My evaporator

[Michelino]

This spring I will be attempting to boil my first batches of sap. I put together a very small evaporator that started as a 55 gallon drum. The top third of the barrel was cut off and I flipped it over and cut a hole in the bottom (now the top) for my kettle. I used the cutoff to make a collar for the stovepipe and a door for the firebox. The stack exits out the back of the barrel about an inch from the top and the fire door is located about three inches or so from the open bottom. I had the local welding shop cut a circular grate out of 1/4" expanded metal (my only expense so far) The barrel rests on bricks as does the grate, the ash falls on the concrete. I stuck a 24" stovepipe on the elbow so I could test fire it. The cast iron kettle was set in the hole on top and I filled it with about 2 gallons of water. It took about 20 minutes to reach a rolling boil and my evaporation rate was about 2/GPH. I'm OK with that since I plan to use only about 10 taps. This is more or less an experiment to learn the process, I have little or no money invested but the initial burn was not without problems. I could get the kettle to a very hard boil but the water kept foaming up and boiling over, as soon as I trickled in more water the foaming stopped. My "test water" has a lot of iron and magnesium content so I was thinking that may be the root cause of the boil over. My boil test was conducted outside but the evaporator will be housed in a shed when its ready. The other thing I observed was the firebox did not need a lot of wood to keep the boil, my main concern is figuring out how to control the boil.
14903

[johnpma]

I would consider a deeper pan so that the hard boil has something to encapsulate it

Water is a good test but sap will boil differently You can add a couple drops of vegetable oil to you sap to stop the boil over or even coat the edge of the pan with butter

[Michelino]

I thought briefly that my "kettle"might be too shallow, I found some stainless steel "Jam Pans" for a decent price. they're about twice as deep and will sit closer to the flame. Not too expensive. Is there another alternative to using water for a test boil or am I close?

[barnbc76]

This is a fun setup as it is so cheap and fairly efficient for what it is. I made a similar one but mine was made from a galvinized trash can. I bought a 4 gal stock pot for mine $12 walmart.

[barnbc76]

My neighbor is the one who got me into maple syrup, he had the exact setup and about the same # of taps, he used a 5 gal or bigger pot. I don't think there is any better alternative to boiling sap than just water. I use butter to coat the edges of the pan when it starts to foam. A little goes a long way.

[Michelino]

I found an 18/8 stainless bowl with a 30qt. capacity, about 30 bucks. I would have to put some handles on it but thats not a big deal. My opening in the barrel would allow about half the bowl to sit in the firebox. I fired up the barrel this week to burn off the rest of the paint, not only did the paint come off, so did the keeper on the fire door. I couldn't even find it, it just melted away into the ash. While I was cleaning out the shed that will become the sugar shack I found a piece of angle iron with a rod welded to it at about a 45 degree angle, it rests against the door nicely and its heavy enough to make a tight seal. I guess you could say if it IS broke , don't fix it. Not sure when I can play with this stuff again, right now I'm getting ready to install a 25 foot carrier beam in my farmhouse resto.

[Agent914]

Nice barrel set-up it will be stable and you might be able to get a pre-warm tray on top.

If you decide to expand a little here is a like to may last barrel 2 pan set-up... it was good for about 20-25 taps. below is the link and if you follow it back to the early stages you will see a pdf of the design.
http://mapletrader.com/community/showthread.php?18368-Barrel-Evaporator-Designed-under-100&highlight=AGENT914

[Michelino]

At this point I'm not considering expansion, my goal is to get started and learn. I do have the capability to expand and I'm sitting on a nice sugarbush, without exaggerating I could probably run 100 taps but I would be easily overwhelmed. If I can get my kettle boil working and produce some syrup I would be a happy camper. My "shack" is about 10x15 and I do have a very nice oil tank just sitting out in the field. My biggest disappointment is not knowing how to weld, so maybe if my boil is a success I may divert and learn to weld during the summer. Meanwhile I'm taking in as much info as I can, It is amazing to me just how many different set ups folks use to get to syrup.

[Agent914]

Your set-up will make Maple syrup this year....but during the boiling down process you will have time to think about improving your process into what works for you and how to improve it. Therefore I tweak the process a little every year.

Syruping is still a hobby and not a chore that way I still only do it for fun knowing that I will give away most of it to family and friends..... so enjoy!

[psparr]

Welding is easy, it's the buying the welded thing that's hard.

[Michelino]

My thoughts as well. I would like to make enough to supply family and friends, during the test fire of my evaporator I made some classic mistakes, however I did have enough foresight to take some notes on the fire. My 13 qt dutch oven was available and free but I think I'm going with a 30qt stainless bowl (kettle)Thirty some dollars from Amazon, I threw in some stainless spiles to make the free shipping.
Your set-up will make Maple syrup this year....but during the boiling down process you will have time to think about improving your process into what works for you and how to improve it. Therefore I tweak the process a little every year.

Syruping is still a hobby and not a chore that way I still only do it for fun knowing that I will give away most of it to family and friends..... so enjoy!

[Michelino]

During the process of my farmhouse resto I had to make up a stained glass window, once I purchased the right equipment for the task it was fairly straightforward to run a nice bead along the foiling tape, so yes, I think I can get the technique and as you say, the hard part is buying the welder. With so much to do on my farmhouse resto It's difficult to justify the purchase, however out here we have Tractor Supply, Rural King, Harbor Freight and Menards, when the time comes I should be able to find a welder to do the job.
Welding is easy, it's the buying the welded thing that's hard.

[Michelino]

My 30 quart stainless steel bowl (kettle) arrived this afternoon and the first thing I noticed is the size. This thing is huge!!! I will have to enlarge the opening in my evaporator by several inches to settle this thing down. I purchased some furnace rope for the seal and when all is said and done I should have 90% of the kettle in the firebox which equates to being about 3 inches closer to the heat. Tomorrow I will be heading over to the sugar shack to make the adjustments and do some cleanup of gosh knows how many years of accumulated junk. I have my spiles arriving tomorrow as well, this week I gathered some 5 gallon water jugs for sap collection and I also have some free firewood to add to the pile.

[Michelino]

I made it out to my sugar shack this morning and cleaned up years and years of "stuff", a lot of scrap metal, some gardening stuff and just general trash. It's all gone and the place looks much better. My new stainless steel kettle arrived yesterday and so I thought I would make the modifications to fit it. It took me two tries and the dry fit was darned near perfect, after that I broke out the furnace cement and rope gasket and set them in place. I placed the kettle on the gasket and filled it with about 3 gallons of water to help the new gasket set. The kettle is now about 3 inches closer to the heat source and I'm thinking it's an improvement over my 13qt cast iron kettle.
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[barnbc76]

Michelino, do you have something to brace the pot so the weight isnt all on the metal lip it is resting on. It will slowly wear down and if it does you don't want your precious SAP falling into the fire. I've almost had that problem, I put a small rod long enough to go through both sides so the pot rests on it.

[Michelino]

I do not, The pan sits above the top of the barrel, there is about 11/2 inches of steel and some furnace rope around the opening. I was concerned that it could be a problem but the fit and seal are much better that my cast iron kettle. If I put a rod through the stove to secure the bottom what would prevent the rod from deflecting in the heat?
15133
As of this afternoon this is what I have. It took 11 minutes for the kettle to reach a rolling boil with 3 gallons of water. I just fired it up to help the gasket seat better. The fire was very hot and I did not notice any deflection so far.
Tomorrow I will probably fire it up again and see if I can figure out my evaporation rate.

[Agent914]

Nice work.

You may want to invest in a good pair of leather gloves and put some handles on your pan so it is easier to handle the hot syrup when transfer/filter into a finishing pan.

Also you may want to consider using purchasing pan that can be dropped in when your remove the 1st pan or even a steel lid or plate to stop the fire gasses from entering the room when the 1st pan is removed.

[psparr]

With a good fire the rod won't last long.

[Michelino]

I'm going to be using some BBQ grill handles for the pan. I am also considering making a pattern for a pour spout to be welded on which might be overkill. When I first cut the hole for my 13qt dutch oven the lid and my griddle covered perfectly, now I'm going with some 24"x24" x1/4" steel sheet to cover, also with a pair of handles. The leather gloves are always close by.
In case anyone was wondering, the electrical outlet hanging by the stovepipe is dead and has since been removed, I'm wiring in 2 GFCI and some LED shop lights. The shack does not have power but the barn across the driveway does.

[BSD]

a 3/4" or 1" solid Stainless steel rod (or two ideally) would take a good amount of heat before deformation. especially if you keep it away from the center of the barrel. I would want a brace under that kettle, if it goes in, it's going to flash a lot of steam and be pretty dangerous IMO.

Last year I used a filing cabinet with only brick on the bottom and pans up on top. some fit firmly across top and were fine, the two smaller ones almost fell into the fire so i used some 3/4" steel conduit and that fire was hitting over 1200 degrees when i put the blower on it. the pipes held up. Stainless would be better, but i didn't have any at the time when it became obvious that the pans were in danger of falling in.
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[barnbc76]

In my version of this evaporator it never got that hot due to a small fire box and it was my secondary evaporator, i used a rod maybe a 1/4" or a little bigger in diamiter, holding up my 4 gal pot it has lasted 2 seasons and now is starting to bend.