Browning box

[Don Stith]

 A box for this purpose is easy to biuild and fairly inexpensive
 The time saved and anxiety avoided will easily pay for it.  Mine was inspired by Bivens article
 It is a 6 ft tall box and 11" on each side. I put  an adjustable hot plate in the bottom with a half gallon stainless steel beaker on the plate. I also put in a light  bulb half way up for additional heat in cold weather
 There is a partial shelf just above the top of the beaker and another shelf about a foot down from the top/  Make top shelf removable to accomodate longer barrels. Otherwise it iis used for small parts
 I used 1/2" exterior plywood.  Have Lowes ,Home Depot, whoever cut two 1'X 4'pieces off one end. Then have them cut you 4- 11" by 6foot strips from the rest
 You now have the sides and door and material for top, bottom and shelves
 A  couple of 1"x2" will serve as corner reinforcements and shelf supports.  I also faced the sides of the front of the door with 2"x4"  for stability and to attach hinges and latches to.
Hang a thermometer and humidity gage in the upper area.  Will take a little experimenting to find best setting on the hot plate to give you results you want

Enjoy

[B.Habermehl]

Mine is horizontal, 5 ft. long by 18 by 24 high. I use two 100 wat bulbs and two pie tins filled with water for humidity sources. The barrel sits on dowels supported on cleats on either side of the box, suspended over the pans and bulbs. In the summer I only use one or no lights. Winter two. I have a dial thermometer sticking through the lid of the cabinet to track temperature. It's worked nicely for twenty years now. BJH

[Boompa]

  Due to limited space I had to make one that would break down and store away. I took 1" PVC and made a tall, narrow tent-type frame.  On the upper interior of the "tent" frame I installed metal hooks to hang parts from. The peak of the tent has a large bolt with a hook on both the exterior as well as the interior. The exterior hook is used to hang the entire tent from the rafter in my shop, the bottom hook is where I normally hang the barrel.  I cover the tent frame with a 55 gal trash bag.  On the concrete floor below the tent I set a hot plate with a pan of water.  When not in use the PVC easily pulls apart and the 55 gal bag folds up so I can set the entire unit on a shelf out of the way.

[L. Akers]

I used a horizontal wooden box for years but it took up a lot of floor space.  I made a new one from a 6' piece of 8" dia. pvc pipe which stands vertically, out of the way in a corner. 

[davec2]

I don't have room to store a damp box either.  I make mine out of a cardboard box and throw it away when I'm done.  Cost me about $4 for a new box when I need it again.  Details at the link below.  The example is a black powder cartridge gun but I am not talking about the gun, just the browning process.

http://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=21382.0

[kaintuck]

nail in the bathroom wall........hanged over a week.......steamy weather in there!!!
marc n tomtom

[Hemo]

nail in the bathroom wall........hanged over a week.......steamy weather in there!!!
marc n tomtom

I agree with Kaintuck. My browning box is a half bath in the basement across the way from my shop. I close it up tight, run the shower full-on hot for several minutes until it's good and foggy, and fill the sink with hot water. I don't leave my barrel in there for more than a couple of hours without checking it because water droplets may condense on it and speckle the job.

In the summer when it's hot and muggy, it just goes outside.

Gregg

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

Like Don Stith, I capitalized on the work of John Bivens, and borrowed heavily from his article in "Rifle" magazine on the subject of damp boxes.  I built mine out of some 3/4' plywood shelving I recycled from the local dump, so I made mine 15" square and 66" tall.  I built an asbestos lined box in the bottom to house a 300 watt incandescent light bulb in a ceramic fixture that heats a stainless steel bowl immediately above it, in which I add 2" of tap water.  I found that this system, even with the dimmer switch which controls heat, produced too much humidity, so I half covered the bowl with a piece of plywood.  On the inside about half way up the box I attached a 60 watt bulb in a ceramic fixture, and these two bulbs are on the same circuit as the dimmer switch.  When I found the optimum heat and humidity, I marked the dimmer switch for future reference.  My basement is dry - in the winter 7 % Relative Humidity, so the box is mandatory.  The inside dimension permits me to brown barrels up to 52" long.  In the ceiling of the box I have attached cup hooks so I can hang the barrels, and thereby they do not touch the side of the box.  This also permits me to rotate the barrels 180 degrees after each application of browning solution, ie:  every three hours.  Barrels usually require 5 or 6 applications to get the colour and depth I want.  Often, I cannot get the job done in one day, so I remove the parts from the box and leave them on the bench overnight.  This always evens out the rust and yields a perfect brown.

This box is heavy, and like many of you, my space is limited.  I have a wall behind the box that I use for a tillering wall for my wooden bows, so I mounted wheels on the bottom of my box to make moving it away from the wall easier.  This box has served me for about thirty years.

I built mine vertical, 'cause John did, and it makes sense, because heat rises.  to further control the amount of moisture in the box, I bored a couple of 3/4" holes on the side of the box to allow moisture to escape.  If the humidity reaches dew point, drops of water will form on your parts and ruin the job.