Pole Barn Boiling-Homemade Barrel Unit

[johnpma]

Hi All,

My barrel built unit is performing very well. Time to move her inside :)

I have a 40 X 60 1/2 lofted pole barn. The back corner entrance has an area that is 10' x 12' and is all 3/4" crushed stone over dirt. I want to move my barrel unit inside to do my boils. Was thinking I could run my stack thru the side wall and up above the roof line. The head room above the barrel unit to the loft would be about 10 feet.

What kind of chimney set up is best suited for this application?

With safety in mind what is the best way to "fire proof" the walls and loft rafters? What concerns should I have? My goal is to continue to add taps eventually get a larger evaporator. Right now the space is dead space holding bikes, atv tires, and any other junk the teens drop there so I figure why not put it to use.

[Sugarmaker]

Double or triple wall straight up would be the best if you could do it! You wont regret it. Plan for where the new evaporator is going to go so you only have one hole in the roof.
Regards,
Chris

[johnpma]

Double or triple wall straight up would be the best if you could do it! You wont regret it. Plan for where the new evaporator is going to go so you only have one hole in the roof.
Regards,
Chris I would have to go thru the floor and run the pipe thru the loft are which is mainly storage. I'm thinking that I could go up about 6 feet vertical out the side wall and go another 6 feet vertical which would put me about 3 feet above the roof line

What should I use on the wall behind the stove? Metal?

[Bernie/MA]

The oldtimers used to call it a sugar "shack" not built too fancy because they often burned down. I wouldn't put my rig in an expensive barn.

[Sinzibuckwud]

I would have to go thru the floor and run the pipe thru the loft are which is mainly storage. I'm thinking that I could go up about 6 feet vertical out the side wall and go another 6 feet vertical which would put me about 3 feet above the roof line

What should I use on the wall behind the stove? Metal?
how close will it be to the wall?
metal is ok for a shack, If I was going into that pole barn I would use brick or stone if it was close to the wall (under 2 ft) and at least double wall pipe all the way up above the roof line
rafters...I would screw corrugated metal roof to them and make sure whatever was sitting overhead was not flammable.

[wbreitbarth]

I would highly recommend going straight up and out if you can. It will draft a lot better and just use class A chimney. It will be more expensive to use class A but it should pass with your insurance company, and it only has to be 1 inch away from anything flammable. You should not have to worry about putting anything on the walls then, but if your still worried about it I have used the cement backer board "used for putting up tile" from any big box store would work. Its really cheap and will never burn or melt, and will protect any wood it is attached to.

[johnpma]

Thanks guys for the responses and concerns...her is a pic of the "junk space" I would like to transform just to give you and idea...... you can see the stone base, the loft above and the walls which are my concern...... just want a darn good method of fire proofing the area the best i can

[Woody77]

I built my sugar bush under the loft in dads 40×80 pole barn .the sugar bush is 10'wide ×24 long with a 7'6" ceiling hight.we just spent 20 days boiling in my 2×5 barrel stove evaporator the barn is still there.oh ya I had chimney stack temps over 1300º one night. Just use commen sence and you'll be fine .seriously though go straight up use a good roof boot with a 1-2" gap between pipe & flamables and if your still concerned pack the space with hi temp mineral wool from the local box store. As far as the walls steel is a great choice its cheep and easy to clean.and will take a tun of heat.

[johnpma]

I built my sugar bush under the loft in dads 40×80 pole barn .the sugar bush is 10'wide ×24 long with a 7'6" ceiling hight.we just spent 20 days boiling in my 2×5 barrel stove evaporator the barn is still there.oh ya I had chimney stack temps over 1300º one night. Just use commen sence and you'll be fine .seriously though go straight up use a good roof boot with a 1-2" gap between pipe & flamables and if your still concerned pack the space with hi temp mineral wool from the local box store. As far as the walls steel is a great choice its cheep and easy to clean.and will take a tun of heat. Thanks for your input Woody......any pictures you can share of how you are set up? Did some measuring this weekend. Think I can make it work for next year nicely. Are you running black pipe into double wall pipe?

[johnpma]

This was on the side of the road for free not sure what it is or how good it is but I grabbed it Thinkin I can use it in my barn when I move inside next winter?? Price was right :) it's 10' of pipe a "T" a wall thimble and a cap.....anyone?

[maple flats]

Is there insulation between the inner and outer? In the picture it just looks like double wall, with no insulation. If that's the case, you have gas vent pipe, not suitable for a wood fire. You need a far better chimney. Gas vent pipe would be a fire for sure on an evaporator, you would burn the barn down!

You can make a safe stack yourself. On my old pans I had 12" pipe that started 6' up, at the top of the tapered base stack. The 12" went thru the steel roofing. For the stack between the start of the 12" up to the roof, I made it triple wall. The 12" was 22 ga. galv. pipe, I used lighter ga. for a 14" and a 16" that surrounded it, each was spaced on non combustible spacers to hold the 1", I had 4 rows of spacers that I made out of galv. 22 gal and they were pop riveted to stay in place, each was 15/16" tall. Then I slid the 14" on and doing the same again I slid the 16" on.
Each layer of non combustible spaced 1" cuts the clearance needed in half. For an evaporator on single wall pipe you need 4' clearance, first layer cuts that to 2', second layer cuts it to 1'. Then I covered the sides of the trusses with tin, spaced 1" too, this reduced the requirement to 6" and I had 7". The fire dept had to inspect it, and they liked what I had done.
On my new pans, I replaced that galv stack with SS and I made a neater set up. I made a sleeve to cover the stack out of SS, wrapped 2" ceramic blanket around the stack, then put the SS outer shell on The ceramic blanket was rated for 2300 degrees, basically the outer shell is for physical protection, but it also adds another barrier.
You can either do something similar, buy class A chimney or watch your barn burn.

[johnpma]

Is there insulation between the inner and outer? In the picture it just looks like double wall, with no insulation. If that's the case, you have gas vent pipe, not suitable for a wood fire. You need a far better chimney. Gas vent pipe would be a fire for sure on an evaporator, you would burn the barn down!

You can make a safe stack yourself. On my old pans I had 12" pipe that started 6' up, at the top of the tapered base stack. The 12" went thru the steel roofing. For the stack between the start of the 12" up to the roof, I made it triple wall. The 12" was 22 ga. galv. pipe, I used lighter ga. for a 14" and a 16" that surrounded it, each was spaced on non combustible spacers to hold the 1", I had 4 rows of spacers that I made out of galv. 22 gal and they were pop riveted to stay in place, each was 15/16" tall. Then I slid the 14" on and doing the same again I slid the 16" on.
Each layer of non combustible spaced 1" cuts the clearance needed in half. For an evaporator on single wall pipe you need 4' clearance, first layer cuts that to 2', second layer cuts it to 1'. Then I covered the sides of the trusses with tin, spaced 1" too, this reduced the requirement to 6" and I had 7". The fire dept had to inspect it, and they liked what I had done.
On my new pans, I replaced that galv stack with SS and I made a neater set up. I made a sleeve to cover the stack out of SS, wrapped 2" ceramic blanket around the stack, then put the SS outer shell on The ceramic blanket was rated for 2300 degrees, basically the outer shell is for physical protection, but it also adds another barrier.
You can either do something similar, buy class A chimney or watch your barn burn. Thanks for your comments, and concerns. Here is what I found online:

AirJet 2100°F All-Fuel Chimney
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[johnpma]

After looking closely tonight it's actually 3 wall pipe not 2 but still am unsure as the walls do not have insulation they are just spaced apart with metal webbing