Bud Dryer

You know how its is. You plant it and water it and worry about it. You read 50 days to harvest, and missed the part about, that being the amount of time on 12/12 light schedule. The two months spent vegging your plants. Its been four months all ready and you just want to have some smoke, and then you run into this 50 days after harvest for curing your bud. That is like forever. I had read Cervantes book and knew there had to be a way to speed up the process, long story short, here is what I made. Again, nothing special, just slight modifications to things Mogie had posted. The color isn't orange it does follow the same principles and I was able to put 17zips in it have then ready for curing in 7 days, no mold, little space.
Then I read Al B Fucts Bud dryer. I don't have an aluminum heat sink, and the soldering iron idea while sound, didn't appeal to me. The idea of a heat source controlled by a dimmer did. So I got a heat source, a 1000watt dimmer, and some other miscellaneous parts. If I were a computer guy, which I'm not, I'd make this neat. Over the next three pages I'll post sets of pictures and tell the story. This is for the non-DIY folks.
Its also the 2000th post. And I'm getting ready to test some bud that spent 2 days in the dryer. I'll let you know the results. And then I'll see you back in the forums. VV

The first picture shows the parts I used to put this together. The cord is off a Microwave oven my neighbor was throwing away. I took it off from inside so i could use the plate to mount the cord to the side of the controller. VV

I installed the plate that came with the cord and installed the wiring. The duplex on the bottom has just three wire, black white and green. The dimmer has just two wires both black and the cord has three wires the same color as the ones from the duplex. Hook the only two white wire together( in my case with this cord because it is a flat cord, the right side is the white wire). Hook the two green wires together. Hook the left side wire to them left side of the dimmer and the black wire from the duplex to the other wire from the dimmer. Shove them all in the boxes and put some covers on all of it to keep water out. To test the control I hooked me table saw through it. The saw pulls a fair amperage so I thought it would be a good test. And here it is all together. VV

Ok, so all together and temperature controlled. This would also be a good fan controller. Open the lid and see the drying shelves and the heat source and the first buds to go in it. I put them in there on Tuesday night, this is Thursday. Oh shit, this taste good already, can't wait until it has cured for a week or so. Stop by and check it out if your in the neighborhood. I can't believe it could be dry enough to stay lit in two days. If it makes me pucker it must be good. VV

I had the container already. Its a 25 gallon So $5.00
I got the Carbon Filter at Menards $10.00
You could use just about anything I liked this $8.00
Large clamps were needed for attaching it $3.00
Dehydrator from Meijers $30.00
Cord (if you need to buy one) $8.00
Muffin fan $10.00
Dimmer $20.00
Misc Parts $3.00
Total $100.00
And smokable in a couple of days. Sure its green, I expected it to be. Al said three days. I trust him. VV

nice and straight forward!

question though

in building a bud dryer, do you think the heating element is necessary for the faster dry? or do you think that enough airmovement would work just fine?


oh, and +rep for sure!

I have been using it without the heating element since last January. It is not necessary....unless you are harvesting more bud than you can put in the dryer and leave there for 7 or eight days. It a space consideration for me. I don't have a cold, dark, dry place to dry it so this is a work around. Cervantes said a guy was using a dehydrator with out sacrificing quality. VV

wow great thanks

yeah i've been trying to figure out where i am gonna be able to dry... and i think a budryer will work best for me...

i'm thinking of getting some silkscreen and making a sort of try or two that can act as shelving inside the bin, with a fan on the top pulling air through some inlets on the bottom... that way i'd just have to lay out the buds in a single layer across the screens instead of hanging them all up and whatnot... plus keif could be collected at the bottom =]

the had some cubes at Meijer that would be perfect for this, yo know like the one kids stack up in their rooms. They were all mesh, around $20.00. I may go back and get some, dry with heat and then rotate to without. I did an experiment with the thermometer. Put the probe on the bottom of the dryer away from the heat it was 23.6 c So I could rotate in ad out of heat if I got those cubes. VV

Never heard of a bud dryer till I got on this site. But this does lay it all out and seems simple to do. Yeah, I would have a hard time waiting the recomended 50 days to properly cure when you just waited months for your smoke to finish.

So... after I said that, I thought I would follow up on it. Here's what I bought, and like I expected the price is down to $10.00 I was able to put one cube together with four removable shelf from this and I still have seven pieces of the mesh left I can use for other purposes, like constructing a carbon filter or something. A side note, Target has a set of shelves in their ad today for a set of shelves that would work out nice for a clone stand for $12.00. I know the propagation tray will fit right on it, and you can hang lights from the top shelf. Don't have stock in either store. lol VV

This may sound dumb but i need some help. I am a total newbie, i just bought a aero garden. I have no clue on how to start growing my own personal. If someone would be so kind as to tell me exactly how to get started? I dont even know how to get the seeds to sprout. If someone could tell me how to set it up to start growing, what items i will need to produce something with my areo garden. Im sick of looking for weed and waitin on my dealer. thanks I dont even know where to put this post sorry.....

spaceman21k said:

This may sound dumb but i need some help. I am a total newbie, i just bought a aero garden. I have no clue on how to start growing my own personal. If someone would be so kind as to tell me exactly how to get started? I dont even know how to get the seeds to sprout. If someone could tell me how to set it up to start growing, what items i will need to produce something with my areo garden. Im sick of looking for weed and waitin on my dealer. thanks I dont even know where to put this post sorry.....

Click to expand...

They have a whole section dedicated to newbs and aerogarden grows. I'm not trying to be a dick but I suggest checking that out...

VV... Are you saying the speed knob generates enough heat without having a load on it? That is the only part I'm confused about. I could understand if you were running a fan or something. I guess the control knobs have their own circuit and run either open or closed on the controlled outlet.

Looks sweet!

DubB83 said:

VV... Are you saying the speed knob generates enough heat without having a load on it? That is the only part I'm confused about. I could understand if you were running a fan or something. I guess the control knobs have their own circuit and run either open or closed on the controlled outlet.

Looks sweet!

Click to expand...

do you run a heater or not i didnt see any in the pics? if so what kind

The heat source is a food dehydrator, bought it for like $30.00. Problem is it get too hot without the rheostat. You never want it above 84f. I use it as much without the heat as I do with it now. Thermostatically controlled units are quite expensive in that low of a range. VV

Sweet! you could probably throw some of that carbon media they sell in bags, in your cup filter for extra security.

Yes I could do that. At the time I made this I had a pound in it and know one could tell. VV

Very Tight. Thanks for the info . +reps Was looking for a good dyi dryer .

is there any loss in quality?

Not if you control the temperature, never over 84 degrees F. VV