tried to burn down barn when front pan caught fire.

[huntingken111]

Well think my season is over. For three days been cooking sap and doing great on my 3 x 10 English tin pans. Needed them to last one more season and then all heck broke loose. Have 260 gallons in tank of sap and 300 gallons already condensed boiling hard. Made a pvc hood with plastic last weekend and it was working great. Stoked up fire and thought I had 15 minutes so I could go eat dinner. Been boiling for 1 1/2 hours already had sap feeding in right to keep up with evaporation. Come back out about 10 minutes later and see smoke coming out front door of shack and know something is wrong. I run over there to see front pan on fire and plastic burning. Luckly I keep hose right there so put fire out on plastic and then arch. Chunks of plastic and charcoal laying in pan. See solder that dripped down from the heat. Great now nitre pans have exposed lead solder. Don't know what to do now don't dare clean pan really good and have even more solder exposed. Helpless work all year for this and down the tube in minutes.

[pennslytucky]

wish you were closer. the neighbor has a 3x10 sitting in his shed he isnt using this year. hopefully theres a pan near you that you can get. sorry to hear about the fire, but its good the barn didnt burn down and no one got hurt

[buckeye gold]

If we had a show of hands you'd have a lot company in the "sure I got time to step away for lunch" club. I have done the exact same thing and burnt a pan and a lot of the honest folks here are nodding yes. Too bad your situation is more than just a bitch of a clean up...sorry to hear.

[PerryW]

just scrape the black off with a wire brush and scotchbright pads and don't worry about the exposed solder. Plenty of syrup is made on english tin w/ lead solder and still tests out below the max. allowable PPM. After a boil or two, the nitre will be back.

[huntingken111]

I wish I was closer to use pans too. To be honest nothing happened to the flue pan if I can find cheap stainless I may be able to build my front pan. Got to many money obligations to fork out more than $300.

[pennslytucky]

wonder how close a guy could get to syrup with just a flue pan without much trouble? could even lay a sheet of 1/4 steel plate over the arch where the syrup pan was and get a half dozen chafing pans (the aluminum ones really suck the heat off the plate) to finish it up? kinda haffast but its something haha

[huntingken111]

Well thanks everybody hope your season goes better than my started. Off to work now but remember if I didn't have so much bad luck I wouldn't have any at all. Will let you know what I figured out.

[sugardaddy's]

I joined the" burned pan club " 2 years ago. My second season with my new evaporator. Same thing, flooded the pans and went in for lunch. 20 minutes That's all it took. It took me 3 days of scrubbing and brushing to get it cleaned up. That must have been the best evap rate I ever had. To say the least I was very disappointed. On the plus side now my wife always brings me lunch.
Your not alone.

[BreezyHill]

Yup...been there done that...It did it in less than 8 minutes. Had installed a new temp unit to become an auto draw off but wanted to watch it for awhile and be sure it was working well. Stepped out to get some wood. Friends were talking with the wife and I said bye and went back in and the temp red 224. Poured in cold sap and was lucky...an hour with a die grinder and a green finger head and it was rinse time and back to boiling.

This year when I find time I need to find the alarm and led lights to flash when the temp hits the high preset. Most came off ebay in cheap auctions so there is only about $65.

Good Luck and Best wishes on the rebuild project.

[Run Forest Run!]

Sorry to hear about your situation. I too "went in for just a minute" last year and torched a batch. Hope you can salvage your season.

[huntingken111]

Ok if I clean my pan and use it is there an instant lead test kit that I can buy and test my syrup at end of season

[Mark-NH]

I agree with Perry. If you only ruined your temporary hood, not your syrup pan, dust yourself off, clean your pan and get back to work. How was all that syrup made up until 20 years ago. Yup, on english tin pans. Hell, you were already boiling on it anyway. What's the difference now? It will niter right back up.

[DrTimPerkins]

Ok if I clean my pan and use it is there an instant lead test kit that I can buy and test my syrup at end of season

None of the instant tests will work on syrup. The available kits are made for either water or for solid surfaces.

[huntingken111]

Thanks Dr. Tim and everybody else thanks. Cleaned pan found hole in it sealed it and filled with water. It is a little warped, I will just have to run it deeper. Will start boiling early morning so I hope it works. Let the sap drip. Next year stainless pans I hope. Anybody selling cheap stainless pans soon.

[pennslytucky]

watch the classifieds and craigslist after season is over. good luck

[huntingken111]

Well the front pan has dips in the two center compartments but ran everything 4 to five inches deep. Took me 6 hours to boil 325 down but sofar so good, Thanks for the pick up everybody just need to get through rest of season and then I can build at least a new 3 x 5 front pan. Hopefully find a good used flue pan. Not really sure how to build the flue pan

[Too Tall]

Sorry for all your troubles. Glad to hear it will work out O.K.

The pan/evap you sold me a couple years' ago is still working out good. It's the perfect size for my little operation. Thanks again.

[huntingken111]

Glad to hear that Too Tall hope it does for many years.