Rigging up and installing the fan and exhaust grill...
So, down to the nitty-gritty and pretty messy DIY. First things first I took the 120mm PC fan that I ordered from ebay, snipped off the computer plugs and stripped away about an inch of the wire casing from the red and black wires:
The yellow one is to do with speed control I believe and isn't necessary, so I trimmed it well down and out of the way.
As a power supply, I used a 5v plug (the fan was 12v so it would run slower than it could.. if temperature becomes an issue I could always find a 9v or 12v power supply instead) from which I snipped the phone plug and again stripped away around an inch of wire casing. Inside was a black and white wire, from which I again stripped away about an inch of the casing.
Black goes to black, which left red to go to white:
Twist the two wires together and fold the ends over. Repeat with the other pair of wires and then get something to join them together. My dads an electrician so he had this handy (not sure what the technical name is!):
It's simply a case of inserting the twisted copper wires into the hole and, with a screwdriver, tightening the screws down onto the wire as tight as it will go.
And that's it. A completed PC fan conversion:
Next came cutting the holes into the box. I decided on the corners I did because it meant that I could use the box in the future tipped either length-ways of side-on and still have the fan at the bottom and the exhaust at the top.
This is important as you want to draw air in at the bottom where it's cool and have the exhaust exiting the warm air at the top of the box. Also, stick 'em in the back so it's more discreet!
Take a drill with a hole cutting piece and drill through so as to create space for a jig-saw to start it's work. Make a hole slightly smaller than what you need and finish with a wood file so that you can get as tight a fit as possible. Done right, you can
gently hammer the fan into place with a tight enough fit that you don't need glue or screws. The exhaust grill I got has a square plastic mount with a circular bit to insert in the hole. I plan to stick a carbon filter over this when flowering starts.
Before putting them in:
And after:
And when I say gently hammer, I mean it. Dunno if you can see, but I took a bit of plastic of the fan frame, luckily it didn't effect the build negatively:
Next, I sawed a couple of wedges and nailed them under the lid so that it held it in place (the double hinges would have been a pain what with the light hanging from there) and drilled a couple of holes through the lid for the cords holding the light in place. Remember, check your reflector and bulb measurements because inevitably the bulb wont be central in the reflector.
This means that the holes in the lid need to be off-centre to ensure that the bulb itself is central:
I'm using washing line because, once tied, it stays tied and yet is very easy to undo at the same time.
Next, I painted the entire insides with mat white paint, waited for it to dry, fed the washing line through the holes and light reflector and tied them up to a couple of nails hammered
diagonally into the top of the box. I've decided to go lid ways up because it offers more surface area to scrog and I think I've just enough height to do it this way. Here's the almost end product:
The way the lid closes is a
slight pain because I have to peek through an almost closed lid to make sure of the height of the lamp. I'm planning on a more adjustable method on top of the lid for raising and lowering the lights, perhaps with inch by inch markings on the cord marking out its height in the box.
I also had to make a last minute notch where the lid closes on the box to allow for the power lead of the light (slight oversight there but that's OK, t'was but a two minute job). And so here it is! The almost final looking box as seen from the outside:
Pretty discreet huh? And the fan is silent as. Temperature is staying a steady 79F with the lid closed so may be forced to change to a higher voltage power source for the fan once the 250w red is back in there.
Finally, here's just one more pic showing the current state of the plants:
Hope they like their new home and I hope this has been of use to people. Will keep you posted on my progress!
