2.5x8 lapierre owners?

[royalmaple]

I just ordered my new lapierre 2.5 x 8 raised flue evaporator.

Can't wait...

I would like to ask those of you who have one what size wood do you find it likes to eat?

I was getting ready to split up some wood and cut some tree length stuff down to the rig size. I was thinking 18" would be fine?

More so I was thinking what I can cut pallets down to that will fit nicely inside? I'd like to do as little cutting as possible... of course to make sure I don't hurt the nails. :twisted:

I was going to cut down the center of the boards, isolating the three stringers with some boards still attached, then cut them in 1/2 so I'd end up with 6 pieces??

Any "real" numbers what a stock one will give me gph?

I may add a blower on it, but not sure at this time.

[maplwrks]

Matt,
A friend of mine boiled on a Leader rig of the same size this year. He cut all his wood to 16 in. He ran 300 taps on vacuum, made 100 gals. of syrup, gave me 1500 gals. of sap, and burned a log truck load of softwood slabs!

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Matt,

18" should be a good length as that is what I usually cut mine. As far as evap rate, stock you are looking around 45 to 50 gph. :D

[royalmaple]

Thanks guys,

I don't have the exact measurements of the door opening into the firebox. I was thinking should be around 20 inches?

Which if this is the case I could fire with the pallet chunks I described above, but I'd have to open both doors to fire with them.

I was hoping for 50gph, but I will incorporate a preheater, and possibly a blower this next year and see how that runs.

maplewrks-
100 gallons / 300 taps those are some good numbers.


On another note, had a worthwhile trip to the post office today. Saw a sign for FREE firewood. Stopped by on my way back home and the guy had about 1 cord left all cut to stove length, and he lugged it right to the edge of the pavement and stacked it. Mostly locust with some ash mixed in. Made 5 trips to my house about 2 miles away with my little car, I was haulin wheelies across town. Quite a sight, glad I have a commuter beater car.

[maple flats]

I used 20" on my Leader 2x6 and plan on using 20-22" on my 3x8. I read somewhere that the width of the evap is generally the firewood length to cut. I will stay down to 20-22" because of 2 things. 1st, I am getting older and that is long enough to need to put on the splitter, and also to have my wife fire it to when needed. 2nd, my splitter only does up to 24" and if cutting 24" some might noy fit if saw strays a little or cuts are not parallel and I do not want to need to cut exact.
As I learned on my 2x6 I did find that I got more gph with 20" vs 16" wood. For the 3x8 if I need longer I would likely cut in half, such as 15-16"x2 rows even though the feed door would likely be open a few seconds longer when filling. Time will tell as I experiment with lengths, but as i say most will be 20-22".

[ibby458]

I haven't boiled on my 2.5x8 yet, but the guy I bought it from said he got 50 gph, or maybe a bit better. THe book lists that size at 42-55, depending on flue pan length. (Mine is 5.5') That's stock, with no blower or preheater. I'm hoping for 70 with blower, preheater and super-insulating the arch. Time will tell if it's possible.

My grates are 30" long, so I'm cutting my wood 26-30 inches. I still haven't built my splitter, but a buddy has one with a 48" ram that I can borrow if I don't get it done shortly. I'm hoping 12 (face) cord will be enough. (I used 8 last year for 480 taps). It's looking to be 50% dry pine slabs, 25% popple, box alder and other "junk" hardwood and 25% maple, birch, hickkory and other good hardwood.

[MASSEY JACK]

I made 91 gallons and used just over 5 cord of firewood. Most of the wood was 3 to 4 foot long. A lot of it was 2 to 4 inches in diameter. Any chunk wood I used was split up small and was 24 inches or less in length. I have 30 or 36 inch grates. Mine is a Waterloo-Small raised flue. I consistently did 60 to 70 gph evaporation with no preheater or blower and stack temps were around 750 to 800 degrees. I burned about a half cord of pallet wood too. I would like not to burn pallet wood so I can spread the ashes and not pay to get rid of them. I plan on adding a preheater and possibly a blower for '07'. I have half thickness fire brick with 1' archboard behind it. I cut all limb wood 3 to 4 foot and block wood is 24 inches again for '07'.

[Sugarmaker]

Royal Maple,
We have been burning pallets for 5 years. Price is right. I compress them as much as possible so they don't take up so much room in the wood shed. avg length is 18 inches. Lots of saw blades and chains. Lot of pieces to handle. They do burn hot and you have to fire more often. I did build a special low saw horse with a vertical lean back center support to hold the pallets while cutting, This really works well. Pallet are a lot of work just like any wood. Sometimes the pieces are big enough that I have to have both doors open to fire. Getting about 90 GPH on a 3 x 10 King with blower and preheater. Some pictures on web site.

Chris

[Flatfoot95]

I have also ordered my new Lapierre 2 1/2 x 8. Can't wait to get it. I am kind of planning everything out. Anyone know what size tubing I should buy for the preheater? I am thinking of going with finned radiation tubing to jump the temps up a bit more. I already have a blower unit, just need to rig it up when I get the evaporator.

[royalmaple]

Chris-

Thanks, I was actually going to pm you since I have read in the past you were also burning pallets steady.

Yes supply of pallets is never a problem, at least here. Rather than cut them right down to boards, I was gonna try to cut them in chunks so 1. I can stay away from more nails, and 2. so the wood would have air gaps between the boards and I thought would help the fire instead of chucking a bunch of flat boards in the fire and choking the fire out.

I know I should try to open one door at a time but I was thinking that it would be easier as far as handling cutting the pallets. But may cut down on the fire by opening two doors and also they don't stack as well when you have larger open chunks.

If anyone is thinking of burning pallets in your area(not mine :twisted: ) find a pallet rebuilding yard they will give you tons and tons of wood for free. Mostly broken boards so you don't have to get into much of any cutting, just maybe one cut in the center for a 24inch board.

Also I have found the best pallets to use come from sheet metal shops. They are long say 12-16 feet long and have large 4x4 or 3x3 timbers as stringers with 1 inch boards for slats. There are much fewer slats on these and you get some great wood.

Plus with scrap prices on the jump, might be worth saving the metal nails & doo-dads from the ashes and cash them in.

[royalmaple]

flatfoot-

Most everyone uses 3/4 pipe for preheaters. I'd think you be all set with that size pipe. I was going to use the same 3/4 copper if I have time to get mine set up.

Anyone have good luck running the preheater just through the stack pipe a couple of times then into the floatbox?

[Russell Lampron]

My Factory made Algier preheater is made with 3/4 inch copper pipe. I am not sure if the finned pipe will work as good as bare pipe. The fins would take up alot of the heat from the steam before it could get to the pipe to heat the sap.

Russ

[maplemaggs]

I ran 1" copper in my perheater, with drip trays under each run of tubing.
heat pipes with the fins doesn't work as well, the steam will condense on the fins and drip back into your pan if you don't have drip trays. your trays would have to be so wide that you will lose the affect of the preheater

[Fred Henderson]

I will promise you that finned tubing will work better that anything, bare copper pipe included. I designed one for a guy and his rig is a 3x5 Leader with a 3 ft flue pan and his sap enter the float at 211drg. He has done as much as 70 gph evap. Also fellows I am a pipefitter by trade but I am now retired. Yes you also have to have a drip pan under all the piping.

[ibby458]

Whwn I was planning to use finned tubing, I was going to put it together so the fin points hung straight down. A V shaped channel under each one would catch condensate, while allowing good steam passage thru the fins.

[MASSEY JACK]

On the fin tubing in the 2.5 x 8, how many runs of fin tubing are you going to use? I'm guessing about 3 or 4? I want to build a preheater and was thinking about the same idea and wondered why they did not come that way to begin with.

[Fred Henderson]

"They" didn't come out with it before because I had not told anyone about it. After some of those manfactures read this they will then start building them with fin tube. The copper pipe used in fin tube is of a very thin wall.

Ibby, I would suggest to just have a drip tray under all the tubing and one drain pipe out of the drip pan.

[Sugarmaker]

Ibby,
I have the individual v channels under my preheater lines and it works very well. (Like Fred, now they will all be doing it.) The channels allow steam to pass to the preheater tubes quicker and more direct. I used aluminum v angle from Lowes and fabed the system together with pop rivets. I have 10 3/4 inch copper tubes in the preheater, and a 1/1/4 dia manifold pipe at each end. I get 200 degree sap if the flow is constant and the fire is constant. Good Luck with your preheater.

I still have to get my sap pan feed tubes soldered together. Too busy with the yard and the bees. And that work thing! :(

Regards,
Chris

[Sugarmaker]

Matt,
I have one more night of cutting pallets and I have to quit or Nic (grandson) wont be able to get his racing 300 EX in the sugarhouse door. Anyway I have 9 rows 10 feet long 7-8 feet high. This will make about 90 gallons of syrup. Seems like I have been cutting pallets since I quite making syrup this spring. Whew! I do cut them a lot smaller than you are trying to do. I tried the big pieces but just couldn't get much in the fire box. The door opening is not very big on our King. So both doors get opened often to fire, and we have to fire about every 5 minutes. I cant get the big solid pallets any more most companies are re-conditioning those. So I settle for the junk and bring it home and hack it up with the chainsaw. When I burnt some chunk wood this spring I just could not get the same hard boil as with the pallets.

Regards,
Chris

[ibby458]

I'm still unsure how I'm going to build my preheater. I think the square coil I have would be more efficient, But I worry about the small diameter tubing in the coil vapor locking.

If I go with finned tubing, I have 4-5' pieces. This is closed end fins. Each fin end is bent to touch the next fin in line, limiting steam travel thru the fins to just one direction, so I can't put it points down and use the individual V shaped drip pans. Right now, it's set up so there's two on the bottom, slightly apart, with two on top, slightly offset. I've been advised to add 2 more, and if I can come across some, I likely will. If I don't, well - 4 is better than nothing.

One of the Maple Traders has offered me his 2.5x8 hood and preheater for a reasonable price, and I'm still considering that, too.

IN any event, I got 8 months to decide and get it done.