Dashboard Glove Dryer/Warmer

This is my second working in cold weather idea that if any other contractors out there see this they will totally understand, to the rest of the world, may seem a little weird...

Working outside all winter long, I go through the constant battle of keeping warm dry fingers. Usually on breaks we start up the work van and immediately throw our gloves up on the dashboard to try and dry them off. Which can take a while depending how wet they are. So I usually grab pair # 2 and continue working. I always have at least 3 pairs of gloves in the work van. With a constant battle to stay warm, I looked into portable boot/glove dryers and the ones that look like they'd work great were always pretty expensive, so I came up with this idea to help keep my phalanges toasty and dry

And a technical note...This may not work for every vehicle, my older Dodge van has nice square dash vents. Most vehicles have the narrow bar type vent across whole dash, and I don't think it would be as affective

Step 1: Materials and Tools

All you need is just a few simple PVC plumbing fittings and a scrap piece of pipe Total cost was under $20

Materials

1. 1-1/2" Pressure Tee fitting ( not the sanitary Tee )
2. 1-1/2" Trap adapter ( the one that fit's into another fitting not over pipe)
3. 1-1/2" to 1/2" adapter Qty 2
4. short section of 1/2" PVC pipe
5. 1/2" Tee Qty 2
6. Small piece of 3/4" wood
7. Self sticking foam weatherstriping

Tools

1. Tape Measure
2. Saw ( I used miter saw )
3. Drill
4. Small drill bit ( I used 3/16" )
5. Hole saw bit to fit threads of trap adapter ( I used a 2" due to not having a 7/8" )
6. Router with a straight cut bit
7. Rotary type tool with cutoff wheel

Step 2: Base Block

First you will need to measure your dash vent to see how big to cut your block of wood.

Mine was about 2-3/8" wide for the actual vent part. But I wanted the block to cover the whole thing so I wouldn't be blocking any airflow so I cut my block into a 3" square.

Then you will want to mark the center of the block on both sides using a straight edge and lining up the corners. This center mark is where you will drill through with the hole saw. Before drilling, on the back side take the nut from the trap adapter, line up the center mark in the center of the nut and trace around the outside of the nut. I then used a 2" hole saw, 1-7/8" is what would have been a better tighter fit for the threads of the trap adapter but I do not have one, so went next size larger.

Step 3: Mounting Trap Adapter

After you drill your hole all the way through your board, you need to enlarge the underside with the router so the nut of the trap adapter is flush with the wood. Set router depth according to the thickness of the nut. Then proceed to enlarge the hole at least to the traced line of the nut, you can go bigger if you want more room to tighten the nut later.

After you are done routing the base block hole, it's time to modify the adapter nut. You will need to cut off the end of the nut so that when you thread it on you can tighten it down all the way. So using a rotary tool with a cutoff wheel, carefully take the flat end off the nut.

Now stick the threaded end of the trap adapter through the hole in your block and screw on the nut as tight as you can. The length of the threads protruded past my block of wood, so I sanded it down to be flush so it sit flat and not wobble when on the dashboard.

Step 4: Adding the Fittings

Next you will want to add the two 1-1/2" to 1/2" adapters into the straight ends of the 1-1/2" Tee

Just a note, I did not glue any of my pieces together. They fit pretty snug as it was. If need be, a couple drops of super glue would be plenty to hold them together.

Once the 1/2" pipe adapters are in, attach everything to the trap adapter that is mounted in the wood block.

Now you will need to put a 1/2" tee on the end of short piece of pipe and insert into a glove to figure out the length. I cut my pipe so the end of it was about an inch inside the glove. With this length the cuff of the glove would wrap around the end of the tee. Once you have both sides cut to fit, attach the pipe into the adapter on the tee.

Air holes

I randomly marked 6 holes on the end of the 1/2" tee and drilled them out with 3/16" drill bit. I also drilled 4 holes in the short length of pipe at an angle so airflow would push towards the end tee.

Step 5: Finishing Up

Last little step I did was adding some foam weatherstripping around the outside edge of the bottom of the wood block. Mainly I wanted it to help from slipping all over the dash, but it actually helps seal around the vent and keep more air flowing up through the pipes.

All you have to do now is set it up on your dash vent, add some wet cold gloves and obviously start the engine..

You can see the pic of what dashboard used to look like, much more efficient drying out the gloves on cold wet snowy days now !!

How you like !!