Rotten arch is like new!

[ibby458]

We finished repairing the arch yesterday. The owner had stretched it 36" to accomidate the additional pan, but used non-galvanized sheet metal. It rotted out and all the bricks fell out.

After grinding off all the rusted bolts, we bolted in angle iron brackets along the bottom from back to front, and cut heavy galvanized sheeting to bolt in the gaps. It came back to usability right nice. I'll dry brick it today, and give it a thin coat of refractory cement where needed. I hope hanging a heat lamp over it will work to cure it fast enough.

Forecast for the next 3 days is 40-50 with rain during the day, 20's at night.

While I'm bricking, my wife will be rinsing buckets. We hope to get a few hundred taps out today, the rest tomorrow morning. Wish us luck!

[Fred Henderson]

That is one heck of a job the you have done ibby. Give yourself a pat on the back and 3 at-a boys. If I get a break I will stop by to look at it.

[ibby458]

THanks for the kind words, Fred! You saw it at it's worst, so you know what I was dealing with. It now looks a mite better. I should have said that I returned it to usability, not like new. Until the owner decides if he'll sell it or not, and IF I can match his price, I'll just keep it patched up and usable.

If I can buy it, I'll replace everything but the stack end with stainless steel, and build up an airtight front like yours (out of Stainless), and rebrick with new bricks over arch board or ceramic blanket.

Come on over anytime. We'll likely be out tapping, but you know where it is.

We didn't get any tapped yesterday. When I went to put the bricks in, there was a 1-1/2 gap at the top, so I took them all out, and poured that amount of concrete in the bottom.

While I was waiting for it to set a bit, we assembled the stack, cut a hole in the roof and put the roof jack in, with a section of SS triple wall pipe as it goes thru the roof. I put 6' of pipe above the roof, making a total stack height of 14'. This arch originally had a 6" pipe, but when we built the new stack base, I increased it to 8".

Once the concrete stiffened up, I put the bricks and refractory cement in. THe bulb for the heat light blew, so I covered it all with sheets of steel, and built a VERY low fire that we kept smouldering all day. I kept checking, and the bricks and concrete were good and warm, but you could still hold your bare hand on them. Hope that's good enough. The stack and base draws wonderfully. With the blower on and ceramic gaskets under and between the pans, I expect it will boil like crazy.

The buckets that came with this evaporator had been put away dirty and haven't been used in many years. Hitting them quick with the pressure washer wasn't doing the job, so we borrowed a bucket washer. My 19 yr old son is gonna develop a case of "mapleitis" today and stay home from school. THe only cure is drilling holes in trees and hanging buckets. I'm sure he will have recovered by the time we're all tapped.