Solar Dehydrator Project: Part 1 The Cover

Here we go!

In this first video, I explain why I started out making the cover first.



I started making the cover by cutting the 1x4’s to length according to the following drawing. The 1x4’s are cut to the length’s in the drawing for two reasons. First, this will give an 1/8” gap on all sides of the plexiglass so it can easily fit inside the frame of the cover. Second, it gives an 1/8” gap on all sides for the cover to easily fit over the main dehydrator box.



Next up is how we went about putting the frame together.



Hey brainiac, did you do that right?.....






Now for the 1x2’s that will hold up the plexiglass on the inside of cover frame.







Here’s is a side view drawing of the cover. Note: the gapping for the plexiglass doesn’t necessarily have to be 1/4”. Just make the gap slightly bigger than the thickness of the plexiglass. The plexiglass we used happened to be 1/8” thick and I gave it 1/8” of play. If your plexiglass is thicker, you’ll need to adjust this. I saw one person that used Lexan for a hinged door-like cover which was pretty nice but I didn’t want to put the effort or money into it. Lexan is much stronger than plexiglass but it’s expensive.



Here's the drawing for the final cover boards.



These last two videos finish up the cover.