Wood fired dehydrator

[Paul_H]

I have a solar dehydrator that works well in it's season  and dries apples and cherries really well in early summer but this late in the season things like plums and apples  don't do so well in there.
Last winter I was helping my daughter build wooden boxes out in the shop and wanted something to do while also keeping an eye on her while she used the table saw and other machines so I began to build a decent sized wood fired dehydrator for this season.
It has seven shelves 33"x54" and the trays have hardware cloth for a screen.

A couple days ago it was time to pick the sweet plums ,eat what we could fresh and dry the rest. We did up two full trays and put them in the dryer.
The wasps were very interested in the fruit but they don't like the dryer.


 

Daughter Mary loading the tray



 


The woodstove we made out of a discarded hotwater tank.I added the door and hinge and it has a 2" pipe nipple and cap for the draft and a 6" stove pipe out the back. The stove has no feet but rests on 3/4 crush and then is surrounded and covered with more crush and it retains it's heat a long time.



 

Yesterday I banked up the stove at 3pm when we left for the fair and we returned 8 hours later from 4H stall duty with our daughters(4H Lambs) and the fire was almost out but the crush was still quite warm. I lit the fire again and left it for the night, it was still warm and drying at 6am this morning.

The girls are going to give it a painting before winter.



 

[OneWithWood]

Nice work, Paul.

[thecfarm]

Good idea and simple.

[Banjo picker]

You better get a patient on that or it will be on one of the reality tv shows.... I can see it already on Live Free or Die.  The young couple up in the edge of the smokies will have one.   ;)  Banjo

[Paul_H]

 :D I got the idea from a magazine and put my own twist on it.

I've got cuts on my head and back from that DanG low roof tin.I wanted a good overhang but it's painfull sometimes...

[mometal77]

I really like this.

[isawlogs]

 Nice stove Paul, I am thinking of making one myself maybe this fall... depends on how early the snow arrives ..... Anyways, I would like to see a pic of your draft, and door assembly.. ideads are always welcomed when putting things together.
  I will put a twist on it also, as I want a smoker and a dryer, I'll be making two huts, first one like yours with stove below it... second one off to the side will be the smooker, smoke will be diverted to the smoker from the stove below the dryer... I will also put in a small stove\fire pit in it for hot smoking, but for cold smoking would fire uo the dryer stove ....  :P   
  Projects abound in my head !!!!!   

Marcel... Quit smokin' but still smokin' !!!!

[Paul_H]

I'll try to get a pic this weekend Marcel.The draft is a 2" pipe nipple with hacksaw cuts to allow air and then a pipe cap is screwed in to close it off.  I ended up leaving the cap on the ground and placing a rock in the nipple to shut down the fire and another rock to further block it if need be.
Pretty low tech ;D

[Paul_H]

Yesterday was a beautiful sunny morning and Mary and me lit the stove, setup the table and sliced up 20lbs of Gala apples,5lbs of wild apples picked on our property as well as 8lbs of tomatoes, two onions and three bananas.
It was enjoyable and we visited as we worked and had a few laughs.
We borrowed an apple slicer/corer and it works like gangbusters.


 



 

Some improvements to the dehydrator include laying Styrofoam packing salvaged from the dumpster at work, along the cinder blocks and then covering with dirt sloping away from the dehydrator to insulate and keep the heat moving up through the food and not sideways.
I need to add a baffle over the stovepipe where it exits the stove because there was some burning on a few tomatoes.

The whole drying took less than 24 hours.The tomatoes are fantastic! The onions are nice too.
Last weekend Mary and me dried 20lbs of apples and she devoured them within five days by taking them to school and sharing them.
This pic below is the total dried so far,minus the extra four jars(20lbs) that Mary devoured.