An electric skillet is the easiest way to go, but unfortunately most skillets are only 2 inches deep, that doesn't leave a-lot of room for sand and if the glass gets too close to the skillet it will overheat and break the glass. For flat bottom beakers the electric skillet is fine. Most of the sand baths I've put into service were for heating multiple flasks of 5,12 and 22 liter capacity. All of these are round bottom flasks. To heat a 22 liter flask in a sand bath you will need the sand to be at least 6 inches deep around the flask and I like to see 2 or 3 inches of sand between the heat and the bottom of the flask. That meant I always wanted to see at least a 9 inch deep sand bed, not something you put on a shelf and take off when you need it, especially when it's a 4 burner model.
Because I always used gas flame to heat these things, I liked to start with a 4 burner gas range top, this obviously couldn't be in the hood so shops I've set up have 2" PVC exhaust drops over all reactors. The stove would have 4 drops over the sand bed. The sand bed was a welded steel plate with 9 to 10" sides which sat on the stove-top and was filled with play sand. A flask was set up in a depression made in the sand and the burner under that area was turned on. As many as 4 flasks could be run together on a standard 4 burner top. The heat was even and was controlled by adjusting the flame. The down side was no thermostats, but the up side was simpler is better.
For a small setup in a hood you could cut down a 15 gallon drum to 10 inches and place it on an electric hot plate. The cut down drum shouldn't be too heavy when filled with sand. Just remember that the vessel shouldn't come too close to the sides of the sand container, because just like too little sand under the bottom, it can get too hot and break the glass.
Sand baths are also excellent if boiling down the aqua regia to drive off the nitric for dropping PGM's, just use a porcelain evaporating dish in a depression in the sand. It's much more forgiving than a hot plate.
