wood prep with a food dehydrator?

[Shenanigans]

So I went to Cabela's recently to grab some fudge, and I saw a food dehydrator on sale. It's meant for jerky but I was wondering if anyone had used a dehydrator to do sticks? I've always baked in my oven, but the house we're going to has an OLD oven. It may be 50 years old or something, so I'm a little concerned about money/heat efficiency. Would a dehydrator work for sticks? Getting out humidity is basically why we use the oven, but this would be designed to do that.

Also, any tips for decorating wood aside from kool aid and wood burning? I wanted to make Yuki some playtime stuff and just wood colored looks a tad boring. Also, are the colors for us or can chins see them?

 

[halfstache]

I haven't used a food dehydrator for sticks, but in my experience (which is minimal) they take just about forever to dehydrate things. I had a friend who was trying to make some raisins out of grapes as a test run, and it took days. I think that you'd get a better result by placing a lot of sticks on trays and setting them inside a parked car out in the sun. These summer days here in my area at least are around 100, parked cars get somewhere around 140 or so inside, do that for a day or two and you can dehydrate a whole lot of sticks.

 

[stren003]

Not sure about the food dehydrator, although I too think it would take a very long time for a small amount of sticks.

As far as wood decorating, you can wood burn pictures and then "paint" them with the thick food coloring paste. I picked up a box of 16 different colors on amazon for pretty cheap and they are very vibrant. I am a horrible artist though, so I hope my girls really can't see color/ design! LOL!!!

 

[Amethyst]

I don't know about the dehydrator, as halfstache said they tend to take awhile to dehydrate things and also the baking kills bacteria and anything living inside the wood.
For coloring you can use vegetable based food coloring, add water to thin/lighten, and use it like paint to paint stuff on the wood. You can also use bird safe paints people use for bird toys, I'm not sure were you get those though.

 

[Vyxxin]

I wouldn't be worried about killing things...if you follow the "normal" protocol of boiling before baking...but it will definitely NOT be energy efficient. Dehydrators take FOREVER...I tried to do banana chips once...after like, two days they were still a bit gummy I'm with car baking, even on "cooler" summer days that are in the high 70's or 80's the car gets quite warm inside...do it for several days of course but still seems the better choice for efficiency.

Now, as far as decorating...aside from color (not sure if they see it) and burning...you can always (if you have a drill) get a hole saw to make holes in shelves that chins can go through...use bits to drill holes and edible type ropes (seagrass for instance) to hang/attach other goodies to the item? Just some thoughts

 

[Shenanigans]

I'd prefer to do the oven and the extra expense to a hot car just to lay off the extra parinoidness. Plus if we get a 40 degree below days like last winter my sticks would all ice together. Just wasnt sure about a dehydrator (and here i went getting my guy and both our dad excited about jerky)
For twigs and stuff the oven would be fine... larger stuff I may borrow a good oven in someone else's kitchen until I look up old stoves more. How well they'd do with 200 degrees all day and all that if I'm doing a bunch of thick stuff. (I heat it up, cool it off, reheat, until dry-letting it cool off occasionally mean i haven't burnt big stuff yet!)

I'm overplanning for "playground" stuff. Yuki gets a whole room to himself and Im hoping to fill it with chinchilla jungle gyms. I figured all wood color would look boring after a bit...

 

[Vyxxin]

Well, obviously for most of the US...summer is the only really safe time to prep in a car

Oh, another thought on decorative wood ideas...textures...now THOSE I know chins enjoy...for example, the barky willow I can get...MUCH different texture than say apple or pine? Likewise, grape would be different...and again to mention drilling holes in the wood to attach other wood? Could make it real interesting!