Dr. Bob's multi purpose curing chamber in planning

[leverhead]

I have a couple more links.

Loading tobacco into a bulk-curing container. Lots of TLC here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWLtsLr016s

Putting the loaded container into the "barn".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-Nw1UYiXWY

 

[LeftyRighty]

begining to think that I'll need to block or frame around the perimeter (in plan view) to force the air only through the tobacco mass, no short-circuiting around/between the leaf mass and chamber walls.

 

[leverhead]

begining to think that I'll need to block or frame around the perimeter (in plan view) to force the air only through the tobacco mass, no short-circuiting around/between the leaf mass and chamber walls.

I've been thinking for months how to load leaf faster and more uniformly, nothing good yet. I think the problem has more to do with the small scale of the home grower's box, with the leaf being the same as the big boys. I didn't think of it that way until I just typed it, I'm really liking this thread. When I loaded the leaf in the picture, I loaded the rows back to front row by row left to right. I left leaf margins hanging out for the doors to push on, it worked OK, but was a huge PIA. For the last run (pictures are in the flue-cure experiment) I loaded rows left to right row by row, back to front. I staggered the stems to between stems of the previous row. That worked out better, but was still slow to load. Either way, I didn't find any evidence of dead spots or short circuits. Once one of us figures out a great way to load the tobacco, the rest can follow or invent a better way yet. There's allot of problems in doing this that are bigger than they appear.

 

[LeftyRighty]

deluxestogie referenced a problem with leaf against the container wall, causing the leaf to blacken/rot from getting wet. So, I'm thinking I need to load so the leaf does not touch the chamber walls, thus my concern with too much open area around the leaf mass. This may not be a problem, because I've not had wet walls in my fermenting kiln, so may not in my flue-curing chamber - guess it has to do good control of RH, and avoiding condenstaion in the chamber.
Anyway, it's a conern I have, and am trying to avoid.
Leverhead..... did you have any problems with this, dry/wet walls, black leaf, or not touching walls etc.

 

[BarG]

Condensation on the container wall is defininitly a problem if leaf hands are in contact. It will blacken them.
I have had this problem and have to moniter closely enough to rotate the way hands are hanging. Destemmed leaves in plastic bagies are left with openings to allow for drainage and no water condensing inside baggie. My kiln is an old fridge and my crockpot kiln method is constantly being learned, Monitor closely and keep on learning. Its worth the effort from what I have learned.

 

[leverhead]

Nope! The walls stayed dry (for me, when everything was working as it should). The inside of the walls is pretty well isolated from a conductive path that would cool them enough to condense water. The only time I had problems with condensation was when I lost the heater, then everything got wet! Backing up on temperature is a real bad thing. The vents were manually set, so when I lost heat the RH went to 100% fast. It left brown spots and drip marks on the leaves. Trouble only happened when I walked away, so robust is my mantra now. If you don't have any condensing surfaces, the leaves can touch.

When I was still using the drum I had all kinds of trouble with everything. Loading for a round container was frustrating at best and impossible once I lost my patience. Cheap blower motors going out, I'm amazed I got anything out of the drum at all, other than junk.

 

[BarG]

A wooden interior wall would not condensate nearly as much or a lining so to speak. I have just come onto this thread and will read thru .

 

[leverhead]

A wooden interior wall would not condensate nearly as much or a lining so to speak. I have just come onto this thread and will read thru .

The only thing I would worry about with wood is mold, but it might not be a problem.

 

[DrBob]

At the density that i am planning on short circuiting will not be a problem. if the walls were lined with 1/4" insulation (fanfold) condensation would be minimal. my intentions are to grow 40 plants for flue curing meybe 800 - 1000 leaves 4 or 5 loads to cure. if I am lucky 20# of flue cured tobacco. The balance of my crop will be 80 yellow twist bud and 80 tn90 burley. this will be the learning year.

 

[leverhead]

20 Lbs of flue-cured would be a nice finish.

 

[DrBob]

I do not want to spend over $100 to convert my chamber. My dreams are not too fantastic. I did aquire a squirrel cage blower salvaged off a high efficiency gas furnace for free. it is the draft inducer fan and seems to be in the 50cfm range. Testing will tell if it is good enough. The guy I sold my old heating business to gives me free scrounging from his junk parts donor furnaces. He lets me use his sheet metal shop too... just cant get too much better for tinkering

 

[LeftyRighty]

I'm budgeting up to $300 to finish my flue-curing chamber. I look at it this way.....$300 ÷ 20 lbs tobacco = $15/lbs......$15/lbs ÷ 30 pkg/lbs = 50¢ per pack of cigs. This is still way cheaper than buying. And this is just the first year. Thereafter, only operating cost to consider, almost negligible.

And then there is this hobby thingy.....got to do something with my time.

 

[marksctm]

bathroom fans are usually 50 cfm

http://www.meci.com/115-volt-ac-exhaust-fan.html

I found this at MENDELSON'S LIQUIDATION OUTLET - MECI

340 East First Street
Dayton OH 45402
1-800-344-4465
Retail - Monday - Saturday 8:30-5:00 EST
Customer Service - Monday - Friday 8:30-5:00 EST

The phone number I used is 937-461-3525 local for me I didn't use the toll free number.
This place is 8 to 10 floors of a old warehouse of reclaimed or salvaged things, And they have about anything you can think of, from the smallest diodes to a banister for a stair way.
I just called there and the guy said they have 100's of fans of all kinds.
I'm going there later this if anybody want's me to look for anything let me know.
They also are on ebay but I don't if it's new items or what they sell on line.
There only a few miles from my house so I'll just run down there.

 

[DrBob]

http://www.meci.com/115-volt-ac-exhaust-fan.html

I found this at MENDELSON'S LIQUIDATION OUTLET - MECI

340 East First Street
Dayton OH 45402
1-800-344-4465
Retail - Monday - Saturday 8:30-5:00 EST
Customer Service - Monday - Friday 8:30-5:00 EST

The phone number I used is 937-461-3525 local for me I didn't use the toll free number.
This place is 8 to 10 floors of a old warehouse of reclaimed or salvaged things, And they have about anything you can think of, from the smallest diodes to a banister for a stair way.
I just called there and the guy said they have 100's of fans of all kinds.
I'm going there later this if anybody want's me to look for anything let me know.
They also are on ebay but I don't if it's new items or what they sell on line.
There only a few miles from my house so I'll just run down there.

I have a fan now but what is needed is a squirrel cage fan 100 cfm not much more if you can get them that is the deal the motor needs to be exposed i am thinking if a recurculating fan, not an exhaust fan. Bear with me . exhaust is not the problem

 

[COLIN]

Could you possibly convert a car radiator fan just a thought

Colin

 

[DrBob]

meybe the radiator, not the fan

 

[DrBob]

meybe the radiator, not the fan

Colin, I sounded kind of short. In the case of my small curing chamber I need circulation in the range of 10-50 cfm. I do see the need for ducting also. A centrifugal (squirrel cage) blower is the most suited for that application. There will be a radiator in the design.

 

[LeftyRighty]

Going back to post #35 & #37, (page 4) that’s really is an impractical idea – pushing moist air thru a stack and expecting the moisture to drop out. Crunching some numbers, and a bit more thought.
I’m thinking I’ll only get about 60-70 lbs of tobacco in my freezer box:
Using 60# at 80% water weight = 48#water & 12#leaf. But I don’t want dry leaf yet (in the yellowing phase), say 20% moisture content is OK. So, 48# less 20%(12#) = 45.6# of water to be removed.
45.6# ÷ 8.34 #/gal = 5.47 gallons of water to remove over a 3 day period.
So, 5.47 gal x 128 oz/gallon ÷ 3(24hrs/day) = 9.7 oz per hour.
That’s over a cup of water per hour.

Then: The supposed air volume for flue-curing is ½ cfm per lbs of tobacco. For 60#, I need 30 cfm of air moving through the chamber. If I push this air through a 4” diameter stack, this figures 5.7 ft/sec velocity through the stack. No way this is going to drop out 9.7 oz of water, unless it is one-really-long stack.

Am now thinking, that if I want a recirculating air system, I am going to need a shell-and-tube heat exchanger, and a cooling system, or equivalent.

 

[DrBob]

Lefty
You are sharp! I was hoping some one would catch on when I said radiator. Now grasshopper what would the purpose of the radiator be?

 

[DrBob]

lefty as a rule of thumb it takes 1000 btu to evaporate 1# of water or 8000 btu to evaporate a gallon 5 gallons would take 40,000 btu.
1 killowatt = 3400 btu or evaporate 3.4# of water
500 watts = about 9oz of water

A 500 watt heat source should be adequate