rail gasket insulation

[maplefarmer]

What do most people use for rail gasket material ? I have been buying the stuff, kinda like cotton that equipment dealers sell, but I have to reverse my syrup pan, and everytime I do the stuff pulls off and I need to replace, what will seal as good, but won't stick under the syrup pan and pull off ?

[SeanD]

Use this kind of stuff. It's a woven gasket like the round rope gasket you'd find on a wood stove door, but it's a flat strip. It comes in different widths and thicknesses. I think mine is only like 1" x 1/8" and it is fine. Pans slide on and off easily and it won't stick to the pans. I glued mine down with high temp. caulk.

http://www.mapleguys.com/index.php?item=196&ret=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mapleguys.com%2Findex.php%3Fp age%3D1%26category%3D12

Sean

[Ren]

I have been using 1/2 " cereblanket, cut into strips 1" wide. The only problem is it sticks to the bottom of the pan like you said. I can usually reuse it but it is definitely a pain in the butt! I may try some of the arch/pan gasket that my local maple equipment supplier sells. It is 1/8" thick x 1" wide x 25' long and it costs $39.95 can.(Atkinson maple syrup supplies)

[Dennis H.]

I used the ceramic blanket type pan gasket last year, worked really nice until you needed to remove the pan.
I tended to stick to the pan anywhere syrup might have dripped or splashed on to it.

You can still a few uses out of it after taking the pans off. I was able to use the same gasket the untire season.

This year I am going to try the woven flat gasket for my pans.
I still might use some of the blanket type gasket for where the pan meet the arch front and where the flue pan meets the arch at the back.
That is an advantage of the blanket it will seal off bigger gaps.

[maple flats]

I use the rope gasket made for wood furnace doors. It has a ceramic core covered by a non combustable fabric cover. The cover sticks out to 1 side. I used it for about 4 seasons now, still good.