Possible kiln idea

[AmaxB]

What no votes, Don't mind mm Fisherman I was just cutting up.

 

[Knucklehead]

Why the little unit and the big unit?

 

[leverhead]

................the Fisherman will know he is DOOMED...

Are you working on the second book of Amax?

 

[DrBob]

that unit is Doctor approved

My new unit came in finally. Cost $450 with shipping which was pretty cheap for a metal cabinet and system pretty much set up.
Will change out the existing controller which tops out at 50 deg C and should be ready for test run after getting the door hinge fixed and replacing the fan motor.
Unit is a Bellco incubator purchased from Ebay. If I could have picked up locally it would have only been $250.
Unit does heat up to 50 deg C but cant tell how long it will take to bring whole cabinet to that temp yet. It is all powdercoated steel and has slotted strips on sides for racks also.

Inside is 36" x 24" x 6'+ or about 36 cubic feet.

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I understand that this purchase breaks a lot of official redneck rules but there is some consolulation in re-cycling also.

Unit has 4 internal plug-in fixtures but not sure how they are hooked up. Wether to controller or to constant on or what at this moment. Also no exhaust system in unit at present.

View attachment 6904

 

[Fisherman]

Why the little unit and the big unit?

I am impulse buyer
Actualluy the lil unit as finally set up cost less than $100 with the thermometer and humidity thingee. SO price was a concern.

The larger unit Is going to be mainly for yellowing and leaf drying for later in year when I think I wont be able to dry good under carport. Hoping to be able to chamber yellow and dry then de-rib and store. I wonder how much flavor and stuff would be missing from the finished leaf if stem removed before it has chance to dry? If it takes away from finished leaf , maybe that would be good in case of burleys and make smoke smoother?

BTW: The cigar oasis humidor humidifier, tho a good item for its prescribed usage .................. did not work at all in the little unit. I just added more racks and wash clothes and it is working to raise humidity. Also I have extra humidity controller for big unit rigged up on little unit and the difference in readouts is noticeable. The controller is showing 64% and the guage is showing 72%.

A note on lil unit: I need to install a small knob on the door as it has tendency to want to open on it's own due to magnets that are designed to hold doors closed. So far the unit has not shown a lot of condensing even tho is in air conditioned room that is about 70 degree F. Could be that the humidity is a little low yet too. Will add pic and another set of water trays and see if I can get humidity a lil higher.

Adding even a small "Christmas lite bulb" would help raise temps past the current 122 degree F it is holding religiously and get it away from the 120 degree F mold temp. So far wonderful smells are coming out of unit. When I did the "dash board curing" experiment I think the temps gort past the 140 degree F range and might have killed the enzyme in the test leaf. They darkened a lot [ maybe due to ignorance about humididty in the bag] and went thru the good smelling stage and even went to a "vinagery" or true fermentation smell stage but dont smoke to well yet. Actually gave up on them. Loved the smell in the truck tho And will smoke them for pure spite. NO mold at all BTW . Also did the dashboard thing on a few gallons of prime suckers. Made black cavendish type product that is smokeable and will be smoked as well. Cant comment on nicotene content tho at the minute. Am not to good at that yet.

 

[DonH]

You got a good price on the Bellco unit.

 

[Fisherman]

He has more or runs across them often also

 

[Fisherman]

The big unit after I fixed the bent door hinge and the falco d206 fan. heated within 30 minutes to its set point of 50.3 C.................Ambeint temp was about 25 when I got home at midnite........ Pretty fast heating. Tommorow will add some door locks and try to change out factory controller with mine and see what components can take. Hoping for 75 deg C for curing . I am sure the unit's insulation can stand it but the insulation around the heating element and the element itself is my worry.

The air flow is from interior of chamber thru fan opening to heater then down back wall thru slotted area and back into interior. Unit is designed to do cell culture so should be pretty accurate as for temperature distribution. That has to be more techy than drying tobacco?.

Will have to figure an exhaust system and use Amax's griddle also

 

[Knucklehead]

http://www.mcmaster.com/ This place has everything. I found some draw latches that will pull the door up tight against the gasket.

 

[AmaxB]

Cant comment on nicotene content tho at the minute. Am not to good at that yet.

If ya get up in the morning and have a smoke than go all light headed you got some nicotine. Just finished smoking a cig of some of the stuff I pulled yesterday for sampling 2 thirds of the way through it took my head off. Had to wait a few minutes to let it pass. Have not gotten one of those for a while, I'll be taking the batch out later today and get it all bagged for safe keeping.

 

[Fisherman]

Well so far the little unit is working well. I used 5 water trays for the whole month so far and got humidity to about 65% and temps to 123 deg F.
Then added the small crockpot from WallyWorld [retail online $10] and got about the same results.
SO................. I turned unit over on its side and taped up the vents.............. After an hour I have 65-75% himidity and 127 deg F.....
I didn't even look for a vent before
The tobacco is pretty good tho so far and I added more also. Girlfriend is coming so I will pull out the bricks and re-brick them into 1/2 the size they are so I can put the crock pot in the middle of the bricks and fit more.
Actually with the vents closed I should be able to use a few of the trays and not have to use the crockpot at all.

 

[Fisherman]

Well............................

I am not an electrician. I am not really to smart.

I took the Bellco unit down and took out the old controller. It would only bring unit up to 50 deg C.

I added the one I bought from Aurbrins [ the 30 ramp cycle one ] and somehow..................... somehow I got it to go to 160+ deg f.........

It seems that I have something wrong tho with the sensor in the original Bellco unit. The temp stays at around 88 to 95 deg f is all........... I even put it into ice water and put a lighter under it.

I dont get an error message but it is a 2 wire sensor and the reccomended jumper wire brings temps displayed up to over 1000 deg F.

I think i have the PID on manual. Also set the sensor parameters Sn to all reccomended settings [5, 21,0] and all gave wierd off the map readings

This fuzzy logic crap is not for beginners

 

[Fisherman]

Looks like temp is going to stabize at 165 with the 1500 watt original heat source. My new fan is running hot so I got another that should work in its place. I think because I mounted the new fan upside down and drilled a hole in the heatbox to get the motor out of the 165 environment.. I think I also am getting hot motor due to no air from fan cooling it?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/270916931547?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649



Is the fan I just ordered that will fit the opening in my heat box and hopefully run at better temp then the one that came with unit.

 

[Fisherman]

A little update on curing chamber:

I got the new fan in and added it to the units heat box located on top of unit.



The new fan is cheap and has an extra fan that is supposed to cool it better than the Fasco fan.



Was simple to add to box.
I used muffler bandage to seal the unit but if that does not hold up I can pop rivet an old pie plate to the opening.


I messed with the PID controller and actually got the temp reading to almost work. It did until 125 degreed F then went on hold but unit heated to 152 or so anyway.
I just propped the door with a 4x4 and didnt cover the heat box with insulation just to see if unit would work.

I modified the ventalation system with the aluminum shelves from the little towel warmer unit and almost all the air goes down back wall to the bottom of the unit and I cant tell if it has to much flow or not as nothing is inside unit except heavy thermometer.

Was terrible time for site to go away also,.....

Will get a hot plate which should help getting the last few degrees needed for chamber and will drill hole for humidity controller and for manuwal vent so I can make a rush try at curing.

Am hoping the Fed-x man cometh soon to dam it . grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

 

[AmaxB]

The big unit after I fixed the bent door hinge and the falco d206 fan. heated within 30 minutes to its set point of 50.3 C.................Ambeint temp was about 25 when I got home at midnite........ Pretty fast heating. Tommorow will add some door locks and try to change out factory controller with mine and see what components can take. Hoping for 75 deg C for curing . I am sure the unit's insulation can stand it but the insulation around the heating element and the element itself is my worry.

The air flow is from interior of chamber thru fan opening to heater then down back wall thru slotted area and back into interior. Unit is designed to do cell culture so should be pretty accurate as for temperature distribution. That has to be more techy than drying tobacco?.

Will have to figure an exhaust system and use Amax's griddle also

The griddle is good for Kiln mode with pan of water for humidity and if flue cure wet towels on it help to bring tobacco into order after it has been dried.
To bring tobacco into order after flue cure a hot plate with pan of boiling water is better than the griddle (close all vents).

Been reading through this a little....
Check to be sure you have Right Sensor Type for your PID also you can have cold or hot spots check with different locations.
If heater dose not give needed heat consider changing to ceramic heat emitters 110VAC or 220VAC they are cheap bout 24 bucks and will take moisture.
Be sure all cracks / joints are sealed and door gasket is good.
I would not attempt a flue cure until I knew the chamber is solid and I can control.
Put to gather a Dry / Wet Bulb to cross check controls
In my thread the Humidity PID control I bought is spot on with my Wet Bulb and doing a great job controlling my vents.

 

[Fisherman]

Hello Mr Amax... Is sure good to see all the folks after that time down
I ordered 4 of the thermometers you use in your wet bulb post.
I was also thinking about using one of those whole house humidifier wick/filters and a small pump and locating it at site of my warm air entrance.
The controller would work the pump which would then have water trickled down over it and the air passing would pick up mega humidity in process.
I am on way to get hot plate. I liked that idea of yours better.
My probes are on Fed-x truck out for delivery and I ordered 2 K-type and a RTD 100 type also. My PID says it takes either.
Once I get them I can work on taking it off manual and see how it controls.
I gotta start some prettyt quick as I have over ripe leaves I was saving.

Question:

If a fella was to have a load of leaves that were already yellowed and almost stem dryed AND decided to flue cure them to finish later. would that work?????? Basically is it possible to break the flue curing process timetable and still have success?
My reasoning is that a person could get a load of leaf past major mold stage and then stem dry when time permits.

 

[AmaxB]

Question:

If a fella was to have a load of leaves that were already yellowed and almost stem dryed AND decided to flue cure them to finish later. would that work?????? Basically is it possible to break the flue curing process timetable and still have success?
My reasoning is that a person could get a load of leaf past major mold stage and then stem dry when time permits.

Drying is the easy part, if color is set than there is room for error. Just be sure your leaf is dry before going into stem drying or it is possible to trash your tobacco.
For leaf lamina I have been working 100F to 118F dry bulb and 100F to 105F wet bulb (about 53% RH) about 10 to 12 hours than bumping it up to 130F dry and 105F wet another 10 to 12 hours.
Stem I go from 130F to 150F dry bulb over about 5 hours and wet bulb 105F than let it run till stem has shrunk and is dry brown at this point you want 17 to 20% RH.
When dry do not let chamber cool down - shut heat off - close vents - add hot plate with pan of hot water and set hot plate so water will be just under a boil. I cover my pan with sheet metal leaving an opening.
Give it an hour after water has come to steaming good and check the leaf you want a good moisture content but not to much and the leaf should not sound crunchy. If need be give more time should take no more than 3 hours
if your chamber is sealed well and not leaking humidity.
Lay a piece of plastic wrap on table and unload your chamber piling leaf on the wrap. Using the wrap like a band bunch the tobacco than you can slip it into a bag easily for storing it.

 

[Fisherman]

Mr Amax..........

I ran the hot plate in the chamber with no other heat. It qwent to 120 deg F and humidity went to 84%...............

That was on high tho. I will try tommorow with lower hot plate temp and larger water container and rig a towel as a wick to increase evaporation area.

BUT..............

I also ordered the following:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/22108180842...eName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

It is an ultrasonic fogger.

Low wattage and cost also.

Excerts from manufacturer of one unit: Site = http://www.nutramist.com/humidification.html

Maintaining the proper humidity in your grow room or greenhouse is easy with the Nutramist Fogger. All you have to do is hook it up to a humidistat to take precise control over your plants environment.
While conventional high pressure misters create extremely large droplets, on the order of 60-120 microns, the Nutramist Fogger's droplet size averages only 2-5 microns. At this size, Nutramist Fog is quickly converted to water vapor instead of soaking your precious plant's leaves and opening them up to all types of bacterial and fungal problems.
These pictures were taken in our 8x8 greenhouse with a single Nutramist running for 20 minutes simply to show just how much fog it can put out on its maximum setting. This was also done in the dead of winter when the relative humidity was only 15% so with doors closed a single Nutramist increased the RH 85 points in 20 minutes in a 416 cu. Ft. greenhouse.

Here is a video of some of these items working:

I am thinking would be easy to hook up to humidity PID and less wattage also. The amount of fog they generate has to turn into a large increase in RH.

 

[AmaxB]

120F is not a problem you want ir warm, also you do want your humidity in 90% plus range and a very mild air flow..
That fogger looks pretty slick but I saw no pricing could be high dollar to draw the vapor through the leaves

 

[Fisherman]

http://www.pidtuning.net/learn-pid-control4.html

I started this program or school to help understand how to program my PID............... This means I joined as a student not as teacher for sure