):

http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1vZ1xhc/R-100162219/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

What do you pay? 



Learninglots420 said:


> Wow, it's looking great! I just got caught back up on the thread and you have done a lot.


Thanks LL420! Yeah but there's a lot still to do! I'm thinking of doing electrical today. Time to stop running the cab from an extension cord.


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## jsgamber (Jul 10, 2010)

Danielsgb said:


> Here's a 10 pack.
> *Lot Of 10 Nds 5" X 5" Black Square Grate & Adapter*
> 
> It's a NDS 5" sq. Grate Black. I get them at Lowes or Home Depot around the PVC Stuff
> Daniels


hahahahaha...should have looked at the next page first! Thanks Daniels!


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## Danielsgb (Jul 10, 2010)

jsgamber said:


> hahahahaha...should have looked at the next page first! Thanks Daniels!


Shit I had 4 to 6 in the Garage for my next project. It was easy to grab one to get the NDS make. Looking good.
Daniels


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## JanecommaMary (Jul 11, 2010)

This is truly an epic journal. Thanks for taking the time to describe everything to us, it will truly be an inspiration to me when i get to making a grow cab. super job, hope it grows you the dankest of the dank


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## gumball (Jul 11, 2010)

jsgamber, thank you for all the props on the peltier cooler, and sorry it did not work as you wanted either. i thought it may work for you since your ambients were much cooler. mine were in the 90's, and there was no more I could do. so i downsize to a server case, only think wife is comfortable with inside!! 

but I had an idea. the peltier just doesnt cool enough air for the cabs. but what if you tried it right on the entrance to the cooltubes, which is a much smaller area to cool. you could maybe even downsize some of your ducting to increase pressure and surface contact against the peltier. My box ended up looking just like yours, but i had 2 aluminum plates seperating the hot and cold side. i gave the peltier its own power source as well, only seemed right to get max efficiency out of it. 

just some suggestions, everything is looking good buddy.


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## jsgamber (Jul 11, 2010)

Hey GB you gave me a nice project and concept to work with. Like I said it may not be over yet and I may try it on the 400W cool tube.


Here's what I did yesterday. Each 2-gang is a seperate circuit back to the breaker box! One circuit was dedicated to the Garage Door opener, one to the GFI circuits for plugs around the outside of the hose, and one that runs the kitchen lights. All are 15amp circuits so I should be able to mix it up and get some redundancy.


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## Old Goat (Jul 12, 2010)

I really don't understand all the mess about temp. Save all expense of further experimenting on how to cure.
As I once mentioned try using a "Ceramic Metal Halide 400W. I've 1 in my grow space my heat issue has gone. Reading temp from 8" below my bulb is 80* even , my plants are with in a 10" with ZERO heat issues. My stealth room temp is 79* and outside room is 75* My grow space is 4' x 2' x 5.5"= 44 square feet. So lets see small space help hold temp up. All of those advantages for $53.00??
Give it a good search and come here and help me see the errors of my ways. Please scroll down the spectral power dist.

http://www.hydro-techn.com/seattlehydroponics/ceramic.html


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## jsgamber (Jul 13, 2010)

Old Goat said:


> View attachment 1040295I really don't understand all the mess about temp. Save all expense of further experimenting on how to cure.
> As I once mentioned try using a "Ceramic Metal Halide 400W. I've 1 in my grow space my heat issue has gone. Reading temp from 8" below my bulb is 80* even , my plants are with in a 10" with ZERO heat issues. My stealth room temp is 79* and outside room is 75* My grow space is 4' x 2' x 5.5"= 44 square feet. So lets see small space help hold temp up. All of those advantages for $53.00??
> Give it a good search and come here and help me see the errors of my ways. Please scroll down the spectral power dist.
> 
> http://www.hydro-techn.com/seattlehydroponics/ceramic.html


Dude I think I'm almost there! I did the search and still have a couple of questions out to others for heat verification numbers for those that switched from HPS to CMH. But there is crazy good support from people who use this bulb both for veg and flower.


Let me ask you a few questions so I can compare environments a bit:

Have you ever done a 400w HPS grow and a 400w CMH grow in the same space and what were the temp differences? My space will be 33" x 45" x 18".
In your current space, what is the number of air exhanges. In my space, 18cu. ft., I run two 100CFM fans with passive intake so rougly 11 air changes per minute.
Do you use a cool tube, is it closed loop and what is your fan rating? My tube is 5" diam running closed loop with 135cfm fan.
I totally believe you! I just want to make sure even after dropping $60 on the bulb I still end up with an AC problem and the $100 I would have spent anyways.

Like I said, I'm almost ready to push the Submit button with my credit card info. If someone wants to buy my $40 HPS bulb with 15 hours on it to offset expenses, I can put it up on e-bay!  Makes the choice even easier.


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## Danielsgb (Jul 14, 2010)

I have a 400W CMH bulb on the way, so I'll get good temp #'s compared to the M.H. bulb it replaces.
Daniels


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## gumball (Jul 14, 2010)

And you seen daniels temp tests from his fridge, detailed and thorough. 
You know though gamber. I hate to say it but if temps are still a concern one way or the other, you should probably go ahead and invest in the AC. I am not saying not to get the CMH, but as has been noted, you have been somewhat plagued with problems, despite your great design, build, and otherwise well put together plan. Point is, if you go ahead with the AC, you can forget about temps, problem gone. You can then focus on growing, which you said yoyrself your not like u should and you know you need to. Give them girls all your love then, and get results. Then once your system is dialed in you can easily convert to the CMH without fear of more or less problems. 

I equate it to my situation. I was in the garage and could not control temps. You said your insulated garage was much cooler than my non-insulated garage. So I had to weigh in, insulate garage, stop growing, or find something small enough to grow with inside that the wife wouldn't mind. Well the most immediate and efficient solution for me was the last option. I pit a 1 cubic foot PC together. I have my temps under control now, peace of mind and a lot of time saved. 

Just my .02, but I don't think the CMH is a good solution to your problem at this time, not weighing in all the factors I see.


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## jsgamber (Jul 14, 2010)

gumball said:


> And you seen daniels temp tests from his fridge, detailed and thorough.
> You know though gamber. I hate to say it but if temps are still a concern one way or the other, you should probably go ahead and invest in the AC. I am not saying not to get the CMH, but as has been noted, you have been somewhat plagued with problems, despite your great design, build, and otherwise well put together plan. Point is, if you go ahead with the AC, you can forget about temps, problem gone. You can then focus on growing, which you said yoyrself your not like u should and you know you need to. Give them girls all your love then, and get results. Then once your system is dialed in you can easily convert to the CMH without fear of more or less problems.
> 
> I equate it to my situation. I was in the garage and could not control temps. You said your insulated garage was much cooler than my non-insulated garage. So I had to weigh in, insulate garage, stop growing, or find something small enough to grow with inside that the wife wouldn't mind. Well the most immediate and efficient solution for me was the last option. I pit a 1 cubic foot PC together. I have my temps under control now, peace of mind and a lot of time saved.
> ...


The voice of reason steps in. I'm so ready to purchase that CMH bulb for the right reasons at the wrong time. I can't forget the fact that I'm going to have a total of 1050W of lighting in the cab when all is in full production. I still have to buy another ballast and bulb for the next chamber. I'll watch how daniels, riddle, Iam5toned all work out before making final decision on my second bulb/ballast purchase.

My last deciding factor is this: "If I can keep my temps under control at 430W HPS with supplemental AC, then I should be pure gold when it comes time to considering a change to CMH."

The AC is still an insurance policy I'd like to have around, but I don't necessarily have to have it running all the time. Yesterday was the hottest day of the year so far. The garage held steady at 78* and the 250W cab hit 82* max. This is really good news for me! Our inside AC is set to come on at 82* so I can't ask for better under the conditions. Also, I have yet to install a fan box over the upper outside garage vent to pull out warm air from the garage drawing in cool air from the bottom vent.

Let me put what I think my extreme goals should be. Again these aren't optimum but let's say my upper tolerance limits. Let me know if this reasonable:

*Mother Chamber - *Lighting 24/0, 250w MH, temps 75-85*, RH 45% - 65% (clones to consider)

*Flower Chambers (2)* - Lighting 12/12 (on at 7:30pm), 400CMH or 430HPS, temps 80-85* day and 70-75* night, RH 35% - 45%

Currently all cool tubes draw air from ambient garage and dump into the wall which leads under the inside staircase (closed loop). Cabinet passive intakes are drawing air off of the concrete floor and dumping back into the garage up high. I hope this will improve when start exhausting the garage through the external vents. Ultimately I want all cab exhaust to dump straight out to the external vents.

So I probably will be going CMH, just not right now. But AC is still going to be necessary and I have to stop worrying about temps.

Thanks to OldGoat for being persistent! You are right on all counts, but I still want the safety net first. If I don't need the AC, I'll put it back up on Craigslist for $10 more than I'll buy it for! hahahaha 

Thank you GB for being their as well! I'll guess in 4 months and a successful crop, I'll be running 2x400 CMH!!!

peace


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## gumball (Jul 14, 2010)

I am glad I could help. I just couldn't bring myself to push the CMH on you knowing it may not help, and worst case scenario make things worst!

Plus I am ready for you to have some time to relax and ENJOY!! Your grow's! That exhaust fan idea sounds like a good idea. You may even be able to buy a small 10 or 20 watt solar panel, tied to a battery, and tied to a DC PC fan, and run it electricity free. That's an idea I had to cool off my garage. I knew though without insulated walls it would not do enough.


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## jsgamber (Jul 14, 2010)

Found this unit on CL for $125 and have an inquiry on it:

http://salestores.com/sharpcv10nhp.html


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## Danielsgb (Jul 14, 2010)

jsgamber said:


> Found this unit on CL for $125 and have an inquiry on it:
> 
> http://salestores.com/sharpcv10nhp.html


Good Luck May the DIY Gods smile upon you.
Daniels


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## jsgamber (Jul 14, 2010)

Danielsgb said:


> Good Luck May the DIY Gods smile upon you.
> Daniels


Another, Everstart 8000 BTU for $100. Inquiry in.


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## HistoryPuff (Jul 16, 2010)

This grow cab is not for the faint-hearted! Wow, don't you love the motivation to be creative that weed gives people. Good job, man.


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## SensiStan (Jul 18, 2010)

jsgamber said:


> Another, Everstart 8000 BTU for $100. Inquiry in.


What you also may want to consider for a cheap quick fix is just getting a couple 100cfm inline fans and positioning them high up in the garage somewhere just to play that extra little part in siphoning off the hot air floating around the top of the garage. if used in conjunction with everything else it may just tip the temp scales in your favour


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## jsgamber (Jul 21, 2010)

HistoryPuff said:


> This grow cab is not for the faint-hearted! Wow, don't you love the motivation to be creative that weed gives people. Good job, man.


Saw my other doc (shhh the P word). After changing health plans, I got out of sync on my medications. Finding new Dr's is a beeeeeeech. Then 3 to 4 weeks to get an appt, then missed it because I went to "South Main" instead of "North Main".

Ok long story short. I'm back on normal meds. Takes about 3 weeks to start to kick back in so my motivation levels should improve over time. I'm still running on "one foot forward" and hope to get the pace back up here in a bit, and not just with the grow. I'm ready to kick ass with life again!!




SensiStan said:


> What you also may want to consider for a cheap quick fix is just getting a couple 100cfm inline fans and positioning them high up in the garage somewhere just to play that extra little part in siphoning off the hot air floating around the top of the garage. if used in conjunction with everything else it may just tip the temp scales in your favour


 You've been peaking at my grow thread huh? Yes my next project after "Project clean out bugs" has terminated. That's my next project ... I think.


Sensi makes a great Straight Man for my next act. Does anybody see *(at least what i think) *a problem here? L/R rear shots and interior shot. The goal was 3 intake in order to get best reasonable 2-port exhaust (common ratio 2/3). Does't my bringing in 4" Ducting take me back down to 2/1??? I should probably be bringing 6" min to this port (rather than 3 seperate 4 inchers which is impractical)? _Help_?? What if I pushed in with 100cfm, would that be better or worse? _Help??_


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## gumball (Jul 22, 2010)

well, i think your asking if the 3 3" intake ports bringing air through a 4" pipe are enough to supply the 4" exhaust. if I am right, then i would reduce the intake little by little and watch environment variable. if very small blockage increases environment variable then you may need more. 

the question i see doesnt go with the pics, or the pics i see dont go with the question!!

i wouldnt push air in myself, but i like the negative air pressure approach. easier to adjust one direction than both, especially for smell considerations


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## jsgamber (Jul 22, 2010)

gumball said:


> well, i think your asking if the 3 3" intake ports bringing air through a 4" pipe are enough to supply the 4" exhaust. if I am right, then i would reduce the intake little by little and watch environment variable. if very small blockage increases environment variable then you may need more.
> 
> the question i see doesnt go with the pics, or the pics i see dont go with the question!!
> 
> i wouldnt push air in myself, but i like the negative air pressure approach. easier to adjust one direction than both, especially for smell considerations


I know I was being vague...trying to get some "game show participation" going. 

Here's the question. I've got two 4" cabinet exhaust ports at the top L/R corners each blowing out with 100cfm. I have three 4" holes at the bottom acting passively. The 3 holes have air directed in from the 5"x5"x14" register box attached on the back of the cab. The register box is fed by a single 4" PVC intake. *Am i reducing my air flow from 3 back down to 1 by going to the single 4" intake into the register box? Or do the two 100 cfm fans have enough static pressure to effectively cool the cab through a single 4" PVC duct?*

I heard you were taking another hit so thought I'd em*pha*size the right sy*lla*bel.


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## jsgamber (Jul 22, 2010)

Here's the unit. My first thought was to use my Peltier Cooler as a collecter box since it has 4" PVC connectors built in!  I think though I'm gonna tear the unit down and clean it up real good. The lady I bought it from coulda been growing males for seed for all I know!!!    Actually you can see some of the grime built up on the louvres. I don't want to introduce any nasty shit into a freshly bombed cab!!




9,500 BTU!! 


Got some work to do!

peace!


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## gumball (Jul 22, 2010)

jsgamber said:


> I know I was being vague...trying to get some "game show participation" going.
> 
> Here's the question. I've got two 4" cabinet exhaust ports at the top L/R corners each blowing out with 100cfm. I have three 4" holes at the bottom acting passively. The 3 holes have air directed in from the 5"x5"x14" register box attached on the back of the cab. The register box is fed by a single 4" PVC intake. *Am i reducing my air flow from 3 back down to 1 by going to the single 4" intake into the register box? Or do the two 100 cfm fans have enough static pressure to effectively cool the cab through a single 4" PVC duct?*
> 
> I heard you were taking another hit so thought I'd em*pha*size the right sy*lla*bel.


you know what I just thought about. that light filter we chatted about on daniels thread!! myself i dont plan on paying for shit to make mine, come'on, 90 degree black plastic! im pulling a sensistan!! but make one of those on the cheap, and then you can either cut which ever side (long side of course) of the register box pulls the coolest freshest air, then cover the entire register side with this light filter. then your intake is 5"x14" (70 sq ft), so your holes would then be the limitation at that point. you could cut an extra hole if you ever think you need it, and if it turns out not to help cover the hole and all is good. just a thought that dawned on me.


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## gumball (Jul 22, 2010)

jsgamber said:


> Here's the unit. My first thought was to use my Peltier Cooler as a collecter box since it has 4" PVC connectors built in!  I think though I'm gonna tear the unit down and clean it up real good. The lady I bought it from coulda been growing males for seed for all I know!!!    Actually you can see some of the grime built up on the louvres. I don't want to introduce any nasty shit into a freshly bombed cab!!
> 
> View attachment 1058818
> View attachment 1058819View attachment 1058816
> ...


thats awesome! so the exhaust will hook up to your peltier box huh? many ideas will come from there. does it hook into any ducting you already have laying around.


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## jsgamber (Jul 22, 2010)

gumball said:


> you know what I just thought about. that light filter we chatted about on daniels thread!! myself i dont plan on paying for shit to make mine, come'on, 90 degree black plastic! im pulling a sensistan!! but make one of those on the cheap, and then you can either cut which ever side (long side of course) of the register box pulls the coolest freshest air, then cover the entire register side with this light filter. then your intake is 5"x14" (70 sq ft), so your holes would then be the limitation at that point. you could cut an extra hole if you ever think you need it, and if it turns out not to help cover the hole and all is good. just a thought that dawned on me.


Let's see what the AC unit will do once hooked up. It may push just under the 200cfm going out keeping me with negative pressure AND cool air. If not I'm gonna have to look at opening up 5x14 side and attach 6"=>5" with 6" tubing? First things first though. Let's not get ahead of ourselves.


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## jsgamber (Jul 22, 2010)

gumball said:


> thats awesome! so the exhaust will hook up to your peltier box huh? many ideas will come from there. does it hook into any ducting you already have laying around.


There are two exhausts Cool Air out the front vents and Hot Air out via a 5" duct port on the back of the unit. I'll Dump the hot air into my exhaust ducting under the stairs for now, then later maybe run all the way to the external vent in the garage. I'll gut the Van Peltier and use the exterior case to fit over the cooling exhaust. This will give me two 4" ports to duct to the passive inputs to the cab. I'll mod this to 3 ports hopefully one for each cab once I'm at 3 cabs. Also the hope is to find a way to hook up 3 temp sensors, one in each cab, that can be wired to turn the unit on and off if any one cabinet gets too hot. Otherwise I'll just invest in a good cycle timer and go on and off every 15 minutes.

I'm gonna tear down the unit to clean it so maybe it makes sense to mod it with the case off. Definitely more to come!!

peace


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## Danielsgb (Jul 22, 2010)

I hope that AC does the trick. Good Luck.
Daniels


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## jsgamber (Jul 26, 2010)

Danielsgb said:


> I hope that AC does the trick. Good Luck.
> Daniels


Well let's see. I did some testing over the weekend in the flower chamber. One thing I realized is that I'm going to need to figure out how to wire an external thermostat to this thing so that it doesn't run continuously. The opening to the cool air is 4" x 14" which happens to be the size of a vent collar I had lying around. I also happened to have a 6" to 4" reducer along with some aluminum tape and flex tubing I have a quick and dirty setup for some tests.


The case is off and my temporary test boot is on!



Test 1. Ambient temps are 77 in the garage. The cab with light *off* starts chilled at 69* and after 1 hour of light on goes up to 73*. 


Test 2. AC off and light on. Starts at 93* and goes down to 74*.  



First test was done early in the morning and the second test done later in the evening. This was only a test. All the connections were leaky, the flex tubing was wobbling and giving off lot's of cold as well as the aluminum boot so adding some insulation to these parts will go a long way. I'll be making more permanent airtight connections as well as better materials (PVC).

So far so good!


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## Danielsgb (Jul 26, 2010)

That seems to do it. Like you said with tight, insulated connections it will be better. Sweet
Daniels


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## gumball (Jul 26, 2010)

everything is looking very promising. i am glad you went ahead and got the AC, it will serve you very good over time. cant wait to see the permanent setup for this thing, your gonna rock it


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## afrosnowman (Jul 27, 2010)

You are clearly a very dedicated and creative grower, and you have given me a few ideas to utilise myself. Hope all goes well with your grow


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## jsgamber (Jul 27, 2010)

afrosnowman said:


> You are clearly a very dedicated and creative grower, and you have given me a few ideas to utilise myself. Hope all goes well with your grow


Thanks Dude! Let me know if you need any help figuring things out! There's some really great guys following along with my thread*s* as well who are also very creative! Make sure you check out their grows as well!!!


Okay so a bit more info on the AC. When this unit runs, it's pulling 9 amps and 800 watts so realistically it can't run full time or my electric bill will be out of control. So my concern has been trying to figure out how to have this unit cycle on and off appropriately. Without having to get creative with wiring up home thermostats, I wanted to figure out how the unit cycled itself on and off locally. Fortunately I discovered the temperature probe which was mounted with a simple bracket just in front of the inflow vent. It's a standard 2 wire probe (16g wire) that's wired to a small plug that continues on to the circuit board. I was able to splice in an additional 5' of 16g wire so now I can put the probe where ever I want! The unit cycles on for 5 and off for 10 to stay at a target temp of 82*. Again this is with crappy test connections for the ducting. 

So what's the future? First I had to put the outside casing back on since the compressor wasn't getting cooled properly. Next I'm thinking of constructing a box out of rigid foam that will mount over the exhaust port of the unit. From this box I'm thinking of attaching three 4" PVC ports, one for each chamber. All input air will pass through the AC Unit whether it's running or not. The problem with the aluminum boot was way too much condensation and it has to be insulated anyways because it was WAY cold and I don't need to use that much electrical. Plus that hook up didn't give me a good way to get air to different cabs.

Now for my next conundrum and that's positive pressure vs. negative pressure. I'm not sure if the Low blower setting on the AC unit is under the 200cfm which I'm pulling out of the cabinets. If it's not, it may be fair to say that after splitting 3 ways that I may end up being under that number. But if it's still too much, I can also look at disabling the blower on the AC unit altogether and just let the constant pull of the exhaust fans bring the air through the cooling coils and into the cab. As you can see I have lot's of options.

Also I may consider directing some cooling towards the cool tubes as well.

But for now, let's stay simple. Three way split, blowing in and exhausting out and see what I get.


If ever I needed you guys to step in and give some opinions, I'm up for it now! But the big victory here is finding that temperature probe and being to put it where ever I want!!! That was huge for me!!


peace


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## gumball (Jul 27, 2010)

dont lose this, be right back. it is the manual for your AC, if you dont have it already. http://shopping.netsuite.com/s.nl/c.618686/sc.10/category.71/.f


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## gumball (Jul 27, 2010)

well darn gamber, i couldnt find any good technical data for your ac. either take it apart far enough to get the specs on the fan that blows the cool air into the cab, or rent a tool to test the CFM/Pressure. i would think they would have one at home depot's tool rental place. they aint much. dont know the name though. but your other idea of just eliminating this blower from the AC and allowing your current induction to draw the cool air in may be the best bet. you already have that system working and got all the bugs worked out. why reinvent the wheel right. once you get in far enough to disconnect this, you will prob be able to see the manufacturer and info for the blower at the same time so you can look up its specs. 

combining the intake for teh cab and the cool tubes may gete tricky, sure you could do it but tricky. maybe pick one cool tube, the hottest!!, and try to divert a little to it. maybe just drill a hole in the intake side of the cool tube about 1"-1.5" and run a hose from your main AC intake duct to this cool tube with about that size hose. you shouldnt need much to cool the space of the cool tube, b=pljus the small hose will create some good pressure.

i think i covered everything. hope this helps

and I am glad that probe was so easily movable, its great when stuff doesnt have to be re-engineered!! kudos to your hard work!!


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## jsgamber (Aug 3, 2010)

gumball said:


> dont lose this, be right back. it is the manual for your AC, if you dont have it already. http://shopping.netsuite.com/s.nl/c.618686/sc.10/category.71/.f


Thanks dude, this was a great help!



gumball said:


> well darn gamber, i couldnt find any good technical data for your ac. either take it apart far enough to get the specs on the fan that blows the cool air into the cab, or rent a tool to test the CFM/Pressure. i would think they would have one at home depot's tool rental place. they aint much. dont know the name though. but your other idea of just eliminating this blower from the AC and allowing your current induction to draw the cool air in may be the best bet. you already have that system working and got all the bugs worked out. why reinvent the wheel right. once you get in far enough to disconnect this, you will prob be able to see the manufacturer and info for the blower at the same time so you can look up its specs.
> 
> combining the intake for teh cab and the cool tubes may gete tricky, sure you could do it but tricky. maybe pick one cool tube, the hottest!!, and try to divert a little to it. maybe just drill a hole in the intake side of the cool tube about 1"-1.5" and run a hose from your main AC intake duct to this cool tube with about that size hose. you shouldnt need much to cool the space of the cool tube, b=pljus the small hose will create some good pressure.
> 
> ...


Dude thanks for looking around for the specs.

Regarding the fan, I'm sure even on low this thing is pushing at least 180cfm air in! It's a 14"x4"(diam) squirrel cage fan.

This unit is well built and easy to disassemble! I'm going to do some modding to remove the fan and see how the "induction" method works! I'll try and get pics along the way.


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## jsgamber (Aug 4, 2010)

Here's the mod I made to the cab doors. First pic shows my mum door (soon to be redone) and the second shows my flower door with the new frames. The tape and foam are for light proofing. It's almost perfect!


Notice the new center rail where the doors meet. I originally hoped to have a wide open chamber but my rez's slide in just fine!


Some pics from inside the AC unit. Wiring schematic and circuit board. Orange circle shows where the temp probe plugs in.


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## jsgamber (Aug 7, 2010)

Just a quick update. Two days ago I installed the exhaust fans on the upper external garage vent. I'm using two 80 cfm fans side by side giving me around 160 cfm exhausting upper air and drawing air from the lower vent, around 4 Air Changes per Hour (ACH) for the entire garage.

I've also re-framed the doors for the mum cab. In order to "suck" cool air through the AC unit into each chamber, they need to be air tight. I can't believe how much nicer the doors are to close now!!! 

I'll post pics soon!


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## gumball (Aug 8, 2010)

sounds great! have you noticed a change in your ambients or the feel of the room, like humidity and the such?


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## jsgamber (Aug 8, 2010)

gumball said:


> sounds great! have you noticed a change in your ambients or the feel of the room, like humidity and the such?


From an empirical standpoint it's hard to tell because outside temps have been relatively cool over the past few days. You can feel air movement in the garage now so it feels cooler. I have a temp probe right in front of the incoming air vent. Seems like it keeps the difference in temp consistently at 5*. This isn't too bad considering I'm still venting my cab back into the garage at this point. That will change though!

Here's some shots of the fans unit and my new beefy mum doors.


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## CabinetBuds (Aug 10, 2010)

Looks Awesome man!!


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## jsgamber (Aug 13, 2010)

CabinetBuds said:


> Looks Awesome man!!


Thanks CB!! BTW congrats on your harvest man! I hope you are enjoying the fruits of your labors!


So I think I've made some excellent progress here as you'll see over the next few posts. I also have some plant updates that I'll make over in my grow journal.

So turning the AC unit into a passive cooling unit was easier than I expected. The tricky part was making it work efficiently. Don't laugh but I've actually changed the designed direction of airflow!! As a passive unit I'll be ducting the air directly off of the cooling fins! One thing to note, the person who owned this unit previously was a heavy smoker and there is tons of gunk on the fins.

First shot is with the outside case removed and the top cowling removed. The plan is to remove the fan and disable the fan motor. The reason for removing the fan is to increase air flow since a non-running fan becomes an obstruction. This fan even on low pushes far too much air. Maybe later, I'll find a way to build a modified exhaust system from the motor and fan blades! Now that would be cool!


Fan is now removed. This side used to be the output side which will now be air input. 


Adding back the cowling. The orange arrow is the power cord for the fan which is now unplugged.


The new air output side. This is also a good shot of the blower for the heat exchanger on the lower left and the compressor on the lower right. These still are enabled! 


30 minutes with Simple Green and a toothbrush used on cooling fins (along with lots of shaved knuckles...that shit is sharp!!) letting it drain through the humidity tube into a bucket. This lady said she only owned this unit for one summer!!! God only knows what the air quality was like in her house!! Dude!!


Okay I'm addicted to Aluminum Tape. Best stuff ever! Here's a shot after taping up all the cracks and edges along the cooling fins. The only way air is gonna travel is across these fins!


I was an idiot and forgot to take a good final shot. This is the unit running during a test against the flower chamber! I'll get better shots later. The way it works is that I taped and sealed a piece of rigid foam right up against the cooling fins. In the foam I am cutting a 4" hole to attach a duct fitting to. Any air flowing into the duct comes immediately off the cooling fins!


So the result from the mini test were perfect! For the hell of it, I started with the 400w light turned off and set the thermostat to 66* (lowest setting). With two 200 cfm fans pulling away, I had the chamber down to 66 (from 79) within 5 or six minutes and it felt even colder than that when I opened up the doors...brrr! What really nice about this set up is that even after the AC unit cycles off, the fans continue to pull chilled air off the fins into the chambers. Pretty darn efficient!

Next test was with lights on and the thermostat set at 84*. At first the unit cycled on once every 8 minutes or so but after about two hours the garage was heating up. I haven't yet figured out where to exhaust the AC unit yet but my thinking is a new hole in the wall under the stairs.

More to come!


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## gumball (Aug 13, 2010)

great to hear the great progress!! and i read the bugs have not returned on the other thread, so aside from exhausting the heat from the AC, your about done building arent ya? do you have any projects you'd like to do with the cabinet, like wish list shit? keep us posted.


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## jsgamber (Aug 13, 2010)

gumball said:


> great to hear the great progress!! and i read the bugs have not returned on the other thread, so aside from exhausting the heat from the AC, your about done building arent ya? do you have any projects you'd like to do with the cabinet, like wish list shit? keep us posted.


Final goal is to get the ventilation right. I put it all together (I'll show you in a bit) but I'm already gonna change it up. The finished product gave me another better idea so I'll switch it up in a bit. The issue is I was exhausting my cool tubes and AC unit into the wall which leads to underneath the staircase and then exhaust the cabinets to the outside garage vent (opposite wall). The AC unit blows a huge amount of pressure and the cool tubes run a close 2nd and they both throw off the most heat which goes directly into the house. I'll now vent AC and cool tubes to the outside (I now have enough 4" PVC) and the cabinet under the stairs. Makes it better for odor control too!! The only reason I did it this way was basically "instant gratification". I didn't have enough 4" PVC to make the run across the garage and I wanted to dump the AC and cool tube somewhere else. Now's the best time to fix this!


So here's what I built currently. Basically I'm gonna reverse it so cab exhaust goes down and AC/cooltube exhaust goes up.

Here's the before pics after taking down what I had previously giving myself a clean slate.



Taking close-up pics of a 9 ft cabinet is pretty tough. Here's a top down set of pics, you'll have to mentally stitch them together. Sorry about the 3rd pic, I was leaning over and my hand got in front of the flash.





For now I have the cab turned sideways so it's easier to work on and troubleshoot. Once all the kinks are worked out, I'll be turning it and sliding it back to the wall. BTW, the colored arrows show where the passive intakes are and where they will/do hook up to the portable AC unit. I also put the temp probe just inside of the air exhaust tube just in front of the fan. This keeps the sensor out of direct light and I get a true reading of what the air temp in the chamber is as it's being exhausted.


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## blueberrykush1995 (Aug 13, 2010)

Hey man where did you get thoes hps ballast and the bulbs?? It looks great btw good job!


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## gumball (Aug 13, 2010)

looks real good, a mess from my stand point!! but i am sure the setup is great to give you exactly the right ventilation control!!


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## jsgamber (Aug 13, 2010)

blueberrykush1995 said:


> Hey man where did you get thoes hps ballast and the bulbs?? It looks great btw good job!


http://www.plantlightinghydroponics.com/grow-light-ballast-kits-c-357.html -- the MH and HPS kits near the bottom of the page.

I actually bought the kit so there is no enclosure, just the core, the capacitor and the igniter. These are not digital but magnetic. The nice thing is that the 400w HPS is perfect for a 400w CMH bulbs which I will be looking into in due course!!  They also came with mounting brackets so the plan is to mount them onto plywood boards and then mount the boards to the wall. These ballast kits are also "multi-tapped" meaning they can be connected to different voltage services. You have to do the wiring yourself so if you don't know how to read an electrical schematic, just find an electrician buddy. It'll take him all of 3 minutes to wire it correctly. This site also sells bulbs as well.



gumball said:


> looks real good, a mess from my stand point!! but i am sure the setup is great to give you exactly the right ventilation control!!


You are right, it does look like a mess but I think it's because it's spread across 4 different pics.  The point behind the design was to minimize 90* bends and stick with 45* or better straight. PVC is perfectly smooth so it's static pressure coefficient is 1 (where flexible ducting has a coefficient of .5 - .7 due to the accordion shape of the inside surface). Static pressure is the force of air measured against the surface, either with air in motion or rest, for which the fan must overcome in order to keep air moving at it's rated cfm.

For reference in the above pics, the ducting coming straight down the middle is the cool tube exhausts. The ducting starting from the lowest chamber in the top corners of the chamber and connect upward to each corner vent upward ultimately to the top right corner is the cab exhausts. Anything connected to the metal boxes is considered passive intake and ports to the AC unit for cooling.

HTH to understand until I change everything ... again.


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## jsgamber (Aug 14, 2010)

So this morning I'm up early to start in on the redesign. I took off all the ducting and started in on rerouting the cool tube exhaust upwards so I can route it out of the garage through the exterior vent on the opposite wall.

First shot shows the cool tube ducting running up the middle and to the top right (second shot). In the middle of the pic where the gray shopping bag is stuck to the ducting is where I tried to do a test running the AC exhaust up through the same tube behind all my cool tube exhaust fans. As I feared, when the AC exhaust fan came on it overran the cool tube fans and started to push air back into the cool tube...not good.



So I got high and thought a bit. I really need to get that fan on the complete opposite side of the system and use it to extract as much as possible.

You know what? For $150, there's no reason not to gut the AC unit and completely modify it. Here goes. Out comes the Heat Extraction fan and motor. I'll put all of the cowling back and tape it up just like I did on the upper fan. I'm still going to let the AC unit control the fan by extending the wiring.


Here's the fan blade, the motor and a bit of plywood. Time to make a fan enclosure. 


Then we'll mount it up here and tie all my extraction into it and then run that to the outside wall and out the exterior vent!



Stay tuned!!


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## jsgamber (Aug 14, 2010)

As it turns out, the cowling for the extraction fan comes out of the AC unit intact!! Let's not reinvent anything if don't have to! 


Motor side. You can see the 4" adapter on the exhaust.


On the intake side I mounted a piece of plywood with a hole. I'll put in another 4" adapter..


And here it is hung up on the ceiling waiting to be run outside!!



Back to work after a bite to eat! This is WAY fun! I still have to run the wiring and do some testing and then we'll hook everything up!


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## gumball (Aug 14, 2010)

sounds like a lot of fun, wish i could help you out!!


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## Danielsgb (Aug 14, 2010)

gumball said:


> sounds like a lot of fun, wish i could help you out!!


Me too. Yours look way more fun than mine. I'm just gluing PVC to trick my Outdoor plant Theresa.
Daniels


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## jsgamber (Aug 14, 2010)

gumball said:


> sounds like a lot of fun, wish i could help you out!!





Danielsgb said:


> Me too. Yours look way more fun than mine. I'm just gluing PVC to trick my Outdoor plant Theresa.
> Daniels


Hey I know you guys are here in spirit!  

So cool tube exhaust/AC exhaust is a success!! I just need to extend to the outside vent and we're golden!! Here's some pics along the way.

First I had fill the void where I pulled the fan out and turn it into a passive intake box. Again using rigid foam and aluminum tape. This shot is just before putting on the last side and sealing all the joints with tape. To make sure everything works I had to put the unit back together again but first I had to extend the wiring to the fan and test.


Shot of the duct attaching to the fan intake. You can see the wire extensions which run back to the AC unit. This shot is taken from the front of the cab.


Shot taken from the rear of the cab along the side looking at the fan and ducting. Once the cab is turned back against the wall I'll remove the 90* turn and drop right into the fan.


This shot shows the exhaust of the top cool tube running to the last 90*. You can see where the middle cool tube exhaust is coming in from below.


Here's where the middle cool tube comes in and continues down toward the AC.


Since the bottom chamber isn't ready yet, I'm not hooking in the bottom cool tube (I don't have the light yet). We're still running down to the AC.


And here we are. I use just 4" of flex ducting connect things together. I also cut a 2nd hole in the rigid foam panel where the cold air comes out. Now I can cool two chambers! 


Need to grab a bite and get back to the fun!


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## gumball (Aug 15, 2010)

awesome work gamber. shoot, as cool as the top 2 chambers will be from the AC, you probably wont have to cool the bottom cab. but to continue your airflow for all intake and exhaust, you will probably run it inline as well so it pulls and dumps from the same places as the higher cabs, huh??


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## jsgamber (Aug 15, 2010)

gumball said:


> awesome work gamber. shoot, as cool as the top 2 chambers will be from the AC, you probably wont have to cool the bottom cab. but to continue your airflow for all intake and exhaust, you will probably run it inline as well so it pulls and dumps from the same places as the higher cabs, huh??


The third cab will still have a 400w bulb which will have to be exhausted. The way it's set up right now, it won't be that hard to add in. In fact I was just thinking I'll just bite the bullet and finish all 3 chambers so I don't have to move the cab anymore, because it's heavy! 

As far as exhausting the chambers, I'm going to dump that air under the staircase after running it through a carbon filter. I have to remember that the blower was designed to keep the heat exchanger cool and adding in 1050 watts of HID lighting is probably putting it at it's limit.

So here's how I finished out the evening. I got the duct run over to the exterior vent. Everything is sealed! Now here's the cool part. Since I'm dumping air out of the garage which is coming from the cool tubes which is coming from the inside of the garage, air has to come from somewhere and it's coming from the lower external vent!!! This is what I've wanted all along! In fact when the new blower is running, fresh air just pours in from the bottom and keeps the garage cool!

From the fan.


To the outside vent.


Close up of the connection. This was the exhaust setup I had earlier. I just removed one fan and taped over the other (it's a cheapy, and much easier than taking it apart.


This was a lot of work and very satisfying!! Lot's of things came together right and are exceeding expectations! Now let's get the rest of it done.

I'll be back.


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## gumball (Aug 15, 2010)

Looking forward to more, and bud porn is one step closer!


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## jsgamber (Aug 15, 2010)

gumball said:


> Looking forward to more, and bud porn is one step closer!


Coffee Break! 

I had to do some clean-up work this morning. A couple of days ago I got a mini-refrigerator from a neighbor who didn't want it anymore, and it's like 18"x18"x18". I planned on using it for an experiment to keep water temps down by using it as a water chiller. I ran into the fridge while cleaning and my brain had a strange thought. What if I put the air pump inside the mini-fridge and allowed enough venting to bring air in to get chilled before going to the air stones?

Took me 10 minutes to set up. Unfortunately I already put the morning ice bottles in, but took them right back out. Let's do a temp test. Just so you know if I don't throw in any water bottles over a few days the water temps rest at 75*. So here are my starting temps with no ice bottles. Will they maintain, go up or go down?

Rez 1 (4 gallons) - 61.0*
Rez 2 (1 gallon) - 69.9*
Rez 3 (1 gallon) - 68.3*

Any guesses?


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## gumball (Aug 15, 2010)

i think they will rise slightly, depending upon which light they are on top of. i dont know how much air your pumps make, but I wouldnt think there would be enough volume in such a short time to maintain let alone cool all that water. if the mini fridge has a freezer, maybe put it close to that for colder air. i hope it does better than i think, and i am interested in the outcome. i'll be toking on this keeping positive for you over waiting for the next update!!!


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## Rockballer (Oct 25, 2010)

Nice build...... you spent a crap load of time building this unit. The AC unit will not operate as it might of before. This unit has a fan scroll blow through fan. Adding all the extra tubing downstream from this unit will increase your suction and discharge pressure beyond it's original design. I test HVAC systems for a living. If the flow across the coil is restricted the coil will freeze. The computer fans you used, will work but are designed to be just a transfor fan with no restrictions on the suction or discharge. I would recommend using a system like this to maintain a set point for your garage.
http://cgi.ebay.com/9000-Btu-Mini-split-Ductless-Air-Conditioner-Heat-Pump-/170554450710?pt=Air_Conditioner&hash=item27b5d66316

or a home made system like this would probably work better for your design inside of the unit. You can get coolers that heat and chill all in one.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Portable-12V-Air-Conditioner---Cheap-and-easy!/

hope this helps


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## jsgamber (Dec 2, 2010)

I'm baaaaaacccccckkkkk!


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## Danielsgb (Dec 2, 2010)

jsgamber said:


> Coffee Break!
> 
> Any guesses?










jsgamber said:


> I'm baaaaaacccccckkkkk!


How much Coffee did you drink?




Good to see the break is over.
Daniels


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## jsgamber (Dec 2, 2010)

OMG that was the last thing I posted? Goes to show just how fucked up life can get over just a simple coffee break!! huh?

Let's just say work got very complicated, very demanding, very political and after six months of trying to see eye to eye with my new boss of 4 months, I am now newly self-employed!

Let me add that it is one of the best things to happen for me in a long time. I'm free!!! I am able to take my intellect on to other ventures and I am highly marketable. That's what you don't realize when you stay put at the same job for over 20 years. I have work starting to come in and at least 3 of them have long-term possibilities! I am now my own boss. I am back in shape, eating right, sleeping right and re-engaging with friends and my community.

So what else is a guy to do with his newly found free-time? ;P


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## stelthy (Dec 2, 2010)

Hi again  long time no see lol. I am so happy I've found your thread again...I have to go out n help my mate do his 1st ever res change lol,  but when I get back I'll look forward to kickin' back and catching up on what you've been up to. I had a brief look through everything and am glad you took my advice on the tubing connected to the lamp, Peace - STELTHY


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## gumball (Dec 2, 2010)

He must have been drinking some of your tinctured coffee Daniels, that will surely make you lose your way a bit!


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## Danielsgb (Dec 2, 2010)

gumball said:


> He must have been drinking some of your tinctured coffee Daniels, that will surely make you lose your way a bit!


Grandma Pepe's Canna-Kahlua could make you lose you way, but for months, not sure. Maybe hours.
Daniels


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## stelthy (Dec 3, 2010)

Good morning  I've just read through your whole thread, You have made some amazing mods to ur designer unit, The cab is coming along real nice, I especially like the latest bit with the AC unit that's pure genius  Just a thought .. 'can the AC over heat/over cool with the fan removed?'

You've made some extensive mods and reading from from the start, past my original post and up to date I have found your thread to be very intuitive. What have you got left to do on the cab at this point? 

Have you looked into Co2+Dampers or UV-B yet? I look forward to seeing what you accomplish next  

*Ps here's a link to my latest cab... I am 99.9% finished and have my first bit of vegging started Here's The LINK: 
*


https://www.rollitup.org/general-marijuana-growing/320402-stelthys-600w-hps-project-new.html



Looking forward to your next up date.. Here's some *REP !* I am still very interested in this thread, it makes a change to see alot of time and effort being put into something, and getting good results - STELTHY


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## jsgamber (Dec 6, 2010)

gumball said:


> He must have been drinking some of your tinctured coffee Daniels, that will surely make you lose your way a bit!


OMG do you have a recipe? I've have just over 2 oz of vaporized weed that I was planning on making butter out of! But I love coffee too!


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## gumball (Dec 6, 2010)

daniels has the hoard of recipes, i think!!


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## Danielsgb (Dec 6, 2010)

jsgamber said:


> OMG do you have a recipe? I've have just over 2 oz of vaporized weed that I was planning on making butter out of! But I love coffee too!


It's the first try, but I'm confident.



gumball said:


> Daniels has the hoard of recipes, i think!!


Here you go. Editing it was too much work for my high ass.
*Grandma Pepe's Canna-Kahlua
*





Here's a new tincture I'm trying. I want to see if I can make a Cannabis Alcohol Tincture like Kahlua. Or a cannibinoid infused Kahlua.




I used some of Pepe, one of my outdoor plants and a bunch of sugar leaf trim. Grandma's Molasses is in the recipe hence it's Grandma Pepe's. I looked up recipes and combined and modified with some common sense & ingredients we had on hand.

1/4 oz. Cannabis
Couple cups Sugar Leaf Trim
1 Liter Cheap Vodka (40%)
1 1/2 cup Water
1 1/2 cup Creme de Cacao
1 cup Brown Sugar
2 Tbs Ground Coffee
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 tsp Grandma's Molasses

I ran the 1/4 oz. of Pepe through the coffee grinder that's just for leaf grinding and then kief harvesting. I put it and the sugar leaf trimmings already through the grinder in a quart Mason Jar. I got the water *just* boiling and added the Brown Sugar stirred till dissolved. I added the Pure Vanilla Extract & Grandma's Molasses. I poured that into the Jar and started stirring. I quickly realized the sugar cools into the dust like powder. Glad the Vodka was close or I would have had a THC Gumball kinda like a Stoned Sugar Daddy. (Pun slightly intended Gumball)






I added some vodka and stirred then added the Creme de Cacao with coffee grounds. I stirred more and added vodka to the top. I was going to just the one, then decided to make it into two. I poured it into a gallon container added the rest of the vodka stirred it up. I poured it back splitting it with plant matter evenly. I added a bit more Creme de Cacao then put the lids on. 
I'll flip every day for a month then strain through cheesecloth and have some for Christmas. Feel free to let me know if anyone has tried this or something close.
Daniels


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## Ractagon (Jan 5, 2011)

Wicked cabinet man I love it.


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## jsgamber (Jan 5, 2011)

Ractagon said:


> Wicked cabinet man I love it.


Thanks bro. All the work is continuing in my Variety Grow thread if your interested in catching back up.


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## oOBe RyeOo (Jan 10, 2011)

Danielsgb said:


> Grandma Pepe's Canna-Kahlua could make you lose you way, but for months, not sure. Maybe hours.
> Daniels
> View attachment 1301608


How do you make it?


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## Danielsgb (Jan 10, 2011)

oOBe RyeOo said:


> How do you make it?


Well you follow the directions with the recipe. I thought I had it laid out clearly. Ask if I missed something.
Daniels


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## oOBe RyeOo (Jan 11, 2011)

Where's the link? Was it in this thread?


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## jsgamber (Jan 11, 2011)

===>CLICK ME CLICK ME CLICK ME CLICK ME CLICK ME<===


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## oOBe RyeOo (Jan 11, 2011)

jsgamber said:


> ===>CLICK ME CLICK ME CLICK ME CLICK ME CLICK ME<===


Thank you kind sir.


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## djdestroyer (Jan 11, 2011)

They have slightly better prices for ballast kits at HTGsupply.com -- The reason I bring it up is because I want someone to link me with an even cheaper site... but I haven't found any. (They even have assembled ballast kits with reflector/bulb for $120 [400w]) -- haven't been able to find anywhere cheaper for those too.


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## jsgamber (Jan 11, 2011)

djdestroyer said:


> They have slightly better prices for ballast kits at HTGsupply.com -- The reason I bring it up is because I want someone to link me with an even cheaper site... but I haven't found any. (They even have assembled ballast kits with reflector/bulb for $120 [400w]) -- haven't been able to find anywhere cheaper for those too.


Thanks bro. That's a nice kit. Here's a link to my grow journal and my DIY ballast box with a 400w HPS 4-tap ballast kit. It works great!!!

===> MY NEW 400w BALLAST BOX <===


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## ross108 (Jan 12, 2011)

now i found your journal i can check out that death and destruction you were talking about. now i know what a stalker feels like lol. it wont let me give you any more rep so i will have to wait a while.


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## jsgamber (Jan 12, 2011)

I won't be posting any new content here but will answer questions off this thread. The continuing saga remains in my Variety Grow thread.

Thanks for following along and let me know when you start your grow journal and I'll definitely subscribe!


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## cruzer101 (Jan 17, 2011)

Good stuff man. 
Like you suggested in the beginning, I relaxed, rolled one up and read the whole thing. 
You're a pretty detailed dude man. I love catchin a buzz and designing things too.

Well, I'm off to check out your Mini SOG's grow


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## jsgamber (Jan 17, 2011)

I have your thread opened in it's own tab and I've been working through it between disasters and maintenance. 

Hopefully you treat the beginning through August as ramblings of a Workaholic who finally snapped. October forward has been MUCH better for me and the plants! Now they are the only thing bringing drama to my life!


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## krane (Jan 27, 2011)

loving the cabinet man, might be making one myself.


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## jsgamber (Jan 27, 2011)

krane said:


> loving the cabinet man, might be making one myself.


Thanks bro. If you want to check out what it's up to come on over to my grow thread and see it getting ready to flower! The link starts in December after a 2 month hiatus.

Variety Grow Thread - starting from December

Here's a teaser of what's going on:


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## flamdrags420 (Jan 27, 2011)

jsgamber said:


> Ok time to seriously attack this humidity issue. I can't be sure what effect 38-44% RH has been doing to the plants but it can't be good. Now how to make it for cheap and still be effective.
> 
> It started with a post on another site using a pet water dispenser, sponges and a PC fan. The real issue is the possibility of mold/mildew with the sponges so I hoped to improve on it. So I need a wicking material that resists mold/mildew but has great capillary action. What fits the bill perfectly is 5/16 braided poly rope with nylon core. I cut a 12" piece and hung it up with about 1/2" of one end sitting in the water and within 3 minutes the rope was soaked the entire length. SWEET!
> 
> ...


Mad props on this. I'm going to look into this article here for a solution to my room. I can't find a good one to buy that I would like for my space. Double reps and a smack on the ass if I could. That is sick my man


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## jsgamber (Jan 27, 2011)

flamdrags420 said:


> Mad props on this. I'm going to look into this article here for a solution to my room. I can't find a good one to buy that I would like for my space. Double reps and a smack on the ass if I could. That is sick my man


Hey flamdrags420. I'll be honest with you. Even though this did work at raising humidity in the cab, and it was a ton of fun building and playing with it, I abandoned it. After reading through many threads, I've learned that a bath towel can hold roughly 1 gallon of water and 4 towels hung around the cabinet effectively raise humidity in my cab anywhere from 15% to 20% which reduce temps by about 5*.

If you check out the pic from above, you'll notice how I created hanging loops to place soaking wet towels. The circulating fans spread humidity throughout and actually keep up with the extra ventilation in the cabs. As the towels dry out, I'll put them in the microwave for 90 seconds to sterilize them before re-wetting them and putting them back in. I have a huge supply of old bath towels and I've been taught how to wash them without ruining the washing machine!!


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## MediMary (Feb 7, 2011)

i really like the towel idea, I am always try to cut electric and make my grows as energy efficient as possible might try this out see if I can skip the humidifier I have been using. thanks for stopping by my thread, I have already learned something from you, great info I was unaware of,~ cheers*


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## cruzer101 (Feb 8, 2011)

Good idea, its tough to keep humidity in a small space like that. I use a towel too, but just one small hand towel hung above a container of water with the tip of the towel in the water, then a small 4" fan to blow air by the rag and this creates the humidity, as the rag drys out the water wicks back up. without a fan it wicks up like about 10 inches with the fan on it stays damp about 4 inches up the towel. I get about 20 to 25% increase in RH in a 2x4 cab as long as i remember to keep water in the container.


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## jsgamber (Feb 8, 2011)

MediMary said:


> i really like the towel idea, I am always try to cut electric and make my grows as energy efficient as possible might try this out see if I can skip the humidifier I have been using. thanks for stopping by my thread, I have already learned something from you, great info I was unaware of,~ cheers*





cruzer101 said:


> Good idea, its tough to keep humidity in a small space like that. I use a towel too, but just one small hand towel hung above a container of water with the tip of the towel in the water, then a small 4" fan to blow air by the rag and this creates the humidity, as the rag drys out the water wicks back up. without a fan it wicks up like about 10 inches with the fan on it stays damp about 4 inches up the towel. I get about 20 to 25% increase in RH in a 2x4 cab as long as i remember to keep water in the container.


You guys make great "straight men". I'm dealing with this issue again and just posted a whole deal on this topic in my other thread.  Oh the ways of the weed.


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## faithfulmastiff (Apr 14, 2011)

js cudos to you, i read up to #120 odd, got me hooked, love all the lil ingenious ideas, i'll pop bk & read the rest later, awesome job


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