Hi all, Living in the desert of Palm Springs where our humidity is usually around 15-20% I find it hard to keep my sourdough from drying out. I have tried the Oven, Microwave, box and so on and really haven't had the success I wanted.  So poking around TFL and the internet I found for under $50 I was able to roll my own.  I am pretty sure you can do it for less if you buy some of the supplies online.

I drilled two 3/8" holes on each side 4" up from the bottom and 4" from the site (that is 4 holes).  Then drilled 4 more holes 4" up (towards the top)  from the last holes. I cut the 3/8" wooden dowel so they stuck out about 1" from each side and used the tie wraps to hold them in place.  The bottom dowels are not removable.  Then cut the other dowel for the top rack making the dowels stick out a little longer, they are removable incase I'm making rolls I can use two 1/2 sheet pans or when making bread just the bottom rung will be used.

You fill the bottom up with water to about 3" or make sure you are covering the submersible heater all the way.  That is all I needed, I do throw a towel on the top to keep the heat from escaping from the top.

Its simple and works. Here is a link to the photos, since I didn't know how to do it on TFL ->  http://proofer.pen.io/

Andy

I added a computer fan to move the moist air around, but testing it I'm not sold that I need that in there.