"Jungle-woofer" = super-stealthy hifi-speaker growbox

[momo]

Hi! Wanted to finally join overgrow and post something that could be useful for those many out there (myself included…) that still live under ignorant draconian laws in regard to this healing herb. I am all for personal small grows; think it is and always will be a good thing in so many ways, no matter how good quality and organic the big “factories” eventually get. There just is something about your own homegrown.

And, this my little mod of a small (can of course be scaled up easily enough…) hifi-speaker can be a solution to some situations where nothing else seems to really fit the picture (of the living room or office space or whatever…).

-If anyone should ask why you are modifying a speaker in such a weird manner, you can always tell them it’s for sound quality, which is actually a very realistic reason, as can be seen in these photos of a lot of different DIY speaker mods…:

https://ixquick-proxy.com/do/spg/show_p … 74d0e9a8b4

https://ixquick-proxy.com/do/spg/show_p … 160232ac0e

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This little “JungleWoofer” will be v.2 - the first version (identical speaker but different solutions…) can be found here: Hamppuforum - Kirjaudu sisään (google translate will probably crash if you feed Finnish to it, but go for it…

So… this is quite a simple project to complete, but still seems to have left me with these 145 pictures even after a thorough selection process. I suppose the pics do most of the explaining, so I’ll keep words to a minimum. Questions & suggestions are very welcomed!

…

MATERIALS:

wooden boards + bits & pieces…
hobby-vise
non-toxic matte white paint
non-toxic professional wood glue
white acrylic mass
non-toxic matte darkbrown/black paint
tools of all sorts…
metal net
fluffy white air filter material
white “nonwoven” garden fabric (or tissue paper)
activated charcoal
screws
LED- or CFL-lamp(s)
high-quality (Noctua) computer fan(s)
electrical adapter; adjustable 3-12V, min.1amp
hot glue gun
-maybe something else as well…

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DRAWINGS:
-design nr.2 would have been a better design because of the larger filter area, but couldn’t really fit that into this small speaker, so went with design nr.3 instead; more simple, and seems to work well enough, even with the fan not going on full power! Btw, it almost looks like there is a fan also right behind the filter, but there is not. The only fan is on the outside of the front of the speaker in this version, as well as in the former version mentioned earlier…

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-Started with this:

-Let’s upgrade…

A few firm hits with the hammer (through the large opening…) against the inside of the backboard gets it loose without damaging the edges too much…

Glued slightly broken corners…

The raised “floor” of the grow space…

Made the bottom air-intake hole using a 90mm saw drill bit.

Painted the underside of the raised “floor” dark so that light doesn’t bounce through that way…

The “back-wall” of the growing space… drilled the air outlet hole with a 75mm saw drill bit + painted a first layer of white…

Glued it in place! A bit too short but doesn’t matter as the upper part will be hidden away anyway.

Painting the “door” 's edges dark for light entrapment purposes…

Painted dark so it blends in better…

Paint job done! (dark paint, again, is to stop light bouncing in or out through the air-intake…)

-TO BE CONTINUED…

[HydroPower]

LOL very creative use of the speakers… I’m still using similar big old school speakers with good repros because of great sound (big size = great basses).
… and welcome to OG, you’re probably first member from Finland I know of…!

[momo]

Thanks for the feedback and welcome! Yeap, might be the first Finn here on the revived OG, but I think there were a few on the old OG…

[momo]

ELECTRICALS…

Kind of cheap/lazy solution of LED, but wanted to see if this could work, and how well it could work.
Seems to be some sort of coolwhite 20w COB by Epistar, so probably not total crap…?

I actually found a better 12V power adapter later on, with more Amps. This one only had 1000mA, but even that drives one small computer fan well enough in my experience. & then the Noctua - Austrian made hyper-quality computer fans… -though I have also got another cheaper similar size (80mm) fan to pull through a +1 inch layer of activated charcoal well enough before, but didn’t want to take any chances here as the area of the filter is smaller this time… and Noctua delivers some serious static pressure for being so small; even when the adaptor is set at only 7,5V it keeps the grow space just a few degrees warmer than outside the speaker box, so… all good. )

Testing…! (the wires will have to be separated and connected again later on when the fan has been mounted. + I will use the stronger 2,25mA adapter then…)

-TO BE CONTINUED…

[momo]

Time to make space for the fan at the air exit…

Chisel + hammer & a bit of sandpapering…

Painting the wood with some black acrylic color, this time mostly for “glueing” together the wooden particles so it all keeps together better under the fan’s vibration…

Close-up of the raised “floor”; the air could enter equally all around the edges into the grow space, but i’m putting the “floor” closer to the “door” of the speaker so that the air mostly enters from the back and sides, because the charcoal filter is in the top front… thinking this should create the best airflow through the little jungle as I will not (at least yet…) have any circulating fan hanging around in the grow space…

(optional) I will modify the lamp’s electrical cord a bit so it doesn’t stick out from the lamp so much, as this is not really the most spacious grow box…

Sealing the hole with some hot glue… (i seriously like this stuff because it’s very non-toxic compared to other glues, so I use it everywhere it’s possible. Hardens fast though, so have to be really quick sometimes…

Cutting off the plug…

This is that power adapter with more Amps:

-TO BE CONTINUED…

[GrowerGoneWild]

You sir have made my day!..

Especially with this picture.

[momo]

Good to hear! And thanks.

[momo]

.
Ok, time to make the 4 “feet” for the bottom of the speaker so to raise it up a bit for airflow, and after that it’s time to construct and glue into place the whole upper air exit & -filter compartment…

Saw & paint…

Scratched away some paint for the glue to stick better. Probably not neccessary as the white paint is “porous” enough, and then I didn’t do it in the other places anyway, and it’s all fine so… well, live and learn I guess.

Scratched/chiselled away of the surface for the glue to stick better here again, and this time might actually have been useful as the surface of the speaker seems to have some kind of cheapo plastic layer on top of the wood particle board…

Glued them to their place with the pro wood glue this time. The hot glue would probably also have worked well enough, but better safe than sorry I thought…

Marking where the rest of the wooden bits and pieces go…

Time to piece together the “main floor” of the upper compartment…

The wooden bits seen under the board are just for support, not to be included in the construction.

Put a lot of glue from this side also, to really make that slanting wall stick there, it gives extra support to everything else up there as well.

Painting it white…

Putting into place the side & top support pieces for the activated charcoal “cage” to come…

Done!

Some white non-toxic “acrylic paste” to seal and smoothen out any cracks, gaps etc… (it’s a good idea to paint over this stuff after it has dried, as dirt and charcoal dust seem to stick very easily to it if left unpainted…)

Now all the wooden construction is ready!

-TO BE CONTINUED…

[momo]

.
Now cutting/bending some metal net and then it’s time to pour in the activated carbon etc…

One has to be careful not to bend back and forth the metal net more than a couple of times max. as otherwise it can break…

Ready!

Squeeze it into it’s place…

As you can see I accidentally broke apart one of the sides of the “cage” when bending it too much, so I took away the other as well to make the whole thing fit better, as it was just a bit too tight. But, it seems the short ends are not so important for support anyway as all the edges will be hot-glued to the wood pieces.

One short end hot glued to the wood…!

Hot glueing one of the long edges…

OK!

Kitchen roll paper would work for dust filtering…

…but gardening nonwoven material (“fleece”) lets air pass through even more easily, so why not? It’s also easy enough to find almost anywhere…

And now for one of our dearest materials…

Fill it up to the brim (while lightly packing/shaking it down if possible so it settles well…). In this case, a 30mm deep layer should be more than enough, and not be too hard on the fan either…

Using screws here lets you exchange the carbon later when needed…!

It could be left like this…

…but some nice fluffy pre-filtering material is always a good thing!

-TO BE CONTINUED… (another day, as it is now close to 5 in the morning here… )

[momo]

.
92.

Painting the front of the fan black because it was a bit visible through the speaker’s grill fabric…

The lamp support… (optional - could do without if the lamp was a lightweight DIY panel…)

Glue + screws will hold the lamp supports (+lamp!) in place, even when/if transporting the speaker etc.

Squeezed in some cardboard to keep the 1mm gap between lamp and wood, while the glue dried…

Ready!

Set the lamp in place…

Drilled the hole for the electrical cords. Should be made big enough for both the lamp and fan cord to easily fit through together; it can always be sealed up with acrylic paste afterwards to stop light escaping, if needed.

The smaller hole for only the fan cord…

Sealed it up with acrylic paste, and hot glued the fan cord into place.

White electrical staples to secure the lamp’s cord…

-TO BE CONTINUED…

[momo]

.
Time for some electrical wiring…

The fan is now glued into place; put a ring of hot glue around the hole and the fan on top of that. Did not have time to take any picture of it because had to act fast!

Painting the fan even more black.

Twisting together the wires…

…and wrapping electrical tape around the twist! (I’ve never ever had to solder any fan wire connections; a tight twist always works it seems, and why should it not?)

Hot glued into place. I left some extra cord for whatever possible future use. Not the most stylish solution but will be hidden behind the dark speaker grill cloth anyway…

Time to connect the lamp cord… (btw, as can be seen here I’ve glued some black felt pieces onto the “feet” of the speaker so it slides over the floor/shelf, where it will stand, more smoothly… )

Be 101% certain that no copper threads are sticking out of the connection holes, causing a possible future short circuit and… fire.

Wrapping it all up…

-TO BE CONTINUED…

[momo]

.
134.
-Let there be LiGHT!

Should be bright enough if only the spectrum is ok for plants… Hope so!

No light leakage from the air outlet…

…nor any really from the bottom air intake either. (could see a tiiiny bit of a glow when I had a closer look under the speaker, but if it was standing on a dark surface it wouldn’t be visible at all…)

From the cracks around the back-door some light comes through, but not much. Light wouldn’t enter this way in such amounts that it would disturb the plant’s sleep, unless there was some stadium-like lightning solutions going on in the room… Also, a piece of clothing or something can be hung over the back of the speaker if the slight glow is of any concern.

Inside temps don’t seem to rise too much even after 10 minutes… Should be good.

.140.
Had forgot earlier to make the protective grill for the fan, but here it comes… (never mind that opening in the middle of the net, the piece was taken from another project where it had served a purpose…)

Seems to sit tight enough even without any hot glue.

-It’s ready for some greenery! (the sort of which I intend to change here very soon to better test the lamp… )

Ok, time to vape and go outside I think…

…

[lotus710]

dude. this is sick!! great job!! i cant wait to see plants in it!!

[Blowingupjake]

Damn!

This is such an awesome Micro-grow box. Seriously, fantastic idea!

Moreover, I really respect your attention to detail and craftsmanship. Few people are willing to take the time to build things the right way and as a professional tradesman I appreciate the thought and time put into your build.

Kudos.

Can’t wait to see it in action!!!

Will you do a journal? Here, or another thread? I want to make sure I sub in for that

Respect brother.

Jake

[momo]

Thanks Lotus!! I will put pics of the seedlings here soonish. They seem to be having a good time in there.

[momo]

Thanks Jake! After the last version I postponed this second edition for years, but now recently found the will and powah to get it done! Sure feels good.

This time I’ll just test the box with some autoflowering Finola hemp, to see if it works at all (which it seems to…) and I’ll start posting pics of the seedlings in this same thread soon. One day I’m sure I’ll make a proper grow diary with this mini-speaker, I also would like to see how much and at what quality it can “produce” (probably with a good non-autoflowering strain and LST…).

[momo]

Ok, here comes the first week of growth! (autoflowering CBD-hemp “Finola”…)

DAY-1

DAY-3

DAY-5

DAY-7

.

[momo]

So, nighttime temps in the speaker have been around 18-19c which is not ideal, but ok… but the daytime temps in the speaker have the past days been only around 22-23c. That is way too cold, especially with only LED, which doesn’t really radiate any heat or even warmth towards the plants… So I added a small aquarium heat-mat under the speaker, and it helped a bit. And the fan is going on 7,5V now, as the heat mat seems to cool down too much if the fan is moving the air on 9V.

Here’s how it was earlier today:

Then after I put the heat-mat it became like this, after a few hours:

-Definitely a bit better! -Though they seem to have grown pretty good even with that 18-19c/22-23c… I suppose as it’s an outdoor-developed hemp strain it’s more ok with chiller temps (also)?

[alpine]

It looks very nice, only light is not good for the roots.