The cure is generally used for a dry base not wet, the soy/worchester you have will provide enough salt to perserve/cure the meat.

You may consider adding a dash of liquid smoke to your merinade, I prefer it when using a dyhadrator for a bit more traditional jerky flavouring. As far as hot you could also add a few drops of tabasco or hot sauce vs the chilli's this will accomplish some bite but not over power. If you want a sweet flavour the addition of brown sugar or honey can be done. The basics for jerky merinades are soy, worchester, garlic and pepper...than add whatever you like to it from that point. Many will use lemon juice as well for more liquid to the base. Literally tons of receipes can be found on the net, try a search. I am not a good receipe teller as I cook more by feel than by the book..sorry! The key is enough juice to cover the meat and then mix every 4-6 hours, the meat should look brown not red when it has fully absorbed the merinade.

I have used the American Harvest Dehydrator it worked pretty well. Typically with all 5 racks loaded it would take around 6 hours - I found it produced better jerky by placing the meat tightly on the racks vs loose. I also didn't mind the dry jerky mix from Hi Mountain, the Hickory was our favorite and we used more than reccomended of the spice and the suggested amount of the cure. Much less mess but the wet also produces a bit softer product IME.

As to ground - I grind and merinade in SS mixing bowl covered in the fridge for 48 hours and mix every 6 hours or so(wet is the best). I then sandwiched it with wax paper, rolled it out with a rolling pin to 1/4" thick and cut it into strips using a pizza cutter. Never used the jerky gun personally but have heard it works pretty good. I do prefer whole muscle meat jerky so never saw the point of investing in a jerky gun for the odd ground jerky batch.