temporary bricking of oil tank evaporator

[Etown Maple Syrup]

Once the evaporator is complete, I need to move it to a location to boil in February that may be temporary. Can I brick it in without cement? So if I relocate it, it will not be as heavy? What do you think the heat loss will be without cement? I have plans to place removeable wheels on the unit. View pictures in my album, thanks all! This site has been very helpful in my build! Merry Christmas!

[Sugarmaker]

Cassell Farm Maple Monk,
First welcome!
I am sure you will find syrup makers on here that do not have there bricks cemented in. I would not think there would be a huge heat loss factor assuming the bricks in the main fire box are without serious gaps. The other thing would be to add some type of insulating arch board or blanket first to the inside walls of the arch and then set the brick. This wold minimize heat loss too.
Regards,
Chris

[jasonl6]

From my understanding bricking is done to protect the firebox area not to keep heat in. You need some type of insulation if you want to keep heat in. I would use a ceramic blanket then loose brick over that. Ash will fill in the gaps.

jason

[whalems]

Where is your album? I would also say that "temporary bricking" should be fine. if you want more heat to the pans then you need insulation as well.

[Thiems sugarshack]

I dont have my bricks cemented in because of one when I upgrade the person who buys it wont be able to handle it because of weight and because I use Archboard

[Paddymountain]

I didn't have my brick cemented in my 2.5x8 last year for that very reason.
Actually I cemented in the brick in the firebox area, and laid the bricks along each side without cement. Then I spread sand on the bottom of the flue pan area. I realize this is not optimum for performance, but I knew I was building a new sugarshack this sumer and needed to move it. Now that I have it moved, I tore all the brick out, and put 1900 degree insulation board behind
the brick throughout the whole arch. One other note; I had a leanto that was just tarped on one side last year, and I had trouble making syrup!! I ended
up putting another tarp up to close things in a little better. that being said ,I made it through the season ,and this year am looking for much better performance from my arch. Hope this helps

[C.Wilcox]

I built a fuel drum arch with insulation and cemented the brick in. If you've got a front end loader I'd be glad to have it moved over a few feet. It is seriously heavy and is not movable in any sense of the word. If you don't want to insulate it (I recommend you do) use full thickness firebrick and just dry stack them. If you do insulate you probably won't have room in the firebox for full thickness brick. In that case you'd have to use split firebrick and it could get a bit tricky getting the brick to stay in place when you're chucking in pieces of firewood unless you build in some sort of retainer straps to hold them in place.

[Etown Maple Syrup]

Thanks for your replies and the welcome. As I move forward with the plans I will consider your responses. I am still trying to figure out this site and its operation, so if you cannot find my album, I have attached a photo to this reply, I think!:confused::

[C.Wilcox]

Cassell,

Looking good! Couple of questions from looking at your picture:

Are there pan support rails across the front and the back? If not, you'll want to add some to link the side rails together. Otherwise they'll move around a lot and you could lose your pan into the flames or on to the floor.

Looks like you're planning to put your smoke stack out the back end of the tank. Assuming you're using a flat pan...setting it up like that will require you to leave a large gap under your pan and than can make it hard to get the back of the pan to boil. You might want to consider fabricating an oval shaped ring that tapers to fit a round smokestack and then welding that onto the back of the tank. If you look at some photos of commercially made arches you'll see what I'm talking about. Doing so will allow you to reduce the amount of space under the back part of the pan and it will boil easier.

If you don't mind a little rework, I would make the plate under the back part of your pan angle up from the firebox to the smokestack instead of it being horizontal. I set mine up horizontal and it's hard to get the back part of the pan to boil as well as I'd like. If think if you angle the ramp up towards the smokestack you'll get a better draft and it should boil better.

I'm guessing you're going to find yourself some heavier grates before the season, but if not, you'll definitely want to. BBQ type grates will self destruct in no time with the heat that you're going to be generating.

Good luck and keep posting photos! We all love watching buildups!

[Etown Maple Syrup]

Mr. Wilcox, I have installed cross brackets to keep the pans from falling in as you suggested. I will soon add a fire to see if the steel warps and additional cross support will be needed. I went with the 8" smoke stack flue exit. If I brick under the rear pan the space between the bottom of the pan and the brick will be reduced. The grate inside the arch is 3/4" thick, not bbq grade. A previous picture had a bad angle of the grate. Thanks for the comments.

[Etown Maple Syrup]

Update: Today the evaporator was placed in its temporary location. I installed the smoke stack up the flue. I picked up full and half bricks. I played around with brick placement. I do not have a way to cut the bricks yet, hence the gaps! I can't wait for tomorrow!

[Dennis H.]

Looks like you are getting it done.

I just took notice where you are from. So there is another one in the area.:)
How many trees do you have lined up for this season?

[Etown Maple Syrup]

Thanks Mr. Dennis H. Yes, it appears that I am southeast of your area. I hope to have 130ish taps this season on tube and 5gal pales. Since this is the first time tapping Cassell Farm red maple trees, I anticipate, at the most, 400 gallons of sap. It's the challenge of the potential that I am hooked on! With limited funds and nothing to show for it so far, I am taking many mental notes to maximize output this season. (Buy the way, this site is great!)
In '09 I visited my family by marriage in Somerset County and I was hooked! I am still amazed at their 2800 taps on bucket!

[C.Wilcox]

Cassell,

Looks great! When can we expect photos of a test fire? :)

[Etown Maple Syrup]

Mr. Wilcox, I am taking the NASA approach. I am waiting for the right conditions and for my home owners insurance to be updated before I do a light off!:lol:

[Dennis H.]

cassell, that is how I got started too. I was at work got talking to a guy about maple syrup and went home in the morning and googled "how to make maple syrup". As they say the rest is history.

I was like you that the challenge sounded fun, the wife will tell you otherwise.
I just amazed me that something that looked like water coming out of a tree could be turned into something so good just by boiling it!
I at 1st took the simple side of making syrup but then once I made syrup I found that you can add a lot of technology to this and make even more syrup!

So yes I am now a memeber of the maple syrup anonymous. I have been hooked now for 3 years. It has been 3 months 2 weeks and 3 days since I had maple syrup and am using medication to calm myself till I have more!!

[maple flats]

I guess I have one advatnage. My wife never questioned making syrup. She did think I tried to grow too fast from year 1 to year 2. She thought going from a half pint to a 2x6 was a little too fast. The move from 2x6 to 3x8 two years later she never questioned. Vacuum was not questioned, another tank, 1000 gal SS was not questioned. Now she says we need to get an RO for next year. The growth process evolves.

[Etown Maple Syrup]

Saturday I had time to do a test fire or (LightOff). I would say the mission was very successful except as noted in the pan picture closeup. I discovered flame escaping as the cross pan braces started to sag. I will fix that this week. Temporary bricking did its job. Cool where it needs to be. Back pan was near boiling. Okay since I use that pan as preheater.

[Dennis H.]

its always fun making steam!!

A couple of tips that might help you out. Split that wood smaller.
Keep it the size of your forearm. The smaller the better, nice hot fire. Crisscross the wood. So you would lay the wood in front to back then next time adding wood lay the wood in side to side. This helps burn up the wood better by allowing air to get thru the wood pile.

Your grates are the next, try to beef them guys up. All that heat will destroy the grates in no time. I made my grates in my barrel evap out of 1/4" angle iron and some 1/2" square bar worked good but even they warped alittle every season. I had to take them out and flaten tham back out with a sledge hammer.