Heat Source for Holster Heat-Drying Box.

[Latigo Smith]

I'll be shortly building a heat-drying cabinet for drying wet formed holsters, and I have a question or two about the optimal heat source for such a project.

It seems to me that most of the members here who've built heat boxes for holsters have used and recommended standard 100 watt incandescent light bulbs, typically 2-4 of them for a full-size heat box. However, a couple years ago, the hippy tree-hugging types managed to ban the production and/or sale of incandescent light bulbs for some silly environmental reason or another, so this doesn't appear to be an option anymore. In fact, everywhere I looked, there wasn't a single offering of 100 watt incandescent bulbs for sale, only 100 watt equivalent LED, which of course don't produce the necessary heat for this purpose. 

 

This led me to consider a reptile heat lamp instead. However, I'm concerned that a heat lamp will yield too much concentrated heat on the leather, as they're designed to heat a small area intensely, rather than the less concentrated radiant heat that a standard incandescent bulb produces. 

 

For reference, I'm thinking about building my heat box out of 3/4 inch plywood, and making it roughly 22" wide, 15" deep and 30" tall, but this is just an approximation. I also considered bumping the height up to around 5 feet or so if the heat lamp is too concentrated, just to give a little more distance between the bulb and the leather.

 

As for the exact heat lamp, I found a 150 watt heat lamp with a dimmer switch, which would allow me to fine tune the temperature. I'm not sure if I should use the 60 watt, 75 watt or 150 watt heat bulb for a box of this size, but I'm figuring on the 150 watt bulb, since I can back off the heat with the dimmer switch if it gets too hot. Given that a dedicated heat lamp bulb produces more heat than a regular incandescent bulb of the same wattage, I'm thinking that the 60 or 75 watt heat bulbs might be the closest thing to a 100 watt regular incandescent. I also think that a single 150 watt heat bulb would likely meet or exceed (possibly by a large margin) the heat output of even 4x100 watt regular incandescent bulbs, so I mostly just wanted to be sure that this option wouldn't create so much concentrated heat so as to overheat or cook the leather. 

 

Have any of you used reptile heat lamps for a heat drying box, and if so, could you inform me on what wattage heat bulb you used and the approximate dimensions of your heat box? I'd be appreciative for any advice. 

Edited 2 hours ago by Latigo Smith

[fredk]

What about a hair-dryer?

[Latigo Smith]

13 minutes ago, fredk said:

What about a hair-dryer?

I seriously considered a hairdryer, and looked into this as an option, as they're designed to gently dry damp organic material without burning it. However, the fatal flaw in this approach is that apparently your typical hairdryer is only meant to run continually for 15-20 minutes, and leaving it running for longer than this can cause it to overheat severely. I think for proper stiffening a holster should be heat dried for around 30-40 minutes, which would probably melt down a hairdryer. Heat guns are the same story, they produce more heat than a hairdryer but still shouldn't be run for longer than 20 minutes.

I hadn't considered this until just now, but I suppose you could buy two hairdryers and switch them out after 20 minutes, giving the first one a chance to cool while the second one takes over heating the box. This could work very nicely. 

Edited 3 hours ago by Latigo Smith

[Dwight]

My box is about 16 x 16 and 48 tall.  

I bought 100 watt incandesent bulbs . . . 5 of em sitting on the bottom . . . gives me a 140 deg box up at the top.

Never had any problems with that setup

May God bless,

Dwight

[Latigo Smith]

9 minutes ago, Dwight said:

My box is about 16 x 16 and 48 tall.  

I bought 100 watt incandesent bulbs . . . 5 of em sitting on the bottom . . . gives me a 140 deg box up at the top.

Never had any problems with that setup

May God bless,

Dwight

Thanks for the response and specifications, Dwight. If regular 100 watt incandescent bulbs were still available for sale, that's certainly the setup I would use. 

[fredk]

A thermostat controlled convection heater?