smokey the bare

Greetings all,

Were down to the last bits.

I made the screen out of white/black plastic. Great stuff.



I used duct tape to reinforce the edges. I also made it a bit oversized, so I could trim it down when I was done.

Then I mounted the screen. I pulled the adhesive backing off, starting at the top, and then when I had it on the sides, finishing up with the bottom.



I then left it overnight. The adhesive takes some time to set, and if you pull at it too soon you will pull it off.

And then I went to bed.

You know, in astronomy (a hobby I use to do), there is an expression called “first light,” which refers to the first time you take a new telescope out, and see how well it works.

First light!



But does it leak?



Not really, but there is some from the bottom, and a bit from the sides. I will get a better idea tonight in the dark. I can solve the bottom problem by making the light traps a bit more twisty.

I ran the closet for about an hour, and found out that the humidity was low, and the temperature pretty good.

\

The low humidity is attributable to the fact that there are no plants in right now.

Speaking of which:



The last thing to do is to mount a fan on the wall, which I have ready to do.

So, that’s about it. Unless you have any questions, I will be bringing this thread to a close. If you are interested in finding out how it worked out, please check out my first grow journal below.

Cost of the project, including the lights, fans, shop materials, melamine etc was close to $1000. It took me a bit longer to build than I thought it would, but it was not so difficult a project. I now have a nice large closet, that will be suitable for hydro as well, when I am ready. I may also have to drill a few more holes in the base to get some more air flow going. I may also drill a hole into the veg-cab so I can use the fan to vent that as well.

Peace.

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__________________
Be seeing you,

-J

smokey the bare

Greetings all,

Well the closet has been running for about 12 hours now, and I thought I would give a quick update.

It is running a bit hot at 86F, but the humidity is quite low at around 35% RH. My feeling is that I must

a) get a fan inside the closet to circulate the air and cool things down a bit. I will do this tomorrow.
b) Perhaps cut some more holes into the bottom of the box and see what affect that has.

The temprature I am pretty sure I can get a handle on, but the RH is a bit more of an issue. The fan is sucking air real good, including humidity, but if I turn the fan off, the temp will skyrocket. I'll need to experiment a bit to get it working just right.

The plants were transplanted today, so they are a little shocky, but overall seem to be doing fine.

Peace.

__________________
Be seeing you,

-J

Just Yak

you have the perfect setup to do a cool tube. Get a cool tube and mount one end to flex duct and attatch that to the bathroom fan. Now air will be pulled from the intake, into the cool tube through open end, over the bulb cooling it down, into the flex duct and out into the dryer Y ducting. You can also add a carbon filter on the open end if needed. This is what got my temps down from about 86-88 to now 77-79

__________________
I'll grant you I've had more than my share of poignant moments. Life passes most people by while they're making grand plans for it. Throughout my lifetime, I've left pieces of my heart here and there. And now, there's almost not enough to stay alive. But I force a smile, knowing that my ambition far exceeded my talent.

Originally Posted by OldPhart
Basic cheat sheet:
Ec goes up, PH goes down=plants require less nutes.
Ec goes down, PH goes up=Plants require more nutes
Ec stable, PH goes up=Equilibrium=Good thang.

The Spotted Dog

smokey the bare

Hey Blue,

Thanks. I just may end up doing that.

I tried placing the thermometer in different places in the cab and have found quite the differential of temperatures. Down at the bottom of the pots it is more like 70F with an RH of around 60%. The temperature climbs and the RH drops the higher up the cab you get (which makes sense).

I think I will give it a week and see how the plants respond before I start doing any excessive tweaking one way or another. I have noticed a little bit of yellowing on a couple of the tips of the top most leaves, and also some curling as well, which I think would indicate that they plants are a bit warm at the top. I may raise the light an inch or two to see if I can correct it.

I am not quite sure how I would hook up the flex tube to the bathroom fan, since the opening for the fan is quite large and square, and I wouldn't want to cut off any of its power for venting the cab. But I will think about it.

I also drilled about 6 more holes in the bottom of the cab, and this seems to be working out well.

Unfortunately, I am leaving today on a 4 day road trip, and will not be able to monitor the situation as closely as I would like. But that's just the way things are, eh?

Peace.

__________________
Be seeing you,

-J

Just Yak

go to homedepot and try to find a duct connecter, they are rectangle and boxy with a circle output. Just put that over top of the fan and then connect ur flex tube like that. The duct box can be bigger than the fan, just seal it agaisnt the wall and if ur fan is air tight to the box it will pull just as well.

I would see how u can fare without this first just for cost reasons. But this did work for me but im doing dwc so water temps were getting to hot and something had to be done

__________________
I'll grant you I've had more than my share of poignant moments. Life passes most people by while they're making grand plans for it. Throughout my lifetime, I've left pieces of my heart here and there. And now, there's almost not enough to stay alive. But I force a smile, knowing that my ambition far exceeded my talent.

Originally Posted by OldPhart
Basic cheat sheet:
Ec goes up, PH goes down=plants require less nutes.
Ec goes down, PH goes up=Plants require more nutes
Ec stable, PH goes up=Equilibrium=Good thang.

The Spotted Dog

smokey the bare

Greetings all,

Well, the closet has been in action for a week now, and I thought a small post deployment report would be in order.

On the good news side, the plants seem to be liking the new environment. The AKs grew about 3 inches, and the WWs did about the same. There has been a small bit of burning near the very top of the plants, so I raised the light a few inches higher and now everything seems fine.

On the down side, I still find the temp in the closet to be a bit high near the top of the canopy (around 90F) and the RH to be a bit on the low side (40%). I am obviously not getting enough fresh air in from the intakes. I drilled about 7 new holes, and given that they are 2" holes I now have a combined intake of about 40 sq inch which I would figure would be enough, but that seems not to be the case. I have to find a way to get more air into the closet from the outside. I may need an inline intake fan, since I am not sure at this point that simply drilling more holes will get the job done. I need to get this resolved before I move the plants into 12/12.

Another thing that is not working very well is my exhaust. It seems that the blow back baffle that was suppose to stop the air from moving back along the duct into the dryer is not working as well as I would like. The dryer, has a noticable skunk smell, and the bathroom where the dryer is located is also starting to start to reek a bit. The wife is not pleased. I may look for a manual baffle that I can keep closed or...

... it looks like some sort of carbon scrubber will be needed. I have a credit at the grow shop so I may try to pick up a 4" inline unit, rather than taking the time to build my own.

While I like the idea of installing a cool tube setup on my lamp, I am not really sure that is the problem. I really think I have to get more air flowing into the closet. But if I can't do that, then a tubing I shall go.

Peace.

__________________
Be seeing you,

-J

NugNoggin

Very nice setup. I'm curious though why didn't you just buy one of those melamine closet kits and assemble it? I found one on the Lowes.com site for about $109USD. They have shelves included so you could setup different compartments. I'm not sure what may be available in your neck-o-the-woods though I'm sure you could find something similar.

But, then again, the do-it-yourself allows for getting the specs the way you want them.

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__________________
My First Official Grow


Bluestar's Plant Growth Diagram


Stay outta trouble , or at least, don't get caught!
Peace Out!

smokey the bare

Hey Nug,

That's a very nice closet. If I had seen one like that I might have picked it up. The problem with the closets that were available at HomeDeport was that I found them all a bit narrow and not quite deep enough. The best I could find had a base foot print of 20"x38" and I wanted 24"x48".

Also, the closets I found all had a rather thin hardboard back and I wanted to go with a full 5/8" melamine back for added strength.

Finally, the HD closets were about $149CDN and my materials cost came out to well under $90. However, if I could have found one like the one in your photo, at that price point, I would have been more than ready to pick it up and modify it for my purposes.

Thanks for the post.

Peace.

__________________
Be seeing you,

-J

NugNoggin

Well ~$50 is a significant incentive to do-it-yourself. I had planned to build a cabinet in my closet using plywood and other lumber.

I figured up about $75 for the basic materials and probably around $100 or so to finish it out (that's for 2 separate veg and bloom areas.) I'm still gonna need about another $30-40 in materials, but I think I'm gonna get one of these. I'm sure it will likely have a thin backing but, it's going against a wall and I can add supports.

Anyway, you did a fine job and I hope it serves you well.

__________________
My First Official Grow


Bluestar's Plant Growth Diagram


Stay outta trouble , or at least, don't get caught!
Peace Out!

DLA

Well Bareman that is a very impressive cabinet build you did there. You thought a lot of it through and it shows....I noticed that with how well you did and how stealthy it looks....you could grow Marijuana in it...shhhhh.

Very nice. Are you going to start a new journal or ride this one out as the grow?

__________________

Sometimes people say things they immediately regret, but then later are glad they said it.
Sometimes people never say anything for fear of being judged.
Sometimes people talk all the time and we never hear a word they say.
Sometimes people speak only when spoken to and are always heard by one.
90% of our communication is unspoken.