JGibs420 First Grow - LST 4ft CFL Melamine Cabinet

[JGibs420]

Not bad results for CFL's!

Not bad at all

Thanks Mike!

I was pleasantly surprised myself, wasn't expecting nearly what I've got so far.

Just surprised to see more/new trichs and pistils appearing... Thought I was near the end about two weeks ago, but as currently standing I think I might have another 2-4 to go...

Hoping they fatten up, still a bit skinny Right now

 

[JGibs420]

Installed my negative ion generator again (finally).. guess it's kind of a bit late..

Also not sure if I connected the wire terminal correct way... Both red wires... And no indication anywhere...

Anyway connected the way I thought was correct, put a positive terminal of multimeter against the bristles and got a negtive reading... So I gues... Yay?

 

[JGibs420]

Also, working on an idea for an active carbon filter seeing as the smell's kind of taken over a bit.

 

[JGibs420]

"Super Activated" carbon filter for PC fan installed!

This was a really fun project first of all, enjoyed making this, as with every other DIY I've attempted.

Haven't had the opportunity to test it out entirely yet, only been installed for a few minutes... so will keep updates!

I got this gutter guard mesh for seriously cheap. Decided to use this as the body, easy to work with and pretty durable while allowing airflow.

Bought a lid... Haha yes just a lid the size of my PC fan (closest I could find, this one seemed almost perfect)

Rolled a cylinder, overlapping once for added structural integrity. Fit to lid as so:

Did the same thing once again but a bit smaller. At this point my fiance asks (actually more in the line of knocks me out of the way and demands) me to get off the kitchen table. Responded with a punny "Hey, don't mesh with me!" She was not having it.

Stockings, only used/needed 1 pair. Chinatown has surprisingly good quality.

Pulled one over each mesh like so

Then put the the other smaller mesh back inside and filled the gap with "SUPER" activated carbon.

Pulled the inside stocking over the outside mesh to create a barier.

And for some reason some photos of steps here are missing... Can't find them anywhere... even considered dismantling it to show you.. but no.. I'll rather just explain.


Removed square-ness plastic area of fan's inside rim in order to pull over a rubber fitting I found at the hardware store for like a dollar.. don't know what the actual use is for, but in this scenario it allowed me to achieve an airtight fit with the fan and even convienently had an almost screw-like cylinder fitting on the other end that fit perfectly into the smaller mesh.
Then clamp it all in place.

Here it is installed... I must say, looking at this photo it looks a bit shlongy... Bigger than I anticipated, will have to figure something out regarding lights.. probably move them down more and install the reflector hood against the side wall with the adjusble arm bracket it came with.

Ta-da!


Also, as a reward I just sampled a small (seriously very small) popcorn bud I harvested three days ago and hung up to dry. I was very curious and to be honest I've been feeling it since about 2 sentences into writing this.

Not at all what I expected.. it's better! I haven't had this much of an enjoyable high in a while.. not just saying it because I'm being biased.. I am very satisfied in the quality of the bud not at all the best I've ever had, but really really good. I think.

 

[JGibs420]

For some reason plants drank up a lot of water in the last day and half... Soil was completely dry (actually thought I might have forgotten to water but I did!)

Flushed while I was at it, will upload new images in a day or two

 

[JGibs420]

Sorry for the blurry quality, I was struggling intensely trying to focus the camera through the loupe for some reason.

But.. these are amber trichs.. right?

 

[Weezze]

Yes they are!

 

[JGibs420]

Yes they are!

Then we're getting close!

 

[JGibs420]

So this just happened...

Remember how I had issues with too much heat in my grow cab? I installed a DIY carbon filter a few days ago and this caused my temperature to go higher again.. before the filter I was able to get my temperature down to about 76F constant.. I then ran a small desk fan behind my grow cab to get it down to about 74 (not much of an improvement but it helped).

After the filter however, my temps went up to 83F! Tried repositioning the desk fan at different angles, but this just made things worse.. up until a point where I couldn't get it below 87F without having the cab door wide open.

Gave up on the desk fan, thought "okay, maybe my extraction fan isn't strong enough to pull enough air through the filter"..

Anyway long story short, I played around with my intake and circulation fan inside my flower cab.

Prior to the fix:
I had my 12V PC fan running at 17V as extraction
A smaller PC fan running 15V active intake.
Another duplicate fan on 12V to cool CFLs in floodlight hood.

I disconnected both smaller fans to see how the temperature would react (how hot it would really get in there).

And voilà!

Well it's fixed now... Mostly by accident and I really can't explain how/why... But now I only have my extraction fan with filter attached and my temperature went down to 69F.

As soon as I connected either of the two fans, temperature went up (especially for the intake)..


Weird thing however.. I had the same setup in my veg cab (only missing circulation fan) and it was always a bit cold even with lights on only around 65F... Disconnected it's intake fan and voilà! 71F...

In one case turning my active intake to passive lowered my temperature drastically.. where in the veg it hightened?

Anyone have an idea why this had such an effect? I'm guessing maybe something with negative pressure, but how can 1 small pc fan being disconnected drop my temperature by almost 20F?

 

[JGibs420]

Good job on the filter bru

It works way better than I expected it would, didn't think the PC fan would be strong enough to work at all, but seems like all worked out quite perfectly in the end.

This morning though came into the room and there was a planty smell in the air... But not from my flower cab.. seems like my new babies are starting to stink already.

Premature if you ask me, didn't smell my flowering ones until about 2 weeks ago.

 

[Boatshoe]

Looks like your babies are about ready. Are all the trichs similarly all white and amber (top to bottom)?

Good job on the filter, now you have a place to dry your buds. I like your DIY spirit.

 

[Boatshoe]

Question about your temps, what's your room temperature? How hot are the fans? Those are the only variables?
So if your fans generate heat, can you move them out of the closed area to the outside of the box or into the space above?

You can play around with it when your flowers are out. Disconnect the vents and run the fans in the box without pulling air, you might find they run hotter than you think.

 

[Canuckbuds]

Hey dude. How's your filter work out. I was thinking of DIY'ing one myself. You seemed to have a really good idea.

 

[Canuckbuds]

Hey dude. How's your filter work out. I was thinking of DIY'ing one myself. You seemed to have a really good idea.

Lol sorry. The previous comments hadn't loaded when I asked. Good job man. I'm gonna steal your idea if that's ok. Any idea what CFM your extraction fan is. I have a 105 CFM , 119mm. 2x2x4 grow box.

 

[JGibs420]

Looks like your babies are about ready. Are all the trichs similarly all white and amber (top to bottom)?

Good job on the filter, now you have a place to dry your buds. I like your DIY spirit.

I think I'll give them some more time, only spotted a few amber trichromes at the top of SOME of the buds, while actually most of them are milky all over with a few newer bud growths have clear ones still... I'd say about 2% amber and still about 5% glassy at some places.

Thanks I like to DIY with most things in life. Love working with my hands, most of my unnecessary expenditure on a monthly basis is due to DIY projects I take on. Same thing with my car (80s model) always try and fix things myself before I head to the professionals hehe.

But building and setting up my grow area has by far been the most fun and rewarding. Just wish I had more money lying about in order to really get into it, once everything is sorted I'll probably set money aside at some point to do a DIY COB Light setup.

Question about your temps, what's your room temperature? How hot are the fans? Those are the only variables?
So if your fans generate heat, can you move them out of the closed area to the outside of the box or into the space above?

You can play around with it when your flowers are out. Disconnect the vents and run the fans in the box without pulling air, you might find they run hotter than you think.

Well right now (after adding the lights I took out because of heat issues) the temperature is 71F in the middle of the foliage and 73F at soil surface. Around 80F where the filter is the last time I had the meter above it (hottest reading I've got in the cab that's not near the lights itself).

The fans however run very cool, I've thought about that being the issue as well and honestly they've always been cool to the touch and wind blowing from them were lower than the room temperature outside the cab. (Also PC fans)

Right now with just the extraction running is the best temperature I've had since I started growing.

Will definitely be toying around when this is done and harvested, pretty sure I'll need some sort of air circulation in there for good bud growth. If necessary I'll redesign the whole flower cab in order to have the best environment for the flowering beauties. Tinkering is frustrating a lot of the time, especially when results don't make sense, but you learn and improve and learn some more. Fundimentals of progress I guess.

My humidity seems to be mid 60s now though.. which seems a bit high..

 

[JGibs420]

Lol sorry. The previous comments hadn't loaded when I asked. Good job man. I'm gonna steal your idea if that's ok. Any idea what CFM your extraction fan is. I have a 105 CFM , 119mm. 2x2x4 grow box.

Hey Canuckbuds, thanks it worked out pretty well! The smell completely vanished within 2 days and so far so good.

The only smell I have now since yesterday was from my new vegging plants.. but it's so faint I won't even bother with it (only really smell it near the extraction area which doesn't have a filter yet, which isn't a big issue for me)

The fan I'm using is 120mm 70 CFM, so yours should work perfectly fine. Try and keep the open area (tube hole) the same diameter as your fan blades for optimal pull (meaning the outer diameter of the filter will be about an inch or two more than the fan probably. Pull air through instead of pushing, I've read that works much better.

Good luck hope that helps bru

 

[Pat999]

Canuck I posted a link to my journal earlier where I show how I made my filter. If you'd like you could swing by it and have a look. Gibs did a good job on the filter, much smaller scale than mine but I also plan to make another one come next month for a small breeding box I want to start up.

 

[JGibs420]

Canuck I posted a link to my journal earlier where I show how I made my filter. If you'd like you could swing by it and have a look. Gibs did a good job on the filter, much smaller scale than mine but I also plan to make another one come next month for a small breeding box I want to start up.

This (and a few other posts/videos I found online) was what I used as the basis for my design. Well worth a look at in my opinion.

Pat's would definitely be more efficient than mine, but for the small scale I'm growing (2x2x3.5ft) this seems to do the trick.

Total cost was about $10 US (with an excessive amount of material to build another 2 or 3 at about $5 or $6 each)

 

[Pat999]

This (and a few other posts/videos I found online) was what I used as the basis for my design. Well worth a look at in my opinion.

Pat's would definitely be more efficient than mine, but for the small scale I'm growing (2x2x3.5ft) this seems to do the trick.

Total cost was about $10 US (with an excessive amount of material to build another 2 or 3 at about $5 or $6 each)

Mine sucks in air really well bru. Honestly the best I could do at the time and turned into something that kicks ass. I don't get any smell when the filter and fan is running so that's a win in my book for sure LoL well rather too much than too little imo

 

[Carlbigbud]

Are these from seed if so how many weeks in are you. Looking good