Poor Mans Dryer

[pureinsanity]

A decent rod dryer isn't currently in my budget. Either is spending hours upon hours of turning by hand. I decided to make my own out of an old rotisserie. It was really easy believe it or not...

I had everything laying around except for a 2" PVC End Cap & Rubber Cap ( Some people stretch an old inner tube over the PVC Instead)

I measured to the center of my rod while it was on my wrapper. That gave me the center point for my dryer's axis. I built a frame and mounted the rotisserie to the frame. Using a bench grinder I ground down a bolt so it became square instead of round. This is a must to it fit in the keyhole of the rotisserie.

I found the center of the PVC End cap and drilled a hole and attached the bolt to the PVC Fitting. Found the center point of the rubber cap and drilled a hole the same diameter than cut slits with a razor.

I tried it out last night and it works great! Slow but Great!

This was all thrown together with parts I had laying around the garage and five dollars at the local hardware store.

[bobbymalone]

if you are in the metro you can get a wide variety of motors and gearcases for this purpose at an ax-man surplus store for mega cheap.

[pureinsanity]

I looked at those options too. Or finding a cheap motor online. But I had all this stuff and want to epoxy tonight or tomorrow. So I skipped spending more money and shipping costs.

[bobbymalone]

So I skipped spending more money and shipping costs.

I hear that. Just trying to help others that want to follow your set up and don't have a bunch stuff in the garage.

[hydro]

Nice work, and I like the rotisserie motor idea! Looks like it will work very well.

I have to second the Ax-Man resource on this thread. I recently picked up a 18 RPM AC gearmotor for $7.00 and used it to rotate 3" PVC pipe over a heater to make bends for a dust collector system I'm building. Also picked up some small wheels and bearings for rollers. You can find all sorts of useable stuff there if you think outside of the box!

[pureinsanity]

The rotisserie motor worked great. i wish it would spin just a little bit faster but i made due with it. Rod turned out great for my first one!

[upnorth]

For a dryer something slow works better. Keeps the typical "footballs" from forming like they do at the higher rpm.

[pureinsanity]

I would just prefer a couple more revolutions per min. I got bored laying down the epoxy because it was turning so slow. lol

[upnorth]

I find I get a better finish applying by hand out of the dryer and then turning it by hand for an hour to let the finish level itself out better.

[CHM]

Upnorth nailed it. It is easier for me to apply finish on a couple of v-blocks, turn by hand for a few times, then on the dryer it goes. There is no definite rule, but that seems to be a good route to go. FYI - I had a battery operated rotisserie set up that turned slow and it worked great. My favorite dryer is a 3 rpm. The one that does the worst job (for me) is the one on my Amtak power wrapper (probably 10 or 12 rpm). Not sure why, but that very slow speed really does a nice level finish.

Chuck

[upnorth]

The turning by hand allows the epoxy to do it's thing and level out. The higher RPM motors spin just fast enough to give a little centrifugal force thing and distort the epoxy into little footballs shapes. I am not fond of that so I turn by hand til it starts to setup and then into the dryer.