Bud dryer - manicured to smoke in 3 days
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Having buds hanging around air-drying for a long time is a security problem. I cooked up a bud dryer to speed up the process.



I first looked at commercially available food dehydrators, but they usually operate at 38C/100F or above. Too hot! THC starts to break down at about 29C. So, I set about making my own.

This one goes just 3 days from manicure to smoking, removing moisture so quickly that there's no possibility of mould.

It's a plastic storage box with 4 wiremesh racks hanging on open-link chains from the lid.



There is one 5" muffin fan on one end sucking air out of the box



and another fan drawing air into the box.



I have a big deep-finned aluminum heatsink bolted to the 4" fan so air is drawn through the heatsink fins and blown into the box.



There's 2 aluminum-bodied 470 ohm, 25 watt power resistors bolted to the heatsink. Temp control is by a standard incandescent light dimmer which controls power to the resistors which are wired in series.



I adjust the light dimmer control until the air temp is no more than 29C as THC begins to break down at temps any higher. It is best when first firing up this design to start at the 'off' point on the dimmer and increase the power to the resistors slowly, in 1/10 of a turn increments. You don't want to open the dimmer all the way up as it may overcurrent the resistors. If I built this over again, I'd probably increase the value of the power resistors to 1.2-1.5k ohms, but these are what I had on hand at the time!


(note thermometer temp sensor placed in the warm airflow)

This tiny bit of added heat drops the ambient air humidity enough to allow it to pick up the water out of the buds very quickly as it passes through the box. Just warming the ambient air a few degrees will reduce the relative humidity dramatically.

Buds are totally dry and ready to smoke in 3 days rain or shine, but if ambient relative humidity is very high, 80% or so, drying time can stretch out to 4 days.

The dryer CAN overdry buds if I'm not careful, but that's solved by putting a teaspoon of water on a paper towel and nesting it in the buds for a couple of hours until they are nice and springy again.

There is a UV ioniser placed a few feet away from the dryer to kill scents, but the high volume of airflow through the dryer itself does a lot to reduce that musty, dank perfume.

This old dryer is cracked, beat-up, covered in resin goo, was really only a prototype I never got around to building properly- and is generally filthy. But the damn thing works and keeps working. Moreover, it's usually in constant service and has been for about 5 years.

There's dozens of ways to build this- almost anything similar will work. Just mind the current you throw into the resistors and keep a close watch on the air temp coming from the warmer- hold it to 29C.

lol great idea but i havent got buds much not for me

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life is nothing without smoking...

Nice job abf.

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not a good idea if you not commercial and have to smoke those buds. lots of uncured shit you will get with this if you not happen to be water-curing buds, then this thing could be great

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