last minute Arch build

[stoneslabs]

well it's getting down to the wire here but with the weather, I am still days away from a proper run... so I may even get time for a test boil or 2 before it goes into use!

I am building it out of an old fuel cell that we had at work, cut it up and welded the angle iron. everything lines up well, but the home made plans I picked up last year arent square so the whole arch has to be a little cockeyed for it all to line up.

tonight we will attach the door, the ash door and sheet it up. then, we are off to the races!

thanks to everyone who has posted in the past, I learned a bunch thru old posts and wouldn't have tried this without all the great info up here!

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[psparr]

Remember to insulate somehow, or it'll end up wonky like your pan.

[bushmoose]

Lookin Good! Nice shop by the way.

[stoneslabs]

right I forgot to mention, it will be insulated with old clay brick and ash for this year, next year will see upgrades/mods to improve GPH. I'm hoping for 12 gph from this set up as is...

as for the shop, it's my brother in law's, mine hasn't got power yet ;)

[stoneslabs]

I have a question about air flow...

I will be bricking the arch today with said clay bricks... should I turn some on their side to create a bit of turbulence under my flat pans or just lay them flat all the way up the ramp? I'm running a 7" stack ( small but it's what I have ) and I have left about 2-1/4" space at the end of the ramp and it is 27" wide.

thanks!

[psparr]

I have a question about air flow...

I will be bricking the arch today with said clay bricks... should I turn some on their side to create a bit of turbulence under my flat pans or just lay them flat all the way up the ramp? I'm running a 7" stack ( small but it's what I have ) and I have left about 2-1/4" space at the end of the ramp and it is 27" wide.

thanks!

Try it like it is. You'll probably find you need to close that up a bit. 27" wide and a 7" stack you should be somewhere around 1"

[stoneslabs]

D'oh!!! I had calculated for an 8" stack, but in fact it is a 7" :rolleyes: well that might explain why the back pan never got boiling on my test run today! I will try again tomorow with a smaller gap.

Can anyone give me advice about the layout of brick at stack end of ramp, I will reduce the gap to around 1" but should i do this only at the stack or back more towards the front?

I am running flat pans, continuous flow at the front, 27"X30" at the back
the arch is 7 1-2 feet long total X 27" wide
Firebox is 27" w X 27" tall X 20" deep
Stack is 11 ft tall 7" dia.
I am burning very dry Pallets mixed with chopped hardwood

here are pics of how it is set up, man I can't wait to build my sugarshack! :D

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[psparr]

I had a bad boil with 2" and an 8" stack. Cut it down to 1" and she is rocking. Keep same gap all the way.

[stoneslabs]

Well, today, i drove into the city and bought a big bag of vermiculite, some ceramic blanket and gasket.
got home, removed all the bricks, poured in vermiculite, re-leveled bricks to a 1" gap from stack to the front of my " back pan " then angled down to the top of my firebox.

fired up a test boil and it was much better, the back pan seemed to almost boil while the front pan had a good boil all the way to the back of it.
There was a fair amount of smoke leaking out of the seams in the arch, which leads me to think I may not have enough draft, tomorrow I will add 2 more sections of stack bringing it from 11' to 17' total.
should I just add stack or re-work the bricks again?
any insight would be greatly appreciated, I would love to see that back pan boil!

[psparr]

Stack height should help some. It's hard sometimes to get a good boil on a flat back pan with cold sap coming in. A blower would help too.

[stoneslabs]

By George I think I got it!

I added 6 ft of stack, bringing it to 17 ft total. tested... it was a bit better but not where I wanted it yet. I removed the pans to rework the brick levels ( AGAIN ) and it struck me... the arch is 27" wide, but the clay bricks I am using are 2" thick, so I actually only have 23" inside diameter. I dropped the bricks down to 1.5" gap under the pans from about half way all the way to the stack, and BINGO! My new arch is hauling a$$! This is what I was hoping for, a good hard boil all the way thru, I went thru 10 gal of water in 40 minutes, including warm up time! I can`t wait to see what this thing will do over a long period.

thanks for your help psparr, much appreciated! Now, all I can do is wait for our first run... and hope it lasts more than a few days!

[psparr]

Glad to be of assistance, but I can't take the credit. All the advice I gave you I learned from others on the trader.

[gwcutter10]

I have a 2x3 pan and 8" stack. I run a damper in the stack just like a woodstove.. It helps alot...