homemade evaporators

[spencer11]

any one have pics of homemade evaporator that they made? looking for an idea for mine. i kinda have an idea for it but was wondering what you can use as a door for a 55 gallon drum and if it makes a difference if you weld a steel plate on the top and put the pan on top because i want to be able to take the pan right off i i run out of sap. i wont be using a regular $200 sap pan. maybe next year.

[waterfowlah]

66896690 this what i did

[Greyfox]

As for putting a top on the "arch", I think you'll find it's a drawback. I'm currently using an old castiron woodstove as a firebox with a finishing pan on top as an evaperator pan. Originally I kept the top on the stove, and had terrible heat-transfer. I took the top off the stove so that the heat is directly on the bottom of the pan and my boil-rate tripled. In my operation I do batch processing as well. I boil down sap until it seems to be near syrup then ladel the concentrate out, filter it, and finish it on the stove in the house. At the end of the boil I let the stove die down and then drain the pan compeletly. Hope this helps, good luck.

[Valleyfarm]

739473947393 Just built this out of a 300 gallon fuel tank a friend of mine was not using, took the piece that I cut out and used it for the fire grate, flipped it upside down drilled holes in it and then welded it in place, works really well. My pan is 2' by 3' and the space I have left in the front is used for cooking and preheat. Last week I put two cast iron dutch ovens on it and made roast pork(cooked in reduced sap) and Chilli. At the bottom I cut a half moon out of the tank and put it on a hinge for draft control.




2013- 25 buckets
2 gallons of syrup so far