Week 25 - Build a Solar Box Oven, Purchase Boxed or Bottled Drinks

Week 25 – May 19

Build a Solar Box Oven

Home food storage: Purchase boxed or bottled drinks
 

How to Make a Solar Box Oven

This took three boxes.

The large box is 20" x 16" and is 12" deep.  Try to keep your large box that size or smaller.  Too big of a box will not be able to get hot enough and hold the heat needed to cook in.  The smaller box is 16" x 12" by 10" deep. Carefully cut lid/flaps off of the smaller box.  Try to keep the edges straight.

There is a gap in the bottom of my smaller box that needs to be filled in.

 

I cut a strip from the top flap and filled the gap.  I was surprised to see that the picture matched.

Cut the lid flaps you removed into two inch squares.  Glue the squares together into stacks that are just slightly under two inches thick.  Glue the stacks to the bottom of the inner box. These will be the legs to hold the inner box when it is placed inside the larger box.  Place this box inside the bigger box and make sure the top edges of each box are even.  Adjust legs as needed.  Make sure the center of the box has enough legs to support a pot full of food.

Crinkle newspaper and fill in the gaps around the legs.

Turn the box over and place in the larger box.  Center as best as possible and finish crinkling up newspaper and tucking it into the remaining gaps around the legs and add crinkled paper until the space between the boxes is filled.

Now measure to see if your inner box is centered.  If it is or isn't use that measurement between the boxes and draw a line on the first flap of your outer box.  Draw a second line about 3/8" away from the first line.  The second line will be closer to the loose edge of the flap. Score the lines with a box cutter.

Press that narrow section between the scored lines down.  I used a pencil with a broken lead.  This will make folding easier.

Measure the gap between the inside of the larger box and the inside of the small box on the left and right side and cut off that distance on each edges of the flap to the scored line.  Fold the flap closed and glue the narrow section to the inside of the smaller box.  Do this with the three remaining flaps.

Your box will look like this when done.

From the third box bottom flaps I cut pieces of cardboard that were about six inches wide and the length of the four sides of my Snyder's box.  I scored the center the same as did in the instructions above.  Make sure these flaps are wide enough to cover the top edges of your oven.

Here is the inside of the finished lid from the pieces above and I also used the pieces that I cut off the the Snyder's box flap edges to create this lid.  I forgot to take this picture while making it.  After the frame of the this lid is made cut a large oven cooking bag big enough to cover the opening and glue it to the outside of the lid.  I used both layers of the bag.  I only had to shorten the bag.  The width was perfect.  I did glue the cut edge of the bag closed.

My longest strips of cardboard were not quite as long as the longest edges on my Snyder's box.

Here is another messy corner.  I created the lid while holding the cardboard piece on the box oven.  It was not easy, but I have a tight fitting lid and that is what really matter.

Next I took the front of that third box and 2 inches of the top flap and cut a piece big enough to cover most of the oven lid. The window of the lid needs to be covered.

Glue the 2 inch piece of the flap to the lid along the back edge.  Match the fold line to the window edge opening.  Cover the new outer lid with foil and glue to the back side of the lid/flap.

Here is the outside of the foil covered lid.

Here is the inside of the foil covered lid. Your oven is now ready to use.