Monday, June 4, 2007

Hotbox


As you can see from the pic its pretty much a heated coffin. I need to start testing it out with skis to see what modifications I need to make. It has a digital thermoprocessing unit that you can't see in this picture. I have had it up to 150 degrees F within about 15 minutes of turning it on so I think getting it to a high enough temp won't be a problem. The trick will be figuring out where to mount the fans so that we get good air circulation and an even temp throughout the box.
For training I have been mostly road biking and running. This coming weekend we will be visiting my parents in Glover, VT and so plan to get over to the mountain biking trails in Burke. I hope it dries out again by then so the trails will be good.

4 comments:

Glenn said...

Hi - cool hotbox! What heating elements are you using?
Greetings from NZ
Glenn

Ethan Townsend said...

I am using two 24", maybe 18" can't remember right now, heating strips that I found on ebay. These can be purchased from several different websites. If I had not found these for cheap on ebay I would have bought finned strips instead as they would heat the box faster and are similarly priced in retail. As I recall you are looking at about $45/strip retail, I got these for $10 each.

Glenn said...

How is the hotbox testing going? I keep reading reports about hotboxing being the equivalent to 20-30 hand waxes. Have you been able to verify that?

I have built my own but am now just waiting on a thermostat kitset from the UK to finish it off. I am using an old heating element from a strip heater - your heating elements are far more elegant tho.

Ethan Townsend said...

If you would like to further discuss the merits of the hotbox send me an email at etownsend@stlawu.edu, this will be easier than conversing through comments.