Re: [BlindHandyMan] Considering building my own apple drier or dehydrator
I really think that the fact that dehydrators use more electricity is mis-information. I keep two of them going almost all summer and don't notice any difference in the bill. They only heat to about 145 or so and they use about the same as a small lightbulb to heat and a small fan. Go to http://www.excaliburdehydrators.com I'm not plugging this site. Its just where I got my dehydrators from and am really happy with them. The site has a lot of good recipes and know-how there. Jim On Jul 9, 2010, at 9:55 PM, Victor Gouveia wrote: I've heard that dehydrators tend to use quite a bit of electricity, and while the dehydration process might be faster and easier, the savings on the electrical bill would more than offset the ease of it all. Mind you, this information was gotten based on the old Popiel dehydrators, so it may be out of date. Victor [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Re: [BlindHandyMan] Considering building my own apple drier or dehydrator
Well I didn't use a fan because we always have breezes here and they are dryer than my sense of humor. What about using those rolls of that plastic screening that goes into storm doors? They might clean up easily with a waterhose outside. I guess you need to think about how many apples you are going to dry. My racks in the new dehydrator are maybe 14 by 14 inches. Haven't measured them. There are 9 in each unit. They are spaced with 1/2 inch clearance between them. Depending on how I cut them, I can get about 2 apples per rack. Jim On Jul 9, 2010, at 7:25 PM, Matt wrote: - Original Message - Matt Your wooden frame and screens is kind of what I am thinking just now to start with. Did you use a heat element and a fan? I'm rummaging around for unused stuff to play with the idea. Sitting here with a small fan in my lap just now and pondering perhaps an electric skillet as heat element to go in bottom? Probably here in east texas, all I would need is a screened in box with vented racks of some sort, and maybe a fan at top to speed up the process, but I haven't decided yet. I'm wondering about some sort of webbed or porous material to stretch over dowels or wooden frame as trays. Still in the pondering stage. From: Jim Gatteys To: blindhandyman@yahoogroups.com Sent: Friday, July 09, 2010 4:45 PM Subject: Re: [BlindHandyMan] Considering building my own apple drier or dehydrator Hi Matt! I used some old wooden frames and screen nailed across them for racks for years but finally broke down and bought an excalibur dehydrater. Best investment I ever made. I dry tons of stuff from my garden. I'm in west Texas and in the summer I keep the dehydrater outside while doing onions and tomatoes. Works great. Jim On Jul 9, 2010, at 4:37 PM, Matt wrote: Hi ya folks. Lately I've gotten into drying apples and cooking pies and stuff out of them. Mainly, I started out buying them already done from a Mennonite owned store. I quickly got addicted to them as snack food, then found recipes for making pies and breads out of them. I looked up instructions on drying your own. They suggested oven on the lowest setting, or in a car on a hot day. The oven works, but your spouse complains about the oven always being busy, and you can only get so many in there at 1 time. And it does take at least 6 hours the way I did it. My wife suggested I not buy a dehydrator, because as it is I am a gadget buyer. And ya start running out of space to live after so long. Just now I am considering building a wooden frame which would hold cookie sheets stacked but spaced from one another 1 on top of the other, and buying screen to cover the outside to keep some bugs out, and putting an old fan I have out in storage in one end of it. My idea lacks the heat element factor, but I live in east tx, and am figuring, I could set it up in the attic, or out in a back room where there is no air conditioning. I could go to the trouble of forming my own screen trays, if I wanted to build them, but then cleaning something like that with a wood frame? I don't think that would last long. Anyone ever done this stuff, say, to make jerky or whatever? just curious. Matt [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Re: [BlindHandyMan] Considering building my own apple drier or dehydrator
Hi Lee! if you have questions off list that's fine. My dehydrator is about the size of a microwave and when the stuff is dry it goes into fruit jars that I seal with a device called a pump 'n seal from http://pump-n-seal.com It works like a foodsaver but its about 30 dollars and works great. I buy coffee beans and vaccuum seal them in jars and they stay that way for months. Jim On Jul 10, 2010, at 11:06 AM, Lee A. Stone wrote: my question is would be how much cuhnter or shelf space Jim d your machines take up? and then how do you tore the end roduct? If you do not mind I'd like to take some o f the discussion off list. Might I email you Lee. thanks On Sat, Jul 10, 2010 at 04:45:11AM -0500, Jim Gatteys wrote: I really think that the fact that dehydrators use more electricity is mis-information. I keep two of them going almost all summer and don't notice any difference in the bill. They only heat to about 145 or so and they use about the same as a small lightbulb to heat and a small fan. Go to http://www.excaliburdehydrators.com I'm not plugging this site. Its just where I got my dehydrators from and am really happy with them. The site has a lot of good recipes and know-how there. Jim On Jul 9, 2010, at 9:55 PM, Victor Gouveia wrote: I've heard that dehydrators tend to use quite a bit of electricity, and while the dehydration process might be faster and easier, the savings on the electrical bill would more than offset the ease of it all. Mind you, this information was gotten based on the old Popiel dehydrators, so it may be out of date. Victor [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] -- In vino veritas. [In wine there is truth.] -- Pliny [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Re: [BlindHandyMan] Considering building my own apple drier or dehydrator
Hi Matt! I used some old wooden frames and screen nailed across them for racks for years but finally broke down and bought an excalibur dehydrater. Best investment I ever made. I dry tons of stuff from my garden. I'm in west Texas and in the summer I keep the dehydrater outside while doing onions and tomatoes. Works great. Jim On Jul 9, 2010, at 4:37 PM, Matt wrote: Hi ya folks. Lately I've gotten into drying apples and cooking pies and stuff out of them. Mainly, I started out buying them already done from a Mennonite owned store. I quickly got addicted to them as snack food, then found recipes for making pies and breads out of them. I looked up instructions on drying your own. They suggested oven on the lowest setting, or in a car on a hot day. The oven works, but your spouse complains about the oven always being busy, and you can only get so many in there at 1 time. And it does take at least 6 hours the way I did it. My wife suggested I not buy a dehydrator, because as it is I am a gadget buyer. And ya start running out of space to live after so long. Just now I am considering building a wooden frame which would hold cookie sheets stacked but spaced from one another 1 on top of the other, and buying screen to cover the outside to keep some bugs out, and putting an old fan I have out in storage in one end of it. My idea lacks the heat element factor, but I live in east tx, and am figuring, I could set it up in the attic, or out in a back room where there is no air conditioning. I could go to the trouble of forming my own screen trays, if I wanted to build them, but then cleaning something like that with a wood frame? I don't think that would last long. Anyone ever done this stuff, say, to make jerky or whatever? just curious. Matt [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
[BlindHandyMan] purchasing a new washing machine!
Hi all! My washer has finally bitten the dust and its time to be replaced. And they've definitely changed since the last time I made a purchase. I currently have a front loading model but it seems like most of those nowadays have touch panels and don't seem to be very accessible to blind folks. Anybody have any suggestions on what you might have purchased that is accessible? Thanks for any help, Jim - Find me on facebook or: Skype: jimintexas Yahoo or Aim/Ichat: jgatteys Msn: jgatt...@gmail.com
Re: [BlindHandyMan] purchasing a new washing machine!
Hi Tom! Well this is an old maytag neptune the one that had the class action problem. I replaced the control board to the tune of 285 dollars and now the bearings are screaming and I don't know anything about replacing them. They wanted 600 dollars for the maytag people to do it--maybe more. Can't remember. Anyway by the time I did that I could have a new machine. The problem is with the flat panels, you have a cycle button that you have to press once for normal, twice for heavy and that sort of thing. Same for the temperature. I'd like to have a front loader if possible but I did see an old dial roper at Lowes for 339 dollars and might have to r esort to that. Still if anybody has ideas I'd appreciate them. I'm looking at a samsung that seems really nifty---has an element to heat water if its not hot enough. Thanks for any help. Jim On Apr 9, 2010, at 11:18 AM, Tom Hodges wrote: Jim, My Sears washing machine, which was about 12 years old, started sounding like someone was beating it with a hammer. I called the service department and was told that it was probably the transmission and it would be cheaper to buy a new one. We went to Sears and got a good deal on a floor model. Both machines were top loaders,. We got the new one home and it sounded exactly like the one we just replaced. I called the store and they sent a serviceman the next week. The problem was, you guessed it, the transmission. Oh well, sometimes you just can't win. Anyway, I was talking to the service man and he told me that sometime, in the near future, all washing machines will be front loaders. He said they clean the clothes much more efficiently and the problem with the door leaking is a thing of the past. As far as the controls are concerned, my microwave is a flat panel, but I use those self adhesive nubs to find my way around the panel.They are like little buttons that you put on keyboards and such. They come in all different sizes. Anywaythat may be a consideration for you if the control panel is an issue. Maybe someone else on here has a flat panel washing maching and will comment on it. Tom From: blindhandyman@yahoogroups.com [mailto:blindhandy...@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Jim Gatteys Sent: Friday, April 09, 2010 10:09 AM To: blindhandyman@yahoogroups.com Subject: [BlindHandyMan] purchasing a new washing machine! Hi all! My washer has finally bitten the dust and its time to be replaced. And they've definitely changed since the last time I made a purchase. I currently have a front loading model but it seems like most of those nowadays have touch panels and don't seem to be very accessible to blind folks. Anybody have any suggestions on what you might have purchased that is accessible? Thanks for any help, Jim - Find me on facebook or: Skype: jimintexas Yahoo or Aim/Ichat: jgatteys Msn: jgatt...@gmail.com mailto:jgatteys%40gmail.com [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] - Find me on facebook or: Skype: jimintexas Yahoo or Aim/Ichat: jgatteys Msn: jgatt...@gmail.com [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
