Need Help on Home made pans I am making!!!

[Marshalljt]

I have made a oil tank arch and am making my pans out of 1/4 inch stainless steel plate. I have talked to some people and they are leading me to believe that the pans being 1/4 inch thick and that they are stainless steel that the heat transfer will be so pour that it will not work. Just wanting to know if anyone out there has pans like this or know if they will not work. Very new to all of this have not tapped a tree. This being my first year.

[Big_Eddy]

They will work. Any pan will work. They will be less efficient than thinner pans and a lot heavier. Typical pans are about 20 gauge.

If the material is free and the labour is too then go for it.

[Pibster]

My first pan was 18 gauge. They worked but it took a long time to get them boiling. My new pan is 22 gauge, what a difference! 1/4" stainless is worth a lot as scrap. Sell it and it might pay for a new sheet of stainless.

[pyro]

I have 2x3 made with 14 gauge stainless. That's 0.078". I have no experience with anything else so I can't compare. It does take a long time to heat up, but once up to temperature I don't see why it wouldn't be just as efficient. However, your talking about something 3x thicker! I think that's too thick.

I have contemplated taking the bottom 14 gauge piece off and replacing with something thinner. But I'm worried my welder will burn through the thinner sheet.