Finally made a hot box

[osage outlaw]

This has been on my to-do list for a long time and today I finally got around to it.  The entire thing was made with free material.  The lumber was from a big shipping box crate from work.  The insulation fell from the sky, sort of.  We were doing outdoor safety training at work near a big interstate overpass.  A truck pulling a trailer went buy and 4x4 sheets of insulation board were blowing off everywhere.  4 sheets came floating down and I called dibs.  I used an old space heater on one end.  I cut the same size hole on the other.  The heater doesn't blow very hot air but if its to warm I can back it away from the opening.  I still need to get some hinges for the door.  I tried it out tonight and I get a nice warm flow of air out the other side.  Now I can work on some of my hickory.  I don't plan on quick drying any staves.  I'll probably rough a bow out and put it in there just to get that last little bit of extra moisture out.  My shop space is limited so I hung it up in the garage where I already had a shelf.  I can still use the top of it as a shelf to.

[TRACY]

Cool! That's fancy

Tracy

[JW_Halverson]

The price was certainly right.  Bet it works like a charm.

[hedgeapple]

Nice work, Clint.

[osage outlaw]

I forgot, the screws were free to.  The truck driver at work brought boxes and boxes of them back from the landfill.  He's always finding treasures there.

[Pat B]

Making what you need with what you have. That is primitive! 
Nice work Clint.

[Badly Bent]

You'll be happy you made that Clint. I keep several roughed out staves in mine so I always have dry wood around.
Nice job on you box, looks sturdy enough to last decades.

[hedgeapple]

Clint, get one of those digital temperature/humity gauges and you'll know exactly what's going on in the box.  This summer I had a piece of osage that was 2 years old stored in my workshop attic.  When I started reducing it, it would clog my farrier's rasp.  I weighed it and put it in my hot box.  With two 60 watt bulbs and just the fan from my space heater the temp ranged from 75 to 90 degrees moisture scale ranging from 7.9 to 10.6.  It lost nearly an ounce in 2 weeks.  When it stopped losing weight for a few days, I was ready to make a bow with it.  Oh the roughed out stave was in my house for a couple weeks before I started working on it.  If I didn't have a hot box, it would have needed to be in the house for a month with all the humidity and rain we had this summer.  Hot boxes are GREAT!

[Ozzy]

Very nice Clint

[osage outlaw]

That's a good idea Dave.  I'll have to pick up one of those thermometers.  I've seen them in stores before. 

I finished it up today.  I put some recycled hinges on it and a knob from an old dresser. 

[seabass]

Clint,if you ever need screws and stuff like that let me know.i am in commercial construction and aquire stuff like that everyday.that box you made looks great brother.i have the stuff to make mine,just haven't got around to it yet..

[hedgeapple]

Clint, I use this sight to get the relative humidity and moisture content of the wood.
http://www.woodworkerssource.com/moisture.php

I modified their chart and taped it to my hot box.

If you can't print this one let me know and I'll email it to you.  But, I need your email address.  For some reason I don't have that. 

If anyone else wants me to email this chart, PM me your email address.