evaporator pan

[bmiller]

Hello everyone i'm new to f0rum,and have a quick question . i was offered a diamond plated tool box that goes on back of a pickup ,would that be safe to use for a evaporator pan its actually a little too big for me as i don't have that sap to boil down at a time ,but was wondering if it would work. thanks

[Haynes Forest Products]

Your kidding right. Is it food grade..................I had to ask. Why would you want to make food it that? Maybe you should give it a few more years and save up for a Pora Poti to make your steamhood

[bmiller]

thank you hfp for your reply.it was just a simple question i asked,''would it be safe''.I hope everyone that asks a question on here doesn't get such a D@@kh@#d answer from YOU. have a nice day.

[Mac_Muz]

If there isn't plating where sap is in contact it might be safe. If there is chrome, grease, oils, and the kinds of things that get on tool boxes it might not be a good idea.

What is the plan? Set it up as clean as you can make it, one cinder blocks, and build a fire under it?

Most pans including home made pans have sides only 6 to 8 inches high. No one really fills them that deep on purpose.

If this tool box is like the rest i see, it's aluminum, and not steel, and is probably coated with at least some clear coat (not good). The too high sides, will act something like sails in the wind and can chill a mad boil to nil on a breeze.

Assuming you are not selling any, and can assume all risks, you can probably do it.

Lots of guys get stainless steel pans used cheap from restaurant sales and auctions.

Other home guys that don't sell use common sheet steel. But make it clean.

If you can get sheet copper cheap :rolleyes: somewhere that is the ages old pan metal, the pros used before there was any stainless steel.

[collinsmapleman2012]

thank you hfp for your reply.it was just a simple question i asked,''would it be safe''.I hope everyone that asks a question on here doesn't get such a D@@kh@#d answer from YOU. have a nice day.

easy now. haynes, along with the rest of the members here, are very.... appreciative and protective of the great maple syrup. you will understand after you make some, and a good rule of thumb is if you dont want kids eating it, then dont use it.

[bmiller]

hey thanks MacMuz,that was my plan to find out if it would be ok to use the diamond plate then go to cutting it down to smaller size .tried finding some stainless pans but no luck ,got people looking for me. a few years back i used a 20 gal kettle which worked pretty good,got a gallon of syrup .cmm2012 iwas easy , i understand what your saying and am protetive myself that swhy i asked on this forum just didn,t care for the ''pora poti ''crack. sorry

[morningstarfarm]

would suggest going to a fabricatin shop...have them bend up a pan for you out of 18-20 guage mild steel..Mine cost me about 75 bucks for a 2x3 foot pan..just my .02

[whalems]

Steam table pans work well to. And are inexpensive. Good luck, Mike

[Ausable]

Hello everyone i'm new to f0rum,and have a quick question . i was offered a diamond plated tool box that goes on back of a pickup ,would that be safe to use for a evaporator pan its actually a little too big for me as i don't have that sap to boil down at a time ,but was wondering if it would work. thanks

Morning bmiller -- Guess I'll have to echo everyone else and say no - not a good idea. The size of it would be ok -- but - wouldn't trust the coating or plating they put on it. Don't go getting mad right off the bat - we use just about everything to make maple syrup with or in. I gotta admit - when I first read this post I thought this guy is kidding and when I saw how you reacted to Haynes comment -- I realized - nope he is serious and just wants information. A couple of thoughts - look for pans with a large surface area that have no coating - wouldn't want teflon either. Also - Haynes is one of the good guys and has a vast knowledge of information about Maple Syrup making and I have learned lots by reading his posts - as I have from several others. You don't have to take anyones guff but loose the chip and have fun... Good luck buddy and make lots of good maple ---- Mike

[Mac_Muz]

In order safe is stainless steel, copper, mild steel also known as cold roll, or hot roll. We don't really care how the steel is made. Common sheet steel is almost the same as cast iron, but has carbon added to make iron steel.

It will rust. There are ways to deal with that. My way is to not clean the pan from the last uses and leave it upside down on sticks in use, and after the season upside down on the barrel.

I never clean the fire side of carbon, so no water can get on the steel bottom, and I keep the whole rig in a shed.

Pretty soon I will hose off the inside sugar coating from last year, and then sand, steel wool and power brush the inside to be spotless clean every where. That sugar coating cuts off water too, when the pan is upside down on the barrel.

I am a metal worker, not for su8gar pans, but I know enough to hammer a pan from a paper template design.

You need a rugged work bench free of all clutter, tin snips, hacksaw, file, industrial silver solder, flux, flux brush, torch, a mig welder helps, but is not a must have, and some hammers, and bench clamps. Oh year a scribe, measure tape and straight edge.

I just bought a 4 foot x 4 foot sheet of steel for under 25 bucks at the time.

With note book paper, 1 sheet, I made the plan.

It wasn't to scale a bit, but was for getting the double fold at the rim figured.

I wanted a 3/4" double flanged rim, so I made that on paper, which of course takes 1.75 inches.

I dead reckoned how much barrel could be gone and made the pan that wide to the bottom. I did the same thing for the pans length.

I wanted the pan sides to be 6 vertical inches, and so hade to leave 1.75 inches for the rim.

Bending metals makes them more ridgid. The corners support the sides, dividers help to support the bottom, and I made a mistake by not fomming a bend on the top of the dividers, just the bottoms for a soldering joint was formed at 90 degrees. next time the tops of any dividers will be bent, probably into a 3/4x 3/4 channel, so I can clean it, and it will have 2 bends.

That channel is the same as a folded rim flange less getting hammered flat back against itself.

[bmiller]

hey thanks everyone for your replies and advice,ill see what i can come up with.thanks again

[bmiller]

hey everyone .iasked about a evaporator pan earlier in year. i came up with a 2x3 stainless steel pan ,that came out of restuarant,my father in law had it and was about to regulate it to oilchanging duty but it got rescuedfrom that .then i checked a guy that is into scrap and he had a 2x4 x 4 ft high stainless sink for the price of $5.oo.so even though i didn't get to use them this season they will be up and running for next year.Now all i have to do is figure out which plan to use to build a evaporator.there is so many good ones on here.Thanks again to everyone for your help and suggestions.

[Ausable]

Hi again bmiller - Sounds like You made a couple of good finds. Would be a shame to use a stainless pan to catch old oil - best use is to make maple syrup. I have an old steam table pan about 8 inches deep that my Son found and my grandson attached a fitting to the end-center-bottom of it - which I put a valve on. Really comes in handy - I have used it over the sap pans on my 2' x 5' homemade evaporator to preheat sap and to melt sap ice - but - the best use I have for it - is to finish my syrup in over a turkey fryer burner. Hey - I don't know about your State - but - in Michigan - The garage sales and farm auctions will be starting up soon and we make some good finds at those - Good Luck and I hope You have a Maple Syrup making machine up and boiling next year -- Mike