Copper pan

[VA maple guy]

Has anyone ever heard of, or seen some one using a copper pan to make maple syrup? I just ran into several nice peice of 16 guage copper sheet. I am thinking about making a 22"x40"x8 pan out of it. The pan i'm using now is stainless steel, but it's a bit to thick for good heat transfer, it's about 3/32". I'm hoping the thinner copper will transfer more heat and raise my gph. Any comments or sugestions would be welcome.
Gerry

[Dave Y]

I saw an article in the paper here a couple weeks ago about suraring in Nw Pa. And the one fella had a cooper evarorator. So I imagine it wood work quite well. I would give it a try.

[forester1]

I have a catalog from Small Brothers from 1979 and in it they offered to make up evaporator pans from copper. This was before stainless steel was common and most pans were english tin. I think the price was more expensive but they don't give the price for pans. Be sure to use lead-free solder. I read a post here on the trader a while back that someone had a copper pan evaporator.

[Maple Hill Sugarhouse]

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[nhmaple48]

Had a 6x6 copper front pan on our rig when we got it new. Boiled good, but hard to keep it looking good and a pan that size has a tendency to sag as copper is so soft. Used it 2 years and went to stainless.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

One thing about copper is that it will transfer heat a lot better than stainless, so it should be quite a boil! :D

[themapleking]

My neighber boils on a home made copper evap. for years.

[brookledge]

As nhmaple said copper is soft so be sure and make enough ribs or sections to make it strong. Definately the copper will transfer the heat better but if not made strong enough it will sag and the pan will get a rounded bottom.
Keith

[Maple Hill Sugarhouse]

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[Rob Harvey]

For the same reason that electrical wires are copper and not steel, its a better conductor. Rob

[nhmaple48]

In talking to the guys that built them up to St Albans, they said copper would draw the heat out of the iron so fast, they dreaded doing it.

[sweetwoodmaple]

Yes, similar to aluminum as far as heat conduction.

Anyone who's tried to weld aluminum will know how much of pain it is vs. carbon steel or even stainless. The concentrated heat is needed to weld properly, but the aluminum just keeps conducting it away from the heated zone.

Wonder if they ever tried bonding the copper to the stainless, similar to the newer copper bottomed pots and pans?

Brian

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Shame you can't boil on aluminum, imagine what kind of evap rates you would get. :D :D 8O

[brookledge]

its the same theory of revere ware cooking pots that are copper cladded. I don't know of any manufactuer that ever did copper cladding on evaporator pans. As for aluminum it is even softer than copper and wouldn't be able to stand up to the weight in the pans. Also aluminum is more suseptable to corrosion. Try putting acid cleaner on al. it will eat it up.
Keith

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Guess someone needs to develop a teflon coated evaporator pans. 8O :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

[nhmaple48]

Someone in the Rutland area tried that in the late 60's early 70's I believe. Don't know how it did work out.

[brookledge]

Must not have been effective or the manufactuers would have picked up on it.
Keith

[VA maple guy]

Well,It looks like I'm going to have a new copper pan for next year.
Here is Just a few details on how I plan in making my pan. There will be two ribs and one seam running lengthwise across the bottom. all the joints will be brazed with silfos. The top edges of the pan will be tri folded to increas it's stiffness. I sure hope all this effort pays off next year with a higher gph.
Gerry

[ontario guy]

i had a stainless pan made this winter.
it was a 2 by 5 made out of 22 guage. I have on devider making a syrup pan in the front. It is 1 by 2 (one gallon of syrup per inch, i usually do batches of 2 to 2 gallons) it worked well. It was hard to put a gallon per hour to it since most of my wood this year was Bass wood. I did get into some Iron wood near the end of the season and the gph increase.
I did not need support in the back cause i have steel supports in my arch to support the sagging middle of the pan. 22 guage is very this to the pan does expand/contract when starting off.

if i can be of any help let me know.

(for some reason i though copper leached some metal... berilium or something)

[VA maple guy]

Hi ontario guy, i like your idea of steel supports under the pan. I may weld some into my evaporator for next year. I have never heard of copper leaching anything, but i'm no expert on that subject.
Gerry

[ontario guy]

maybe i am wrong... In Quebec to be a comercial producer, everything has to be stainless, all fittings and even preheaters.

the support thing works ok, it gets hotter where the support is. Don't make it too deep, mine is a 2in by 2in angle and i think that was overkill.

good luck.