newbie first post - questions about my 55 gal drum build

[TManning]

I have enjoyed reading many posts on this site and have learned a lot. Thanks to all. This will be my first year tapping silver maples in my yard here in MD. Looking forward to it and have been working on my evaporator. Making it mostly with scrap metal and keeping it on a cheap cheap budget. I borrowed a welder and it looks like I mostly welded it with my eyes closed. Pardon this long post.

my first question has to do with shortening the fire box with a partition to get the heat up under the rear pan with out having a huge fire box.I think the correct word on a real evaporator would be the ramp?how much distance should be between the top of the ramp, my partition, and the bottom of the pan? I have two inches, is that reasonable? my goal with the smaller fire box was going to be efficiency in not burning so much wood (i dont have a lot) and having heat not getting into the pan and escaping up the stack. I plan to stack bricks in the belly of the barrel and then a basic flat gas grill grate over those and then wrap ourside of drum with boiler insulation I have. Is it a waste to try to have this partition? I made it so it just sits in the barrel and can be slid forward or backward and it's made up of several pieces of metal scrap, 1main piece being a heavy motor mount base with left over pieces of the barrel welded to close gaps in the edges.

second question has to do with the 2 inch pipe I plan to supply air down the center belly of the firebox. it's basically like exhaust pipe on vehicle, it came from a gas fired heat exchanger from a commercial furnace. If it handled the heat off a gas furnace burner I'm hoping it will survive in the firebox, what do you think? I was just going to cut some slots or drill holes in the pipe and I have a couple of fan options, trying to stay away from the noisy leaf blower or vacuum but I know I need some decent static.

Final question for now, I don't have fire brick and I'm too cheap to buy it so I'm using regular brick. Will it be pulverized in short order or will I get a few 8 hour boils out of them? I'm ony running 10 taps for my first year to see if this maple syrup thing is for me or not, hence cheap cheap. It's been fun reading and learning so far, I suspect I'll be like the rest here and tapping as much as possible as the years go on. Thanks in advance for advice, hope I can get these photographs to upload.

[Wanabe1972]

It looks like you have a good start there. I started on the same type rig. With these 2 pans you have you are going to make batches of syrup rather than drawing off a little at a time so you are going to have several inches of sap in each pan all the time. I would not worry about raising the fire but cut your holes bigger and set the pans down into the fire more. The pipe you have will work fine for air just drill three rows of holes at 10. 12. And two aclock about 2 inchs apart. As for the grate in the bottom I. Would not bother using one. I have this same design in my wood furnace I built and it works great (fire all around tube) you don't have an ash tray so you will have to shovel them out anyway. I'm not familiar with boiler insulation but did not have good luck with open insulation as if you disturbed it at all little fibers ended up flying into the pans. If the insulation has a foil face to contain this you might be ok. I wrapper my insulation with a couple of pieces of roofing tin and wired it on. My wood furnace is built out of a barrel and I get 5 to 6 years out of it with no brick running it 24/7 5 months a year so you should get a life time out of it.

[eustis22]

the brick is used to keep heat IN instead of it bleeding out the sides....if you can manage to not disturb it after your first firing, it may last you the season.

I second dropping the pans further in, in fact all the way if you can (tops of pans flush with tops of stove). I riveted Galvy handles to the tops of my steam pans to make handling them easier. the more surface exposed to the flame the faster the boil rate

[Agent914]

I ran a 2 pan set-up much like what you designed in your evaporator with no issues and the way you support your pans is better because I use rested in on the cut edge.
Q1 = 2 inches clearance under the pans is perfect if your flame goes out the stack then you will need some type of flame deflector. Be careful with the center rib between the pans I found that under a very hot wood fire mine warped. Be sure to wrap each pan with a ½ h-temp gasket rope to seal in the heat and help stop exhaust leaks.
Q2 = I used a grinder and cut slots in mine.
Q3 = just a thought I used a ceramic blanket ($50) as insulation to trap the heat. It is light formable and put a layer of flashing over it to protect it against degradation from the flame

[gwcutter10]

I have a 2x3 homemade rig.. I use a half pint pan and a oil drum for the arch.. I took steel and lined the insides of the arch so it is square like a real arch would be.... that steel came from a 275 gal. oil drum....which i got for free... check craigslist...then i used regular brick ... you can find the bricks anyplace... keep your eyes open and ride around.... construction sites, farms etc.. or just ask a few contractors.....you won't need a lot since your sides are not flat....and they should last the whole season and more.....find some masons... they may have a few left over from a job.....good luck...

[Ausable]

Hey TManning - Welcome to Maple Trader. Looks like You are off to a good start and already getting some good advice - so - I'll refrain. Have a great year making maple and have fun doing it. ---Mike---

[TManning]

Thanks for all the feedback folks ! You gotta love these forums - so much accessible knowledge and experience!

Wanabe - how big of holes did you drill on your supply air pipe- like 3/8"? also, i understand the glass fibers getting air born; I'll cover it like you did. thanks.

[TManning]

Eustis & GWcutter - Good, I'm rolling with the standard bricks! Actually I also have a 12x12 terracotta flue liner that i'm going to go at with a diamond blade to make 4 slab pieces... we'll see how that goes. I read about the pan scorch when dropping fully so i thought a 1" out was a happy medium. Will i need to keep sap deeper than 3" as is?

thanks again everyone.

[TManning]

Agent - That center arch is wimpy- i'm going to weld a scrap piece-o-something to beef it up. I have a mix of left over boiler fireside braided gaskets and rope so I'll experiment sealing those pan cracks. Just today i secured my fan from a condensing furnace. It's the combustion air fan designed to blow out 2" pvc up to approx 75', so it's probably perfect since it's only a couple hundred cfm but hi-static. So I'm thinking I can easily pump too much air and force smoke and ash out all the drum cracks. Sealing them will be important it sounds like.

[eustis22]

I kept my depths about 4 inches in both pans...yeah, you get scorching above the boil line but all that did was darken my syrup up a bit. Didn't taste scorch at all.

[TManning]

- So, i'll be scooping from rear pan to front pan - or if rear pan is hotter, did i read that should be my final pan?
- Are you guys using a standard round ladle or should it be square scooping type? Do you ever need to stir the pan when cooking?

[eustis22]

I went front to back, always adding, adding, adding until I was out of sap for that run, then stopped feeding wood and replaced sap in the sap pan with water until the fire burned down. All you want to do is skim foam (or use a defoamer).....you don't want to to stir anything. I believe stirring is bad and will cause foamup boils. Someone can verify that.

[happy thoughts]

- So, i'll be scooping from rear pan to front pan - or if rear pan is hotter, did i read that should be my final pan?
- Are you guys using a standard round ladle or should it be square scooping type? Do you ever need to stir the pan when cooking?

You'll find out soon enough which pan is the hotter one for your own set up. Then just go with it.
Anything that can hold liquid will work, a ladle, a metal cup, even a small saucepan.

Don't stir, but you'll want to keep skimming foam off the top as it develops.

[TManning]

Howdy Mike, Thanks for the hearty welcome! Can't wait to start the boiling.


Hey TManning - Welcome to Maple Trader. Looks like You are off to a good start and already getting some good advice - so - I'll refrain. Have a great year making maple and have fun doing it. ---Mike---