oil tank evaporator arch cheap

[barnbc76]

This will be my 3rd season and I have been slightly obsessed. I know lots of people build these but its always nice to have another look at one when you are thinking of building one. It is fairly simple but you need a few things first. Sawsall, angle grinder, welder, angle iron bed frames work good (i had 2 sets), clamps, and a day or two.

My dad did a job for a guy who had this oil tank in his basement, be said we could have it if we could get it out. After having to remove 45gal of oil me and my brother got it out. We cut it along the seem all the way around with a sawsall. Then we burned off everything inside. Dimensions were 27"wide 5' feet long.

We then cut using a cut off wheel on a grinder and then welded 2" angle iron from a bed to make the top frame.

We cut the top part for the flu about 9 in from the end and then cut the other side off a few inches from the end to map a cap. We welded them together. Traced an opening for the stove pipe and cut it out with cut off tool.

We cut out the wall/ramp out of the remaining material using the end cap we just built as a template. Welded on scrap pieces on the inside for the ramp to rest on. I believe our ramp is 4in from the bottom of the pan leaving me some room to add insulation or fire brick.

Welded more angle iron for inside the firebox grate to set on, and cross support for the pan. My brother cut out an opening for what will be an ash tray pull out.

All the construction we did today between me my dad, brother and uncle. It took us about 7 hrs with lunch and setup and clean up. I did not consider that we could have done so much but it went really well. My dad did most of the welding but I tried my hand at it too (nothing pretty to look at) but that's how you get experience.

My plan is to use brick from our old chimney, install stove kit, make an ash tray pull out/blower and get some stove pipe.

We all went out for breakfast this morning and that was when my dad asked me what we were going to do, when I replied "umm well I got some ideas of of the guys in mapletrader forum but I really don't have a plan" my dad laughed and said "Well this is a good start." We didn't even know if we could get the welder, but fortunately my other uncle came through. We all had a great time and we're all invested in this can't wait to make some maple syrup. Total cost so far, $25 pizza, refill of my uncle's tank welder (not sure how much) 2 sawsall blades, 1 cut off wheel, $44 for the barrel stove door kit, and another $30 for stove pipe, $18 rope gasket. My pan is going to be 25"x37"x7in 18 ga stainless 304 2b mill finish, $143, but I have to work on that another day. Hoping to get 7-10 gal/hr with this and a pan for a preheater. Hope this is as helpful as everyone else is on here. I will post more pics when it is tested and run fir the first time.

[bmbmkr]

Thanks for the pics and details, I'm cuttin my tank today.

[barnbc76]

One thing we did differently is to have the preheater in the front, I see everyone else has theirs to the back, is this going to be worse? We have some copper tubing so I will wrap that around the stack and use that as a preheater too. I had an old oil furnace I took apart for the sheet metal (which I ended up not needing) and found it had an insulation with a foil like backing, does anyone know if I could use this? I thought about puting the bricks over it. Maybe I will try it first and see?

[barnbc76]

Good luck bmbmkr, hope it went well, post pics, I'm going to take my sheet metal to work and bend it up for my pan tomorrow. The new year is sure to be happy and sweet!

[barnbc76]

Well, I wasn't able to do anything else since I got the flu Sunday night, I suppose it's not that big of a deal I just can't wait to see it all finished.

[barnbc76]

The pan box break wasnt quite big enough to do all sides, ATTACH=CONFIG]14940[/ATTACH]

[NY mapler]

Looks great!! I'm building an oil tank evaporator too and I'm kinda in the same spot where I've been getting a lot of ideas from this forum, but still no real plan in place. Seeing your pictures has given me more ideas to get going with mine.

Are you going with a batch boil type pan?

[barnbc76]

Yeah, I debated a while weather to do continuous or batches, I think for this year we will see how it goes with batch then if I want I can change it next year. I finished bending the pan just waiting to give it to my welder now. Put the barrel stove door on, note to anyone about to do the stupid thing i did, dont cut out the hole for the door after you bolt it on, the sawsall created enough vibration that the cast iron hinge broke off. Uh yeah that was stupid got another one.

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[hansel]

This is going to be my first year. I hope I can get one of these 275 gal tanks. My plan is the first year to set it horizontally on some cinder blocks, cut 4 holes in flat top for 4 hotel pans and 2 holes under pans 1 and 3 in the the flat bottom and put firebrick rockets under them. Chimney at the end after pan 4. I will see how pans 2 and 4 go and see if they need rockets later. Line the inside with rock wool insulation. Now just need an oil tank. If I can't get one for real cheap, I'll probably make a couple individuals out of steel barrels. Doing 20 taps and probably will never expand since I only have 25 maples.

[barnbc76]

Steam trays are quite economical, I used roasting pans, 2 my first year, 3 my second on an open cinderblock arch it was effective but clean up is a pain i think. If you go that route you might still want to set it up for future growth. 25 trees can produce alot of sap, especially if they are backyard maples that often run 2x a normal tree. I actually did not think i would be building an evaporator this nice for another couple of years, then one appeared and the costs were right, and i had the help so i did it.

I have seen fuel tanks laid on their side, but i've not seen how well they do compared to upright. I imagine they must be less efficient because of the sq/ft you are heating is more spread out. You should easily be able to have 4 in a row with it upright, i have seen that. With all that said have fun with the project, stay within the budget and make some syrup. Grow slow and enjoy and read alot on these forums there is a wealth of information you will likely need.

[hansel]

Thanks for the tips. I don't have a welder or any experience welding, so it'd be easy for me to get a good tight seal around each pan horizontally on the the flat versus cutting curved top and figuring out how to reseal. And having a rocket chimney come 2 inches under the pans seems like it would be way more efficient than standard evaporators.

[barnbc76]

Got my pan back from my friend who welded it, looks great. Tested it out Saturday averaged about 6-7gal/hr without the second roasting pan. The wood i was using was also damp and wet, along with the fact that i did not put any rope gasket seal around the pan so lots of heat loss, short smoke stack 2' (i have 6' i still have to put on) no brick inside. Inspite of all that i think we did well. The front of the pan boiled hard, the back not much at all. I still have a couple things to iron out but thats all part of the fun. 1" depth of water=4 gal of sap pan is 25"x37".
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[mellondome]

Split your wood smaller. You want it no larger than your wrist

[Fyrguy5]

Hey barnbc76, I built one like this and was wondering if you had some pics of your burn grate. I need ideas. Cast iron is way too expensive. I know you said you used angle iron, but what size and thickness? and how did you arrange it? Sugar season is coming quick and I am stuck on this part.15167

[psparr]

Whatever thickness you decide on, you want it oriented like this
"V V V V V V"
The valleys will catch the ash and insulate the steel.

[barnbc76]

Sorry for the late reply fyrguy5, I used a bed frame and an old grate from a grill which i am sure wont last that long. I welded the peice of angle iron inside the firebox to set the other angle iron on it and grate. I also moved the entire thing to the location we are going to use it so i could level it all and put brick in it, there is about 1 1/2" clearence from the brick to the pan. I bought a heavy duty 800 lb capacity dolly $40 (tractor supply )and was going to use it for its tires but i just decided to wheel it around on the dolly instead. I am planning on rigging up a copper coil preheater 1/2" around the some stack, my dad gave it to me I think it is 10'. I plan on puting a shield around it. Will a 5 gal bucket be sufficient to supply my 2x3 with sap for the preheater? My other option would be a trash can maybe 32 gal and build a platform to hold it up. Total cost so far $287 for the pan and evaporator combined not including necessary cut off wheels and recipricating saw blades. Not bad i think.

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[Austin351]

did you run the arch all the way to the back of the tank or did you stop just under the stack? (Mine is pretty much identical to what you built but haven't fired it up yet.)

[barnbc76]

It goes all the way to the back, I will be using it for the first time this weekend. I have a preheater copper coil I rigged up.

[Austin351]

Thanks. Let me know how it goes.

[barnbc76]

¹st boil started out not great, but got much better. It was terribly windy, we got about 5gal/hr in the beginning, only 1/3 pan was boiling. Our copper coil would make cool water or lukwarm. Then after 1.5 hrs the wind died down and my brother finished the connections for my blower I found, immediately it boiled much faster, (the blower is no better than a small desk fan). I noticed the stack temp increase as well increasing our preheater temp to about 120, and soon I had to increase the flow to keep up with the evaporation rate. Also due to a mistake I made the roasting pan I was going to put in the front would not fit so I put a 4gal stock pot on instead. It boiled well once the blower are was added. Ended up boiling 32gal down to 4gal in about 4hrs, so about 7gal/hr is what we finished at inspite of not having the blower in the beginning, I think we could have easily averaged just over 8 if we used it from the start. Success in my book, will post pics soon.