Not Good!!!

[jason loper]

I burnt my pan last night on my 3x10 Small Bros evap and the pan is in verybad shape and won't make light syrup again i'm sure. we are working on it right now still trying to get it clean so it can be fixed. I bought this evap for this season and the size seems to fit us well and I would like to have a new syrup pan made any contacts or suggestions. I almost forgot I'm sitting on 800 gallons of sap and its still running here it doesnt get much worse than this.

Thanks
Jason

[mapleman3]

Jason hopefully you can get it flat enough and somewhat cleaner and get some boiling in... Good luck to you... !

[powerdub]

I feel for you brother, I did the same thing last year. I was lucky though, Bascom's had one in stock. If it isn't leaking I would say use it until you can get a new one like mapleman said.

[Dave Y]

Jason
What did you do go to lunch or fall asleep. Sorry to here about your pan. Hope you get is sraightened out so you can boil. Its not the end of the world if you don't make light syrup. Most people want dark anyways. Good luck!

[pennslytucky]

we had one bead blasted a few years ago. it did a beautiful job. you might have that done to clean it up.

[3% Solution]

Hi Jason,
That really stinks, sucks actually!
Like Dave said "Making light syrup isn't the only thing in the world", but I'm sure you have pride in that, I would.
Hey, make some medium and dark, if it tastes good, it's ok!
Work it out and keep going, have a couple of beers and move on.
Good luck!

Dave

[HanginAround]

Sorry for your luck Jason, must have really bummed you out, I know it bothers me just hearing about it.

Like the others said, do what you can and move on, it'll probably come good enough to use.

[ibby458]

Been there, Done that.

All I can offer for comfort is the fact that most things can be fixed, and having a gushing sap run is good inspiration.

Wire brush it, bead blast it, etc. - get it clean, pound out as many warps as you can and get out the solder. With perseverence, it can be fixed!

[Fred Henderson]

Just keep plugging away that all any of us can do.

[jason loper]

thanks for the support i'm going crazy trying to store all the sap until the pan gets fixed today. The guy had us sand blast the pan to get it clean and ready to solder. he said it will be fixed for tonight and i have about 1200 gallons as of this morning and it looks like it will run good all day. we will boil all night and day to get caught up and I look forward to every minute of it after this mess. Dave as far as falling asleep no I went to get sap which takes me about 10-15 min and when i pulled back in they where throwing snow in the fire box. My brother-in-law was running the pan and it foamed up and he tryed getting more sap in the front pan instead of defoaming and it was all down hill from there. does anyone have a defoaming setup so that if the pan foams over a certain height it will hit the defoamer?

Jason

[H. Walker]

If you know a good metal works man he may be able to take any dimples/puckers out. I know a old body man that used a technique of heating the deformed spot up and then cooling indent side down quickly with a wet rag. The theory is the metal will draw to the colder suface. You should be able to reverse what happened when the pan was burnt. I haven't tried the technique myself but would like to someday, hopefuly not on one of my own pans.

Good Luck!!

[Dave Y]

Jason,
They Make a defomer cup you should be able to get one from your maple dealer. It has a bendable handle on it. You can adjust it to what ever heigth you want. I have one in my Back Pan.

When there is sap to be collected I send my help to collect and I boil. That way if anything goes wrong it is my fault. If they need help I shut down.
Way too much is investested in the evaporator!

[jason loper]

you have better help than i do the last time we boiled before this happened they backed in with the sap and hit somebody's truck bumper to bumper with mine and dented them both. it's all part of it. I am going to go back to finishing in on a propane setup it keeps the foam ups down. I may not be getting enough defoamer in the back pan I am putting 5 drops everytime I fire on a 3x10 which for me is 5-6 min?

[Fred Henderson]

If you know a good metal works man he may be able to take any dimples/puckers out. I know a old body man that used a technique of heating the deformed spot up and then cooling indent side down quickly with a wet rag. The theory is the metal will draw to the colder suface. You should be able to reverse what happened when the pan was burnt. I haven't tried the technique myself but would like to someday, hopefuly not on one of my own pans.

Good Luck!!

I have shrunk metal that way doing body work. Just heat it up red hot then hit it with a cold wet rag.

[Dave Y]

Jason,
That sounds like plenty of defoamer to me. I think you better start paying your help that way you can deduct the damages from their pay!!

[pennslytucky]

we just use a bit of margerine on a toothpick to kill the foam.... i never knew there was such a thing as liquid de-foamer. if you get a foam up, just swipe a dab of marg across the bubbles. drops em like a rock

[brookledge]

The oldtimers use to use a piece of salt pork hung on a piece of string or wire. When the sap boils up and touched the salt pork it would drop back down.
One problem though is that it is not kosher if that is an issue.
Keith

[Fred Henderson]

A old guy that I knew use to use heavy cream, From his own farm.

[SapSuckers]

I have heard of old times rubbing butter on the side of the pan. When the foam hit it it will back down. We use whole milk in a spray bottle as our defoamer.

[jason loper]

Good news we got the pan back at 3:00 and were boiling by 4:00 and made 20 gallons before i shut it down last night and everything went great. but now because i'm new to this and it's a different evap this new i found something new. Like what was said in another post about to much draft i got it running and sounding like a freight train last night. The sap was jumping out of the pan and it ate the sap up but the stack was turning cherry red. I don't have a dimmer switch on my blower only three speeds and at the lowest this was still happening. should i put a dimmer and run it to just under cherry red i'm not sure but man that thing ran great last night.

Jason

[Mike]

This is a question for Mason or any one else that welds....Is it possible to have the bottom of the pan cut off and have a new one welded on?????? Any thoughts on this????

[jason loper]

yes the guy that fixed it said he could reline the bottom if i wanted to for next year.

[digman_41]

sorry about your pan...I know it must stink when you have all that sap and no pan. On the foaming issue I put 2-3 drops of liquid defoamer in my float box and 2-3 drops in my syrup drawoff channel and one over...a rep from the Leader evaporator company advised me to use the defoamer that way. I tried it and my foaming problems were over! I put it in every time I fire.
We're done here I'd boil for you if you were in my area!
Good Luck seems like things always work out, Mark

[3% Solution]

All right Jason, like I said just keep moving forward. Put the head down and work it out!!
Cherry red you say, don't let too much heat go up the chimney.
Crank it back a bit.
Anyway, glad to see you back up, HAPPY and boiling.
How's your syrup grade? You was troubled about that, hopefully your right back the way it was!!!!!
Keep boiling.

Dave