Features Overview

Moving air

The most powerful feature on the box is our fan (seen here in white). We use a commercial exhaust fan, capable of pulling air even under high resistance. And the fan is intended for high humidity environments like bathrooms and kitchens, so it is perfectly happy running in a damp studio.

The other interesting feature is that this fan sucks air out of the box - it doesn’t blow in. Fresh air enters the front of the box, is pulled through the fluted cardboard holding the wet paper, and is exhausted out the back. This does a fine job of drying paper quickly, but has the added bonus of sucking the stack of paper and boards tighter as it runs. This suction pressure helps to create flatter paper while drying. This feature can be accentuated with our concrete weights, but sometimes they’re not necessary at all.

Drying systems where the fan blows into them can actually inflate the stack of boards, encouraging the paper to dry cockled. And an axial fan (like a box fan) simply cannot move as much air as this.

Finally, the exhaust from the fan blowing down and out the back of the box and can be used to dry wet moulds on the cedar slat shelf after a papermaking session.

Self Timer

A programmable 24-hour self-timer will dry your paper as long as you want it to, and not any longer. Adjustable to suit your needs, we keep most of our boxes set to either a 12 or 18 hour dry cycle. This is one of the main features of our box and is standard on every box.

Speed Control

In addition to the self-timer, boxes are also equipped with a solid-state speed control. This allows you to fine-tune the fan speed to suit your needs. Higher speed fans will dry paper faster, but possibly be too loud for your quiet studio. Find the right speed for your needs and then leave it set it forever. This feature is also standard on all boxes.

Also featured here is a fast-acting safety fuse to help ensure safety in your studio. In the case of an electrical short, it will cut power to the box.

Board Dividers

Great for classroom use, or just for ease of sorting different stacks, these durable PVC board dividers let you easily remove sections from the system without disturbing your carefully stacked boards. Quickly jump down to your class’ section, or retrieve yesterday’s paper while today’s continues to dry. These are optional but extremely convenient.

We have spent years making small, incremental improvements to these and we’re extremely happy with the current design. Our goal is to have our equipment be as intuitive, and self-explanatory as possible. We like when equipment works as designed, is easy to use, and looks nice doing it. Every portion of this box has been carefully considered and each design decision is intentional, with simplicity, safety, aesthetics, and future maintenance all priorities in our decision making process.

This equipment is carefully built, with longevity in mind. We wouldn’t put this much care and craft into them if we didn’t love seeing them out in the world, supporting artists and students in their studio work. Every box is made to order, and box sizes can be customized to suit your studio needs.