Home made steam hood

[western mainer]

Has any one built a wooden steam hood. I have a wood shop, I know that the side by the stack needs to be protected from the heat. I know I can by one but the money is short.
Thanks Brian

[BreezyHill]

My dad made his original steam jacket for the preheater out of wood. The first version lasted until 2013 from 1982
11930

In 2013 my middle son and I rebuilt the unit to accommodate a single 1.5" Stainless Steel milk line from the original double 2" copper line.
11931

Not as much heating but way easier to clean.

He built the steam hood out of Aluminum Sheets and it is still going strong.

You will need to paint it well to seal it up if you want it to last very long if you use any plywood material. Even then the steam gets in thru 3 coats by the end of the season on our first redesign.

Catching the condensation will be a must so that it does not get in the pan. Our front hood is also wood and has the drip line past the pans and has a gutter built in to transfer the condensation away from work area.

11932

Since I am in a room that is concrete walls on 3 sides and metal ceiling I have to catch as much steam as possible. The Hoods are power ventilated and all but maybe 10% is caught. This still makes for condensation on the ceiling. Our sugar house is the basement of a 30x72 metal building. nice and cool in the summer and stone cold for about three days into boiling season.

Wood will work fine just plan ahead for the condensation gutter system and I would install a preheat system in it also.

Good Luck!
Ben

[n8hutch]

I understand completely being Tight on the cash, I had a 3' by 10' suspended steam hood with 12' of 18" steam pipe made by a tin Smith in Fryeburg for about 400.00$ everything made out of aluminum. I was going to build one out of pine but didn't want to deal with the wood

There must be someone in the Bethel area that does tin work, you could draw up what you want & have him cut & bend it for you. Even a guy who builds race cars usually has a shear & a metal break. I bet you could come up with something pretty cheap.

[maple flats]

I built 3 hoods in the past, all out of aluminum. My 2x3 was a total cover but was only used when I left for the night, with the pan still boiling and plenty of sap in the pan.
My 2x6 had a 2x3 sap pan, but I made a new hood, the old one was not tall enough and rather than rebuilding that I made new. Both of those were just made from aluminum roof type flashing and I sealed the gutters with food grade silicone. My 1st set of pans on my 3x8 had a 6' flue pan and a 2' syrup pan. For that I went to a metals dealer and bought the thinnest gauge sheet aluminum they had. It was still too heavy to get a neat break on the corners using my 10.5' long aluminum trim break. I had to add some heavy long reach welding clamps to help support the clamping force on the break, then I could bend it OK. For the gutter I knew it would be too difficult on that light weight break, so I bought some 1x1 aluminum channel U shape. I mitered 3 corners and using aluminum rod I "welded" the miters. On the 4th corner I extended the back piece out a few inches for a drain and where the side piece met it, I removed enough to allow condensate to flow out and then I "welded" that corner too. This gutter was then pop riveted to the hood, with the hood riding inside and to the outer edge of the gutters. When all was finished, the hood sat on the flue pan and had a portion that extended forward over the syrup pan all but about 4 inches at the front. That was because I bought 3' x 8' sheets and bent about an inch over for pop riveting to the end panels (the pans were 8' total + 1" gasket between the pans and the 2" lost bending the overlaps at each end). The shape I made was a gambrel roof with the top flat for my steam stack and I made a sliding door on each long side. The roof was the same height the whole length, but the part over the syrup pan was up about 15-16" above the syrup pan to keep an eye on it better. In total the sheet aluminum and aluminum channel cost just over $100 (2006 prices). I had the pop rivets and the aluminum "welding" rod. To weld it I only used a SS brush to clean it, and then used a propane torch. It never leaked. I think I had about 5 hrs. in it total and part of that was my design stage.
I think I would avoid wood as a steam hood, however I did see one where a frame was made out of firing strips a sheet of poly was stapled to the inside. That guy used to take lots of awards at the NYS fair, for his syrup, but he then sold out, got his guides license and now guides hunters, he no longer makes syrup as far as I know.

[western mainer]

Thanks for the input. I hope to have time to set something up.
Thanks Brian

[Vtmbz]

The only wooden steam hood I ever saw was made from t&g spruce, untreated. It lasted thirty years on a big evaporator.

The only way I would use wood myself would be to use maple! No one could find fault with that could they? I wouldn't use plywood myself. I would worry that the steam would drip nasty glues into the syrup.