Deereman76
02-17-2016, 06:59 AM
I got to try out my homemade Natural gas boiler last night. It worked better than I could have hoped for....
My Flat pan is an Army surplus Fuel tank, Brand new, in that it has never had fuel in it, and was still in the shipping crate when I got it. Stainless Steel, and Measured 68" by 32" by 7" tall. We cut out the top, cut and ground out all of the baffles, and installed a drain port in a corner. It had a 1/4 NPT drain, so we installed a thermometer there....
The Arch is custom built for the pan's odd size, it consists of a mild steel frame, with 1 foot tall sheeting vertically below the pan, to keep any wind off of the burners. we then lined it with cement board as an attempt at insulation, to keep the sides from getting too hot.
The burners are 2 1" pieces of black pipe, with slots cut 1/2 way through every 6", for a total of 11 slots in each burner. then we put the gas in through a piece of 3/8 stainless steel tubing, centered in the 1" burner pipe, so it can draw air around the pipe, and mix the gas with air before it come out of the burner. we have a shutter to throttle the air, though we ended up running them wide open..
13095
We did a really quick test boil last night, and estimated that it boiled about 25 GPH, on a pan with 13 SQ Ft surface area.
Now I cannot wait until this weekend to try making some syrup!
My Flat pan is an Army surplus Fuel tank, Brand new, in that it has never had fuel in it, and was still in the shipping crate when I got it. Stainless Steel, and Measured 68" by 32" by 7" tall. We cut out the top, cut and ground out all of the baffles, and installed a drain port in a corner. It had a 1/4 NPT drain, so we installed a thermometer there....
The Arch is custom built for the pan's odd size, it consists of a mild steel frame, with 1 foot tall sheeting vertically below the pan, to keep any wind off of the burners. we then lined it with cement board as an attempt at insulation, to keep the sides from getting too hot.
The burners are 2 1" pieces of black pipe, with slots cut 1/2 way through every 6", for a total of 11 slots in each burner. then we put the gas in through a piece of 3/8 stainless steel tubing, centered in the 1" burner pipe, so it can draw air around the pipe, and mix the gas with air before it come out of the burner. we have a shutter to throttle the air, though we ended up running them wide open..
13095
We did a really quick test boil last night, and estimated that it boiled about 25 GPH, on a pan with 13 SQ Ft surface area.
Now I cannot wait until this weekend to try making some syrup!