TechnoMage
Well-Known Member
So I did some modification to my cab over the weekend and I realized that I had never posted my cab up here, only on the now gone HG420 site.
I started my first grow in it in November, 2006 and after the first grow switched to a 250W HPS so it's served me well.
This started out as a flat pack cabinet from Home Depot, somewhere around $125.00. It’s 36” wide, 80” tall and 20” deep. I drilled some holes for exhaust, made the intake way to complicated and only have 30” from bottom of pot to the glass on the hood. I started out with a T5 hood with four 55W bulbs and then switched to a 250W HPS in a Cool Tube style hood.
Here's a shot from the outside. There's a 400 HPS running in it now. I tried taking a photo in the dark but it was just too dark. There is zero light leakage.
I've done two changes from original design. First I removed the Mylar and switched to a flat white paint. Mylar got dirty to easy and didn't clean worth a damn. Paint and roller was $10.00 and I figure I'll do it once every couple of years.
This photo shows the 4" vortex fan and the carbon filter. Inside is now flat white except for the one door where the Mylar stayed clean. I left the Mylar on the bottom because it would have been a PITA to remove and then paint.
Close up shot of the fan exhaust and the carbon filter below. I made this way more complicated than it needed to be and if I did it again I'd rotate the fan 90 degrees and just have the entire exhaust a straight shot.
Here's a shot with my cool tube hooked up and the 400W HPS running. Going from 250W to 400W was the second change I made. If you look close you can see a small purple strip at the top of the shot. That's my dimming digital ballast that has settings from 250 to 400SL. I got the dimming model in case I started having heat problems, luckily heat isn't going to be an issue. I took temps at two places. You can see the digital thermometer sitting on wire rack. With the light shining directly on it, temps leveled off at 80 degrees. Above the light you can see a little white wire. That's the temp sensor for the other thermometer. That one registers 74.6 degrees. Temp in the room is 72.3.
Final photo shows the one door closed and the lip I built to give the weather stripping foam some support. This is the same foam from when I built it back in 2006.
If I had to do it over again, I’d use something like the Light Tight Darkroom Louvers for my intakes. Yeah it would be pricy but I’d gain back 12” of vertical space. I’d also like about another 12” in width. I’ve been toying around with building one from scratch and if I do, I’ll go for 72”-80” tall, 24” deep and 48” wide. If I modify another model that Home Depot carries it will be 80" tall, 20" deep and 48" wide.
I started my first grow in it in November, 2006 and after the first grow switched to a 250W HPS so it's served me well.
This started out as a flat pack cabinet from Home Depot, somewhere around $125.00. It’s 36” wide, 80” tall and 20” deep. I drilled some holes for exhaust, made the intake way to complicated and only have 30” from bottom of pot to the glass on the hood. I started out with a T5 hood with four 55W bulbs and then switched to a 250W HPS in a Cool Tube style hood.
Here's a shot from the outside. There's a 400 HPS running in it now. I tried taking a photo in the dark but it was just too dark. There is zero light leakage.
I've done two changes from original design. First I removed the Mylar and switched to a flat white paint. Mylar got dirty to easy and didn't clean worth a damn. Paint and roller was $10.00 and I figure I'll do it once every couple of years.
This photo shows the 4" vortex fan and the carbon filter. Inside is now flat white except for the one door where the Mylar stayed clean. I left the Mylar on the bottom because it would have been a PITA to remove and then paint.
Close up shot of the fan exhaust and the carbon filter below. I made this way more complicated than it needed to be and if I did it again I'd rotate the fan 90 degrees and just have the entire exhaust a straight shot.
Here's a shot with my cool tube hooked up and the 400W HPS running. Going from 250W to 400W was the second change I made. If you look close you can see a small purple strip at the top of the shot. That's my dimming digital ballast that has settings from 250 to 400SL. I got the dimming model in case I started having heat problems, luckily heat isn't going to be an issue. I took temps at two places. You can see the digital thermometer sitting on wire rack. With the light shining directly on it, temps leveled off at 80 degrees. Above the light you can see a little white wire. That's the temp sensor for the other thermometer. That one registers 74.6 degrees. Temp in the room is 72.3.
Final photo shows the one door closed and the lip I built to give the weather stripping foam some support. This is the same foam from when I built it back in 2006.
If I had to do it over again, I’d use something like the Light Tight Darkroom Louvers for my intakes. Yeah it would be pricy but I’d gain back 12” of vertical space. I’d also like about another 12” in width. I’ve been toying around with building one from scratch and if I do, I’ll go for 72”-80” tall, 24” deep and 48” wide. If I modify another model that Home Depot carries it will be 80" tall, 20" deep and 48" wide.
