Small hobby pan?

[liljohn]

So I am new to collecting maple sap and syrup and have decided that next year I would like a small pan to help me with evaporation. I was thinking to have a 24"x24" pan made up. I was wondering if you all have any comments on this size pan as I do not see that anyone makes one and it seems to be about the right size for a small hobby operation. I plan to cook on propane or may be natural gas (as I have a few wells on my property to draw from). I will trickle feed the opposite side of the pan from a preheater pot. Thoughts, opinions? I am attaching my pan design.9473

Thanks,
~lj

[KevinS]

So I am new to collecting maple sap and syrup and have decided that next year I would like a small pan to help me with evaporation. I was thinking to have a 24"x24" pan made up. I was wondering if you all have any comments on this size pan as I do not see that anyone makes one and it seems to be about the right size for a small hobby operation. I plan to cook on propane or may be natural gas (as I have a few wells on my property to draw from). I will trickle feed the opposite side of the pan from a preheater pot. Thoughts, opinions? I am attaching my pan design.9473

Thanks,
~lj
My first question is - if you have natural gas, why would you even consider propane?
On size-
Base the size of the pan on how many taps you plan on having. With that said you will still be wrong... LOL
if you are like most people. Oh I am just going to run 20 taps,yeah that is enough.. the next year you will be looking for 40.

[liljohn]

On the gas issue my current cook situation is in an old corn crib which I have converted to be my sugar shack. Currently there is no nat. gas to the corn crib. Maybe next year or maybe not.

Yes I understand the idea of always doing more than you can handle. This year I ran 20 taps and am going to make about 4 gallon from boiling in 2 large stainless steel pots and a chaffing pan. Next year I want to make about 10 gallons so I am guessing 40 taps. My taps where not very efficient this year as I had a lot of leakage. Next year I plan to buy good taps and have drop lines to 3.5 gallon buckets with an IBC tank for storage. Can you run check value spouts with drop lines to buckets?

Any thoughts on the pan?

[KevinS]

On the gas issue my current cook situation is in an old corn crib which I have converted to be my sugar shack. Currently there is no nat. gas to the corn crib. Maybe next year or maybe not.

Yes I understand the idea of always doing more than you can handle. This year I ran 20 taps and am going to make about 4 gallon from boiling in 2 large stainless steel pots and a chaffing pan. Next year I want to make about 10 gallons so I am guessing 40 taps. My taps where not very efficient this year as I had a lot of leakage. Next year I plan to buy good taps and have drop lines to 3.5 gallon buckets with an IBC tank for storage. Can you run check value spouts with drop lines to buckets?

Any thoughts on the pan?
On fuel. you could do what I did. I ran a temp line from the gas main (yes after the meter! LOL ) over the ground to the shack. I am still waiting for the day NIG ( northern Il Gas) shows up to read the meter and freaks out. I used cresline water pipe.. it is temporary.. I will roll it up and store it inside in the off season. so even with 200 foot run I have less than 60 bucks in the hook up. I had a tee with a plug to work with at the main. I installed a new valve there and will pull the hose barb and put a plug in after the season

[CampHamp]

I was thinking to have a 24"x24" pan made up. I was wondering if you all have any comments on this size pan as I do not see that anyone makes one...
You should be able to find this size flat pan new and used - people often call it a 2x2 instead of a 24x24 or a "finishing", "front" or "syrup pan". If you make it yourself, you may want to test it with water first to see if it works best on your arch flowing up/down or side/side before drilling your thermometer and draw-off holes. On my arch, for example, the left/right sides are often cooler. I have one less channel than in your design and, again, if the side channels were smaller they would suffer from edge cooling even more. Also, the channel walls will help the syrup bubbles climb up so maybe that's another argument for 4 instead of 5 channels, but it would be good to hear from someone who has a 5 channel 2x2 to see what they think...

[liljohn]

Thanks, any thoughts on where I can purchase a divided 2x2 finishing pan?

[KevinS]

pretty much every single equipment maker for maple syrup.
But I do think I saw one on the list of used stuff on bascoms web site... ( I can not promise you that is where I saw it)

[CampHamp]

Do you want for boiling this season or next year? new or used?

If you want a used one for next year, then I'd wait a month or two and then check out classifieds (this site, bascoms, ebay, craigs list) or just put an order in if you want a new one. Our forum sponsor, The Maple Guys, sell great pans. Contact Chris (http://www.mapleguys.com/CTUS.html) to see if they have what you need.

Also, there are lots of reputable small shops that you can learn about on this site and the big ones are showing in a dealer near you...

[NTBugtraq]

Is there really any point in putting flues in a 2' x 2' pan? I don't see how it will make any difference, chances are the entirety of the pan will become syrup at more or less the same time. I thought the flues were so you could do continuous flow, which you don't have when you only have a few taps...am I wrong?

Last year I did 10 taps, I just put the sap in a pot and boiled it off in my BBQ...no flues, no gradient, no badabing...??

Cheers,
Russ

[Skoaler27]

On your side view where you getting 16 feet from? I added up 4.8x5 to 24 inches.

[liljohn]

My first question is - if you have natural gas, why would you even consider propane?
On size-
Base the size of the pan on how many taps you plan on having. With that said you will still be wrong... LOL
if you are like most people. Oh I am just going to run 20 taps,yeah that is enough.. the next year you will be looking for 40.


On your side view where you getting 16 feet from? I added up 4.8x5 to 24 inches.

Ignore that sixteen foot dimension it a 2'x2'x8" pan. Still having trouble finding a 2'x2' pan with dividers.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

[lpakiz]

Liljohn,
I doubt you'd want flues in a smaller, one-piece pan. You could not finish even close to syrup with flues. They will put too much heat into sap that is almost (or IS) syrup, causing scorching and boil over. I'd build a three or four compartment pan with draw offs on each opposite corner and you'd be all set to add a four foot flue pan in a couple years, to give you a 2X6 unit.
As far as where to get a new pan made, I recommend Jim at Smoky Lake. He is totally overbooked right now, but call him after the season is over. He could make it so that it is comparable with your future 4 foot flue pan.:mrgreen:

[CampHamp]

He's looking for a flat pan - not a flue pan.

[lpakiz]

Whoops, sorry, I missed that it was not the OP asking about flues, rather another participant in this thread. So I re-direct my last post to NTBugtrac......

[NTBugtraq]

What are the .5" "ribs" every 4.8" on the OP's drawing if not flues?

Cheers,
Russ

[Errin OH]

Thoughts, opinions? 9473

Here is my experances with a simular pan. We had this pan made for us,

9497

If you look close you will see a block I made to keep thicker sap from flowing back into the third channel. The issue we were having it the pan is to short to build a wide gradient in just one or two channels. At 42" about half the pan would hit 215-216 and stay there with the back at 212-213. I was fearful that we would literally have to have the whole pan pushing 216-217 to get syrup in the front half. You can't see it but I did the same for the back channel. They do not stop flow; just prevent back flow mixing by constantly pushing sap forward through a small gap.

From back to front, the first channel is the preheater, next 4 are the main boiling area, front 2 are the finish area. (I have considered taking it down to one). After we first started using it I thought maybe the middle really did not need to be divided, but after a while figure it was better it was, as it does help hold the gradient pushing into the finishing channels.

Slow vs flood; when we first started I was dribbling in. The gradient wasn’t forming the way I wanted so I switched to flooding (filler up, boil down and fill here up again). This help push the gradient forward but with the open back flow remixing, it was soon lost. With the block in I can dribble in (float box is next) and make about a half-gallon of syrup every two hours.

Drawing off, I draw off at 221 (brix verified) and shut down when the temp drops to 218. I do have to flood the evap to push it out. I tried to draw off by just opening the valve and pulling the blocks. Trouble was the pan needs to be 2" deep to get any flow and as soon as the level drops the syrup in the pan really starts cooking. Since we only run 2", it needs a push. The term flood is really just opening the feed line to run wide open as the syrup is drawn off and closed as soon as it out. Normally I gain about 1/2" in depth but it is soon gone.