Hi everybody I looked at pics of rod drying boxes on the photo page and I think I can build one. My question is how to heat it . I saw that someone suggested low what light bulbs but my electric knowledge is poor. Has anyone tried a pipe heater or anything else. The room temp is now 54-58 degrees. It's the only spot I got so I need to heat box to at least 74 degrees. Thanks once again!

Light bulbs are the easiest to implement. They will provide plenty of heat to get the box up to that temperature, even in your 54 degree room.

Terry

I bought an inexpensives small electrical heater from WM and cut the back of my dry box out and install the heate with a filter where it draws in air i remove the controls and just added wire and moved the thermostat and fan controls to the out side of my box. I put a closable louver in the oppisit end along withe the thermostat and fan controls, i can get it up to 120 + if i want even in when it is in the 20 and 30's here in east texas. It works great.

Bobby Stout
Bloomburg, TX

Regular light bulbs work great. Just get a few porcelain bulb bases and go to town

Mike,
Put a thermometer on the inside of the box.
Place about 3 or 4 bulb sockets in the box. Start with 25 watt bulbs. If it doesn't get hot enough, go to 40 watt bulbs. If it doesn't get hot enough use 60 watt bulbs.

If you want, you could always put a thermostat in the box and use it to turn the bulbs off and on - depending on the temperature.

There is really no reason to have any air inlets or outlets in the box. No inlets or outlets, mean no dust.

With a closed box, you will generally need very little additional heat.

Good luck
Roger

ok so it does look like most people are using light bulbs to heat the boxes. The only problem is i have no idea how to hook the light bulbs up. I'll start looking but any suggestions helpful. Thanks again! Thanks also for the space heater suggestion but that sounds complicated. I need a low IQ solution thanks though!

Great post Mike, and great feedback. I've read a few post/comments regarding the box type heaters and this one seems to be the best of information so far. Thanks everyone for adding input. I, like Mike Langevin, struggle with electrical design. I could get my father-in-law to assist if 'he's willing' to do so. I am looking foward to more feedback on this post if you guys are willing to share. 1.5 to 2 days for finish to dry is hard to work with at times.....

I used to homebrew a lot of beer and built a controller to turn a light on and off for heat in a fermentation chamber.cost me about $30 accurate to a degree or so.if this sounds like something that would work for you try Googling @#$%& temp controller and should find something or I might be able to remember some defails

Mike,
Buy three of the plastic or porcelin light sockets from the home improvement store.
On the bottom of the socket will be two or three screws that are used to hook up power.

Start with a extension cord and cut off the end that has the female connectors.
Start with the socket on the end. connect two wires from the two wires, and hook a wire from each of the two connectors to the matching next connector. Do, the same thing with the next and the next and the next light bulb.
So, after you have three light bulbs hooked together, you will have two wires on the 2nd light bulb and one pair of wires on the third light bulb.

Then, go back to the first light bulb, and hook up the two wires from the extension to each of the two screws on the bottom of the bulb and you will be good to go.

You want a parallel wiring connection. So imagine that you have a ladder and that each wire is a side rail on the ladder. Then, imagine that each light bulb is like the step that runs from each side to the opposite side.

Or, if you take one of the wires that you have connected to the first bulb, it should continue to the next bulb on the same color screw, then onto the 3rd bulb on the same color screw.
Then, if you go back to the first bulb, the other wire from the extension cord should be connected to the other color screw. Then, a wire from that color screw should extend to the 2nd and 3rd bulb on the same side.

Good luck.

Roger


p.s.
Here is a very basic diagram showing the concept of a parallel circuit.


[atlanticeurope.com]

For your case, replace the battery with the two wires coming from the AC plug.


p.p.s.
Here are the sockets that you need to connect to the line cord and to each other before mounting in the dryer box. They should be mounted in such a way so that finish can not drip on the bulb and cause issues.

Thus, it might be best if the bulbs were mounted above the drying rack to avoid drippage issues:

[www.lowes.com]
+
If you mount them in the top of the dryer box, you can figure out where you want to mount them in the top of the box and drill a hole in the top at each location. Then, starting from one end, drop the two sets of wires that will go to each bulb. Hook up the bulbs, and then screw the bulb base back to the top of the inside of the box. Thus, your actual electrical wiring will actually be on the outside of the box and out of the way.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/05/2013 05:10AM by roger wilson.

By the way, with the use of regular light bulbs being outlawed, you can always use quartz halogen bulbs instead as a heat source for a rod drying box.

Just use the halogen screw in bulbs to replace the regular light bulbs.

[www.lowes.com]

Roger

When I first built my box I used various lights to heat and that worked ok, but we had just bought a house and the previous owner had left a Pelonis Disc Furnace in the shed and it doesn't blow or move a lot of air so I thought I would try it. I cut a hole in the dryer box to fit the Disc Furnace and I've been using it for 6 years with no problem.
I just built a new bigger box and still use the Disc Furnace and lights to heat the box. Buy a cheap outdoor thermometer and place it in the box then turn on the lights (I use 6 under cabinet lights). Usually I only run the furnace to get up to the temp I want (around 90 degrees) and then I can turn the Furnace off and the lights will keep the box at 90 degrees for the rest of the drying cycle.
I've been using for a long time with no dust problems, hope this helps.

Good luck.

Stan

thanks everybody that is really helpful. My next question would then be can i hook up the bulbs in series rather than parallel?

While a series connection will work, they should be connected in parallel. The effect of connecting multiple bulbs in series will be to increase the resistance in the circuit and your incandescent bulbs will dim. Moreover, if a bulb burns out while your drying a rod, none of the other bulbs will light up and you will have no heat in your box.

I use halogen undercabinet lights. 2 bar shaped lights with 2 bulbs in each. Each with a high and a low switch. Gives you lots of temperature control and they are very slim and unobtrusive. No wiring required. Just plug them into a wall socket.



...............................................

Better to have and not need than to need and not have.

Roger thank you for all the input and taking the time out to post everything! I appreciate all the advice however I have taken Mark's approach and bought halogen under cabinet lighting. They are two strips of three 20 watt lights and I can connect a third or even a fourth if the box doesn't get hot enough. It was a much more expensive way to go but I feel worth it. Buy the way plexiglass is crazy expensive!

I used Glass in my box much cheaper

Bobby Stout
Bloomburg, TX

I saw the East Texas thing. I stayed in the Paris area on 82 Hwy. which is where my parents, and more distant family is all from. It sounds like you have a fan-operated heater installed. Doesn't that thing draw in a lot of dust? I have problems with trash in my finish a lot.

No sir i installed a hepa filter behind the heater and sealed it where it cannot draws air except through the filter. I have not had any issue with dust so for. i have a louver in the oppisit end to let the fan force air out, it is easy to keep the temp the same even when there is a drop in temp or even and increase.

PS have serveral friends who live in the Arkansas area of Texarkana that are Wooten.

Bobby Stout
Bloomburg, TX