Super Sapper
03-30-2013, 08:41 PM
I finally got to fire my homemade 2 X 6 yesterday on my birthday yesterday for the first time. I went through 150 gallons in 7 hours. The syrup pan boiled violently but the flue pan had a lazy boil. I opened up the area under the flue pan and it boiled much better today. I went through 85 gallons in 3 hours and 15 minutes from lighting the fire until shutdown. I do not have a preheater and think I could top 30 gph if I had one. The flue pan does not boil much on the side with the cold sap coming in but was ripping on the other side. My flue pan is a V-flue type but only 1 1/2 inch deep flues 2 inches apart. It is also made out of 16 or 18 gauge 304 Stainless steel. The syrup pan has 4 sections running across. The flow enters by the front and draws off nest the the flue pan. This seems to work well as this is the hottest part of the arch.