Building my growbox...

C

curlybud

New Member
So I started.. and will admit I've mostly been inspired by stratlogic's thread so what you see here will very much resemble what he did, at least for the begining!

I've run into a small problem with mylar which I mention at the end and will be needing some advice on!

I decided to make my growbox about 3' x 1.5', initially to accomodate two plants, though I'm thinking of three now, I'm still not too sure... I also went with some MDF and was surprised at how heavy it was!

Oh and it looks like my camera's about to die too. Lots of weird vertical lines appearing in the pics. Since my money's going in the box now, I won't be replacing it for a while still. Sorry about that. It's not as noticeable once the pics are resized.

Preparation / design
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The base is all complete
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Top view of the base, and the first part of the frame :
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1st piece of the frame
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I was worried the frame might not hold all the MDF since as mentionned I found it fairly heavy so I reinforced it with corner braces
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The frame is ready
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I then used more corner braces to secure the frame to the base and added wheels (great idea, wheels - made moving the whole thing around in my tiny condo a lot easier!)
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I then applied some mylar onto what will be the back panel of the groxbox...
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and mounted the biatch. Now what happened here is causing me trouble. The mylar moved a bit when I drilled through to secure the back panel to the frame and there's some huge waves in the mylar now. I'm really worried about this - I've been hearing lots about how hotspots are really bad, but am not really sure exactly what they do and would love some light shed on this please. Also, what are my options now? Remove the back panel again and try to straighten it out? Live with it?

Left side :
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Right side :
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Thanks in advance for your help everyone!
 
Looking great man! I'm tuned in. Nice clean build too. And the mylar looks good. If the mylar is getting to you, take a blade and slice where the ripples are, flatten it out, then use a glue stick or rubber cement and glue the back of the mylar back to the MDF. From what I've heard hot spots shouldn't really be an issue since it's mylar. That extra width is definitely going to come in handy for sure. My 2'x2' base is definitely the bare minimum as far as space for just one plant goes. With my current grow it is feeling a bit cramped in there.

And yeah MDF is pretty damn heavy. Originally I chose MDF because I saw someone build a box for a guitar amplifier for recording purposes. The MDF was supposed to help with noise reduction. If I had known that noise wasn't going to be an issue like I originally thought it was, I would have went with 1/4" plywood or something lighter. But wheels took care of the weight problem.

What kind of grow is this going to be? Hydro/Soil, ScrOG/SOG/LST, # of plants etc...? Also, what are you planning for lighting and ventilation? Info and pics are always appreciated. You're off to a great start. And welcome aboard.
 
Thanks Stratlogic!

If it's not a big deal I'm probably going to leave it as is. If it ain't broke, don't fix it :)

I'm not entirely sure what kind of grow it's going to be. For now I'm thinking of going hydro. I think I prefer going soil-less as it's cleaner.
I'm probably going to order some feminized seeds too to make sure I get the most out of my effort - it would suck to have males, especially when you're growing a low # of plants, plus I have nowhere to exile a potential male. So the extra cost seems worth it, at least in my case. I've got my eyes on some white lady for now, seems good for beginners - easy to grow, etc.

Ventilation-wise, I picked up two of these fans yesterday, and I've set them up already, will post some pics soon. Now I need to find a 12v adapter..
I totally copied your idea and also wanted to independently ventilate the light chamber. I don't think I'm going to build a scrubber, see how the first grow goes smell-wise and take it from there unless strongly advised otherwise.

I've been reading a bit about using CFLs over HID and am unsure what to do here. I'm attracted to the lower heat emissions, and I could go nuts and set up a ton of lights in my box, including on the sides and perhaps even on the bottom. But I've also read the yield is smaller and disappointing when using CFLs.. plus, going with CFLs sort of kills the independently ventilated light chamber I wanted :)

Decisions, decisions!
 
So as I've been impatiently waiting for my lights and hydro system to arrive, I've constantly been re-thinking my setup and already found a bunch of things i'd do differently now :)

One day, while drooling in front of the turnkey growboxes like the Bloombox or the QuickGrow Q9, i had the idea to flip my unfinished growbox 90degrees to the left, resulting in this :

sideways_box1.JPG


The left side would make an ideal mother/clone veg chamber, leaving all the remaining space on the right available to bloom. The fans I installed for air evac would be pointing upwards instead of sideways, thus hopefully evacuating air even more effectively even though heat shouldnt be a prob since I'll be going T5/CFL.

My only concern is whether or not my babies will have enough height, given that they would only have 35" available (pic says 32 but i think it's 35"). Again, light heat will be minimal thanks to the CFL/T5s so they could pretty much stretch to the max.

Would this work if I use LST or ScroG? I'd love to hear your thoughts as to whether this would work or not and why! Maybe I could grow some Lowryder instead of some white lady? I don't expect my order to arrive until another week or two so I still have time to make modifications.
 
I bet it would work on it's side. Great idea btw. If you decide to ScrOG with the box on it's side it would give you a larger screen area. I was just looking at StunmanMike's LST and he had those plants just inches from the pot so I definitely think you can pull the LST off too. It seems you have a good grasp of what's going on and I'm confident whatever you do will kick ass.
 
Hey Strat & Cherma - thanks for posting your thoughts ! I was a little saddened to see this thread get more & more views but so few replies! :confused:

The LST / ScrOG was just an idea, I have no grow experience as of yet so I'm still unsure if it would be wise to try such a thing for a 1st grow. I might need a little experience on height control before attempting such a thing..

Anyways, if i decide to keep the box upright, I can always add an extension on the side, or if i get lazy, I've noticed IKEA has some furniture of the perfect size to host a mom & clones.

Besta might even have room for two moms, and keeping the top shelf would allow for clones, all I'd have to do is slap a door on it.
Same with Billy, which is even higher, and Aneboda even has a door, all I'd have to do is mylar it up. heck, even a drawer chest if you just don't build the drawers and add a door too. All under or around $80 or so, so potentially worth the investment if lazy :ganjamon:

Oh and for anyone out there looking for a cheap grow closet and not wanting to build your own, my trip to IKEA was very revealing tonight - Hosle! Lots of grow space, and room on the top to veg clones. Dirt cheap, easy to set up ventilation in, only problem would be airproofing it for smell.

I'll go check out StuntmanMike's LST right now!
 
ANEBODA it was. After en evening of messing around, I've got a nice and very well ventilated box to keep my mother in. It's got 3x 23w 6500k CFLs, and a 10" compartment up top to hopefully hold my clones.. is 10" tall enough? I also need to put a light up there.. I stepped on my 4th CFL and it shattered...

I also picked up a home made drip kit from my local hydro store for $17 without the pump.

The finished product
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Got a fan pulling air out right in front of the CFLs.
The power bar is set diagonally.
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10" high area, hopefully for clones... is this high enough?
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Took me a while to figure out how to wire the two fans to the 12v adapter.. I'm a big time blonde when it comes to electrics :bongrip:
but they work real well now!
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And here it is in the dark.
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Question, though.. I'm assuming the light coming in through the fan area during mom's 6h sleepy time won't hurt the plant since some people go 24/7 with light instead of 18/6. Is this correct?
 
It really shouldn't be a problem, but this is comming from an amature, it comparason to the whole thing the light leak is minor
 

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