How much space between pans and brick?

[zandstrafarms]

hi guys, my husband just got done modifying our steam table into a maple syrup arch. so far it's looking pretty decent. I was looking up videos online on breaking me inside of our art when I noticed something that threw me off. The guy in the video packed the back part of the arch with sand and blanket. I'm guessing it was for a raised flue system as I had no clue how the smoke would otherwise reach the chimney!

I had been assuming we'd want 2 to 3 inches space between our steam table pans and the brick. Pans are 6in deep into the arch. I can use full bricks instead of halfs or add blanket if needed to create less space. .

Here's how it looks so far :1291912920

[psparr]

The rule of thumb is you want the same amount of surface area under the pans as the surface area of the stack. Looks like an 8" stack. That would be about 50 square inches. If your arch is 2' wide, then you would want around 2" under the pans. With room for tweaking of course.