couple guys requested my barrel pan size.

[Mac_Muz]

For the 2 guys that requested my pan size for a barrel stove it is 36x21x6, not counting the flange at the top which is 3/4" but folded back on itself from 1.5 inch. The dividers are spaced evenly.

With total junk wood that burns fast, but has no pitch so the heat is lower than it could be, a lot lower heat than it could be, I run off 1 inch and hour or apx 5 gallons.

There was a grate in the botton of the stove that lasted from sappin 07 till this time, and I cooked it up bad, but it was just made of the barrel top part I cut off, so no big deal. It has saved the bottom of the barrel very well. The next grate will be made a little stronger, but not much.

My most recent improvements were to use a fiber glass insulation just on the pan, pretty much on just the ft and both sides, and adding in a seperate table to hold my pre heat pot, so condenstaion problems have been stopped completly.

I had collected more sap than I expected around 160 gallons maybe. I have around 50 gallons still to boil, and have made 8qts 1.5 pints.

With some luck, maybe I can come by better wood with pitch in it. That will speed things up.

I found insulating the pan allows a larger boil area in the pan, as no surface but the sap is exposed to cooler breezes.

My goal is just 5 gallons, and I am about 1/2 way there.

[SDdave]

Thanks Mac_Muz, I am going to put those in my journal for future references.

Hope you get the 5 gallons!

SDdave

[Mac_Muz]

I didn't know where else to put this little tip.

My home made pan has 3 sections, and i use a stock pot pre-heater, that uses gravity and heat to force hot water up copper bent tubing.

It does not always run hot however, which depends on the level in the pot. So this way i can add more sap faster cold, or lallygag about and watch the pot spit hot sap into pan secton 3.

With cold water pouring in fast, this section of the pan will go cold and loose it's boil. It isn't much below boiling, but the boil stops.

The other day the pan ran low while i was cutting more wood, so I added cold sap to the stock pot for faster flow. I had a tin can layin about, and so wanting more sap faster I knicked that can low on one side, just above the seal, but on the side.

I set that on the far pan corned and let it piss, which is the only term I can think of, that everyone will understand.

The wind came up and dropped that can in the sap, but by then the pan level over all was ok again.

The number 3 section has always bugged me when it looses it's boil, so I wondered what would happen if I put the tin can under the cold copper line.

Lo and Behold, section 3 remains boiling with the pour of cold sap entering the tin can!

The next problem was if the pan level dropped, and not enough cold was entering the tin can, that scoundrel tin can began to rock n' roll :D

A small clean rock fixed that problem, and right inside the tin can. I hope granite isn't toxic.