Stealth Cab Photo Build Summary

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:



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:



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:



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



Also one of the ballast:



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:



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:



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



Here are some pictures of the fans after installation:



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:



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:



Here are some photos of the installation of it:



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



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:




So the next step I took in building this cab was installing the power supply for the fans and the fan controller.

The power supply I bought online and consisted of just a 12v dc inverter and a molex connector.

Here is a photo of the power supply:



Shortly after getting it I realized the pinout for the molex connector was wrong so I switched the 12v and the 6v pin.

I also installed a surge protector that all of my powered parts of the box would hub at:

Here is what it looks like:

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It also took me a while to think of a way to mount the cooltube reflector to the box without drilling holes in the top or side (ugly and ruins stealth)

I ended up making two tension rods out of some 1/4" all thread bar and it works perfectly.

This is what the tension rods look like:



Now the light sits pretty stiffly with only the intake side of the ducting connected as I'm still waiting on the fan in the mail.

This is what the light looks like thus far:



Here is a picture of how I mounted the tear-resistant mylar which is also diffusion mylar.

I used double sided mounting scotch mounting tape:

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Here are the rest of the pictures of the mylar being mounted:

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Here are some spare pictures just showing some methods of which I did things:

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Here are some photos of the finished product:

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I tested the temperature a half foot away from the tube with a 160 CFM fan cooling the tube and got the following results:

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The fan was vibrating the cabinet and making noise so I took the bars that it was mounted with and wrapped rubberbands around where the loop hung on the bar:

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This solution worked pretty well.

As far as light proofing I just took the rest of the double sided mounting tape and cut it length wise in half and used as you would light proofing:

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I dont need to worry about light traps for the fans yet but if anyone would like id be glad to post my plans. I feel theyre pretty solid.

Here are some final pictures of the cabinet in the location I will be test growing:

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Thanks for reading!

Please leave comments and let me know what you think or if you have any questions id be happy to answer.

Very good and professionally made. Can't believe you managed to fit 600w in so small cabinet. I've never used one but don't you think it will fry the plants being so close? I will come in later to have a look how things are going. Very good job +rep

EDIT: I am not sure about that but I think I've read that too much light in small spaces can do bad things to cells of plant.

Thats a really nice cab, and very detailed post. Thumbs up!

Nice cabinet mate, really clean build.

Thanks to everyone for the rep.

EDIT: I am not sure about that but I think I've read that too much light in small spaces can do bad things to cells of plant.

Click to expand...

I thought about this too but to me the amount of light given by the light still seemed pretty small compared to the suns light. Well see how the first grow goes and adjust accordingly.

do you have a grow journal started in this yet?

bloody beautiful cab mate, inspired me to build mine, though mines only wooden, this definitely deserves to be kept alive as it is the pinnacle of stealth design lol +rep for ya
Any details on the how much you spent on it?

Stay frosty!

That, my friend, is a work of art. Utterly beautiful and simplistic, I applaud you.

wow..clean ass buuild man nice work

awesome cab!!

This is legit. nice work