Newbe wants your two cents

[Tapping Wolf]

let me start by saying, "hi" I'm new to this forum and am already finding volumes of very usefull information. My family made syrup when I was a kid on our wood stove, just a pint or so from the maples in the front yard of our Northern Michigan farm...Now i own a small farm in northern Indiana.

We have 7 aces of woods, about 70 maples a mix of reds and sugars....this will be my first year tapping since I was a kid. I'll be tapping 35 trees, and boiling it in a 2x4 foot divided flat pan, firing on a cinder block arch.

My questions are-

do I NEED to buy refractory brick to line my arch, or can I get by with filling the cinder blocks with sand? (is red clay brick good for anything, I have tons from an old chimney n fire place)

what size (width and height) smoke stack should I have?

GPH what can I expect from a set-up like this?

Any other tips or advice you can share? things I might encounter in my first year that I might not have considered

Thanks,

Tapping Wolf:)

[RileySugarbush]

Welcome to the Trader! There will be plenty of great advice here for you. I'll start!

A block arch is a great way to start. To make it work very well, raise your fire on a grate. Block up the back half of the arch to force the fire up tight against the back half of the pan. To within an inch or so of the bottom of the pan. You can use your red clay bricks for that fill.

Block off the firing end with something so most of the air coming in goes in under the grates and up through the fire. A 6 inch stack will be fine. At least 6 feet tall. 8 feet would be better.

Unprotected block will last one or two years. It will definitely crack the first year but may hang together for another. Firebrick splits ( half thickness) will protect the block for years. If you are careful you can dry fit it inside the blocks.

One thing that can help hold them in is some of the cheap rectangular duct halts you can find at Home Depot or similar stores. The come in two L shaped halves and you can hang them over the top of the blocks by the short leg and have them hang down the inside of your arch to hold the bricks in. These will help the blocks last longer even if you don't use the splits.

I don't think sand in the blocks helps that much but several folks fill them.


Well, that's a start....

[Haynes Forest Products]

Welcome Sand helps keep the heat in. Cement block will break down over time with high heat. Depending on how much money you want to put into it you could insulate the block from the fire. Try it for the year and improve with time. I say get a box of Lego's and design your arch with them. Riley has it right about building the ramp to the flue pipe. Have fun build it your way and learn a bunch.

[C.Wilcox]

There's two reasons for lining the inside of the arch with refractory materials. One, it protects the blocks (which isn't terribly important really because they still stand fine even with cracks). Two, it keeps the heat in under your pan and not soaking out into the concrete. I think reason two is the more important one. If you don't use archboard or ceramic blanket you have to burn a lot of wood (and time) to get all that mass of concrete/sand heated up when you start. If you plan to do long boils with large volumes of sap on the weekend then it really won't matter because once you're up to temp you'll have no trouble maintaining it. If you're planning to do quick boils after getting home from work, I would invest in some arch board or ceramic blanket. You'll see your pans start boiling faster. Plus, if you put some thought into how you cut your board/blanket you'll likely be able to reuse it when you upgrade your arch in a year.

[Tapping Wolf]

Thanks for all the great tips-

I can find ceramic blanket easy enough, but what is "arch board," and where can I buy it?

Thanks

[whalems]

http://www.indfirebrick.com/sales.htm

They are in Grand Rapids, Michigan and where very nice to work with.