Connecting two pans for continues flow

[superiorsyrup]

Hello again.

Northern Wis. finally able to get taps in trees, this past Saturday snow depth was at previous years tap height! Anyway this season we made a new arch which is now completed. We used the old wood furnace from the house and converted it to a 22" x 94" arch it looks great and I will try to get some pics up.

Now I built my pans one is 22 x 24 the other is 22 x 70. I wonder how do people connect the two pans for continues flow? I mean actually attach, I plan on having a fitting valve section of high temp house valve fitting to get me from one pan to the other but how do you get the fittings attached to a SS pan and low enough to keep from allowing flow? Pics are worth a thousand words.

Thanks

[Ausable]

Hmmmmm! Well! Until You get Your picture - I'll give You a thousand words. Hey! lol - You asked for it. First off - I'll assume - 22" is You width and they are both flat pans. Your pan lengths are a bit different - one rather short and one rather long. Your overall length is about 8 feet. Ok - I'll toss this out and once I do You will get all kinds of ideas from people correcting me. lol -- Normally Your Sap pan is on the stack end and Your Syrup pan is on the fuel door end.. We will put the little pan on the stack end and the long pan on the fuel door end - both level with each other and overall about 8 feet long. We will connect the two pans as You suggest near the bottom of each pan and probably welded to each pan with openings. In the short pan we will weld in one divider side to side with an approx. one inch hole in the divider at one end giving us the start of the continuous flow serpentine effect. But we need a much larger sap pan than 2'x2' so in the large pan we will weld in 2 more side to side dividers about one foot apart - giving us a sap pan with 4 sections about 12" x 22". Now to the Syrup Pan area - We will put in two dividers lengthwise and roughly 7" apart and approx. 46" long - welded to the front of the pan and the last side to side divider. Now you have three sections in Your Syrup pan running lengthwise. Lay this out on paper and figure out where to place your connecting holes section to section so you have a serpentine effect through your pans. Sap in at your first sap section and a draw off valve and syrup out at your last syrup section. Hey! Just a thought on how to rig up a continuous flow with two such different length pans. - Hope I helped.

[backyard sugaring]

If you have a brewer store in your area you can purchase weldless bulkhead fittings. You can use plumbing fitings that are labeled lead free also. Good luck. Lee

[smokeyamber]

I connecting pans using copper, I used 3/4" threaded copper fittings and drilled as close the bottom of the pan sides as possible. After silver soldering these in place I then soldered up piping wth ball valves on each fitting and then connected them to each other via a coupling that can be unscrewed. This lets you disconnect the pans without emptying them. You can also control flow from back pan to front pan or shut off the back pan the finish a front pan batch. Something I have needed to do a few times.

Only real issue with this setup is you can never truly drain both pans while they are on the arch. The answer to this issue is a drain box that is welded to the side of the pan and drops down the side, this allows the hole in the pan side to be right at the bottom of the pan. Look at pictures of Leader evaps for these. Draw boxes are my next addition along with a float box...

[b116757]

I used 1.5" triclover sanitary fittings two 90 degree elbows with a sanitary ball valve with ptfe seats in between the pans to have added control. I got most of my parts off ebay but have also gotten some parts for diffrent projects from brewershardware.com there economy triclover ball valves have the ptfe valve seats and will handle the heat. I tig welded the sanitary weld ferrules to my pans but I think brewershardware has some weldless options also.

[NhShaun]

Hmmmmm! Well! Until You get Your picture - I'll give You a thousand words. Hey! lol - You asked for it. First off - I'll assume - 22" is You width and they are both flat pans. Your pan lengths are a bit different - one rather short and one rather long. Your overall length is about 8 feet. Ok - I'll toss this out and once I do You will get all kinds of ideas from people correcting me. lol -- Normally Your Sap pan is on the stack end and Your Syrup pan is on the fuel door end.. We will put the little pan on the stack end and the long pan on the fuel door end - both level with each other and overall about 8 feet long. We will connect the two pans as You suggest near the bottom of each pan and probably welded to each pan with openings. In the short pan we will weld in one divider side to side with an approx. one inch hole in the divider at one end giving us the start of the continuous flow serpentine effect. But we need a much larger sap pan than 2'x2' so in the large pan we will weld in 2 more side to side dividers about one foot apart - giving us a sap pan with 4 sections about 12" x 22". Now to the Syrup Pan area - We will put in two dividers lengthwise and roughly 7" apart and approx. 46" long - welded to the front of the pan and the last side to side divider. Now you have three sections in Your Syrup pan running lengthwise. Lay this out on paper and figure out where to place your connecting holes section to section so you have a serpentine effect through your pans. Sap in at your first sap section and a draw off valve and syrup out at your last syrup section. Hey! Just a thought on how to rig up a continuous flow with two such different length pans. - Hope I helped.

Thanks for the thousand words, helped me understand that continuous flow a little more.