Opinions Please

I originally considered a PC case, but they seem too small for practical purposes, and I needed a work bench so I thought hey why not kill two birds with one stone.

I am using an aero garden deluxe (3 bulb) with the 24' hood, but I actually have 32" of plant space from the aero garden to the top of the box. I have also added a 125w CFL as supplemental light.

I have another AG on the way and it is going to go into the empty cab (shown) along with the smaller plants in front. I am too scared to order from a seed bank (hell I am scared to make this post) so I just grew some really good stuff going around, figured whats the worst that could happen.

I am using the filters created by MightyBuddy listed here. and a 4" inline inductor fan to vent.

Other than the vent and the intake the box is air tight, and even with the vent and the intake the boxes are 100% light tight. The vents and intakes on the box are hidden by the cross members (three sided on the bottom and two sided on the top) under the table,

I welcome your opinions and feedback.

Nice work bench and grow area..ordering seeds isnt that risky..only thing that will hapen is customs taken them...what will get you busted is telling people...good luck and happy growing...

Nice work, but how do you get inside? Are those panels hinged? Tryin to solve my own light leaks around the doors of my cab.

The panels are hinged with piano hinges and held shut by three of the spring wheel cabinet latches, you can see them. I found them at home depot (cant find them online) for like $.99.

but I wish I would have used these:
http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1vZ1xgy/R-202200671/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

With the rubber weatherstriping and the cabinet latches I was able to get 98% light tight, the problem comes from finding a perfect piece or birch, they all have a little curve to them. This was fixed by adding trim to the fron (you can see it in the pictures) the trim overgangs the gap and is flush with the door completely hiding it. Light does not go around corners well so this also resolved any light leakage, also the trim adds a little friction to the door so the latches can hold it nice and tight against the weatherstripping keeping it air tight.

Thats really sick man. I made one kinda like it out of old tower speakers but they burned in a shop fire before i could use them lol.

You're obviously much better at building cabs than I am. Damn you.

Where you put the weatherstripping, is it flush with the doorframe or inset slightly?

As you can see the trim lines up with the door. the rubber goes all the way around. On the hinge side I added a foam weatherstriping that gets pinched by the hinge sealing it off.

I see you used miter joints there too instead of my amateur butt joints lol. That's a good design for the door, I must say. Unfortunately I can't apply it to my situation without moving back the trim I used inside my door frame, and cutting down both my doors on two axes so they nestle in like that. Really nice job on the bench/cab man.

Thanks, I am pretty good with wood, unfortunately this is my first grow and I know little about growing. I figured if people can grow in a PC case then I should be able to grow in these. I learned alot from reading the forums though.

The hardest parts of growing dope are setting up a nice cab, and trimming the rewards. You'll do fine.

Do you think this would grow one or two AK48 Feminized?

I may have answered my own question. I believe that I can grow 1 ak48 in each cab and use a screen as detailed in the MGG:

This is like a SOG (Sea of Green) grow, but a screen is used to train the plant to grow horizontally creating a canopy of buds beneath the light. The screen is simply 2” chicken wire, or 2” nylon poultry fencing, or one can use hooks and 20 lb. fishing line to make their net.

The screen is at a set height above the plant medium. This height varies from 8” to 24” depending on the light type you are using. The light should be hung by chains and adjustable so that one can raise it if needed. Clones are used again like in SOG style, because we do not want a hole in the canopy were a male was removed. This is why we use female clones for SOG and ScrOG grows. It does not take as many plants for ScrOG growing as compared to SOG. One should allow at least 1 square foot per flowering plant in a ScrOG grow. This method also takes anywhere from 1 to 3 weeks longer per grow because we will be in a vegetative stage longer than a SOG grow.

The plants are trained to grow horizontally under the screen until they are 2 weeks into the flowering cycle. At this point you let the tops grow vertically through the screen. One should always train the main growing tops to the outside of the screen. They always grow the tallest, and we want the tallest to be on the perimeter of the screen. As the tops grow vertically, push the large fan leaves down under the screen, allowing the light to get to all the developing bud sites. If leaf growth is excessive, one should first cut the finger in half making a shorter leaf and allowing light to get to the bud site. Leaving half the leaf on the plant still allows it to make energy for the plant to grow. Taking a whole fan leaf away in one go can stunt growth. In a week take off the rest of it. Some do not remove leaf at
all, but I do it to help with air movement, reduce chance of mould or fungus, and to allow light to penetrate the bud sites. Just remember to remove a little at a time if you do remove leaf. At this point flowers are forming and growing vertically
creating a carpet of bud above the screen. Now we go below the screen and remove all the lateral branches and stray bud sites. The canopy has thickened up enough now that light is blocked from reaching this lower growth. It is only sucking away your plant’s energy from the buds under the light. Remove all branches that have not made it to the screen and the stray bud sites. We want the plant to concentrate all its grow energy on the developing flowers above the canopy.

I plan on following this, I believe it will allow me to grow a medium sized plant in my small area. Also I could use clones from the one and start the other box the other and have one flowering every month.

I believe that rapid growth of the AK48 strain will achieve this. I appreciate your thoughts?

My second aerogarden arrived today. I ordered some ak48 and that should be here soon.Then I am going to start a second grow. My other plants are doing ok, but they are bagseed, if the ak takes off I am prob going to yank em and attempt to have a constant veg - flower thing going on.

I changed the way the 125w lights are mounted in the box. I figured why not hang it like the aero dome from the top of grow box. (See Pic) You can compare it to the ones on the begining of this thread.

Tell me what you guys think, do you think it make a difference if the light is horizontal or vertical?

Oh, I also have two of these coming so I can keep track of things in the box. I found a unique way to maintain the temp in the box. My exhaust fan blows into the DIY carbon filter, but my intake is merely a 4" pipe with little 4" squares of corbon filter stuffed into it, this makes it light tight and makes sure my saw dust doesn't get in. But if I add a few more layers of carbon filter it adds a little bit of back pressure onto the fan and raises the temp in the box. Pull some out and it goes down. Once I get my thermometers, I will be able to control it pretty well. When the light is on at least.

your light dispersion will be better if you remount that light sideways.... maybe drill shelf holes up the side and dowel the backside of that wood that the light is mounted to, then you could raise it as needed. Also, you might want to use a piece of cheese cloth on your intake to prevent all that sawdust from going inside which you'll have to change often if you're working out there a lot. carbon filters are good for blocking smell but not so much for particulates.

cool box though. nice woodworking! good luck with the grow.

Thank you dr0ck.

Ok, I have made a few changes to the setup.

1) I made an apparatus that allows me to mount the light horizontally but still raise it and lower it with chains.

2) I swiped some of the wifes old panty hose, doubled them up, and used them to cover my intakes (this has drastically reduced the dust in the cab).

3) The temp on the deck was approaching 90F which as I understand is way too high. I had one of the old dryer went tubes laying around so I used it to duct directly to my lights. This has dropped the heat down 8 degrees to a much more manageable 82F which is a little high, but manageable. I have to be careful about what I do to cool the box because at "night" (which is actually during the afternoon when it is warmest) is drops to about 65F which is also pushing it, but also manageable.

4) I put the air stones into the Aerogardens and mounted the pumps on the wall (blue) I bought the silent ones which are not silent.

I am only waiting for some tubing, some nutes oh and the seeds (duh), and I will be on my way.

After the holidays I am going to the home store and getting what I need to make the screens for the scrog.

What do you guys think? Will my temps be ok? Thoughts on heating it up a little at "night" when the lights are not on?

OK, so some changes have come about. I realized that since I am adding airstones, air pumps, lights, etc. I might as well forget about the aero garden and go with something that suits me better. I have created my own aerogardens with the additional equipment that I was going to put INTO my aero garden along with some 7.5 quart plastic containers I got from the store and painted. Now I have more room for each plants roots and the roots are separate and cannot intermingle (I'm learning from my current bag seed grow in the other cab). Also my AK48 arrived today, see pictures.

Do you guys think I would be able to make a 150w hps work in here? My concern is that my box is only 35" tall.

thats a nice little setup you have there! im a new grower myself so im looking forward to the results!