Cabinet build **advice needed**

I'm in the process of building a small cabinet for a personal grow space (2-3 plants at a time), and have a couple of ideas floating around. I'd just like some input from some members here before I really commit to placing my lights, fans, etc. I'm using an old enclosure for my bearded dragon. The dimensions are 3'x1'4"x2' (LxWxH).



I have 5 light fixtures, with 5 dual bulb adapters, a single 2' t5 fixture and bulb, a 2' flourescent tube light fixture, and 4 120mm fans for intake, exhaust. I also have a clip fan on the way.



Now my first thought was to use it solely as a veg space, and build a flower cabinet with the dimensions of 4'x3'x6' (LxWxH), as that would give me room to expand my future grows. Using what I have currently, I could sit the veg cabinet horizontal and I would have roughly 14" of overhead room to work with using a 1 gallon pot. I could easily veg 2-3 plants this way, translplant to 3 gallon pots and use the newly built flower cabinet to flower after transplanting this way.





Another idea I have floating around is to sit this cabinet vertically and just grow 1 plant at a time. I believe I could veg and flower in this enclosure, and it should also give me room enough to use a 3 gallon pot in. There is roughly 24" of vertical space available with the 3 gallon pot. Now if I do end up building the flower cabinet, I was thinking of going LED using either 2 Area 51 75s or 1 Area 51 150.







I'm just trying to get a feeling of what makes more sense from the community, so please advise, it will be greatly appreciated. Thanks for taking the time to read this, and I'm looking forward to the replies.

i'm too stomed to be much help but it looks like a fun project. that doesn't look easy to make light proof. good luck with your build.

I used an armoire and air temp was my main problem during growth but i would say the worst part of the whole thing was not meeting my own unrealistic expectations.
So saying that i recommend people not even bother trying to flower in such small spaces.
The final yield will never justify the time effort money and risk.

The cabinet u plan to use would be perfect as an area for seedlings or to use vertically for a couple vegging or a mother but thats about it

Good luck either way man

pilsung said:

i'm too stomed to be much help but it looks like a fun project. that doesn't look easy to make light proof. good luck with your build.

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No worries, enjoy your high!

Regarding light proofing, I will cover the holes that are there, I just don't know how I want to orient the box yet. Once I figure that out, it's game time. I have at least a week until my seeds get here. I ordered 1 blue cheese fem seed, 1 black destroyer fem seed, and I'll be getting a free NL X BB Auto fem.

here's my opinion ... if you cant get another cabinet or a tent for flowering, use that one but run a short scrog. you also will need a larger po t2.5-3gal. but really, using that only for seedlings, clones, or a single plant veg and get/make a flower cab is most optimal.

Sent from my SGH-T999L using Rollitup mobile app

torontoke said:

I used an armoire and air temp was my main problem during growth but i would say the worst part of the whole thing was not meeting my own unrealistic expectations.
So saying that i recommend people not even bother trying to flower in such small spaces.
The final yield will never justify the time effort money and risk.

The cabinet u plan to use would be perfect as an area for seedlings or to use vertically for a couple vegging or a mother but thats about it

Good luck either way man

Click to expand...

desolation88 said:

here's my opinion ... if you cant get another cabinet or a tent for flowering, use that one but run a short scrog. you also will need a larger po t2.5-3gal. but really, using that only for seedlings, clones, or a single plant veg and get/make a flower cab is most optimal.

Sent from my SGH-T999L using Rollitup mobile app

Click to expand...

Thank you both for your input. So I decided I'm going to use the enclosure on the left for germinating/vegging, using 1 gallon pots. I will have 10 cfls, a 2' t5, and another 2' tube florescent to veg in that enclosure. So I'll have roughly 300 actual watts of CFLs for vegging. After a month or so of vegging in the 1 gallon, I will transplant to a 3 gallon pot to finish veg...topping and LSTing to control height and produce more colas. Then when it's time to flip to flower, I will put it in the flower cabinet. I took a picture of the footprint of the flower cabinet on the right. It's roughly 3' x 3', and I will make it 6' tall. I will start building it shortly, and I plan to buy an area 51 LED for the flower cabinet.



(Pictured on the left is the enclosure I plan on using for vegging with 1 gallon pots. On the right is the footprint I plan to build the flower cabinet with a 3 gallon pot). I will do my first grow this way, and will try a 5 gallon pot my second grow, unless the general consensus is I should use 5 gallon my first grow. It's up in the air. Thanks again for your inputs.

Edit: Sorry my garage is so messy, I just moved, and the garbage pickup isn't until wednesday.

Sounds like a great plan man.

Good luck i hope u get even gram u are hoping for

torontoke said:

Sounds like a great plan man.

Good luck i hope u get even gram u are hoping for

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Thanks, me too! I will update this thread with the completion of my veg cabinet build and my flower cabinet build. My seeds have shipped already, so I will start my grow journal soon.

Aaaaaand, now, it's time to bless this thread with some good vibrations!

Why don't you buy a grow tent for less than $100? (amazon Xen-lux tent)the 2x4x5 or the 4x4x7 are both good tents. it looks like you have the space for it. more space + less labor + better to deal with the humidity and such. i would worry about your box deteriorating after about 5 years due to the humidity alone unless you get some of that specialized mold resistant paint.

BeastGrow said:

Why don't you buy a grow tent for less than $100? (amazon Xen-lux tent)the 2x4x5 or the 4x4x7 are both good tents. it looks like you have the space for it. more space + less labor + better to deal with the humidity and such. i would worry about your box deteriorating after about 5 years due to the humidity alone unless you get some of that specialized mold resistant paint.

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Thanks for the input! I have definitely mused over the tent, but one concern of mine is stealth, and grow tents look like, well, grow tents. Also, I have most of the wood needed to build the flower cabinet from a previous project I had to scrap. I probably only have to spend $50 dollars on additional wood and hardware to complete it. I need to use that wood for something. Woodworking is a new hobby of mine, so I don't look at it as work, but more like fun and, can I make something useful and good looking, and this is my opportunity to test that theory out, as well as gain more skill.

This, to me, is different than modding a used wardrobe cabinet, or armoire. This is taking a raw material and shaping into a vision in my head. Oh, I almost forgot to mention, I GET TO USE POWER TOOLS!!!!

As for humidity, that is not so big of an issue where I live, but I would seal it anyway.

Edit: Here's one of old my projects...building Russell's new vivarium:






I still have to stain and seal a ramp and perch for him. I've already shaped and sanded it, which will go in the back left hand corner of the vivarium.

Good stuff. Just make sure to get a good fan and carbon filter to deal with smell and make sure to seal that box airtight except for the exhaust and air intake.

you should check out panasonics whisperline fans if you want something a little more stealthy than a fan that sounds like a jet engine in your grow room

BeastGrow said:

you should check out panasonics whisperline fans if you want something a little more stealthy than a fan that sounds like a jet engine in your grow room

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I will definitely check it out, thanks!

So, I've finished building my cfl veg lamp. I have a total of 10 cfls, and 2 flourescents for the veg cabinet. 8 5000K and 2 2700K 23 watt cfl's, total of 270 watts for vegging. I just need to close the holes in the cabinet I won't use for intake/exhaust, mount the cpu fans, and attach the front door. Seeds should be here any day now.








My thoughts now are to build my own cob led lamp. I'm thinking 3 Bridgelux Vero 4000k should be good for 1-2 plants. One thing I'm wondering though, is would it be better to get 1 3000k, 1 4000k, and 1 5000k instead of 3 4000k?

BGO said:

I will definitely check it out, thanks!

So, I've finished building my cfl veg lamp. I have a total of 10 cfls, and 2 flourescents for the veg cabinet. 8 5000K and 2 2700K 23 watt cfl's, total of 270 watts for vegging. I just need to close the holes in the cabinet I won't use for intake/exhaust, mount the cpu fans, and attach the front door. Seeds should be here any day now.








My thoughts now are to build my own cob led lamp. I'm thinking 3 Bridgelux Vero 4000k should be good for 1-2 plants. One thing I'm wondering though, is would it be better to get 1 3000k, 1 4000k, and 1 5000k instead of 3 4000k?

Click to expand...

Those CoBs need about the same distance as a HPS otherwise they are too bright and will cause problems. You would need to go with small chips like 20 watt to pull it off.

You might just stop by home depot and swap those CFLS with 18w or 10w LED household bulbs. captainmorgan was getting great results with them

With bridgelux vero, you're best off getting all 3500k or 3000k for flowering and 4000k or 5000k for veg.

There isn't really much point to mixing if you can pick the right color temperature temperature from the beginning (since all white leds are basically blue leds with varying amounts and types of yellow phosphors. There isn't much point to picking some with too much phosphor and some with too little phosphor. Because of that, just get all Goldilocks)

BGO said:

My thoughts now are to build my own cob led lamp. I'm thinking 3 Bridgelux Vero 4000k should be good for 1-2 plants. One thing I'm wondering though, is would it be better to get 1 3000k, 1 4000k, and 1 5000k instead of 3 4000k?

Click to expand...

A vero 29 at 2.1A will require the same distance a 600W HPS requires, but you can use smaller cobs like vero 18 spaced more evenly to get a lower profile.

I had that exact same issue trying to use vero 29 at only 1.4A. Everything in the middle burned while everything on the perimeter did great!

My new design uses (12) vero 18 instead of (6) vero 29 which lowers profile, increases light spread, and increases cooling spread.

You may have seen my design... The 80W UFO Killer! (I use 3 in my tent, so (12) vero 18 )

BeastGrow said:

Those CoBs need about the same distance as a HPS otherwise they are too bright and will cause problems. You would need to go with small chips like 20 watt to pull it off.

You might just stop by home depot and swap those CFLS with 18w or 10w LED household bulbs. captainmorgan was getting great results with them

Click to expand...

BeastGrow said:

Those CoBs need about the same distance as a HPS otherwise they are too bright and will cause problems. You would need to go with small chips like 20 watt to pull it off.

You might just stop by home depot and swap those CFLS with 18w or 10w LED household bulbs. captainmorgan was getting great results with them

Click to expand...

About how much distance from the top of the canopy does a 600w HPS need? Is it 12"-18"?

churchhaze said:

With bridgelux vero, you're best off getting all 3500k or 3000k for flowering and 4000k or 5000k for veg.

There isn't really much point to mixing if you can pick the right color temperature temperature from the beginning (since all white leds are basically blue leds with varying amounts and types of yellow phosphors. There isn't much point to picking some with too much phosphor and some with too little phosphor. Because of that, just get all Goldilocks)

Click to expand...

I see...I think I will plan on using 3000k

churchhaze said:

A vero 29 at 2.1A will require the same distance a 600W HPS requires, but you can use smaller cobs like vero 18 spaced more evenly to get a lower profile.

I had that exact same issue trying to use vero 29 at only 1.4A. Everything in the middle burned while everything on the perimeter did great!

My new design uses (12) vero 18 instead of (6) vero 29 which lowers profile, increases light spread, and increases cooling spread.

You may have seen my design... The 80W UFO Killer! (I use 3 in my tent, so (12) vero 18 )

View attachment 3325211

View attachment 3325214

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Nice!!!! Thanks for showing your lamp, this is exactly what I had in mind. I have a few questions if you don't mind.

1- How many plants are under each lamp?

2- What size is the tent they are being used in?

3- How did you attach the power leads to the cob?

4- Where did you get the passive heatsink?

Again, thank you guys for your input. It helps me out tremendously in how I approach things, and I know this is done by trial and error on your part to help newbies like me not have to go through that. It's greatly appreciated.

excellent job on your dragons enclosure, how's the build for flower cab going?

pilsung said:

excellent job on your dragons enclosure, how's the build for flower cab going?

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Thanks...I have the veg chamber built, and was waiting on some seeds to come in the mail. I got the intercept letter, so I just left it alone. Got my medicinal card, hit up the dispensary, and .

I might just do the whole grow of one plant in that one cabinet shown in this thread. I'll just lst, super crop to keep the canopy low (attempt to at least). I'm not gonna go all out and build another cab just yet, I think this will do fine for my purposes (smokes solo mostly).

sorry to hear your gear got nabbed, that sucks. not had that happen with more than a dozen orders so far, better knock on wood. can't believe they'd give a puck about a few seeds, especially in a med state. must of been some lazy ass packaging to make it grab the wrong persons attention. would you mind telling who the order was from, so we know where to avoid.