DIY The Ultimate, All-in-one, stealth DIY Micro Growcab

[Weed-Whacker]

Hello my fellow AFN brothers and sisters!

welcome to my thread where I hope to discuss design ideas and eventually a step by step guide to building this grow box. I've had my share of success an failure growing under LED/HPS/CFL/ with ebb n flow/passive hydro(sip kratky whatever) with coco/hydroton/soil-both canna terra type bags, mixing my own, organic, no til ect, outdoor/indoor/greenhouse ect.

I'm not trying to say I'm a master of any of these dark arts, I'm saying that I do have first hand experience and I've never bought anything from a hydro store accept nutrients, carbon filters and tents.

background about the goals of this build:

everyone dreams of having a little secret garden that would keep them in supply without any stress, this means its gotta be smth that looks like it belongs in the house and it has to produce enough bud, how much is enough? hahaha well lets aim for 2 or more oz every 4 weeks. I considering not everyone has a garage or loft lets put this in the living room.

so its gotta be %100 stealth

no noticeable noise-
( it will make some noise sure, but has to be silenced down to the level where you have to put ur ear up to it to realise thats what the sound is)
smell- in my experience DIY scrubbers are a waste of money and time. we will be using the Can GT 150 or as its called elsewhere the can lite 1500 plastic
http://canfilters.com/filters/mini-filters/plastic-can-lite-1500-w-pre-filter-w-o-flange.html
these r great, they are light and small and cheap


light well I'll be using DIY led of course. You may have read my other work at another site called
"LED FAQ) Building and DIY" so I'm not even thing about that yet, ill wait to see what the box looks like and then we can design the light for it.

alas this box must be super tidy, I want to seperate all the wiring and ducting into another panel above the main grow area and perhaps even a recessed floor for the pot.

basically the grow chamber should be just walls floor and cieling with air exhaust holes and a light in it.


I'd like to have a veg and drying area too so this can be perpetual, of course because it's for autos the veg area needs to have the same potential light intensity(so we need dimming for seedlings) and canopy size as the flower, only hight can be reduced so that veg to flower transfer can happen at any stage without environmental shock.

I want to stay away from fridges coz ive done that before and its more work than its worth imo, speakers are a bit small and a PC is just too tiny for the yield an average toker needs

Finally, a whole bunch of environmental controls would be rad so lets talka bout that too?

 

[Weed-Whacker]

so as you can see Ive had a few unfinished designs before, this one I'm going to finish, then build, then trouble shoot and fine tune then rebuild and finally we will have a tutorial for it.

all pics, links ideas welcome, this is not my build thread, its OUR build thread.

 

[MickJ]

Someone on here did a wooden cabinet in their living room, not dissimilar to your idea. They recessed their lights in the top with the driver then used that cavity to draw out the air so it stayed the same temperature as the living room as there was no heating in the cabinet. They used led strips I think, autopots and had a veg space.

Sent from my comfy chair.
[emoji16][emoji41] [emoji43][emoji848]

 

[Weed-Whacker]

linkalink?

 

[MickJ]

@archie gemmill might remember it was about 3 or 4 months ago

Sent from my comfy chair.
[emoji16][emoji41] [emoji43][emoji848]

 

[bad dragon bzzz]

why make it harder by placing in the living room rather than in a bedroom or cloakroom somewhere more out of the way to a casual visitor ?
https://www.autoflower.org/threads/dyi-grow-box.66924/
https://www.autoflower.org/threads/...9watts-2-25sqft-in-66-days-from-sprout.66241/
Mr.Sparkle,KsjA,Smorf to name a few top small space growers pc cases,speaker boxes,cardboard boxes,buckets
the micro section https://www.autoflower.org/forums/micro-growing-discussion.104/ Maria,awolace not to mention hairyman and Spanglish 1L 12pot grows.
good luck n keep er lit

 

[Weed-Whacker]

why make it harder by placing in the living room rather than in a bedroom or cloakroom somewhere more out of the way to a casual visitor ?

I'm making it harder because not everyone has a cloakroom or a little nook to put it, and in the case of the bedroom(where most ppl will probably put this box) it sill needs to be super silent (for light sleepers and annoyed partners) and light-proof so the specs of the box wouldn't really change for that, probably gonna use smth from ikea for the shell ( ikea juts coz this is a global project, so smth everyone has access too). also i believe that with enough work here during the design phase we could make it work, then putting it anywhere else in the house it would be super-overkill stealth.

of course you can just put a tent in a bedroom wardrobe and be done with it, but im hoping to make something that could pass a rental inspection and a dinner party from your in-laws.


tnx for the reply and links
and thats a great question


possibly gonna use


https://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/10251451/

or

https://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/50381592/

or perhaps build from scratch with wood.


but i like this one a lot at the moment

Width: 40 cm
Depth: 30 cm
Height: 160 cm


perhaps for a hight extension use
https://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/50396428/

and put all the lights and filter stuff in there


i prefer the idea of using a premade shell coz ive seen a too many grow boxes that look like grow boxes

 

[bad dragon bzzz]

no putting you down pal for putting in the livingroom,i just want you to get to a sucessfull harvest.my worry was that even if every electrical item is completely silent,even moving air makes a slight noise.
i see it more of a keeping the other half happy project.if that was is the case why not in a tall fridge/freezer,a lot more sound proofing that mdf cupboard,and wont look at all out of place in the kitchen.but thats maybe a bigger hard sell than the bedroom.
my lil cupboard is only 50cm wide and it dont take long for plants to touch the sides,a 30x40 i fear is too small and could struggle to get a 2oz plant.
great project,keep it up

 

[Weed-Whacker]

no putting you down pal for putting in the livingroom,i just want you to get to a sucessfull harvest.my worry was that even if every electrical item is completely silent,even moving air makes a slight noise.
i see it more of a keeping the other half happy project.if that was is the case why not in a tall fridge/freezer,a lot more sound proofing that mdf cupboard,and wont look at all out of place in the kitchen.but thats maybe a bigger hard sell than the bedroom.
my lil cupboard is only 50cm wide and it dont take long for plants to touch the sides,a 30x40 i fear is too small and could struggle to get a 2oz plant.
great project,keep it up

i hear you on the size, ideally we need 2 sq ft of canopy so probably 40x50 would be better. if you see anything linkalink please

 

[Banjacked]

no putting you down pal for putting in the livingroom,i just want you to get to a sucessfull harvest.my worry was that even if every electrical item is completely silent,even moving air makes a slight noise.
i see it more of a keeping the other half happy project.if that was is the case why not in a tall fridge/freezer,a lot more sound proofing that mdf cupboard,and wont look at all out of place in the kitchen.but thats maybe a bigger hard sell than the bedroom.
my lil cupboard is only 50cm wide and it dont take long for plants to touch the sides,a 30x40 i fear is too small and could struggle to get a 2oz plant.
great project,keep it up

Oh, wonderful, now you have my head in overdrive on two things.

Size. That's easy, standard kitchen cupboard is 60cm wide so if you think something that wouldn't be out of place in a kitchen then there's your answer. Depending on layouts, you might even be able to splice into any extraction above the cooker.

Sound. Now that's where the fun starts. Straight away I think insulation panels since they can be painted white or take rockwool and hold that in place with drywall or mylar. Even just an air gap between inner and outer walls can cut sound significantly, same as an "egg box" surface will help cut sound due to it scattering the sound waves (think of the walls in a recording studio).

When looking at the "insulation" idea, it doesn't have to be a thick layer, think of how much of a difference a foam underlay makes with a laminate floor as an example. Then we have to look at anti-vibration mounts for any and all fans, rockwool around any ducting to deafen any noise from air blowing through it, and then, in theory, you have a cabinet you could put in any room and nobody would have a clue what it was for.