Building a stealth Super Cabinet (at least im trying)

I am building a grow cabinet to grow for personal use and wanted to document the process so that I can get feedback on design flaws or ideas. Please feel free to leave comments, suggestions, or questions.

I feel much more confident having all you knowledgeable people in my corner. I have never built anything in my life. I promise details on build, materials, and of course lots of pics.

Criteria-

1. Stealth -
a) Has to be able to blend in to room.
b) Has to be reasonably quiet
c) Has to be odorless
2. Must be a cabinet design. (like the idea, safety, and ingenuity of cabs)
3. Must be at or above par with the mass produced cabinets on available by the companies that procuce them for mass sale.
4. Reasonably priced
5. Must be fully contained (Flower, Veg, Mother, Clone) with no external hardware (such as fans, ballasts, filters, res, etc.)
6. ..and of course functional

My opinions/problems i see with the cabinets on the market. Well I am not knocking people purchasing them as they are great products that I am sure deliver on their promises and have the security of help line and warranties. Also they save time in terms of design and build. Many are tried and true. After begining the build i do not know if it is worth doing it myself as the cost in time must also be considered. And time is one thing in this life you cannot buy..so there are better ways I could be spending it.

SuperCloset -
1) Poor Ventalation (in my opinion)
2) No veg/mother area (veg is really small)
3) Height of flower chamber too small
4) Monitors on external rear of cab (some models even have the filter on back of cab)
5) Poor Value
6) I am not sold on Ebb and Flow

Sunlight Sheds Cool Cab-
1) Only 18" Deep
2) Looks cheap
3) Some external components
4) Questionable ventalation
5) Poor Value
3) Separate Veg, Flower, Clone Devices or modules.

BC Bloom box
1) Has the "What the hell is that appliance look" -aka does not blend in
2) Value (these cost mad loot)
3) Read issues with heat which leads me to believe that they have ventalation issues.
4) Separate Veg, Flower, Clone Devices or modules.
5) I don't like the height restrictions and deep design of the flowering module.

Homegrown
1) External monitors
2) Heat issues which caused them to start selling them w/ external ACs
3) Separate Veg, Flower, Clone Devices or modules.
4) Value (have to upgrade everything to get what would be a great cabinet and that prices around 5,500 including upgrades)

I decided on Metal cabinets from Staples.

Why metal over wood?

Perosnal preference really but my thinking is -
1) Like the look of metal over wood
2) Cool Factor
3) Blends nicely with my office (have a server cabinet I am built with the smae cabinet).
4) Easier to clean
5) Contain internal fires better, knock on wood

This the the cabinets i chose, they are available in white and black. They are 78"x36"x24". They have different models. These are actually the snadusky Elite series with the heaveir guage steel, the three point locking recessed handel doors and cost $290 a piece with free delivery. I picked up 2.

Sandusky Large-Capacity Storage Cabinet, 78"H x 36"W x 24"D, Putty at Staples®

Note: I believe SuperCloset Deluxe uses these as well but they use the cheaper model. Their model is also 6" shorter and the white may be considered an upgrade if I remeber correctly.

I wanted metal over wood for my cabinets. Really a personal preference and harder to work with. But here is my logic-
1) Cool factor
2) Look good in my office
3) Contain internal fires better

I chose two of these cabinets in white. they are Sandusky Elite. they have 3 pont locking handels(recessed), heavier guage steel, and measure 78x36x24.

Sandusky Large-Capacity Storage Cabinet, 78"H x 36"W x 24"D, Putty at Staples®

I wanted metal over wood for my cabinets. Really a personal preference and harder to work with. But here is my logic-
1) Cool factor
2) Look good in my office
3) Contain internal fires better

I chose two of these cabinets in white. They are Sandusky Elite. They have 3 point locking handels(recessed), heavier guage steel, and measure 78h x 36w x 24d.

Cost $290 a piece at staples, so $580 total and included free delivery.

Note - SuperCloset uses these i think but use the cheaper version. they are also 72" inches tall; so these are 6" taller. If i remeber correctly they also charge an upgrade fee if you want white.

Here they are -

Very nice find I will be checking these out later on, once I am a more experienced grower.

I started by mapping out my design on the insides with a Sharpie..

if you have the cash to drop 600 on 2 empty cabs you should just by the premade units....this will get costly in not only material but time...im not trying to discourage you in building....(I built my own)...but if you have little or no building experience...this can be a tough project to undertake.......

I now need to cut. I originally tried a Dremel rotary tool but burnt up the motor as the steel is too thick. That piece of shit..loud as hell too.

I was forced to purchase a plasma cutter that i plan to sell after this on ebay. It is sweet though, cuts steel like butter...

nickfury510 said:

if you have the cash to drop 600 on 2 empty cabs you should just by the premade units....this will get costly in not only material but time...im not trying to discourage you in building....(I built my own)...but if you have little or no building experience...this can be a tough project to undertake.......

Click to expand...

Thanks for the input Fury, wish I would have posted this ealier but I already made some progress. You are correct that it has turned into a pain in the butt. On the other hand though I was not impressed with the quality, value, and function of the prefab units....

FullMetalJacket said:

Thanks for the input Fury, wish I would have posted this ealier but I already made some progress. You are correct that it has turned into a pain in the ass. On the other hand though I was not impressed with the quality, value, and funtion of the prefab units....

Click to expand...

looks like you are getting off to a good start......just make sure you plan well..it sucks trying to make adjustments whith a cab full of plants....(I know from my own fuckups)...but looking good man

I cut up a ton of shit.. I also mutilated the shelves to make my own compartments, intake covers (internal), shelves, and doors to the util division. I wont bore you all with pics of those items but have them if anyone is interested please ask...

Next I covered the entire cab in FatMat for sound insulation. I got 2 100ft rolls. Kind of costly at $260 including delivery. I put one layer all around and 3 layers around util area where fans and ducting are. I also created "pillows" in that util area by laying flatmat and hanging dense memory foam with ahesive on top of the fatmat, then one additional later of the fatmat over that. Hard to explain check out the pics...works great though. Also wrapped the ducting with a layer of the fatmat..doubled up on the 90's. Added about 45 lbs to the unit so it will be a pain to move. I will be moving to Sin City in Nov so im not looking forward to that moving these but it shall be worth it.

Note: The Fat mat site says doubling up increases sound dampening by 3. I also wonder if it affectes the heat signature. My buddy is a nuclear engineer and has a heat gun used to look at reactors. I will borrow it and report back. Don't really need the heat signature security though as I am only using 1 600 HPS with a colltube and some T5's for veg...

this is looks like something I may end up doing over the summer in preperation for the next grow!

subscribed for further progress.

Now I add the fans..

I am using CO2 so I wnt with a light tube. I got two S&P 200x that push 495 cfm each. One for the lightube and one for the mother chamber exhause pulling through a fan filter 33 that is rated at a max 200cfm. Which is what the 200x pulls at .75 static pressure. They are vey quiet and made of ABS plastic. What impressed me most with these were the static pressure figures. There is a thread on here devoted just to these fans. They are quiter than the panasonic whispers.

I also got a TD-100 that has 100cfm rating that will be ventalating by veg/mother area. This will be pulling through a can filter 2900 that is rated at 50cfm max..which is coicidentally the same that the fan as rated pulling a static pressure of .30.








All fans are hooked to speedster speed controllers.

I also then added some intakes. I am using 2 6: staigh ducts. inside pained flat black and both have fantech 6" dampers. They vent in from the right side of the cab . There will be a vent painted to match the cabinet that is only 1 inch deep. Looks like the vents you see on clothes cabinets. Under the vent is a filter to stop uglies from entering the cab.

Hung the carbon filter in veg ran some ducting. I also covered the intake with a metal box that i created from a shelf left over. I added an internal shelf that is adjustable and hung my light in veg. For the light in veg I am running a sunlight 8 light 2" T5 with veg spectrum...fits realll nice.

Over in the far right back corner is will the CO2 tank will be..essentially on top of the box over the intake exhausts. I will run to a Sentenial all in one controller with PPM. All my electonics , countinuous PH-TDS- Temp Trimeter monitors etc will be mounted in that middle shelve between the veg and fan chamber. There will be a web cam in there that will send images to my computer so i can monitor while working without opening the cabinet. That takes me to where I am today...
heya ..any suggestion on mylar or panda paper?

I will be running a Hortiflux 600 HPS with digital ballast in a cool tube with the additional wings. People complain of the way the coll tube reflects long ways which is actaully a benefit in this set-up.

I got a hydo dual diaghram air pump with 4 out lets and order an additional 4 way splitter.

I got two 350 gallon mag drive pumps for my rubbermaid containers.

The Flower res is a rubbermaid 31 gallon. It fills the bottom nicely. I wanted to go large to keep the ph and nutes from fluctuating too much. Veg is an matching 18 gallon rubbermaid res. I ordered 3 of both so I can use different top configuartions and do res changes easily. I think I paid like $90 for all 6.

The mother area is t the right of the veg res. It is about 1 " wide and 2" foot deep and 4 feet high. I added an adjustable moveable shlve to created 2 areas of 2' high each. Hoping to hold 3 maybe 4 bonsi mothers kept in dirt for low maintence. each selve will have a 2' t5.

Any questions yet? Recommendations please? Dont want to look back and think by design sucked and I wshould have done this and that. One again I cant stress how much I have learned from this board....Thanks again guys and gals...

Now that all my cuts have been made (16 total holes and a large 2' x 1.5' square square to join the cabs) I will add my fans.

Fans:
2 - S&P TD-200x
1 - S&P TD-100

I chose these 3 fans becasuse they are quiet and move alot of air for their size. Because I am using CO2 I am using a cooltube and need 1 fan for exhaust and one for the light. The smaller fan is for the veg chamber.

1 - TD-200x (497 cfm) -$170 will vent the 600W HPS Hortifux cooltube.

1 - TD-200x (497 cfm) -$170 will exhaust the cab through the Can Filter 33 (max 200cfm) that causes a static pressure of .75.(found this on the can filter website).

1 - TD-100 (100 cfm) - $80 will exhaust the veg/mother chamber through can filter 2900 (max 50 cfm) that cause .25 SP.

These fans a quieter than the panasonic whisper i have in my server cabinet. There is a thread here devoted to these started by SouthFlorida. The manufacturer's website has a chart with SP and what their difffernt model fans push CFM at those SPs(static pressures). It also has accuarate measurements.

I am using a Speedster as a speed control for each fan.

Note: All models over the td-150 use steel housing in blades. Except for the 200x that goes back to the ABS plastic which was a major plus for me. Plastic is supposed to be quieter and last longer.

**as far as the pictures go they are before i applied the fatmat just to make sure everything was cut and fit properly.