steam hood doors

[super sappy]

I modeled my homemade steam hood after one that I saw at grimm. They had several laying around Some with a door that slides front to back in a track and some that were hinged.I feel that I can fabricate either style but is one style better than the other?

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

I have sliding doors on the one I had fabricated and like them a lot. The nice thing is you can only open them a little to see inside where hinged you could have to open them fully to see down inside the hood. :?

[Bob Shields]

I have a hood made by an Amish tinner. It has hinged doors. I am very happy with the hood, but the hinged lids leak some condensate down the outside of the hood. It could be there should be a flange or lip fabricated on to the lid to make the water stay inside the hood and on down to the drain.

Bob Shields

[Sugarmaker]

Super,
I fabricated my own hood/s and the rear hood has four hinged doors. I did get stainless hinges from McMaster Carr. And I did put a drip ledge in the lower inside, I still get a little condensate drip but nothing major. Probably the biggest thing that works well for me is the damper in the stack. Good luck with the fabrication! Send some pics.

[super sappy]

I went with sliding doors.I was wondering about a gasket between the water channel on the bottom of the hood and the top of the pan. My hood is perfectally flat and the top of the pan has a buildup of soldier at the corners.Will steam exhaust along this 1/16" opening and should I install a gasket of some sort.I was thinking about a strip of thin cork or rubber. -Jeff

[Sugarmaker]

Jeff,
Since I built mine and the hood and pans are not a perfect fit, I have 1/16 gaps all over the place and no gaskets. Leader recommends a "tight fitting". The air in the sugar house is sucked into the hood thorough these gaps unless you close the steam damper then you can get steam coming out of ever crack and crevice. So when that happens we just open the damper a little and allow the draft to keep the steam under the hood not in the room. I also watch the output sap temp and keep as much steam in the hood as possible to heat the cold sap. Sounds like your sliding door should work well!

[super sappy]

Thanks for all of the feedback. The hood is in the installation stage and that should be straight foreward.The last thing to complete is the sugar house lighting.I have a coleman lamp but i was thinking of using DC lightbulbs on a deep cycle battery.I took pictures at different stages of the hood construction. I will figure out how to post them when I am not so busy. -Jeff

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Jeremy,

Glad to see ya back. How is the family and everything going! :?: :D