Hobby evaporator setup - Opinions please

[Oddmott]

Hi all,

I helped a neighbour with syrup for about 5 years - mainly the wood cutting, tap setting, sap collection and first boil off. I enjoyed the entire process, but did miss out on learning about some of the key steps as I lived 2 hours away and wasn't always around to see how they did certain things.

Well, my brother and I have decided to get into it ourselves this year. We're starting with old school taps and buckets (about 100) and have landed the evaporator below, for free. Please excuse the beer bottles, apparently the evaporator is sitting right beside a popular skidoo trail and makes a great spot to take a break from drinking and driving.

http://www.mediafire.com/imgbnc.php/02394719630ab366b9e3c9dd5206b71c72192ff7827d2d60c5 d1f6ae330958a24g.jpg (http://www.mediafire.com/imageview.php?thumb=5&quickkey=dseg9njaf995185)

http://www.mediafire.com/imgbnc.php/003049d14b243bf9e37b3a8a91213e922ae4a41399a9acf05a 1cc16f7ed4ccd74g.jpg (http://www.mediafire.com/imageview.php?thumb=5&quickkey=q9ecobq4taq61oq)

My question is, how would you suggest we set this beast up? Flat on the ground (cement slab) as the past owners had it, or raised slightly on some cinder blocks, or build a metal frame to raise it higher? Brick it or otherwise heat shield it? How high should we run the stove piping above the boiling surface? Give it a fresh coat of heat paint before or after this season?

Oh, and yes there are cutouts for the pans to sit down in.

Any and all advice is very much appreciated!

[vtwoody]

Score! Free is best....now you have to dig up some MORE free stuff....some food safe 5 gallon pails from delis/stores/restaurants, firebrick for lining that beast, flue pipe twice the length of the beast, wood for the beast (free pallets from building supply/hardware/various bulding contractor supply places), some taps.....how about a place FOR the beast? Oh, and some maple trees to tap... :) have fun!!!

[Oddmott]

Thanks vtwoody, like i said, i have worked on syrup production for quite a while, so I'm not a total noob. But I would like to know any sources for more free stuff... lol Cuz so far everything i've found is selling almost as much used as it costs brand new. Weird industry.

Thankfully we've got tons of our own bush, firewood and maple trees won't be a problem. All i really need to know is the optimal way to set up that boiler. Can I put a cap on the flue pipe or is it better to leave it open?

[Ausable]

Hey Oddmott - The Folks that started us on Maple Syrup making had one of these - a 250 gallon fuel oil tank on its side. They had theirs elevated about a foot - but don't know what they used - might have been cement blocks. They had a large open pan that covered most of the surface area for batch boiling. Also had a wide handle on both ends so they could lift if off to dump out the near syrup - took two men to lift the pan and that was after most of the syrup has been ladled off. On their first arch of this type - they cut out a large area out of the side or Top for better heat transfer to the pan - But it was bad when they moved the pan for dumping as Ya got two guys struggling with a large pan full of hot - almost syrup in a Sugar Shack full of smoke. So the next one they put together was like yours with the same giant pan. The only plus side I could see - is that they could toss in four foot lengths of wood to burn and get one heck of a fire going. They made a lot of Syrup on theirs - I just never cared for the pan setup. In the picture - is that two small inverted steel batch pans on top of the arch or something else?

[Oddmott]

Yes Ausable, those are two smaller pans on top. The top of the boiler actually has 2 holes cut in it to insert the pans and get even better heat on them. I actually haven't seen the beast in person yet. My bro picked it up and sent me the photos. I'll be heading to our bushlot this weekend to set it up and make a bunch of decisions.

We'll fire it up and test the 30 gph evaporation rate that the other users claimed to get out of it.

[Ausable]

If You are going to Batch Boil and use those two recessed pans. I wouldn't waste all that heated surface space. I would cover it with pots and restaurant pans and use them for sap preheaters and use this hot sap to add to Your two recessed pans when needed.

[Oddmott]

If You are going to Batch Boil and use those two recessed pans. I wouldn't waste all that heated surface space. I would cover it with pots and restaurant pans and use them for sap preheaters and use this hot sap to add to Your two recessed pans when needed.

That's a great idea. I was worried about all that excess surface area - mostly because we'll have smaller people working with us and reaching over that much hot metal is dangerous - but using it for a bunch of smaller pre-heaters is really smart.

My parents used to have a catering business, so we've got lots of stock pots, roasters and chaffer inserts that'd be ideal!

[eustis22]

I throw a galvy bucket over my 8 in stack between boilings.....keep the wet out of the stove as much as I can