Boot drier
 

As you guys may have gathered in my relatively short time on this site, is that I like to build things. I like projects. I like to work with my hands. Plus I like things that serve a specific purpose.

So take into account that the entire family rides some sort of motorized toy. We all have boots. They get wet either with seat or puddles etc.

I like these boot driers you can get at northern tool. They work well for pairs of boots.

http://www.northerntool.com/shop/too...siIaAo8g8P8HAQ

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k5...psb482e238.jpg
But for 4 pairs of boots I'm looking at $160. Plus we do a lot of multiday rides and I like dry boots everyday. So when we stay overnight I'd have to pack 4 of those things and I'm sure they'd get broken.

So I looked at a building multi-boot setup.

However I have 4 pairs of boots to dry. So I went to Lowes. Got some wood and PVC. I also bought this fan. I got the low speed because I didn?t want too much flow to dry the boots too fast.

120mm x 25mm 110V 115V 120V AC Cooling Fan w 3ft Power Plug Low Speed New | eBay
Here is what I ended up with. I?ll be able to take this to a cabin and plug it in as well.

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k5...psda58cdb5.jpg
The outside has been oiled with Watco Oil to hopefully keep some of the dirt down.

It's all 1x6. One end hinges down so I can pop off the PVC tubes and store them inside. So I can throw it in the back of the truck. And nothing will break off. I take it with me so our boots dry overnight. Key is don't use a high speed fan. Don't want them to dry too quickly. The low speed fan keeps the leather from drying out.

Right now there is no heating coil in it and I haven't needed it, except for one time and I had the drier out on the porch overnight with 4 pairs of very wet boots. We just bring it inside the cabin/house.

It won't dry boots during lunch.

If I feel like I need to add heat later I can put this in.

Nonflammable Ceramic Tubular Wire Wound Resistor 200 ohm 150W

For the record mine is very quiet. It is a fan but it's low speed.

If I put that resistor inside the box I wouldn't be able to store the pvc pipes inside it for travel.

I've been using this for 3 years now and it works great. Only thing I would do differently is mount the fan either under/in the box or put some sort of screen on it. Occasionally a boot buckle will hit it and top the fan, but now that I know that I just make sure nothing impedes the fan.

I made one up out of ABS pipe. It uses a hair dryer & can usually dry a soaking wet pair of boots in an hour or so. Can't do as many at a time as yours can though....

I use my wet dry vac as a blower/heater. Connect the hose to the output side and shove the output end of the hose into the toe area. The vacuum motor creates some heat and it works quick and easy, but you need to do one boot at a time. I suppose you can also build the cool multi boot adapter shown above.