Originally Posted by
Kyle Iwamoto
I built a fridge kiln, as many have already mentioned. I bought a cheap indoor/outdoor remote temp/humidity meter, and put the outdoor in the kiln. I use 40/53/72 watt bulbs (electricity, not light) I think they may be 60/75/100 watt lights. Anyways, when the humidity stops going down, I increase the wattage. For me, a week per light rating is good enough, if you want to make sure or you get old and forget, 2 weeks at the higher wattage does not hurt. I'm a weekend turner, so this is awesome. The biggest benefit is the fridge kiln also doubles as a storage locker that keeps the bugs away. At least they haven't found mine as of yet. Also a old age factor, when you open it up to load more roughs and see all the already dry roughs I had forgotten about.
I got my upright freezer free from an appliance recycler. I think they (commercial people) have to pay to properly dispose of them, so he was more than happy to help me load it up. No fan, just the cheap clamp on lamp from the Depot. From what I read, the low wattage to start helps raise the temperature slowly and supposedly less cracking. Some still do crack. I'm pretty sure that this is the cheapest alternative, and its pretty fast. Relatively I guess.