About 45 years ago we used a old window screen and put it in the rear window of a car. Sure worked real well. Those were the days.

I built a solar drier48 years ago. Just a 3'tall x 1,5' x 1.5" box with a door. I made trays with copper screen with wooden frames. To regulate the heat I made a slot in the bottom and top with sliding panels, with both panels adjusted depending on available sun I could control the heat inside the box + or - 20 degrees F. On most fall days the drier would average about 130 degrees with both panels closed. The second year we had temps between 90 and 100 F and the box was cooking not frying the food so I bought a hair drier at a flea market and a small battery operated toy car, salvaging the fan from the hair drier and the motot from the toy car. Then for power I used 2 1" x 1" solar panels and wired them to the motor and the fan. For a drive shaft I used a small length of rubber tubing. My contraption provided enough air flow to keep air moving through the vent panels to maintaini cooler termperatures. We used our solar food drier for many years to supplemet pour family of four. The only material that wasn't repurposed were the llittle solar panels I bought fron Radio Shack for $2.

You could try drilling over sized holes to allow the polycarbonate room to expand enough to prevent buckling

Cut slots in the plastic, then screw it down (but not too tightly). This will allow the plastic to expand and contract but will not buckle. Make sure you use washers with the screws.

Making noodles and jerky when I was a kid, we would hang white sheets on the clothes line to dry the noddles and jerky etc.

re the buckling of the polycarbonate, I would just drill the holes in the poly slightly larger than the screws and don't tighten them down as much to allow the poly to move around a bit so it's free to expand and contract.

Looks great. I live in the USA but I was born in Sénégal west Africa. Sénégal has the world best mangoes but guess what 60% of the country mangoes is wasted. Too much people don’t know what to do with it. A food dehydrator would be great to show people how to build it and be in business for themselves preserving the mangoes. Thanks

Get rid of the rubber washer screws and use loosely screwed in pan head screws or roofing nails into one inch slotted holes to allow for expansion and contraction. This method is used when installing vinyl siding which expands and contracts also, the key is to leave fasteners slightly loose. Just look up vinyl siding to see their design. Great idea here, I'll try one this summer.

We're nearly finished our new house. When we've finished we will be jumping straight into self sufficient projects. Preserving food will be vital. You folks have a great channel, many thanks, God bless

Fabulous! I’ve wanted a solar dehydrator for ages but they don’t seem to get great reviews. Knowing that an engineer thinks it’s good gives me confidence to try it.

Hey guys!! THIS is HUGE!! I absolutely love this idea!! I am going to try this... in Texas. Lol. I'll keep you posted!

"I like measuring things" Holy crap do my excessive excel logs feel that. awesome video!

Wowow watching this from India and this video is such a useful resource! Thank you muchly!

As always, your video was incredibly informative! I can definitely build this and give it a try. It will be my first attempt with off-grid food preservation. I'm really appreciative of your channel. I think you offer the best advice out there! Please keep it up!

Oh yeah, THANKS. I had seen a really good design but your vid pushed me to plan on making one.

on the warped poly , if you will drill just a little larger pilot hole for the gasketed roof screws. Then when setting the screws , leave them just a tad loose. yep , these two items should fix your warping. Why ? think of a house with vinyl siding or vinyl soffit. You can tell when an installer has driven the siding nails to tight to the siding. the nailing slots in the siding allow it to expand and contract , without buckling. Give it a try . really cool design and video. thanks for posting it . Be fun to see how it compares to other , old school sun drying designs .

You need to make slot for the screw like they have on vinyl siding. That will solve your buckling problem. We use the wood stove heat in the winter . In the summer I run a 12v fan and pull hot dry air from the attic. I know its electricity but its at least run by solar and helps cool the attic and dehydrates food. Fixing to set up a closet and vent the attic into it to dry clothes or take suction for the drier from the attic.

I put some herbs on a cookie sheet and set it in the back window shelf of our car. It made the car smell quite nice. Took longer than I thought it should until we went for a short ride. The system needed some air circulation and by the time we got back home the product was totally dried. I need a bigger set up though. gonna check out the other vids. Thanks.

It seems that Tom Bartels adapted the original design by Larisa Walk and Bob Dahse. Excellent!

Keep measuring dude! My wife says Im too precise. But she doesnt complain about things built right or centered correctly. Lol

I put herbs in a thin cotton/or organza bag and hang until dried. I also use my solar oven but it is really too small to do much. I have been known to use my car and use the dehydrator tray placed on top of a dark cookie sheet. Mostly I use my electric dehydrator as we are on solar. Turn off the machine at night and turn it back on when the sun is shining.

This is wonderful, thank you for taking your time to share this with us. I am wondering where you got the food safe stainless steel mesh? I am having no luck finding it. Thank you again!

I wanted to build something like this to indirectly dehydrate some vegetables and your's seems like a great design. I will try to build it and hope it works as well. Thanks from India

I've been trying to create something like this for dehydrating beef jerky! This will give be a better idea how I build mine.

I like it. Just might build this one. Thanks so much.

That is a really great design , simple and efficient . As far as sealing the wood may I suggest beeswax butcher block sealer , it is used to seal butcher block's and coming contact with food. As far as the oil canning that you experience with the polycarbonateI I would suggest mounting the polycarbonate with thin mounting tape And then secure it around the edge with a lightweight angle putting the fasteners through the side, I would apply the polycarbonate In the direct sunlight so it can pre Expand A little bit It will contract when it cools off but probably not enough to come loose from the mountain tape , thanks for posting this And all your other prepping videos

Thanks so much... This inspired me to build one. I dont think you mentioned the purpose of the polycarbonate on top of the tin sheet or maybe I missed it. I presume this is for the greenhouse effect of trapping solar energy in between to help heat up the black side of the tin.

I like it very much

The solution to the plastic bowing is to float it between a wood frame so that it can move freely in the floating frame.

Pretty nice build good job but I have a challenge for u try to make a similar dehydrator that can dehydrate liquids to make things like egg and milk powder

Luv you both, thanks no sharing, new to all this, want to try and take charge of MY OWN food supply

If you take the stews out of the two ends and top and put a wood outside corner on without going through the plastic it can expand and contract without the flexing

Hi. I f you make this box deeper, you could use it for a growbox for seedling also. Both use the heat and are not always in use.

I thought airflow was necessary? How many days does drying take with this design?

you should try torch burning the wood to act as a preservative and helps keep bugs away

Stainless steel screen is hard to find. What else can be used?

Thanks..very impormative

I dry a lot of herbs around the house by just putting them up high for a few weeks. I use the racks from my electric dehydrator. They stay out of the sunlight and I don't use any electricity.

Superb 👏👏👏 thanks for sharing

can I use aluminum instead of tin? since aluminum is a better conductor than tin

If you make a trim piece to go around the top. It will help keep the edges of plastic from bending. Maybe some wood strips or perhaps some sort of metal L track. Like a picture frame

Why not route oblong slots in the polycarbonate sheet so the panel almost floats on top? You may need to sandwich the panel between two pieces of wood and not tighten it down super tight to allow for expansion and contraction.

Thank you!

One more thing maybe it should have a screen on the top and bottom of the metal roofing so bugs can’t get in under the trays

Great design

I'm a bit late in answering this, but a cover strip might help in stopping the warping problem...

In 2022 that’s $7,924 in lumber. Thank you for the great info and explaining so much! I like This design a lot. How could this be used to turn a purée (super hot pepper) into powder?

Maybe you could stake the screws out and then put 2x2s on top then screw it together. That way you it would be clamping down so it couldn't warp and bow the polycarbonate. Also maybe try making black walnut stain from the hulls. It should be non toxic.

Wow..great..it helps a lot.

interesting. Thank you. Two questions please: Do you worry about small bugs getting in? I assume that it is not 100% tight. What if I want to dehydrate at less than 115 degrees? To keep food raw. Also herbs should not be dried at more than 95 degrees. Is there any way at all to modulate the temp?

Thanks for detailed video .can we use uv ptotected sheet tarpolene or 3mm glass because polycarbonate will create gases due to sunlight heat. Your design looks like commercial branded product .👍👍👍👍👍

What about air holes? Do you not need them for moisture to escape and inflow? 💚

Interesting, I'm not sure about that pollycarb* plastic top, I'd go with stainless steel but very nice design. thank you for taking the time and sharing.

wich is better use plastic with black both side vs aluminium black top side and raw color bottom side?

I'm sure you aleady figured this out but velcro to hold down the plexiglass would work fine. I mean you don't need it structural, it just needs to not come off, right?

That's so neat! How long does dehydrated food last?

I made Solar dryer and seen 8 degree celcius difference with ambient temp at 9 AM cloudy weather but seen moisture on poly carbonated sheet , Its common or need modification

Thank you, if a sudden storm comes up, does it get wet inside?

I made it to 5:12 before the math overwhelms me. I clearly see the $15 of hardware and many hours of open shop space plus framework with hanging rails to nest the drying shelves/racks. the shelve and the shelve hanger rails on three sides are good for 10 + man-hours. Tools are from scratch will set you back around $350.00. Now you have 10 to 20 h0urs of manufacturing and assembling. With the added time to and from the supply store. for the construction material. I am sure that I missed something. simple

Is it possible to use an aluminum or steel sheet instead of tin? Or a diffent kind of metal?

If you use aluminum for the metal, it will probably get higher temperatures and faster

Is this dehydrator working well for you, now that you have had time to try it out? I question the use of aluminum, since aluminum is known to reflect infrared sun radiation. Does the paint somehow negate aluminum’s ability to reflect infrared light? Would it be better perhaps to use aluminum under the screens to reflect the infrared light upwards onto the food and use a dark cloth above to shade the food from ultraviolet radiation which would effect vitamin levels like vitamin c?

Could you please link who you are referencing at 8:46

I live in Florida. Will the humidity in the air be too much for the solar dehydrator to successful dry fruits and veggies?

The best "infrared" dryer is your car. Put whatever you have into your car during a hot summer. Voila.

Insted of plastic on top could one use glass?? would it heat up the same? And great video

does this work for apples? and if so how long do the apples last?

New subscriber. "Sun light will degrade some of the more vital vitamins". Kindly specify which vitamins besides C

How the mousture will escape?

Curious, you mentioned building 5 more of these. Are they still working out ok, did you change anything else? I'm currently building one out of steel so it won't ever rott.

Sunlight adds Vitamin D to foods. Why would you NOT want dehydrated foods exposed to sunlight? There are several YT vids of folks making "sun dried" tomatoes in the oven. People around the world have been drying foods in the sun for thousands years. It works!

Why do you need the Polycarbonat on top of the black tin sheath???? Is it to keep the tin clean and protect it against water? Couldn't you just use the tin sheath as lid? Thank you for your answer.

The link for Tom’s free video workshop isn't working

At 3:00 perhaps you should leave it in the sun, not mounted, and after many hours, once it reaches the conditions it will have in production, then bolt it in place.

Very nice! Does this have to be moved in from the rain? Is it possible to make this dual purpose? That is, can it be adapted to work as an active dehydrator, with heat source and fan?

Maybe fill the polycarbonate gap with a high heat food grade silicone? Too much offgassing? I really don't know.

Awesome IDEA,, will get me some wood and build me one ASAP.. Keep up the Awesome Videos Jones's

slots in plexaglass instead of screw holes ☮

Do you have to use plastic poly carbonate the reason I wanted this is cause I don't trust the plastic food dehydrators

Wats d thickness of steel sheet used ??? Upto wat thickness we can use??

Would glass work better than polycarbonate i only ask because I just replaced an old single pane picture window

I only grow herbs, so I use twine, cheesecloth, and such to dry my herbs. I like your design, but I read you can dry things on the dashboard of your car, like if you (like me) have not built anything like this. I would cover food with cheesecloth even in a car, and I saw where someone said you can crack the window to mitigate the heat inside in your car and help with airflow in there.

Also did you use it in the fall? What is the coldest temps you have used it with? Thank you.

This dehydrator looks perfect for what I want to accomplish, can I ask what purpose the poly plastic sheet on top serves?

I assure you, not only ‘’engineers’’ are implicated, interested and do these types of projects. It is so stereotypical of an engineer to always mention and have others mention they are an engineer 🤣 sorry I had to say it … that being said very interesting and well done in your trial and errors to make this thing work as it should ;)

This is really great. I'm definitely going to make a couple of these! This is going to be a great addition! Looks like you have been giving this a good trial run by the variety of stuff you had pictures of, so I have a question for you since your old pros now 😁👍🏻. Could you make the metal screen into removable trays that rest in a rack rather than them being fixed? Or do you think this would hinder part of the process? I'm thinking router a slot on the inner 2x2s and making a screened rack that slips int into that groove? I know that complicates the project and you wanted to demonstrate how simple this project can be so anyone of any skill level can try this. I was looking at your beautiful chives thinking that being able to dump a tray on a pan would be nice. (How long did it take to pick those all out?) I enjoyed this project video! You did a really nice job Jonathan! I'm impressed! You two make a pretty dynamic duo!

Why choose tin over something like aluminum with conductivity of about 4X that of tin for example? (k_tin = 62.2 - 68.2 vs. k_aluminum = 236-240) Seems like thermal conductivity would be the method of converting sunlight into infrared wavelengths? Curious if I missed something before I go build one. Cost prohibitive? Sorry, engineer here too.

Pardon my ignorance but infrared are the rays that we can't see. What does that have to do with this dehydrator? Isn't the HEAT from the sun's rays doing the dehydrating? If possible, would you please explain what makes this an IR dehydrator.

It looks like your polycarb is bowing mostly along the length of the box. I would think simply elongating the holes (the ones on the ends will need to be longer than the ones near the center) and not screwing the screws to torque would help allow the sheet to spread out lengthwise and not bow. Edit: this assumes the screws holding the sheet down while it expands is the cause of the bowing, and not simply it warping due to heat itself. If there is concern over the slight gap (almost nonexistent, and certainly thinner than what the bowing creates) this might allow between the poly and wood, you could fabricate a simple hold-down that will still allow for expansion by using a narrow strip of the very same poly (to have equal thickness) then screwing any material on top of and through that strip to make a kind of frame for the window, and the material will overlap the edge of the poly window which would then not be fastened at all and free to expand as needed (as long as you keep the short edges on the ends unframed). Of course, both of these suggestions will need a little bit more thought to avoid precipitation infiltration, but that should be easily mitigated. Hope this helps, thanks for the vid!

I want to make one for my mom. Does it have to be see through plastic on lid? Or can i make the lid aluminum on top and bottom?

Now you need to sale us these

how about plexiglass instead of polycarbonate?

Why a stainless steal screen?

Any patent yet, whats the price or shop site?

Does the painted side of the tin face up toward the sky or down toward the ground?. Thank you for sharing this. I have been wondering how to dry veggies outside while keeping Insects and curious animals away.

Maybe put a trim of wood to help keep it from bowing up.

Can i dehydrate meat in this?

Would this work when there is high humidity??

Another design, you don't have follow the audio to get an idea of the design. Specifically the sloping of the top lid rather than the base

How long has your drying time been?