Hilux 4x4 Forum

HI Guys

My dad and I built our own DIY biltong maker today, about 95% finished. I must say, it came out
good taking into account it is our 1st one ever! I got about 10 12v power supply fans from my
brother-in-law, enough spare fans seeing we only need about 4 of them!

Just one qeustion, should the fans blow into the box or suck air out of the box??
Currently this is a big debate between us! :roll:

If you guys want I'l post peekchas and dimensions?? The biltong maker is as big as about 3
filing cabinets next to each other. We even mounted it to the wall to prevent it from falling
over! I'm not quite sure, but I geuss we will be able to do about 25kg - 40kg at a time. Will see
when we do the first batch! Total costs so far for material = R600!

Cheers

Must blow over the meat. but you must make sure that the air that is being sucked in by the fan is sucked through something that can block insects. (FLY`s)

I no longer bother with something like this, the vinegar and spices keep the flies away ... (I have never seen a fly on the meat yet). I now just hang the stuff in the garage with a fan going for air circulation and I have biltong in 4 days.

A number of years ago, I built a drier that also worked very well. Used 3 x 12v fans and found that it's better to draw the air out, not blow it in. The reason is that you can place your fans on top and intake vents on the sides with fly screen on the inside. On the outside you fit a flap that swivels on a screw so that you can block off any vents you like so as to control exactly where you want the air-flow. If you adjust that screw so that the flap moves stiffly, you don't need a catch and you can also open the vent ½ way or ¼ way as you like.

I got rid of my unit some time back because it just took up too much space and wasn't being used anymore. The only thing I miss it for is making dried wors, but I will build another one on the same principle that is much smaller and collapsible for easy storage.

So, mount you fans to draw air out ... it's a far better option ... one other thing that I had considered but never got around to doing, was fitting individual, removable screens on the inside of each vent hole and fitting muslin cloth instead of fly screen mesh. The muslin cloth will allow decent airflow but also trap dust which fly mesh doesn't, and then being removable, can be washed.

Good luck!

one blow and one suck... keeps the air circulating and cuts drying time

My cabinets the fans draw air in on the left and out on the right. 4 days for droewors and 7-8 days for biltong.