I am wanting to build a new drying box. I am thinking of building the drum style dryer, but am not set yet. I build a lot of LONG surf rods and really need the ability to dry multiple rods, and pieces of rods. The drum dryer seems idea as I dont have a ton of room tobuild my box. First my question would be where to get a motor, or motors for either style dryer weather it be drum or other, any help would be appreciated, I have seen the pics here and am wanting to get started asap.
Thanks
Chuck

go to home depot and get a rotisserie motor for a grill. even better if you can find one at a garage sale

I have one for you Chuck, Ill bring it to the gathering.

Chuck,
Do a search of the forum equipment section and you will find several pictures.

I have built several driers that have all worked well for drying long surf rods. . I use low voltage DC gear motors to drive the driers. Find a 5-10 rpm low voltage DC gear motor and then pick up the appropriate plug in wall transformer to supply the correct DC voltage to the motor.

Drop me an e-mail if you would like more detail.

Take care
Roger

hflier@comcast.net

Chuck,
As you continue your drum dryer endeavor, I will pass along a couple of tips that I received from a fellow who had built some drum dryers in the past.

1. Rather than using a round pipe or tube for the center shaft - use a square tube. By using a square tube you have less flex for the same size as with a round tube. Then, with a round tube - on which you thread disks having a square hole in them, the disks can not slip and or twist on the tube.

2. A common problem with drum dryers is to figure a method to nicely connect the center pipe to the motor. The method used by the fellow with whom I was working used a drill chuck to attach the square tube to the motor.
I use 1 inch square aluminum 1/16th inch thick tubing for the center shaft. As a result, a piece of 7/8th aluminum shafting is nearly a perfect fit on the inside of the tube. I drilled and tapped a 1/2 X20 hole in the end of the 7/8th inch shaft. On the end of the 1/2 inch shaft, I simply screwed on a drill chuck with the appropriate thread size. You can get either 3/8th or 1/2 inch chucks with a 1/2X20 internal threads. Since the motor size is generally less than 3/8th of an inch, the 3/8th inch chuck will work just fine.
Then, after installing the 7/8th inch shaft into the 1 inch square tube, I simply cross drilled the tube and shaft and held the shaft into the end of the tube with a 1/4 inch bolt. This makes it easy to remove the chuck if you want to use a different aluminum tube for the dryer. Then, on the opposite end of the tube, I simply installed another 7/8th inch shaft and supported that end of the assembly with a 7/8th inch bearing.

3. When it comes time to put the dryer together, install the plain shaft into its bearing, and then lift the chuck end of the center tube so that the chuck lines up with the motor, and tighten the chuck onto the motor shaft.

Then, if it comes time to disassemble the dryer, replace the motor or change the length of the center shaft, you simply loosen the drill chuck, remove the center shaft from the motor and do what is needed on the dryer.

Take care
Roger

Thanks for the help guys