55 Gallon Oil Fired Arch

[Blocmi]

After boiling on the turkey fryer for 4 years, I've decided to try and improve my methods. It will be an oil fired 55 gallon drum with a pan size of 18X29 (mild steel). The picture is of a test firing of the burner to try and figure the best location to install a baffle. The flame looks a little low, but it seems to get shorter and wider when not totally exposed to the open air, so I'm hoping it will be alright. I can always try different a nozzle, this is a .75gal 80* solid, so I can definitely widen it up. I'm planing on using ceramic blanket in the combustion chamber. There is layer of sheet metal between the combustion chamber and 55 gallon drum for an additional air gap and I plan to use a sheet of insulation between both air gaps to minimize heating of the barrel. The stack will be 6" stove pipe with a T so I can set up a damper to mimic a barometric damper.

Any thought and suggestions would be greatly appreciated, as this is my first try at an arch, and I can't find too many threads on oil fired homebuilds.


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Hopefully the picture posts... It's I kinda big...

[jmayerl]

Probably wont find much for research, this is a first for home builds I believe. It seems very interesting, I will be curious on how much oil you burn.

[Agent914]

Very slick, how heavy is it? I installed wheels on my barrel set-up making it easy to move and store during the off season. Have you test fired it with the pan yet? Like jmayerl I wonder what the ratio for gallons of oil (GO) to gallons of syrup (GS) will be? Keep us posted

[Blocmi]

It's not too heavy, more awkward to pick up because of it's size. I want to keep it light for portability / storage. I thought about wheels, but more importantly I need to add leveling bolts. I don't have a pan yet, I will be fabing one it this week, but I test fired it with a piece of glass over the top so I could watch the flame. Like I said, it gets shorter and wider without the top open but I also don't have a stack yet so no draft either.

As far as fuel consumption I'm figuring worst case the pan is 3.625 Sq ft so at 1 gallon per hour per sq ft would be @ 11 hrs. 11 hrs at .75 gallons per hr is 8.25 gallons of fuel per gallon of syrup. Realistically I'm aiming for using half this amount of fuel for syrup, anything better would be a bonus.

[Dennis H.]

very cool idea and design, I like it.
I am all for the new and odd ideas and trying them out.

Keep us posted.

[blac]

Wow cool idea, I think you want to try and shrink the firing area down and direct the flame with some ceramic blanket vermiculite up to the pan. Might have to play with the stack exit a bit.( I had to on my woodfired 55) just have fun with it and lets have some #s when you get it dialed in.

[Blocmi]

Wow cool idea, I think you want to try and shrink the firing area down and direct the flame with some ceramic blanket vermiculite up to the pan. Might have to play with the stack exit a bit.( I had to on my woodfired 55) just have fun with it and lets have some #s when you get it dialed in.

I was test firing it to determine the best place for the baffle as I wasn't sure what the flame pattern would be. I intend to fully line it with blanket but I can't find any locally that is affordable and I hate paying for shipping. I do have a bunch of refractory brick laying around, so I may try that first.

I cut and bent the pan and it fits great. Now I just need to weld it water tight. I was planning to add baffles to try and use it as a continuous flow pan down the road. Could I still use it with the baffles and without continuous flow as a flat pan for the time being, or will the baffles screw things up? Anyone know where I can buy a roll of blanket in CT?

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[backyard sugaring]

Blocmi, I built an oil fired several years ago. You wll enjoy it my guess is you will boil around 8 gallons a hour with .75 nozzle. Much better than the 1 gallon you used last year.You may be able to lower it to about .50, my evaporator is much bigger and i use 1.00 and we normally boil between 12 to 15 gallons a hour. Look for ceramic blanket at a pottery store much cheaper than anywhere else. Once I get the evaporator running I close down my flue with a damper not all the way of course. My stack temperture never gets above 250 degrees. You might want to ramp up the back to your flue if you can figure out how much area your flue pipe is and close the area to be equal to that size you will increase your boil rate. The nice thing you will turn it on and you will be boiling in a few minutes and when you are done you flick a switch and go to bed. You can expect to use roughly 2 to 3 gallons of oil to make a gallon of syrup.Good luck if you want to P.M. me I can probally help you. Lee

[Blocmi]

The first test boil went very well tonight. The 5 gallons of water went from 50 degrees to a full boil in 2 minutes and was boiling HARD. I definitely think I need to back the burner nozzle down a few sizes, no need to waste fuel. The thin aluminum dryer vent didn't hold up well to the exhaust heat, but it's all I had for the test run. I'll be off to NAPA for some 4" exhaust pipe tomorrow.

The pan I build is made from mild steel... I'm not going to spend the money on stainless until I work out all the kinks with mild steel. The water after the boil was quite orange and I'm not sure where it came from. I have a lot of iron in my water to begin with so I'm not sure if boiling the water so hard caused the iron in the water to oxidize, or if it leached from the pan. I'll have to boil some reverse osmosis water tomorrow and see if I get the same results.

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[backyard sugaring]

If you ever want to learn how oil heat an evaporator works google "Phillips Homiller oil fired" Heavy reading in some sections, but it has some interesting points. Keep us informed on the progress. Lee

[Blocmi]

Thanks for the search terms... That brought up exactly the literature I needed when I started this project and couldn't find using conventional search terms. If anyone is interested here is some good reading on the subject...

Good... http://wyndmoor.arserrc.gov/Page/1952/750.pdf
Better... http://wyndmoor.arserrc.gov/Page/1963/1860.pdf

As for an update to my project. After tinkering with a .50 nozzle and not getting the burner to fire, then having issues with the safety electronics, I fired again today (with original .75 nozzle) with a much better stack pipe and better water. The stack held up great and almost everything seemed to function and hold up well to a constant 30 minute run. Unfortunately I determined the cause of the rusty looking water is the pan. I'm considering my options at this point.

I heated for @ 30 minutes from house tap temp to full boil and used @ 1/3 of a gallon to bring up to temp and boil off 2.5 gallons of the 5 gallons of water I started with.

It's looking promising but my problem is do I spend money on a custom sized pan, spend money on a used pan with similar dimensions and modify my barrel, or spend money on a standard sized pan and build an arch to fit the pan. Any way I do it I'm looking at a significant investment for the amount of syrup I need.

[HyeOnMaple]

Any way I do it I'm looking at a significant investment for the amount of syrup I need.

Ah Grasshopper, your logic is flawwed. What you fail to grasp in your calculation is that you will alwayz nee MORE syrup. Some for the in-laws (and out-laws), mail-carrier, sanitation engineer, daycare, teachers, church breakfasts, Chrismas, Easter, 4th of July, Just for the heck of it, and then there will alwayz be other reasons to have syrup on hand.

Aside from that, I would go with a modest-to-mid-range approach and get a used pan and tweak my barrel (you appear handy enuf in that regard). And after a couple of seasons under your belt with this system, upgrade (to accomodate you increase in NEED). Just my 2 cents.

[Blocmi]

I hear ya... Thanks for the input!

This project started not because I needed more syrup but because making 3 to 4 gallons of syrup in a turkey fryer is time consuming and expensive and more time consuming. Although I'm sure I could find a use for more syrup. :)

[HyeOnMaple]

I'm in the same boat as you. For the last two yrs I've been batch boiling out of a SS sink in a 55 gal drum.
6582. Moving on to bigger (much bigger) and better (I sure hope so anyway) things. I call it my Franken-arch. As of yet, not photo-worthy.

[325abn]

I suggest finding a pan at a online resturant store. I bought one a few years ago for 80 bucks or so. It was aluminum but worked fine. Even if you cant find the exact size you need you can fill in the gaps with brick and/or blanket.

[Radrockn]

I suggest buying a custom pan for your barrel. Try stainless steel creations as they can make any size custom pan. They built one for me that was rugged and reasonable.

Also, I have an oil fired 55 gal barrel arch. The stainless pan is 24x30 and boils only 5 to 8 gal per hour. The inside of the barrel is covered with fibre blanket and the ends have fire brick. I also use a 0.75 gal per hour nozzle. I welded two pieces of pipe on either side of the barrel, which makes it easy for two people to move around. It is not as efficient as I hoped and I have also been looking for ways to improve efficiency. I think a lot of my problem is the pan is far from the fire and the hot gases vent far below the pan. I don have many good pictures so I will try to post some soon but it may not be until this week end.

[Radrockn]

I found a pic of my 55 gallon oil fired arch boiling the first year I had it, but it basically looks the same today. I plan to use the sap reservoir in the pic again this spring. The system works good on the back porch of my house, but as mentioned, I would like to improve efficiency. I would like to lower the pan but it would be a complete rework. Drop flues were another thought, but those would be expensive too. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

[Blocmi]

Nice! Now I know I'm not crazy... or at least not alone :)

My pan sits about a foot lower. Pretty much right where your barrel is cut. My test burn was around 6 gph with a mild steel pan. If your a foot higher with stainless and getting a similar rate, it might just be all there is. I'll know more in a few days. A co-worker of mine had some scrap aluminum laying around that he cut and welded up for me, so I'll try again with the aluminum pan when I get a chance.

My initial impression of my set up is that the pan area is undersized for the amount of flame/heat I'm pumping in. The fire box takes up 3/4th of the barrel not leaving much room for the pan to absorb exhaust heat. I still want to try the smaller nozzle. I don't think it will affect the gph, but it will use 33% less fuel.

[Agent914]

I have a wood fed 55 gallon barrel evaporator with cuts for 2 large warming trays. I average 5-6 GPH with the variables of dryness of wood, how often I stoke it and if my preheater is working. So we might be at max GPH unless we go with bigger pans.

[HyeOnMaple]

Radrockn, Does your pan have any dividers in it? I am putting the finishing touches on a SS sink with drop tubes for a flu. Approx 40' of 1" type M copper (left over from a previous FHW heater run) gave me about 58 drops. Depending on the configuration of your pan, you could incorporate this without having to touch the barrel. For starters, go to the search bar above and type in "drop tube flu pan". If you decide to go with this plan and you have questions about tools or what-not, just ask.

[Blocmi]

I test boiled for the second time tonight. This time I used an aluminum pan a co-worker made for me. Everything worked great this time. I was a bit more comfortable in the burner / fire box performance and was basically just testing the pan so I paid a little more attention to boiling details. It took about 10 minutes to bring 6 gallons to a full boil. After 30 minutes of boiling I boiled off @ 4 gallons... math says 8 gph. I feel I got more steam the lower the water level dropped in the pan, so that may be an area of improvement. I used about 3/4ths of a gallon of fuel in 40 minutes which is a bit more than I had expected with a .75 gph nozzle. I need to add some more insulation (or another 2 feet of pan :) ) around the where the stack starts as it's turning cherry red.... Both reasons to try the .50 nozzle again.

I think I'm ready to boil a batch when we get some sap flow around here. Looking like maybe late next week.