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I have used the method from the 'Serious Eats' site where you SV the day before, rest in fridge overnight, slice cold, then warm up in a pan over the cooking veggies. It was a store bought corned beef and it turned out excellent.
With strips that size, overnight to 24 hours with the cure. However, with strips that thin and smoking at 170 I think you will get through the danger zone just fine without the cure.
When the shriner's sell vidalias in the spring I always carmelize at least one bag. Spray a muffin pan with Pam, fill cups with caramelized onions, put in freezer a few hours then pop them out and bag them up. They freeze great.
Your plan will work, however, with ground beef and especially 80/20 you will render out quite a bit so will want to blot them off with a paper towel when you take them out of the smoker. These will also need to be refrigerated as the fat does not really make them shelf stable.
I have done the flax seed oil thing with a 500 deg oven and it works fantastic. To strip mine I use the self cleaning cycle in my oven then a good wash with hot soapy water.
Interesting idea. If just for sausages and lower heat stuff, you could probably screw some foil faced rigid insulation sheets to the OUTSIDE of the plywood to help hold the heat.
I use an older model of the same dehydrator, shoot out of the jerky cannon onto the racks. Like the others have said, I don't go by time, I start checking every hour or so after 4 hours and go by feel.