How to construct a food dryer powered by the sun, a stove or electricity; including materials, diagrams and assembly.
The dryer is almost complete!
PHOTO: DEBRA TETREAULT
PHOTO: DEBRA TETREAULT
When I first took up self-reliant country living in the 1960s, I tried drying foods in a sandwich of old window screens laid at a sun-facing angle across a pair of sawhorses, but found that Mother Nature dries slowly in our changeable New England weather. I also tried an antique sheet-metal wet-heat corn dryer designed for wood-stove-top use, but its single, rusty-hardware cloth tray left barbecue-marks on the apple slices. Plus, it was too small to keep up with our kids' hearty appetite for dried delicacies.
In the 1970s I gave in to progress and got one of the MacManniman's big yard-square electric food dryers. For two decades, its gentle electric heat preserved apricot halves and apple sections for babies to teethe on, along with other fruits, fishes and meats.
But in time the plastic screen on the racks snagged and frayed, and the oversize box got creaky from being hauled from cellar to kitchen and back. When it came time for a new dryer, all I could find for sale were little round, plastic kitchen gadgets and a couple of large and expensive wood-box units from makers I'd never heard of. So I designed and built my own.
Being of dark-stained plywood, it absorbs solar energy for sun-drying and works with stoveheat and electricity as well. Just one of its trays holds as much as one of the plastic dryers, fully-loaded, but the box is hinged to fold flat for easy carrying and storage. Here's how to make one for yourself! It's a great late-winter project offering a promise of the gardening season and harvest to come. Materials cost about $50, or half again that much more if you buy the optional electric fan and thermostat.
Know those telescoping half-window screens? I bought three of the largest I could find (the store carried 12"-, 15"- and 24"- high screens), pried them apart and trimmed them for six ready-made screen-racks, measuring 23 5/8 wide x 18 3/4 deep to give 18 square feet of drying area — the perfect size for a home-size dryer. Made of strong-enough galvanized steel rail and screen with wood endpieces, they are rust-resistant, easily replaced if need be, and fit neatly into channels made by screwing and gluing wood molding to the sides of a sturdy plywood box that is hinged for easy breakdown, transport and storage.
In the 1970s I gave in to progress and got one of the MacManniman's big yard-square electric food dryers. For two decades, its gentle electric heat preserved apricot halves and apple sections for babies to teethe on, along with other fruits, fishes and meats.
But in time the plastic screen on the racks snagged and frayed, and the oversize box got creaky from being hauled from cellar to kitchen and back. When it came time for a new dryer, all I could find for sale were little round, plastic kitchen gadgets and a couple of large and expensive wood-box units from makers I'd never heard of. So I designed and built my own.
Being of dark-stained plywood, it absorbs solar energy for sun-drying and works with stoveheat and electricity as well. Just one of its trays holds as much as one of the plastic dryers, fully-loaded, but the box is hinged to fold flat for easy carrying and storage. Here's how to make one for yourself! It's a great late-winter project offering a promise of the gardening season and harvest to come. Materials cost about $50, or half again that much more if you buy the optional electric fan and thermostat.
Ready-Made Drying Racks
The hardest parts of a food dryer for an amateur wood butcher to fabricate are framed screen drying-racks. They are continually being pulled in and out, and for adequate strength, you'd have to mortise or dovetail the joints, then stretch and fasten window screening to the wood — a job requiring building jigs, a stretching frame, plus precision tools and set-up time not warranted by a single project. I have the tools and materials but not the time, so I improvised pre-assembled racks.Know those telescoping half-window screens? I bought three of the largest I could find (the store carried 12"-, 15"- and 24"- high screens), pried them apart and trimmed them for six ready-made screen-racks, measuring 23 5/8 wide x 18 3/4 deep to give 18 square feet of drying area — the perfect size for a home-size dryer. Made of strong-enough galvanized steel rail and screen with wood endpieces, they are rust-resistant, easily replaced if need be, and fit neatly into channels made by screwing and gluing wood molding to the sides of a sturdy plywood box that is hinged for easy breakdown, transport and storage.
Materials
At a hardware store, building supply outlet, or lumberyard, buy three 24"-high telescoping window screens for about $8 apiece. You'll also need the better part of a 4' x 8' sheet of finished-both-sides, 3/8"-thick, exterior-grade plywood, a small can of moisture-proof glue (the best is ugly red Resorcinol), a box of #6 3/4" zincor brass-plated, flat-head wood screws, and a handful of #6 1 1/2" flathead wood screws. If using a power driver, be sure to get Phillips-head screws. Have on hand a dozen 1 1/2" finishing nails. To hinge the box, buy three 24" lengths of brass piano hinge for some $6 apiece. For framing, buy or cut 30' of inch-square wood (square pine molding costs a half a dollar a foot; cheaper is to rip your own from any nominal 1"-thick board.) To make the rack supports, you'll need 30 feet of 1/2" quarter-round molding, or more home-cut square strips. For the base, get 6' of 1" x 6" pine shelving and about 3' of 2" x 6" lumber.If you are handy with electrical appliances you can disassemble a toaster oven and hook its heating element to the house wiring, or shop around for a rheostat-controlled, low-power, resistance-wire heating element used in commercially made dryers. But, as a cheap and easy heat source, I use a a 25' string of Christmas tree lights (and unscrew lights to moderate heat output). Lights are strung between screw hooks under the drying racks. Optional to speed airflow and shorten drying time is one of those little plastic-shrouded muffin fans used in computers and copiers. You'll find them used in surplus electronic-goods catalogs for a few dollars, or at an electronics supply store for under $20. You might have one appliance do double-duty and rig an electric hair-dryer to blow heated air through a hole in the back of the dryer, but I've never tried it and doubt that a household-quality model would hold up long under continual use.
A thermometer is a very helpful option to gauge dryer temperatures. I invested $15 for an electronic inside/outside thermometer. Its "outside" probe can be inserted deep into the dryer to gauge drying temps while the "inside" reading warns if the unit is getting too warm when used over a stove.
Metal-working tools you'll need include needle-nose and side-cutting pliers and a hacksaw with the finest-toothed blade you can get. A flat metal file will smooth any exposed metal snags. A hot glue gun is an almost indespensible aid in tacking on small frame boards that are best fitted on the work. Buy a small one at any hardware store for under $15 if you aren't already so equipped.
Trimming the Screens
First, disassemble and trim the screen frames. With a little wiggling, and screwdriver and pliers use, the screens will pry apart. Trim off all but 1/4" of the ends extending beyond the crossbar. Next, saw notches in the angles of the trimmed ends up to the crossbar. With the pliers, bend the 1/4" flap of rail sides, tops, and bottoms to form a boxed end. File any snags or sharp edges.Read more:
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