2017 Homesteaders PDC (permaculture design course) & ATC (appropriate technology course) in Montana

Testing the Wheaton Labs ATC 2017 Solar Dehydrator.

Rob Griffin wrote:Where did they buy the screen from, as all I have seen online is real expensive?

https://www.twpinc.com/wire-mesh-material/stainless-steel/14-mesh-woven-stainless-44

Wow, $825 for a roll of the screen.   Forget gold plated ATC...more like platinum with gold inlays...I don't think Tim had more that a budget of maybe $200 dollars for the whole ghetto ATC.

I looked at the picture of the other dehydrator screen trays, they did not look like the ones we made and left inside of it.  There were 4, so you could stack two on each side.

Rob Griffin wrote:Wow, $825 for a roll of the screen.

I believe we narrowed the size to decrease the pricing; and we have many more purposes for the material going forward. If you would like to buy some pre-cut, I bet Paul may entertain the idea.

Davin Hoyt wrote:

Rob Griffin wrote:Wow, $825 for a roll of the screen.

I believe we narrowed the size to decrease the pricing; and we have many more purposes for the material going forward. If you would like to buy some pre-cut, I bet Paul may entertain the idea.

I looked at that too. The roll is less than 1/2 the price per square foot of the cut amounts (just under $2.07/sq ft versus $4.25/sq ft for the next price point down). Just out of curiosity, how many trays can you get out of a roll? I don't know how big the trays are although I know the roll is 4' x 100'.

Davin Hoyt wrote:
The glass upon the new dehydrator looks to have come from a shower (sturdy stuff).

If the glass is from a shower, it's almost certainly tempered glass, and cutting that is not a simple thing.

Thyri Gullinvargr wrote:Just out of curiosity, how many trays can you get out of a roll? I don't know how big the trays are although I know the roll is 4' x 100'.

The ATC trays are two per level; nine levels tall.

Q: I bought one of the lower Kickstarter rewards and now have to choose which evening presentation to get.  Is there a little more info / description of the sessions somewhere (besides the title and person)?
TIA!

C Jones wrote:Q: I bought one of the lower Kickstarter rewards and now have to choose which evening presentation to get.  Is there a little more info / description of the sessions somewhere (besides the title and person)?
TIA!

Not at this time.

Ok, thanks.

Davin Hoyt wrote:

Thyri Gullinvargr wrote:Just out of curiosity, how many trays can you get out of a roll? I don't know how big the trays are although I know the roll is 4' x 100'.

The ATC trays are two per level; nine levels tall.

Picture shows trays as 2' x 1.5'

So around $28 worth of screen for the whole dehydrator and 7 more of that design could be built with some screen left over.

By my calculations it was more like 108 dollars for the whole dehydrator.  9 levels at ~6 sf/level at ~2$/sf.

For those who want to discuss the solar food dehydrators in more depth, there are two threads:

2017 ATC solar food dehydrator thread - where I copied Davin's pictures and video and Erica describes the paints used
2016 ATC solar food dehydrator thread - where Rob Griffin does an excellent documentation of a simpler design's build

Rob Griffin wrote:By my calculations it was more like 108 dollars for the whole dehydrator.  9 levels at ~6 sf/level at ~2$/sf.

Usually I'm better at math than that. You're right.