The Dehydrator and MDF Flock

This is the first outing of my new (second-hand) dehydrator, courtesy of Pixi, and it does a sterling job of drying out paint-tinted MDF dust. So I'd call it a success.

It needs a two-step approach: an initial drying to get rid of most of the moisture, then a quick pass through my little electric coffee grinder to break up the clumps and back in the machine to get bone dry. I could use a mortar and pestle I suppose, but why bother having electric gizmos if you're not going to use them?

Altogether, it took about three hours of drying I guess. Or maybe less, but that's what I gave it.

This is generic "dirt" flock, and it's a very fine powder from my belt-sander. The "grass" flocks and the like go over the top.

You may well ask, why not just use dirt then, instead of going to all the trouble of tinting, drying and grinding MDF dust to do the same job? And real dirt can work well, but it needs to be dried and sterilized, and it can react unpredictably with glues and stuff. So, there's not actually much saving of effort in the end.