Blocks under evaporator??

[Flatfoot95]

I am setting up my evaporator tomorrow and I have noticed a number of evaporators set up on blocks so the ash area is up off the floor. Is this necessary? Will the heat crack my concrete floor?

[WF MASON]

When customers have asked me this over the years , I generally reply ,how tall are you and after twelve hours of bending over firing , how good is your back ? The newer arches are made taller , the older ones you had to fire on your knees. I'd go up one block(8") anyway , but two or three blocks make it nice , you just walk up and throw in the wood. I've never seen a cement floor cracked by heat.You can put a sheet of cement board on the floor if your really worryed about it.

[ibby458]

I raised mine so I could fire it without bending so much. Since I got rather tall pans, plus a steam hood, I also put 8" catwalks down both sides to make working inside the pans easier.

[Fred Henderson]

You can also put 1" fire brick on the floor or just let the ash build up. Never remove all the ashes until you are done for the season.

[maplehound]

I see too that you are using a 2 x 6. When I had that size evaporator we would sit in front of the doors and fire from a sitting position. Even Now with my 3x8 raised flue we like to sit while we fire. Although now with the 3x8 we can't sit there for long. JUST TO HOT!!!!!!!!!!

[OGDENS SUGAR BUSH]

small amount of sand on the floor will get you started till you get some ashes built up.

Rich

[jason loper]

As for the cracking of the cement when ran a test fire with water for the first time the cement under the fire box blew apart. My dad about jumped out of his skin when it happened. We have it much hotter since then and no problems there must have been a air pocket or one of the rocks that explodes in the mix.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

I have 1" ceramic blanket underneath my arch. Not neccessarily because of heat on the cement, but with an inferno type arch, it seals it off tight. It would be good if you are concerned about the heat. I would doubt my cement ever even gets warm.

[Sugarmaker]

I agree with WF Mason. I am 6' 1' and I saw several arches that were raised before I set ours in place. Ours is much easier to fire with a lot less bending. I raised our arch 1 full 8 inch block from the floor. No cement cracking problems but we do have forced air cooling the ash pit area.

Sugarmaker

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

You can lay up 3 course of full size firebrick and it looks really nice and the ashes or heat won't deterioate or crack them like cinderblocks.

[HanginAround]

For anyone pouring a floor, around here very often the end of the floor where you stand to fire is 6-8" lower than the evap end of the floor, so you take a step up to go down either side of the evap. Of course, this isn't aways practical, just a suggestion.

[sapman]

I'm the same height as Chris, and 8" wasn't high enough for me. Still allot of bending over. After 16 hours boiling, firing every 6-10 minutes, my back was dead. So a few years ago I made the switch to oil, and have never regretted it! I will admit, though, I still haven't filled the oil tank, and am not looking forward to this year's bill!

Tim

[Flatfoot95]

Brandon I had considered the firebrick. Wasn't sure on how much weight it tolerate. I think that I am going to give a try seeing as I have some extra firebrick laying around. I am going to place some on the floor in the ash box too.

[Flatfoot95]

Well layed three courses of fire brick today and sat the arch on them. Low and behold there is about a inch gap all the way around the bottom because of "legs" on the corners. If I force air in the back I am going to have ash going everywhere. I am thinking of maybe placing firebrick on edge to close those gaps or maybe stuffing them with ceramic blanket. Any suggestions? Leave it alone? What about fiberglass insul.

[HanginAround]

Fibreglass will probably hold up, shouldn't get too hot there. The best would be castable refractory, if you can find some.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Wrap it with a small strip of ceramic blanket and tie it in place with some wire. Won't be the prettiest, but you can make it look fairly good.

[softmaple]

we have over a 10inch slab as our floor and we had a layer of full 2000degree fire bricks under it. WE CRARACKED OUR FLOOR. so we had to add an air space with anoter set of bricks criss crossed under our firebrick to futher cool it. its fine now after that. when the floor snapped it was like a deer running full boar into the side of the Hut.

[brookledge]

Flatfoot
What did you use for mortar on your fire brick? You could use the same mortar of even regular mason mortar to seal the area around the ash pit.
Keith

[lpakiz]

An old Amish guy told me he uses sand and salt. I work for the Hwy Dept so i got some off our pile. (We mix 5% salt with the sand) Works like a charm. Put it in slightly wet and it will dry like morter.

[danno]

How do you think those solid 4" thick cinder blocks would work for raising an arch?

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

They should work good for a couple of years. A couple courses of full size firebrick laid up with a skim coat of refract cement makes a nice job and should last for many years.

[csteves]

What would you guys do if you were raising an air tigh arch like an Inferno Air tight? Is there a plate that runs along the bottom of the firebox? If it's up in the air, won't there be a big open space under the firebox defeating the purpose of having it airtight?

I'm just curious how that works since I've never really had much experience with air tight arches...

[RileySugarbush]

I put a flat steel sheet in the bottom of the the firebox, below the grates. It's about 5" off the floor of the house. With forced air, that area is cool enough that it does not need firebrick. I get virtually no ash with the forced air.

[brookledge]

Inferno arches have a bottom floor in them and raising it will not affect it
Keith

[Brent]

I'm planning on putting a couple of Durock cement boards on bricks under our new evap. The Durock is CSA approved for a fire rating and I suspect UL approved too.

The boards are 30" wide and for a 24" evap that will catch a lot of the slops that are never supposed to happen. At the end of the season I can slide it out into the rain and it will get washed for next season.

It will also make a nice air gap under the cement board and keep the plywood floor reel cool.

[danno]

I did wind up using two 4" blocks - so arch is up 8". Added to that is the fact that my flue pan is probably 6" taller than my old one - now the pan is way up in the air. I'm 6'2" and can just see over the lip. So much for visitors looking in the flue pan.

Guess I'm going to have to build platforms.

[Sugarmaker]

Danno where are the pictures of this new rig? Have you thought of practicing firing on stilts:) KIDDING!

Hope things are going well getting it set up . Know I sure made a lot of moves getting mine set and finished.

Chris

[csteves]

So if there's a plate under the firebox, what happens to the ashes? The heat doesn't bother the plate with the ashes falling on it and all? How do you clean it out, you just have to open up the door(s) and remove the grates?

[brookledge]

There is no ashes with a inferno arch. Everything burns up and goes up the stack. I may rake out alittle especially if I burn wood with nails in it but otherwise no ashes to deal with.
Keith

[Sugarmaker]

csteves,
If your rig has a draft/ clean out door you can use that entry to remove the ashes which would be laying on the plate. As other have said there is not much ash left with a forced draft system.
Chris

[danno]

Chris - pics are coming. Just as I was putting the new hood on today, I was thinking to myself - I've got to post some pics. Really happy with how the arch bricking came out - all with ideas that came from the Trader.

I lined the bottom with insulation blanket and the sides with board. Then, full block and mortar on the side walls - except for half block on the top course to allow fire under the sides of the pans. Ramped up and down with full brick, filled the middle with vermiculite and covered that snugly with board right up to the rails.

Have added forced air in the back and now just have to hang the hood, cut in the steam stacks and plumb the preheater to the float box.

[csteves]

Oh, wow, I didn't realize that the airtight forced draft arches would incinerate fuel like that. I've only ever had experience with conventionally fired arches. So even an airtight arch would do that, without a blower and all?

[OGDENS SUGAR BUSH]

for the best combustion you need to add the forced air. it is amazing the small amount of ash

RICH