Making a 'hot box'.

[little john]

It's very cold over here in Britain - just 50 miles north of me some roads and airports are currently closed due to overnight snow.  In my patch, today has been a day of hailstorms and icy rain, and so I decided to make another 'hot box' to assist with box and frame gluing - as the glue I use requires a minimum of 10 deg C in order to fully harden.  Although building a hot box is simplicity itself, I thought a pic or two might be of interest to anyone contemplating making one.

So - I started off with a very old busted chest freezer which has been employed for the last few years to store dry animal feed.  After giving it a quick clean - this is what I discovered:




The size of this freezer just couldn't be more perfect - two brood boxes, or four nucs just fit along the bottom, and can be stacked three high.  The area over the compressor will take one brood box on it's side, or two nucs.  So that's seven brood boxes, or 14 nucs, or some seventy frames which can be warmed, and thus glued during winter, each day - far more than I will ever need.

And this is the heater I fitted - it's an amateur gardener's 50 watt soil warming cable - enough to warm 4 or 5 seed trays - tied-wrapped under some steel mesh which is supported by 1 inch battens, resulting in a fairly low profile heater.




The cable exits through the compressor compartment, and runs through hosepipe tubing in order to protect it from sharp edges where I drilled through the thin steel sheeting of the bulkhead side.

It's been running 'as is' for most of the day, and appears to have maxed-out at around 28-29 deg C (82-84 F).  That's pretty-near perfect for my purposes, and without any form of control.  The wattage could be halved of course, quite simply, by fitting a diode (common 1N400X series) into the plug.

Happy days ...
LJ

[herbhome]

very clever

[little john]

Bit of an update ...

Several days ago I turned off the hot box overnight in order to test the insulation - which performed rather badly: presumably due to damp.  Hopefully it'll recover with continued use.  Anyway, in view of this I've halved the wattage by inserting a diode in the mains plug, and the box has been switched on continuously ever since - reaching a maximum temperature of 22-23 deg C (72 F) around midday, and a minimum (in the morning after a heavy overnight frost) of around 15 deg C (59 F). Which is proving ideal for getting glue to set.

I've just finished making some mating-nuc feeder shells, and will be starting on a batch of 200 frames tomorrow.  Without this box, I'd have to wait another 4 or 6 weeks for the weather to improve.  It's warm enough during the day, but drops below freezing most nights.

Of course - if you have access to a nice warm workshop, this kind of kit is unnecessary - but I'm currently using a 60ft unheated greenhouse as a workshop.

LJ

[Richard M]

Do em in the living room!

[KeyLargoBees]

I think Mrs LJ might object ;-)

[mtnb]

I'm not understanding. What's the purpose of this hot box?

[BeeMaster2]

I'm not understanding. What's the purpose of this hot box?

The purpose of the hot box is to warm the honey without letting it get too hot. You do not want the honey over 104 degrees. This allows you to warm your honey prior to handling it and to dissolve crystals if it has hardened on you.
In the one I made, I could put a whole 5 gallon bucket or several cases of pint jars or about 20 frames.
I put 2 thermostats in mine, one for 104 degrees for honey  and one for 155 degrees for melting wax.
The instructions are here on this site somewhere if you need them I could find them.
Jim

[little john]

I'm not understanding. What's the purpose of this hot box?

It ain't nothing to do with honey.  As you can see from this:




I've got a fair few boxes and frames to make-up before the season starts - BUT - the glue I use requires a minimum temperature of 10 deg C., else it sets with precious little strength.  In Britain right now we're experiencing heavy overnight frosts, and bitterly cold northerly winds during the day - so I came up with the idea of converting a junk freezer into something useful, and this has now solved the glue/temperature problem and become one of my most used bits of kit around the place.  And for free ... well, almost free.
And so now - despite the bitterly cold weather - I'm back on track and should have everything built in time.    Thanks to an old box which should have gone to landfill.

LJ

[Dallasbeek]

Good job of recycling, LJ.  But you COULD use it to warm honey.  In your case, I suspect you'd need to recycle a walk-in freezer to handle your honey, though.

[little john]

Good job of recycling, LJ.  But you COULD use it to warm honey. 

Well - you could - BUT - this box was only crudely and urgently cobbled together.   Whereas, as Jim rightly points out - if you're going to use such a box for honey-warming then some form of reasonably accurate temperature control is recommended.  Likewise if it were to be used for brewing beer or wine.
 
The first time I ever saw a hot-box being used was in a lambing shed: any hypothermic lambs which were close to death were popped into the hot-box for an hour, and they came out 100% frisky, as if nothing had ever been wrong - and off they scampered to their mothers for a feed.  A great sight to see.  One of those events in life which leaves an indelible image in memory.

In your case, I suspect you'd need to recycle a walk-in freezer to handle your honey, though.

If only ... 

LJ

[mtnb]

Alright thanks. So you're using it to cure your glue. I've heard of hot boxes for warming honey but it just seemed like you were up to something else and I wasn't understanding what.