Here are pictures of the dehyrdator I made. It hangs over our wood stove. I dry fruits and also my sprouted grains for baking.
I decided to make my own after researching dehyrdators. Since we have a heat source and build fires 2x a day from the end of September on we are right on time for dehydrating the fruits of the season. Since the dehydrator hangs from a hook I can take it outside and use it as a solar dehyrdator when it is warm and dry outside and too early to be building fires. I dehyrdator 10 pounds of apricots early this summer in this way.
The racks are made from stainless steel which I ordered online. The SS is not cheap but you don't want to use anything else. I have two sizes of screening, I made some of the racks with a wider mesh for fruits and a tight mesh for drying grains. Can you make that out in the picture?
The frame can be made out of any wood. I wrapped the whole thing in cheesecloth. That seems to be working really well.
I have that little eco fan on my stove that I point at the dehydrator, that helps keep the air flowing nicely. I can dry my sprouted grains in this unit in 24-36 hours, but I usually leave them in for 2 days just to make sure.
Check out post about making 100% Whole Wheat Sandwhich Bread made with Sprouted Flour dried in my dehydrator!
