How to make your own solar food dehydrator | DIY Garden Projects | Gardening Australia
Costa is upcycling some found materials into making a DIY solar dehydrator. Dehydrating fruit and veg is a great way of preserving excess. Subscribe 🔔 http://ab.co/GA-subscribe
What you need:
An old table
Hardwood timber planks for edging
Timber and metal saws
Clamp to secure timber
Galvanised corrugated iron base
Dark paint, if needed
Galvanised screws
Screwdriver
Drill with large bits for drilling aeration holes
Flyscreen offcuts.
Stapler or glue to hold flyscreen in place.
Smaller, thinner timber offcuts to support drying racks inside the frame
Flyscreens or similar to act as drying racks
Glass cover
Wheels on an axel for one pair of table legs.
Angle grinder
What you do:
– Costa uses the old table as his base.
– He has found some planks of 4×2 timber to form a box frame on top, which will act as the edging. Because some pieces are not straight, he clamps them into place to keep them straighter.
– Screw the frame timbers together at the corners.
– To ensure good airflow inside, Costa lines the base with two pieces of galvanised corrugated iron, cut to size. The pieces he has found are dark coloured so will heat up well in the sun; lighter-coloured pieces can be painted black.
– These are simply laid in place, not fixed, so they can be taken out for cleaning.
– Drill ventilation holes into the side of the frame to maintain good airflow in the frame.
– Line the top of the wood where the holes are with fly screen to keep hungry insects out. Costa staples his in place with an upholstery stapler, but you could use suitable glue.
– To sit the drying food on, Costa has used old fly screens that he’s cut to size, replacing the old netting with new, clean netting.
– These sit just inside the frame, so he props them up on two pieces of offcut architrave placed at either side of the frame. Any thin timber with a wide about half the height of the frame would do.
– He has found an old window to cover the whole box. It’s quite heavy, so he’s fixing it in place with heavy-duty hinges, which have to be carefully attached to the window frame to avoid damaging the glass.
– So the table can be moved around, he attaches wheels to one set of legs.
– Finally, he uses the angle grinder to cut down the other set of legs so the table can be positioned to face the sun, catching the sun’s rays at a better angle.
Using the frame:
– Place thin slices of fruit on the netting, cover and leave in the sun until the fruit is flexible but leathery. It can be stored in glass jars and stored in a cool, dry place.
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