New 2x8 Homemade Arch - Ready to Go!

[user587]

I finished a new arch - photos and descriptions here:

http://s1103.photobucket.com/albums/g478/user587/Arch%20Construction/

It was fun but time consuming, as my welding stinks (lots of grinding). But in the end it turned out well (by my standards anyway). I'm a new maple guy, have never even seen an evaporator run (although a very gracious local experienced guy has offered to call me at his first boil - I'm planning to oblige).

Any tips/warnings/suggestions are welcome, I'm worried that I've missed something.

Many thanks to the MT community - many, many design elements are based on information gleaned from the hours spent on the MT forums. THANKS!

Scott

http://i1103.photobucket.com/albums/g478/user587/Arch%20Construction/0118111105a.jpg

[PARKER MAPLE]

Verny nice piece of work, Im sure it will make you proud to stand beside it when its got a ripping boil going. Gal or s.s. sides? Love the door design. I too built an arch a few years ago, have sold it sence but seeing you go through the same amount of work makes me remember mine. Any hoods and preheaters in the furture?
whats going on it for pans

Sorry for all the questions

Maple rookie GOOD WORK

[user587]

thx Maple Rookie. The sides are SS 0.030" thk. Hoods are underway, pretty conventional (but not completely). For preheater, there is a 8" high "riser" under the rear hood, which is intended for a copper manifolded preheater. (it's on the B list - I need to focus on absolute necessities for now!). I'll try to post pics of the hoods when they're done. For pans, 2x3 front divided pan and 2x5 drop flue rear pan, all SS TIG. I had a guy I know make them from my design, they turned out pretty decent. I've had them on the arch (they fit - whew!) and now they're out for a few fittings and misc welding.

Scott

[PARKER MAPLE]

keep us posted on how it boils. im sure your getting antssy to get that thing bricked up and get a test boil going threw it. anyways awesome work, and good luck making syrup on it.

Maple rookie

[sugarmountain]

That is a nice arch! im interested in air over fire, I have a 40"x 12' arch (old leader ) that i rebuilt to new condition a couple years ago. wonder if i could rig it up

[Sugarmaker]

user 587,
I like the clean design. Nice job on the details like the handles for the AOF draft controls. Should be a great boiling machine. You will enjoy all that hard work.
Make sure you put in arch board or some type of insulation, then the brick to protect those pretty stainless sides.
Regards,
Chris

[Bucket Head]

User,

You better have "operators standing by", because after everybody gets a look at the photo, their going to want to place an order for one!

That's a beauty. Nice job.

And don't worry about the welding skills. They will improve as you build more of them.......

Steve

[70 Buick]

wow what a gorgeous rig
and you are a bad welder

bad welding is mine LOL

http://mapletrader.com/community/showthread.php?t=9753


yours looks professional, make me one please !!!!

[user587]

Finally did a test boil - it's a success! The photo is when it was just getting going, at full boil it makes a lot of steam. I have a few engineering changes underway (steam hood doors leak, float valve system tweaks, tidy up some electrical/plumbing, a few other misc. little things) but basically it's time for a final pan cleaning and then fill it with sap.

The air-over-fire function is impressive. The burn with-and-without the air over the fire is quite a bit different. It's a nice fire with only air from below, but when the over-fire air blasts are opened up - wow - it's an inferno.

Now all I need is some sap!

[jmayerl]

I gotta ask, how many gph did you get testing or are you running sap now?

[user587]

I boiled my first sap yesterday - it boils very well - in fact so well I had trouble with foaming pretty badly in the front pan. I nearly scorched a couple small spots after 3 near-disasters (thank goodness for the emergency bucket-o-sap!!!) so I shut it down to think a little and clean the pan. I was using olive oil and/or butter as defoamers - added a tiny amount with each firing per the techniques learned on MT and and the "using Defeoamer" article. Keep in mind - this was my first time ever running an evaporator, so I think the problems were operator technique issues.

I found my float setting is different when it's cold vs. boiling - I set 1.5" depth cold, but I think when it's boiling the depth at the draw-off is quite a bit less than that. Also I fired it pretty full of wood, and with the over-fire air it boils a full rolling boil in the entire front pan - I think I need to tone it down a little bit perhaps. Also I got fancy after my (water-only) test boil, and I placed a "diverter" block in front of the flue pan at the center, to push the heat to the outer channels to even it out. I think this was a big mistake, as it probably kept the heat up front too much rather than letting it get under the flues. Nevertheless, the flues boiled strongly with a 5-6" geyser at the front of the channels.

I found the air-over needs to be tuned - If I opened it all the way up, there was a raging fire but it stayed under the front pan (perhaps partly due to my diverter) and it boiled the front pan heavily. When I throttled down the over-fire air, the flames headed back under the flues better. So I'm learning how much/how often to fire, and how much air to apply, etc... It's fun to play with for sure! Stack temp was 350-450.

The gradient was very good - when I had foaming trouble it was mostly in the draw-off section and a little bit in the next section over. I was pleased to have good boil in all 4 sections of the front pan, only a tiny bit more boil in the middle 2 than the outer 2.

So I'm planning to run again with a much higher sap level (don't care if it slows me down - I'm boiling too fast right now anyway I think) and removed the diverter, and with a little less heat, tuned to get under the rear pan more quickly. Maybe after the busy season if I have fuel left, I'll boil water at full blast just to see what is possible.

Fun stuff!

[user587]

With many boils now under the belt, several little tweaks made, played with the air settings, firing schedule, loading method, sap levels, etc... we're in a good groove now - boiled 50.8 gph for a 3 hr span today.

[buck3m]

...boiled 50.8 gph for a 3 hr span today.

Nice! You must be a happy mapler now.

[user587]

I gotta ask, how many gph did you get testing or are you running sap now?

now that we're learning how to run this thing (it's our first year after all...) we're getting 50 gph every boil. I'm considering a few arch mods for next year, I think we can do better than that.

Still have too much heat in the syrup pan. To get a strong boil in the flue pan, we need to fire heavily, which makes the front pan boil massively. We've actually installed a heat shield under the syrup pan to tone down the boil so we can fire heavily to get the most from the flue pan.

Nevertheless it's not bad for the first year I suppose, at 50 gph we can keep up reasonably well.

[C&C maple sugar bush]

what kind of metal did you use for the sides of the arch?

[user587]

what kind of metal did you use for the sides of the arch?

Stainless 304 2B mill finish, 0.0293" thk.