First attempt at a stealth cabinet - Advice needed

After reading through this section and having the pleasure of working in a relatives hydro-shop, I've decided to have a go at a stealth cabinet. I sourced 2 cheap storage cabinets, one for a trial-run and the other for the final article. I broke the unit down and covered the inside with thick reflective radiator backing foil and used up some carbon fibre look vinyl on the outside (top is yet to be covered and light-sealed). Lighting will consist of 1 or 2 CFL's but I'm stuck when it comes to the ventilation. PC fans are the obvious choice but I'm not sure how to wire them up with a 12v supply.

It's easy to connect a PC fan to a 12 V plug. There are 2 wires, Red and Black. Red is sometimes has a white dotted line on the cable for the 12 V plug. Twist the wires, Red from fan to red on plug and same with the black/white, then wrap electrical tape over the wire ends and PRESTO! Good to go.You can even use a old cell charger to wire up a PC fan so that it'll run at half speed or +/- half speed. Just check the Voltage and calculate from the PC fan
From this picture the black wire with the white lines are the black. So black to black with white lines and red to solid black. The yellow or other colored wires on the PC fans are for temperature control VIA the MOBO. Don't use those unless you want to rig up something like this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811992005
More complicated if you don't know what you are doing so stick to rigging up the PC fans directly to the DC plug

Normal PC fans are 12v DC. Find an old cell phone charger and splice it into the PC fan. It will run at full speed and not burn out. Anything higher or AC will burnout/not work. Lower is insufficient.

However there are AC fan's for PC's too they are considered "coolers" and can do higher cfm. Those can be spliced into a PC power supply cord and then plugged into the wall.

(Read the maturing box in my sig for some ideas)

Thanks for the advice about the fan power supply. I have a few old phone chargers lying around, just need to find a few fans to play around with.

Todays effort. sealed up the inner joints so no light can escape and finished the top and added a little silver strip for shits 'n giggles.

hey Dan, great job so far, as for the fan go for a noiseblocker m12-s1 or similar, I have read that at full speed it is only 12db, I personally think it is important to keep the noise to a minimum, good luck and happy growing from a fellow brit.

WOW! That is looking pretty damn nice now! I am subscribing to follow your progress. Wish you luck and can't wait to see the end product

emannn2010 said:

hey Dan, great job so far, as for the fan go for a noiseblocker m12-s1 or similar

Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip. Found some on eGay and put them on the ever-increasing watch list until I can afford to buy them.

love the wrap, looks killer

Yeah that cab looks kick arse!

nice cab. subbed and looking forward to your progress

That is looking sick! Can't wait to see it in action

Dude nice cab, looks really neat. But idk if you said you're gonna attach a CF to the fans or not. If you are, just keep in mind, most case fans don't have the static pressure to pull through the filter efficiently. And I'm guessing you're gonna get a couple 125w when you say you're getting two CFLs? Just a thought, it'd be nice to get a bunch of smaller CFLs so you can place them everywhere to get the most efficient lighting. That's what I think puts CFL grows on par with HPS grows. Just my 0.02. Good luck!

Man that thing is sweet. What are the demensions?