Minature corn dryer

[farmero2]

I am thinking along the lines of a miniture air dryer setup for corn. Corn would be used for a corn stove. Something along the lines of a steel 50 gal drum with a heavy duty fan ducted into the bottom side. Also need to make a false floor. I would set this up on a buggy of sort so I can move it outside on nice days. What I need to know is how dry can I get corn with just outside air, I am aiming for 13%. Also thinking I could set this by the stove in the garage during winter and dry some that way. Would the excess moisture be too much for inside the garage? I use about a hunder + bushels a yr for heat. I normally get some 15% out of the field each yr but this yr looks doughtfull. They say Hurricane Sandra is headed here to eastern Pa.
 

[gregger]

dont know if u use it or not -- when we had ours i'd put a little egg shell u feed chickens on top
makes corn burn better , can burn higher moister corn
 

[farmero2]

Tried that combo last season with not much luck. This St Croix is very tuchy compaired to my last stove, forget the name off hand but it had a stirer in the fire box. Made great heat but was messy with all the fly ash. Moved that stove to the garage.
 

[Paul swpa]

Try setting up a dehumidifier near where you are storeing the corn and see if that helps dry it down.
I mess around with some open pollinated Indian corn and pick what ears I want to save for seed early - probably runs around 18-20+% - and just hang (by the husks) or in buckets in my garage, in the basement of the house, with a dehumidifier running in the next room (finished basement-6 rooms and garage). In a couple weeks moisture is down in the 10-13% range when I shell it and put in sealed storage container. So far I have been able to keep some seed for two+ years and still good. Don't seem to have any problems with moisture buildup in the garage. Depending on how fast you use it you could do smaller amounts (not the whole 100 bu.) at a time. Also when it gets cold out the wood burner gets fired up in the basement. That really dries it out fast.
 

[showcrop]

If you can get the air to go through the corn in the winter, the air is so dry that you could not keep the moisture in it if you tried. The same for your shop, Unless you have super tight windows and doors and moisture proof wrap in the walls, the outside air is going to suck the moisture right out. winter air in the north has very low humidity, that sucks moisture out of everything. We keep two humidifiers going in the house 24-7 all through the heating season, trying to stay healthy.
 

[paul]

These little fellas are often for sale at farm auctions for $40 or so. Without heat donno if they will get corn drier than 15%, depends on the humidity of your area I suppose.

http://www.dultmeier.com/products/0.1642.2519.2520/3279

--->Paul
 

[Rollie NE PA]

I made a drying bin out of 1/8 in hardware cloth 4 sides and bottom. it is mounted on a dolly I made with swivel casters so I can move it around.
It holds about 10 bushel. I burn some corn in my coal stoker. Corn is about the same size as rice coal.