Tell me about your "Hot Box"

[msdeluca]

I thought about placing the lamps at the bottom and finally decided against it.  Didn't want anything dripping on the lamps and didn't want hot spots coming off the lamps from below.  Since heat rises, it will accumulate at the top (the reason for the boxed area at the top) and it is the fans that will circulate the hot air, more evenly, downward around the objects to be dried...

I think the gap around the door introduces fresh air and allows some hot air to escape... possibly allowing for more even heating overall... maybe...

Hell, Dwight, its all just a guess until you actually build something and see what the hell it does.

Once I get mine built, we'll compare notes...

I'm also hoping my design will allow from some jerky makin' (another reason for placing lamps above)... took some tips from some dehydrators...

What could be better than jerky smellin' holsters...

Edited August 10, 2016 by msdeluca

[electrathon]

I have made a few of these years ago (we were heating batteries, electric car racing) and I used a cooler (insulated box) a thermostat (about $5 each) and a hair drier.  You drill a hole in the bottom and feed air in from the drier, a hole in the top to let out the warm, moist air.  The thermostat will cycle the drier so it only runs when heat is needed.

If you do not move fresh air in you are building a terrarium and you may end up with lots of mold in the drier. 

[Toney]

Most of the year I just use my truck.

During the winter I use a small box with a hole big enough to poke my desk lamp through

[KY PI]

Dwight, My sister's dish washer went out this summer and she asked me to haul her old one off after getting the new one installed. I loaded it up and got to thinking...... it has a built in heater, fan and racks........... How could this be modified for our use?  Could even cut a couple of holes for a vent and heat lamp if necessary....... I didn't haul it to the landfill but it is instead sitting outside my workshop........  How would this work?

[Dwight]

Sounds like a winner to me, . . . take out the guts, . . . build a rack in the middle, . . . or at least some kind of bars to hang the holster on.

Should be pretty easy to rig up a thermostat inside, . . . to turn the heater and a fan on and off, . . . 

I would not think you would need a heat lamp, . . . heater should be quite enough, . . . and it's already insulated, . . . looks like a winner to me.

First thing to do though, . . . gut it, . . . get a meat thermometer, . . . drill a little hole in the side of it, . . . put the thermometer in there, . . . turn it on, . . . find out what kind of heat we are talking about, . . . from all I've ever heard, . . . 140 F is the MAX,

I do know (and you don't need to ask how) that dampening a Kirkpatrick holster for a 1911, . . . putting it in the microwave for a minute, . . . is too hot.

May God bless,

Dwight

[Sonydaze]

Several years ago I built a drying box for drying freshly painted wood handles in the winter time.  It is a plywood box about 18" x 24" x 24" high with a drop on lid.  Low in the back, I cut a hole to slide a ceramic cube heater half way through the plywood and duct taped it in place. At the top, I drilled four 1 1/2" holes to allow good circulation.  The ceramic heater is thermostatically controlled so I have excellent heat control.  This is pretty simple to make, not expensive and should work great for drying leather.

[dakotawolf]

+1 on the food dehydrator.  It is capable of low heat (95-165 F) and has a gentle fan.  Almost like it was made to gently dry stuff ;-)

[brmax]

Some great ideas here for drying boxes, and totally understand its weird finding searches on google methods of all kinds, I find myself doing that.

Anyway I couldn't resist so; whos making beef jerky with these.

I thought about hatching eggs initially, then the smoker came to mind but considering the flav didn't need to go that direction.

That brood heater is to cool, will have to check that out some more.

So the hoki smoker still is a viable option, and as mentioned the same protection from drippings. The old fridge or any kinda box easy to move if needed and some insulation is great, with these finds maybe a regular cheap hot plate (one pan ) from some box store.

have a good Friday you all

Floyd

 

 

[Seaboard]

You may want to check out www.ingramproducts.com under their tab for "Panel Temp Control". the little heater units and fans are used in industrial control panels to keep out condensation. They can be set up to 140 degrees F and depending on the size of the box you can wire them together. Also can look for panel heaters in your search engine of choice and come up with others that are all in one with heater and fan together and some with a higher watt output.

We also used an old small refrigerator as an oven for welding rods to keep them dry, worked pretty good. Well insulated and some already have the light bulb socket inside.

Good Luck

Chris

[msdeluca]

Updated the wiring schematic...  Added a couple of PWM variable fan speed controllers and figured out the wiring on the MH1210F thermostat...

 

[Dwight]

Well, . . . did a bunch of things down thru the summer, . . . never needed the "hot box" for what I was doing then.

Got to thinking about it today, . . . no real sun for hanging in the window, . . . 

Made two holsters today, . . . and the concept works great, . . . and no problem with it "overheating".

It dried one holster I dyed in about 2 hours, . . . dried the Resolene applications for 2 holsters in about an hour, . . . (I'm wearing one right now that I put resolene on earlier today, . . . normally would never have done this, . . . but the hot box makes it so workable).

Got two cell phone cases drying in there right now, . . . did the old water forming trick, . . . waiting for them to dry.  Been in there about 3 hours so far, . . .

Just wanted to give everyone a heads up, . . . and the good news that the design works, . . . you want to copy, . . . jump in there, . . . but you gotta use your own wood.

May God bless,

Dwight

[msdeluca]

Still plugging away at this thing as time permits...

CPU fan standoffs made from a 1/4" pex toilet supply line and
8/32 round head screw tapped into the plywood...

Write up and resources...

 

[Dwight]

Looks good so far, msdeluca, . . . 

When I get these projects, . . . I usually procrastinate a while, . . . then get mad at myself, . . . just quit what I wanted to do, . . . and DO IT.

That's actually how mine came about earlier this year.

May God bless,

Dwight

[msdeluca]

1 hour ago, Dwight said:

Looks good so far, msdeluca, . . . 

When I get these projects, . . . I usually procrastinate a while, . . . then get mad at myself, . . . just quit what I wanted to do, . . . and DO IT.

That's actually how mine came about earlier this year.

May God bless,

Dwight

Dwight,

Pretty much the way it works for me... although, waiting for projects to dry does provide a window of time to work on other things.  

Maybe the hot box isn't such a good idea after all...

Mike

[stu925]

Ok now I have to build one of these when I move my office/leather work are to a bigger room.  This should be a big help.

Stu

[msdeluca]

Painted the box and doors and am in the process of wiring it up.

Tested the fans and variable speed controls, they are working great.  This photo shows the thermostat being wired.

Thermostat barely fit the 3/4" material thickness, but it snapped into place.  All the wires are now pulled into the single-gang cut-in junction box.
Drilled a hole for the thermostat sensor on the right side.  It is that chrome pin to the right of the screwdriver about 6" up the right side.  I'll probably silicone it in place.

 

Write up and resources...

[msdeluca]

140º baby...!!!

I'll post up pics of the interior later.

 

Write up and resources...

[msdeluca]

I'm anxious to try this thing...!!!

 

 

Some testing results:

• Epoxy failed on the dowel rods.  Will try J-B Weld next.
• Shelves can't be removed without flexing or removing doors.  Will glue some extensions to the shelf cleats.
• Thermostat read out is consistent with oven thermometer.
• 120º F - 15 minutes
• 130º F - 22 minutes
• 140º F - 30 minutes
• Thermostat interval 140º to 137º - 2 minutes
• Reheat to 140º cut off - 3 minutes

I may change the cycle interval from 2 degrees to 5 degrees to reduce wear and tear on the thermostat.

Write up and resources...

[stu925]

On 10/10/2016 at 10:58 AM, msdeluca said:

I'm anxious to try this thing...!!!

 

 

Some testing results:

• Epoxy failed on the dowel rods.  Will try J-B Weld next.
• Shelves can't be removed without flexing or removing doors.  Will glue some extensions to the shelf cleats.
• Thermostat read out is consistent with oven thermometer.
• 120º F - 15 minutes
• 130º F - 22 minutes
• 140º F - 30 minutes
• Thermostat interval 140º to 137º - 2 minutes
• Reheat to 140º cut off - 3 minutes

I may change the cycle interval from 2 degrees to 5 degrees to reduce wear and tear on the thermostat.

Write up and resources...

That looks awesome.  Much more ambitious than anything I'll be building I think, although I would love to have one like it. 

[msdeluca]

Pegs kept failing...

Bought some 10-24 all thread, cut it into 6" lengths, covered them with heat shrink tubing, and capped them brake bleeder caps I had laying around.

Cannot fail now...

Write up and resources...

Edited October 25, 2016 by msdeluca

[Joon1911]

On 8/22/2016 at 5:07 AM, msdeluca said:

Updated the wiring schematic...  Added a couple of PWM variable fan speed controllers and figured out the wiring on the MH1210F thermostat...

 

Been following this thread with interest.  Now I've gotta build one.  

 

Didn't see the particular PWMs listed in your parts list.  Do you have a link for the particular one you use?   Also can you tell me what advantage adding the PWM in the mix does?   Thanks. 

[msdeluca]

17 hours ago, Joon1911 said:

Didn't see the particular PWMs listed in your parts list.  Do you have a link for the particular one you use?   Also can you tell me what advantage adding the PWM in the mix does?   Thanks. 

Added the PWM switches to the list.  These are used to control the speed of each cooling fan.  I wanted to be able to control the fan speed independently from the heat lamps.  Too much air flow will negate the heat being generated by the heat lamps.  These controls also have an off position which will allow either fan to be turned off if not needed.

[klaykrusher]

Well, finally had some time to tinker with this.  I just wanted to keep it real simple.  Picked up a 30x15x12" unfinished cabinet at Hone Depot and a couple 150w max utility lights and 2 100 watt bulbs.  Figured I would just start with the basics and see how it plays out. I decided to keep the cabinet on it's side to match my needs.  I cut a couple holes for the light fixtures and then used the spring clamp metal clips to hold the fixtures to the cabinet. 

With my room at about 70 degrees it took the 2 bulbs about 35 minutes to bring the interior up to 104 degrees.  That seems to be about the max temp.  I let it cool back down to 70, then used a heat gun to bring it back up to about 100.  That took a couple minutes, then the lights just maintained at 104 again.

Right now I'm good with the lights on top, but it will be easy to mount the cabinet on a wall and have them on the bottom, I can just switch the hinges for the door if it becomes a hassle.

Appreciate all the guidance in this thread and Lobo's HotBox thread. 

[electrathon]

On 10/10/2016 at 7:58 AM, msdeluca said:

I'm anxious to try this thing...!!!

 

 

Some testing results:

• Epoxy failed on the dowel rods.  Will try J-B Weld next.
• Shelves can't be removed without flexing or removing doors.  Will glue some extensions to the shelf cleats.
• Thermostat read out is consistent with oven thermometer.
• 120º F - 15 minutes
• 130º F - 22 minutes
• 140º F - 30 minutes
• Thermostat interval 140º to 137º - 2 minutes
• Reheat to 140º cut off - 3 minutes

I may change the cycle interval from 2 degrees to 5 degrees to reduce wear and tear on the thermostat.

Write up and resources...

What an absolute overbuild on such a simple project.  Good job, looks very nice.  Pushing things beyond is how we get better at doing exceptional work.

[msdeluca]

2 hours ago, klaykrusher said:

Well, finally had some time to tinker with this.  I just wanted to keep it real simple.  Picked up a 30x15x12" unfinished cabinet at Hone Depot and a couple 150w max utility lights and 2 100 watt bulbs.  Figured I would just start with the basics and see how it plays out. I decided to keep the cabinet on it's side to match my needs.  I cut a couple holes for the light fixtures and then used the spring clamp metal clips to hold the fixtures to the cabinet. 

With my room at about 70 degrees it took the 2 bulbs about 35 minutes to bring the interior up to 104 degrees.  That seems to be about the max temp.  I let it cool back down to 70, then used a heat gun to bring it back up to about 100.  That took a couple minutes, then the lights just maintained at 104 again.

Right now I'm good with the lights on top, but it will be easy to mount the cabinet on a wall and have them on the bottom, I can just switch the hinges for the door if it becomes a hassle.

Appreciate all the guidance in this thread and Lobo's HotBox thread. 

Looks good... I've found that the fans decrease the drying time significantly.

19 minutes ago, electrathon said:

What an absolute overbuild on such a simple project.  Good job, looks very nice.  Pushing things beyond is how we get better at doing exceptional work.

Lol... yeah, I know.  Part of it is the challenge and the other is the execution for me.  I enjoy this kind of crap.  You're right, it does make us better and I'm trying to bring the same trait to my leather work.