DIY bootie drier

[weston5]

There might be wind later this week, but it'll be chilly. What could be worse than putting on cold wet booties?? Better fix that. This is how I did it:

Ingredients

1 Sterilite 6 qt. plastic storage container ($1.99 @ Home Depot)
1 80mm computer case fan ($6.99 @ Best Buy)
1 110v AC to 12v DC power adapter (mega expensive at Radio Shack, get it from http://goo.gl/Xumklz)
~4 feet of 3/4" diameter PVC
waterproof caulk
soldering iron
solder
electrical tape
xacto knife
drill
a sharpie

Instructions

The storage container you want looks like:

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Start by cutting a hole in the side of the storage container for the case fan. Hold the case fan up against the side, trace it with the sharpie, then use the xacto knife or scissors to cut a hole in the side that the fan will sit snugly in. It can be crude.

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Fit the fan in there snugly and make sure to feed the wires through one of the screw holes in the fan. Also be sure to make sure the fan is blowing INTO the box (there should be an arrow indicating flow direction on the rim of the fan).

Now cut the PVC pipe into 4 equal length pieces. Use your best judgement on how long to make them, they should be tall enough to suspend your bootie. You could probably also use something other than PVC just fine.

Take a piece of PVC and trace it's diameter on the plastic lid of the box with the sharpie in 4 corners of the lid. Cut out the holes with the xacto knife, the PVC tubes will sit vertically in these. Now take the caulk and do the entire inner rim of the lid and close the box on it to make a good seal.

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While the lid is drying, caulk the fan into place as well. Goop it on there and make a good seal. Leave this overnight. The next morning, just mount your PVC pipe, solder up the power supply to the fan, and enjoy!

[Sark]

Holy crap MacGyver. Nice work!

[Salmonslayer]

Simple, functional, off the shelf parts and inexpensive

[C.J.]

How much did it cost?

Sent from my SGH-M919 using Tapatalk 2

[weston5]

~$15 with the power adapter

[jason]

any thoughts on adding a 45* angle and another few inches of pipe so as to keep the shape of the ankle? Probably would add another $1.36 to the cost, but if you have some neoprene socks that don't stand up on their own, it would be nice.

[weston5]

That would definitely help. Home Depot also has flexible vinyl tubing that you could drill holes in and actually thread through the whole sock. I kinda wish I'd bought those instead.

[royce]

How long does it take to dry wet booties?

[weston5]

I usually place the fan intake near my electric heater output. That will do it in 3 hours. On just room temp air, it takes about a day.

[Tuna]

nice little project there.
you can pickup a cheap ac to dc converter locally at goodwill for $0.99 or $1.99
if it plugs into the wall and has a black box, it is converting power
look at the fine print for the output voltage (amperage should not be an issue)

long time no posty...