question about my homebuilt evap

[farmer12071]

ive been doing syrup for about 15yrs now i boil in a homemade evap. which is made out of an old commercial galvanized sink and an old wood stove,the sink holds about 30 gals and i keep it just about full all the time,i burn as long as i can some yrs wks at a time continously feeding sap as it steems off then at the end after running out of sap i get a good hot fire under it to actually boil my syrup,this yr i bought a stainless sink to replace the galvanized one.can i or should i do my syrup the sameway in the stainless

[Ecnerwal]

Can you, sure. Should you - if you are happy with what you get, no need to change.

You might burn a lot less wood with a different setup, but you can also spend far too much money on a different setup, so...

There are faster ways to make syrup, and they will typically make lighter syrup than a "whole year batch method" but lighter syrup is only "better syrup" to the commercial market. Most people prefer the flavor of darker syrup (so long as it's not burnt or off-flavored.)

[Ausable]

ive been doing syrup for about 15yrs now i boil in a homemade evap. which is made out of an old commercial galvanized sink and an old wood stove,the sink holds about 30 gals and i keep it just about full all the time,i burn as long as i can some yrs wks at a time continously feeding sap as it steems off then at the end after running out of sap i get a good hot fire under it to actually boil my syrup,this yr i bought a stainless sink to replace the galvanized one.can i or should i do my syrup the sameway in the stainless

Howdy - I batch boiled for about fifteen years too. If you have a double stainless sink - use one side to preheat your sap and the other side to boil it down to near syrup. I would keep my levels no higher then 2 1/2 to 3 inches. Your could finish on the stove and use a syrup hydrometer to tell when your syrup is right on. -- This is just what I would do - and if the way you have been doing it works for you - why change. Only there are a lot quicker ways of making syrup - If ya be in a hurry ---smile-- best of luck to ya.... Mike---

[Peepers]

I would echo what Ecnerwal and Ausable said - how you boil and what you boil on all depends on your goal. If you like darker syrup then run the sap deep and do big batches. If you want lighter syrup then running shallower and doing smaller batches or more frequent draw-off is the key. If you want to make more syrup faster then you need to boil as hard as possible and add surface area (if you've ever seen a forced air setup it's crazy how violent the boil can be!)

There have been a few discussions on this site about not cooking with galvanized so you're better off using stainless. If your stainless sink is pretty much the same thickness as your old sink then the performance should be about the same.

We've made about 3 gallons of delicious fairly light colored syrup every year for friends and family on my double stainless sink. We scoop from the back sap sink (running as deep as it can while still boiling good) to the syrup sink (running about 2" deep) and when it starts getting close to syrup we scoop out a bunch of "almost syrup" to finish in the house. This year I want to eliminate the scooping and am talking to a friend about getting a divided syrup pan with a draw-off made that I can plumb to one of my sinks. With this warm winter I think I'm running out of time though so we'll see what actually happens... :)

[eustis22]

ok..I've spent the fall building out my first boiling stove, using a 2' X 2' X 3' steel box (I think it was a railroad tool chest). it's 1/4" thick steel and cutting holesfot the door, the pan, and the stovepipe wore out 3 sawzall metal custting blads and my shoulders, let me tell you! The lid is on a hinge and I mentioned I cut a hole for my syrup pan smack dab in the middle. After I did that I realized I could drop more of the syrup pan and add a sap pan (steam table pans) and have room for a preheater if I opened the lid and added a rail to hold the pans. I lined the stove with arch board and stacked thin firebrick against that, then I added 120 lbs of sand in the back 1/3 sloped up towards the chimney (stack?) hole. I have yet to still secure my (4 foot) length of stovepipe as I want to use guy wires to keep 'er steady. we're using an old tire insuide to raise the height of the flame until I can get a grate built out. Now, I"ve not yet done a test burn, pending the stovepipe but I'd like to ask the forum if I've missed anything or if there was something I can do better? See pics for your review and comment

52105211

[Ausable]

Hi eustis22 - It will work ----smile--but--You really will notice an improved burn once you install the grate as compared to the rim - cause more air will get under the fire. I use sand on the bottom of mine and fire brick up the sides and it works ok. --But (again) is your fire brick attached or just stacked. Once you get a good fire going and you are doing a boil - it will all become apparent the things you should have done or over-looked. As you do a boil and add wood - the rim will fill with ash and eventually have to be cleaned out. I'm not poking fun and Your rig looks better then the first few I put together. Do a test boil soon and see how it works - that will tell you lots - and the very best to You ---Mike---

[eustis22]

Hi, Mike.....thanks for the feedback..right now the brick is stacked until I can pick up some refractory cement....I believe you on the rim vs grate and will change that out friday before the test burn

[sugar ED]

Hi eustis22
Very Nice ! Shoud work fine ! If you have the extra cash, fire brick the ramp (over sand) up to the stack ,(to help hold heat,under pan) .Thay may also help hold the side bricks in place .And as the others have said ,a grate would be great ! and also will help hold bricks in place .Than when more money falls from sky - 2" wide pan gasket and a SS 2'x3' divided pan with two draw offs (one at each end ) to be able to turn pan around (when sugar sand gets heave in draw off channel ). And a rear preheat pan !
Theres going to be alot of heat wasted with the metal plate (for the sink to sit into ) but will work ! I'd have SS pans of sap sitting all around the sink (top of metal ) for now to preheat it ( tell the cook that her/his kitchen SS pan ran away ,and maybe back after sap season )lol, My otherhaft didn't so funny, but it got me my syrup and sap pan sooner than I thought !
Hey good luck and happy sappin !
P.S Is ur sink one big one or two togather ?

[eustis22]

it's two steam table pans side by side, one 6 inches deep (what I'm thinking of as my syrup pan, and one four inches deep, which is my sap pan). Since this is year 1 of the stove, next year I'll focus on a proper panset for the rig...a smaller steam table pan will work for the preheater. I will indeed firebrick the ramp per your suggestion....I also learned that my stack needs to be higher and wider as well, but I may not get to 12 feet. probably 8 this year.

I will also cut a draft door beneath my door to increase the draft.

[sugar ED]

it's two steam table pans side by side, one 6 inches deep (what I'm thinking of as my syrup pan, and one four inches deep, which is my sap pan). Since this is year 1 of the stove, next year I'll focus on a proper panset for the rig...a smaller steam table pan will work for the preheater. I will indeed firebrick the ramp per your suggestion....I also learned that my stack needs to be higher and wider as well, but I may not get to 12 feet. probably 8 this year.

I will also cut a draft door beneath my door to increase the draft.
hello eutis22 ,How long is the total (front of fire box to rear of ramp) ? [quote] " I also learned that my stack needs to be higher and wider as well, but I may not get to 12 feet " Is it 6ft. ? Just don't look it in the pic.? As all you need is twice as long as your pan rail is (front of fire box to rear of ramp) of stack .But should have 8" to 10" around stack ,but my old unit had a 7" , it got real hot but worked fine on most days (on calm days I had to shut down the draft some ) when putting wood in ,or get smoked out of shack.

[eustis22]

Hi, ed...the stove is 36 inches, front to back X 24 inches side to side...I will make my stack 8 feet minimum, but now you've got me concerned about heat at that diameter, so I'll track down a connector to expand out to 8" at the elbow and reinvest in some 8" stovepipe. I assumed it would be easier to go from 6" to 8" than the reverse, which is why I didn't start with 8". Live and learn.

[Big_Eddy]

That rim will work fine as a grate. Flip it over so that the outside is up, and put 3 chunks of fire brick under it to lift the edge 1"-2" off the floor. Build the fire on top of it and your fire will be nice and high, you'll have lots of air flow up through the holes in the rim, and the ash will fall through the holes and collect within the rim where you can remove it after the days boil.

[eustis22]

Thank you, Big Eddy...I'll do that and spend the saved $$$ on more stovepipe