4 day bud dryer for $40.

panhead

Well-Known Member
put tacks or something to hold up racks on the sidewalls of the tube.

make a rack out of screening or some of that mesh stuff.
simple enough aye?
Putting up tracks for the existing racks is exactly what i was thinking,as soon as im done drying this harvest im going to fix the design,both dryers have been going for 7 days straight now & i havent even made it 1/4 of the way through all the plants,fuckin with all the racks in both of them is starting to be a real drag.
 

panhead

Well-Known Member
Ive solved the heat issue.

After giving this way too much thought i went back to the basics,green light does nothing for weed plants hmmmmm............,i mounted a light outlet inside one bud dryer & installed a 60 watt green bulb in it,with the exhaust fan going & the lid fully closed the green light keeps the internal temps in the bud dryer at a constant 81 degrees.

The added heat from the light has sped up the drying process to where it now takes 3 days to dry,it has also changed the way the plants are drying,they now dry more evenly & the smell of the dryed buds has more of a skunky bite to it.

The taste of the buds from the heated dryer is very close to fully cured bud,im now going to use this heated dryer along with a 1 week cure for my smoke.

If anybody needs a pic of how to install a light in this dryer just ask & i shall post one,i still have not got around to redoing the shelf supports but that is next on my list,after the shelf redesign i will surely post new pics.
 

ACSCorp

Well-Known Member
Did you use a regular green bulb? I mean, any old incandescent green one? I'm getting ready to flower soon and was always wondering if I needed a green horticultural bulb or if a plain green one off the shelf would do.
 

crazy-mental

Well-Known Member
Did you use a regular green bulb? I mean, any old incandescent green one? I'm getting ready to flower soon and was always wondering if I needed a green horticultural bulb or if a plain green one off the shelf would do.
plants dont see any green light.
 

panhead

Well-Known Member
all looks good.
but whats up with a c.box and string to hang? and a small fan if your in a rush?.
To tell the truth yes im in a rush,for the size harvest i had i knew i'd of had buds hanging everywhere if i didnt do something beforehand,a closet would not have worked for me,even running 2 dryers full time was not enough,i had to stagger the harvest in 3 day intervals.

The bud dryers are no great work of art nor are they better in any way over tried & true drying methods, but when you have large harvests & cant afford entire rooms dedicated to hanging buds they sure are handy & 4 times as fast.
 

panhead

Well-Known Member
definitely wanna see how u put the light bulb in....
Here ya go,i just used a standard ceiling fixture that cost $1.29 at home depot,i traced an outline of the fixture to where it would put the bulb dead center of the middle & top shelf's,then cut the hole smaller than the outline,the whole instalation process took less than 1 hour.

Notice in this pic that i drilled air holes around the light fixture thinking it would draw cool air across the hot bulb,thus heating the air,it works & keeps the temp in the dryer at a steady 81 degrees.

 

panhead

Well-Known Member
good deal panhead!!!! i need to build a drying tub soon.

i also think i should put one in my cab....for that all in one deal.

i want to set up a carbon filter...im always worried about smell!!!
Ive stopped using a carbon filter on the bud dryer,i wanted to speed up the process so i started using scented fabric softener sheets for drying clothing,a single sheet lasts the entire 3 day drying process & allows much more air flow over the carbon filter.

An added bonus of the increased air flow from using dryer sheets over the exhaust, plus the added heat from the green light is that i can now jam pack the dryer full,the increased capacity is now up to 6 ounces of trimmed bud dry in 3 days.

Popcorn buds will be dry in 24 hours & small buds in 48 hours,big fat cola's still take the full 3 days.
 

kearners

Well-Known Member
thats a very good idea dude! im gona make one of these when i am more experienced and go more up scale!!
 

BigBudBalls

Well-Known Member
Any ideas how to add any heat to the inside to help speed dryinga nd control humdity better?Looks good.I need 20 of these or bigger tubs lol
Boat stores sell (or at least used to) these little low heat boxes. About 1 foot square. Was meant to keep the moisture down while storing. just plug 'em i and done.
 

BigBudBalls

Well-Known Member
Exactly. The heat sink does that regardless of what the source of heat is. The material is usually aluminum and the only better conductor of heat I am aware of is copper. The fins on the heat sinks are designed to encourage air flow and have lots of surface area. I tell ya that computer server cabinet is the catz pajamas. Made to keep the heat down for multiple processors, tinted plexiglass, a non-conductor of heat, and cuts down ultra violet light, has three fans installed and wired. CHeck it out. Its post 258 in My current setup: Journal? thread. VV:mrgreen:

Silver is a better heat conductor then copper. diamond is the best.
 

WWgrower

Well-Known Member
2 idea's for the heat. No.1 use a germinating pad on the bottom of the tub. They raise the temp 10 degrees above what the inside temp. is. No.2 One of those heater defrosters they make for cars. Mine has a small fan to move the heat around. Iam soon going to build one of these probably a month from now. I think I will try the germinating pad first, sound the safest to try. Just my 2 cents!
 

panhead

Well-Known Member
I would think any of those ideas will work,im damm happy with the green light,it took the dry time down to 3 days with much more bud in the dryer.
 

Al B. Fuct

once had a dog named
how about mounting the pc supply in one of the corners of the box to slightly act as a heater...? If this is possible?

Might be able to give off some slight heat to help without overheating the pc supply...
PC power supplies are of the 'switching' variety. They don't make much heat unless loaded heavily. Running only a PC fan from a 300W PC power supply won't cause it to make much heat.


How about this for an economical heat source. Use a 50 or 100 watt incandescent light bulb inside a coffee can (to block the light since you need to dry in the dark) inside the box. Or, a small box or galvanized steel duct with the bulb inside it outside of the dryer's intake and a light trap connecting it to the dryer. You could control the internal temperature with a ductstat inline thermostat (available at Home Depot or Menards) hooked up to the bulb.

Personally I think this idea rocks, Simple and 4 days in enough for me to dry.
Personally, I think it rocks, too! Incandescent lamps are a great way to make heat cheaply. The trick is to keep the light away from the buds while efficiently shifting the heat into the flowing airmass. Coffee can engineering should not be underestimated!

if you're using cooltubes and exhaust can't you just place the exhaust from your lights in the area of your bud dryer to give it the heat it needs to dry since the exhaust of the bud dryer will pull in the heat from the light exhaust?
Mainly because you can't control the output temp of the air from the cooltube. You should not exceed 29C when drying buds. The output from my pair of 1000HPS in cooltubes is usually above that by several degrees (30-34C).

I thought of using a fish tank heater

[...]

Im thinking of buying a couple of these mini dehumidifier devices & seeing how they work,supposedly they add heat & move air at the same time.

Air-Dryr 1000 Dehumidifier Moisture Humidity Dryer - eBay (item 200213972264 end time Apr-10-08 22:33:16 PDT)
Aquarium heaters are designed to operate submerged in a cooling bath of water. I'm really surprised that the nichrome wire heating element in the one you ran in air didn't pop. They usually do!

The 'AirDryr' looks a better bet than a fish tank heater. Hard to tell much about it other than their claim that it 'draws about the same power as a light bulb.' If that's true, perhaps 50-60W, it could be a great heating element for a bud dryer. I bet you order one and find out it's a light bulb in a coffee can. :D
maybe all u need is one of these and just use that as your fan too and attached it to your box



just put the space heater on low an have it blow into your box


i just hang all my stuff in my grow room and put the fans on, then i have a space heater like the one above and i let it run on the bottom of my grow room. can dry them in like 2 days if i had too but usually do like 5 days on a lower setting depending how quik i need them and how worried i am about bud rot


another idea is get a cheap hair dryer and hook it to your box and use the lowest setting
The space heater in the spare room with circ fans sounds great. Not much control over scent, but your chances of getting the air to stay close to 29C if working with the airmass of an entire room are pretty good.

However, the thought of a 1000-2000W heater/hair dryer pumping 100C air into a small box, however, terrifies me. It'd be very hard to limit temp to 29C with such big heating elements warming small containers like rubbermaid tubs.

i went back to the basics,green light does nothing for weed plants
Righto, mate- chlorophyll ignores green light.

THC in plant resin isn't so selective. :( Got to keep the beggars in the dark- from all visible light.

There's a million ways to make a low temp dryer, we should work out a very simple way to do it. My dryer works well, but as many have said, is more complex than it needs to be. You need a drill press and a threading tap set to make one like mine!

I like the light bulb in the coffee can idea. Might also take a tomato sauce can inside of a coffee can or some other clever thing to control the light while efficiently shifting the heat.

Let's work out a way to do the heater with more 'everyday' components- or plain old junk.
 
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