Sub-Woofer Solar Oven

by James

When cruising through the local thrift store again I came across this large subwoofer box with the speaker still intact. They'd placed it amongst the furniture items because they thought it was some sort of table. It was laminated on the outside and still had the speaker with all the guts still in it. As a large square 3/4" thick pressed wood box I thought it might work well as a solar oven. For $10 it was a good deal.
After removing the speaker, wires, and connectors I cut it diagonally on the sides and mounted locking cart wheels on the bottom for mobility. Inside the speaker box I put spacers and lined the inside with lots of thick paper and cardboard upon which a I built another wooden box inside of it. I lined the inside of the second box with foil and aluminum tape.
This oven has a much larger cavity than the last one I made and is insulated much better. Even without any reflectors it gets pretty darn hot!
Next I found some large metal picture frames with glass and hinged the frame onto the side with a high temp seal around the sealing surface. Therein is the delima. How the heck do I put reflectors on this beast with a hinged cover one the side.
It does heat up nicely with a few reflectors I rigged up temporarily, but I haven't yet devised a long term solution.
On my wife's suggestion for making it a dehydrator, box, I've since drilled a 3" hole into one side and mounted a small 12V computer fan powered by a small solar panel (unfortunately the panel cost about $50 from Harbor Freight). If I can evacuate the moisture it should function as a food dehydrator. It works well, but is better is suited for summer time dehydration with longer daylight hours. Not sure if it will work very well in colder climates, but I'll give it a try.



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Howdy again James,

Boy have you been busy!!
You seem to be quite the handy man and very imaginative in your thinking...it seems you see a solar cooker in almost everything you come across.

Thanks for sharing again your successes and not so successful endeavors, and we appreciate the photos that help enhance the descriptive narrations.

Sharing these experiments will surely help others to see the feasibility of making an effective solar cooker from common everyday materials.

Thanks
Nathan
Admin.