# Electric smoker to dry wood



## Camardelle (Feb 8, 2017)

Has anyone ever considered using an electric smoker to dry wood.  I was looking at Lowe's the other day and they had a Masterbuilt smoker for under $200.  It would allow larger pieces of wood to be dried and provide a digital thermostat to control the heat.  

My "shop" is 12x20 and houses my welding, woodworking, and powder coating stuff as well as my motorcycle, so I am limited on space.  This would fit nicely under my bench.

Surely someone has already thought of this.  Tell me what I'm missing.


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## MrPukaShell (Feb 8, 2017)

What is the lowest temp it will go?  I would think the element out of a food dehydrator would be about right.  Most DIY use a light bulb


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## Camardelle (Feb 8, 2017)

I was looking at *this one*, or one similar as well as I can remember.  Amazon says it'll go as low as 100 degrees.


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## Skie_M (Feb 8, 2017)

Keep it under the temperature of boiling water .....

150 - 180 degrees would be more than adequate for drying out your woods.

Just keep in mind that the moment the heat is off, the wood will begin to absorb moisture from it's environment, till it reaches equilibrium with your storage area.


To avoid directly scorching your woods, don't use the lowest rack, and cover it with aluminum foil with the shiny side DOWN to reflect the radiant heat back at the heating element.  This way, only the heated air will flow up and around your wood, drawing the moisture out as it travels up and out of the enclosure.

Do not load the smoking pan (on top of the heating element) with anything at all ... in fact, you may want to leave it out entirely and just use the aluminum foil layer on the lowest rack.


You can also pick up additional racks ... hit up garage sales and grab old smokers of the same size/model as your own in order to salvage the racks out of them for cheap.  You need not worry about spacing the racks out inside the unit to allow even cooking of food ... you are just dehydrating the wood.  The air will circulate everywhere and pull moisture out of anything in there.


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## Camardelle (Feb 8, 2017)

Skie_M said:


> Just keep in mind that the moment the heat is off, the wood will begin to absorb moisture from it's environment, till it reaches equilibrium with your storage area.



My shop/Tuff Shed is not climate controlled, so once I figure out how to determine when it's "done", if I store my pieces inside my home I should be ok, right?


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## brownsfn2 (Feb 8, 2017)

Aren't those designed to smoke and keep moisture in the box though?

Although you could smoke a butt and dry wood at the same time.  Mmmm...  I might need to smoke something this weekend.


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## Camardelle (Feb 8, 2017)

I always use a water pan when I smoke to reduce moisture loss in meat.  I would imagine that moisture would float out of the top vent naturally.

You know, like "magic".   LOL!


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## Skie_M (Feb 8, 2017)

Your home or your shed .... where will the finished item be stored once you are done working it?  That's probably a key consideration to make.  Some people keep their in-home air conditioned with added moisture for better comfort .... a home that is very dry results in cracking of mucus membranes and discomfort of one's lips and nasal passages ...

My brother happens to need a humidifier, as such dry conditions causes him to have nosebleeds for no apparent reason whatsoever.  I wouldn't consider his idea environment to be perfectly dry, but he doesn't keep it humid enough for molds and moss to grow indoors without watering the plants (not that he'ld keep mold around, but I wouldn't put him past a zen rock garden and a terrarrium).


In any case, it's probably best to dry the wood down to under 5% moisture content right before you stabilize it, as the wood fibers will naturally attempt to draw any kind of liquids into them quite deeply ... adding pressure to force the liquids even deeper would result in a superior stabilization.  If you are wanting to use cactus juice or other stabilizers, kinda similar to wood hardener, then the plan to dehydrate the wood is a great idea.

If you are just drying out wood that you've recently cut down and milled .... stacking them level on stringers to allow for proper air flow and keeping the rain off the stack (keep it under a roof) for a few months is best, for large quantities.  If you just have a few branches, perhaps a small log that you've obtained, with just enough to fill the smoker .... then I would suggest taking the door off and putting the wood on the smoker shelves and letting them air dry naturally.  Once they're dry, then mill the rough boards down to pen blank (or other blank) sizes.

You could use heat to speed the process, but it isn't really necessary, and as long as the moisture content reaches equilibrium with your shop that should be good enough for everyday use.


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## Camardelle (Feb 8, 2017)

Just north of Houston here.  We have our share of humidity…and yours too.  LOL

I doubt I'll ever need that much drying power for my blank making experiment so something this size will likely be overkill.  Still glad I stirred up some conversation about it though.

I'll likely take one of my powder coating ovens and convert it to drying smaller pieces of wood to stabilize and cast.  If I ever get into a production mode, this might be a good alternative.


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## Skie_M (Feb 8, 2017)

I have an LEM dehydrator for making jerky ....  I love my home made jerky! 

If I'm ever in a hurry to dry out some wood, this is what I'ld turn to.  I do own a LandStarr smoker that my parents bought me last year, when I mentioned looking into a new dehydrator, and wanting one that wasn't predominantly plastic, as it degrades over time.  I think they missed the hint, though, because a smoker CAN be used as a dehydrator, it's primary purpose is for smoking/cooking, while a dehydrator dries things rather than cooking them, though the heat can help quite a bit in the process.

If I want smoke flavoring added to my jerky (which I've tried before, never really cared for it), I could add the smoke flavoring to the marinade.

I wonder what would happen, though, if I stained some wood with this liquid smoke stuff .... would the wood blank retain the smell?  I don't think it would work all that great with a CA finish, but with a friction polish? hmm .... ideas indeed!


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## brownsfn2 (Feb 8, 2017)

Mmmm... Jerky.  Is it lunchtime yet?


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## oldtoolsniper (Feb 8, 2017)

I use a $5 thrift store dehydrator all the time. I have bought five or six that I use. I do leatherwork, wet formed boxes and use it to dry that as well. The ones I'm using are the ronco round ones. I just cut the bottom from a ring or two to get bigger stuff in there. They don't get hot enough to scorch or burn anything. They must have sold a lot of them because I see them in the thrift stores on a regular basis. 







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## oldtoolsniper (Feb 8, 2017)

The ones I have do not have a temp control. As Mr. Ronco says "Set it and forget it"

I've never made food in one, they dry pen blanks just super duper. 


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## Marmotjr (Feb 8, 2017)

I think the question nobodies asking, and needs to be asked, is... what is your end use of the wood? 

Some people have assumed it's for general woodworking, some for pen blanks, and some have assumed it for stabilizing.   All of which have somewhat different requirements.


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## Skie_M (Feb 8, 2017)

oldtoolsniper said:


> I use a $5 thrift store dehydrator all the time. I have bought five or six that I use. I do leatherwork, wet formed boxes and use it to dry that as well. The ones I'm using are the ronco round ones. I just cut the bottom from a ring or two to get bigger stuff in there. They don't get hot enough to scorch or burn anything. They must have sold a lot of them because I see them in the thrift stores on a regular basis.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



They are cheaply made ... takes approximately 20 - 24 hours to dehydrate a batch of jerky.  The fan in them is very small and pretty weak, and so is the heating coil.  The reason you see so many of them in thrift stores is that people found out that using their oven gets their jerky done in around 6 hours, and that's without using a fan.  Just set the oven to 150 degrees and prop the door open 1 to 2 inches to allow the moist air to escape.  

My LEM dehydrator has a much larger fan and heating coil, as well as adjustable temperature and a timer for automatic shutoff ... far superior, but costs quite a bit more as well (150 dollars).  I get a batch of double thickness jerky done in about 4 to 6 hours, regular thickness in about 3 hours.



oldtoolsniper said:


> The ones I have do not have a temp control. As Mr. Ronco says "Set it and forget it"
> 
> I've never made food in one, they dry pen blanks just super duper.
> 
> ...



The temp in those round units is around 120 - 130 degrees ... fairly sufficient for drying things out over time.


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## oldtoolsniper (Feb 8, 2017)

Skie_M said:


> oldtoolsniper said:
> 
> 
> > I use a $5 thrift store dehydrator all the time. I have bought five or six that I use. I do leatherwork, wet formed boxes and use it to dry that as well. The ones I'm using are the ronco round ones. I just cut the bottom from a ring or two to get bigger stuff in there. They don't get hot enough to scorch or burn anything. They must have sold a lot of them because I see them in the thrift stores on a regular basis.
> ...





These fine little "As seen on TV" gems do not have a fan. They rely on the heat rising theory. The only feature they offer was apparently the cord color, I have two black and three brown. There is nothing you can adjust or set on them.

I take slices of birch trees right after felling the tree and slice them into disks. They are tossed in for a day, a week if I forget them and I only have about a 10% checking rate. I use them to practice wood burning on. 






Most pen blanks are dry in 24 hours. Not very many become bananas dying them with these things. 


I also dry all of my painted wooden lures in them. 









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## Skie_M (Feb 8, 2017)

Oh wow ... they don't even have fans to force air through?   ouch.


That burned dry fly design is awesome ... but I'm more interested in the fur you have it laying on!  Is that a bearskin rug, or is it beaver?  It looks a little too dark to be whitetail deer .... might be elk?  Is it wolf?


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## Camardelle (Feb 8, 2017)

Marmotjr said:


> I think the question nobodies asking, and needs to be asked, is... what is your end use of the wood?
> 
> Some people have assumed it's for general woodworking, some for pen blanks, and some have assumed it for stabilizing.   All of which have somewhat different requirements.





I want to try my hand at stabilizing some wood, and eventually cast the pieces in alumilite. I doubt I'll ever sell anything I make but I love learning new stuff. 

It's tough for me to pay $10 for a nice pen blank when I can invest close to a million bucks and make my own. LOL!

Seriously, I'll be doing small quantities and purely for personal use. 


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## oldtoolsniper (Feb 8, 2017)

Skie_M said:


> Oh wow ... they don't even have fans to force air through?   ouch.
> 
> 
> That burned dry fly design is awesome ... but I'm more interested in the fur you have it laying on!  Is that a bearskin rug, or is it beaver?  It looks a little too dark to be whitetail deer .... might be elk?  Is it wolf?





Muskrat. 
I remove nuisance wildlife for farmers. 


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## oldtoolsniper (Feb 8, 2017)

Camardelle said:


> Marmotjr said:
> 
> 
> > I think the question nobodies asking, and needs to be asked, is... what is your end use of the wood?
> ...





I don't sell pens either. I just give them away. It's a hobby. 

I found instructions to make a PID on a smoker website. Cost about $40 for the parts and I use it to control thrift store toaster ovens. You just have to get an analog toaster oven. That will allow you to set the temp on the oven and bake the cactus juice at the proper temp. 

Dehydrator will dry the wood for you. This one requires nothing but a plug in. 

Check out the tree services around you. There is free wood there. Even if they sell it as firewood the crotch wood seldom gets used. It's to hard to split. Most people who buy firewood want neat stacks and crotch wood is tough to stack neatly. You want the crotch wood. 








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