The other day, a guy on planetFigure had asked me for plans for building a drying box. Since I had built mine “on the fly”, I had none to give him. So what I’ve done is to make a sketch with basic dimensions for mine. To go along with the sketch, I’m adding some instructions that I hope will supply all the necessary information needed to make your own drying box.
Okay, the first thing I need to do is to explain a little bit about my drying box. For those who aren’t familiar with what a drying boxis, it’s simply a wooden box with a light bulb inside of it. It's used to speed up the drying times for when painting figures with oil paints. Using it, most oil paints dry in about 24 hours. Some colors have dried in only 6 hours while some can take longer but most have dried in less than a day for me.
Also, I’m not a woodworker. This is pretty crude looking in person but it works well for my purposes .
My box started out as a transport box for taking my models to shows without their getting damaged. That’s the reason why it’s made so stoutly. Were I to make one that was just to be used for drying paint, I’d probably try to make it out of lighter weight materials. But that would mean using other methods to construct it than those I’m going to describe here.
I made mine out of scrap plywood that I had lying around the house. The top, bottom and 2 end pieces wee made from 1/2” thick plywood. The back was made from 1/4” thick plywood and the front, including the door are 3/8” plywood. The advantage to the thicker wood is that it allowed me assemble the box using wood screws driven into the end thickness of the pieces. Thinner pieces would probably require the use of small nails instead of the screws.
To keep the plywood from splitting when inserting the screws, I would line up the pieces and drill a pilot hole though them both. This would also ensure that the holes would line up when I attached the pieces with the screws. Pilot holes are made using a drill bit that is a little smaller that the diameter of the screw. Then in the “loose piece“ I would enlarge the pilot hole so that the screw will pass through it freely and then countersink it on the outer face to allow the screw head to be flush or below the top of the wood when assembled.
Once the top, bottom and 2 end pieces were assembled, I attached the back piece using nails. I tried to get the box as square as I could before attaching the back. The back piece was not a perfect fit to the box so I had to use my orbital sander to clean it up to match.
To make the door, I just cut a piece the size of the box and then cut it into 3 pieces as shown. The top and bottom pieces were attached. The door was then laid in place and 2 hinges were screwed on the bottom of the door and a latch was screwed on the top. You should be able to find the hinges and the latch at any hardware store. They don’t have to be very big or strong pieces. I also added a handle to the top of mine for carrying it to the shows.
To mount the light bulb, I used a ceramic base from the hardware store and attached it to a piece of plywood. This allows me to position it anywhere inside the box without risking touching live wires. I use a 60 watt light bulb. I didn’t put a switch on it but it would be pretty easy to do so. I just unplug it what I’m finished using it. This set up has worked well for me and doesn’t seem to have any bad effects on the resin figures. If the figure is injection molded plastic or has thin resin or white metal pieces, I just make sure the bulb isn’t too close to the figure.
Well, that’s about it. If I’ve been unclear or have left out anything, just let me know and I’ll try to answer any questions you have.
Craig
