First Stealth Grow Cabinet Build Log

dvdavidvgt said:

First off I would like to say that i do not intend to grow cannabis in this cabinet, I just thought I'd post this to spread some ideas and to see what people think.

To start with i ordered a 42 inch Realspace metal storage cabinet.

These can be found at office supply stores like office depot.

This is the stock photo from the website:

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After assembling the cabinet I measured and cut two 6 inch holes in the back panel where the heat from the grow light could be ported.

The holes can be cut using a dremel with the cutout wheel bit.

After drilling the holes I attached two 6" duct flanges that I got from either Home Depot or Lowes to the cabinet.

Here is a picture of the cabinet up to that point:

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Next I ordered a 600 watt cooltube reflector along with a 600w hm/hps ballast and the appropriate bulbs all from ebay.

Here is a picture of those items along with my dremel:

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Here is a picture of just the hm bulb with a size reference:

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Also one of the ballast:

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Next I installed 6 fans in the back panel after cutting their appropriately sized holes.

I installed four 140mm NZXT fans for the main compartment which are pictured in the stock photos below:

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I also installed two 80mm fans on the back panel to cool the small compartment right below the base of the storage area on the inside of the cabinet.

These fans are pictured below:

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Here is a picture showing a technique that helped me cut the holes easier:

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Here are some pictures of the fans after installation:

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The fan's wires ported perfectly in the case down to the compartment below where most of the electronics would be held.

Here is a picture of the way the wires were run:

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To get the wires from the top two fans to reach the lower compartment I bought 2 one foot extension cables from Fry's.

Next I installed the fan controller which really is optional but I thought would be pretty cool.

The fan controller I chose was the Aerocool F6XT which I also got from Fry's.

Here are some stock photos of it:

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Here are some photos of the installation of it:

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Here are some pictures of the wires being run to the controller:

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The controller works great and the leds can be turned off for people looking for stealth.

The next step I took was installing the ballast.

I installed the ballast near the exhaust fan of the electronics compartment to carry the heat away.

At first I installed it vertically but realized it would be better placed horizontally.

Here are some photos:

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This is as far as I've gotten so far but I will continue to post pictures as i progress through the next week.

Tell me what you guys think and id be happy to answer any questions people have.

Thanks for reading!

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stelthy said:

So far I am very impressed, there are some nice additions you've made.... I still can't help but feel 'heat' from the 600 is gonna be a bitch to overcome in that space particuly cos its made of metal (conductive material for heat) ... But I have only just read you 1st post.. so I look forward to seeing how your project un-folds .. Best of luck looks great so far - STELTHY

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dvdavidvgt said:

I was worried about the heat from the bulb too but actually its not so bad.

If you look at my 3rd post in this thread or at my summary thread:

https://www.rollitup.org/stealth-micro-cab-growing/501412-stealth-cab-photo-build-summary.html

You can see that the temperature reaches a max of aroun 83 degrees a half foot from the glass.

Also given right now it is in a cold basement that helps it stay even lower.

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stelthy said:

Have you considered an AC unit for when the weather temps become a little more challenging ? also as both I and Karr would recommend a SCROG screen would go great in there.... Can I ask..? .. What've you got planned next, on the list of things to do ? - STELTHY

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