New Homemade Arch

[Bonlander15]

This is an Arch that I just finished welding up. I'm using an old 40 x 48" English Tin pan on top. I fired it up yesterday and it seems to work pretty good. I lined the inside with 1900 degree insulation board and then fire bricked over that. Once up to temperature it seems to do pretty well. This will be my second year tapping in Wisconsin.

[Bucket Head]

Thats a nice looking setup. Good job. Insulation makes a big difference- regardless what size arch it is!

Just be careful, this is exactly how it starts. Next thing you know you'll be getting bigger pans and cuting the back off that arch to stretch it. You'll take over an outbuilding (or build a new one) on the farm. There will be buckets or tubing on every maple for miles around your town, and family and friends will think you've lost your mind!

I'm just warning you.

Good luck and have fun!

Steve

[SevenCreeksSap]

That is nice and I like the sleds for moving it, but like Bucket Head, I'm betting it will have an indoor permanent home before too long. Kind of hard to tell, but hopefully you have an ash door somewhere or a tray that slides out. I have a door similar to yours and it was hard to get all the ashes out between firings. I ended up cutting one in and it really improved the draft under the fire too. Thinking of a tray this year to catch the ashes and just slide most of them out to empty.

[Sugarmaker]

This is an Arch that I just finished welding up. I'm using an old 40 x 48" English Tin pan on top. I fired it up yesterday and it seems to work pretty good. I lined the inside with 1900 degree insulation board and then fire bricked over that. Once up to temperature it seems to do pretty well. This will be my second year tapping in Wisconsin.

Welcome, Arch looks good! How many taps do you plan for this season?
Regards,
Chris

[Sweet Shady Lane]

We got you now, it gets under your skin you start off small and the next thing you know is that you need to get more sap, more sap means bigger pans, Bigger pans means a bigger Arch and it just snowballs. But its the Best bad habit you can have a few weeks a year

[Bonlander15]

I haven't cut the ash door in yet. I plan to raise the fire about 2 inches yet with a heavy duty fire grate. I wanted to fire it before making the fire grate. The ash door will be about 6" tall. I am also going to add a blower system. I am going to us 1 3/4 metal tube and make a "T" at the rear of the fire box blowing slightly forward. Should be able to get a lot more burn. Just working out a few details before I put that in as well. We are only tapping about 75 trees this year. I am involved in several hobbies and this is as addicting as they come.

[Gary R]

That's a real nice way to start out or keep the boils reasonable. The pan bridges the gap between a small homemade pan and a flue pan set up. You shouldn't have too much ash with a blower. I'm not sure what type of grates your planning on but, some of us have made them out of fire brick. It work well as they hold up to the heat. Enjoy making the syrup!