Fabricating my steam hood

[mol1jb]

Hey all,

I spent a few hours bending up my steam hood on a trim break. I used 3 rolls of aluminum flashing 24” wide by 10’ long. These will sit on my 2x6 raised flue. It was really a simple process once I planned it all out. The trim break had a 14” throat so I had to bend starting in the center of each side and work out toward the edges. I will post the plans later so those looking to replicate it can. I will fasten everything with rivets and silicone the seams with food grade silicone.

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[mol1jb]

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So my pan top dimensions were 23x70" to cover both front and back pans with one hood. My flue pan is 7" taller than my syrup pan so it worked perfectly to make one straight hood. The overlap on the sides worked great to fine tune the front and back end cap fit. Let me know if you have any questions.

[mol1jb]

Here is the hood put all together. I still need to put in the delivider between the pans and the drip pan under the steam stack.

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Here it is test fit.

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[BAP]

Looks Great. Did you use regular aluminum flashing? or something thicker than standard?

[mol1jb]

Thanks. I used regular which is quite light. If someone were to bump it I feel it could slide off the pans so I think I will put some guides to keep it in position just incase.

[maple flats]

Looks real good, that is what I did for my first 2 hoods, on my 3rd I bought sheet aluminum. Do you have a gutter around the bottom to channel condensation out? I can't tell in the pictures. If you need one yet, what I used was 1x1x1 aluminum channel. I mitered the corners and used aluminum "soldering type rod" I bought at Tractor Supply. Then at one corner I left a 3-4" extension out that carried the water out. I ended up needing to "solder" a drop tube on to keep the dripping fron just running bach and down the outside of the pan.
If you try that the instructions that came with the rods were enough. Then I used a map gas bottle on my propane torch, the propane was not quite hot enough. Good luck.

[Haynes Forest Products]

Nice job well done. I have a very light hood that is the 2nd generation of the first. I did away with my drip channel because all it ever collected was dirt and bugs. Because the hood is so this and of a smaller profile it heats up and doesn't cause condensation to build up on it. My 3x10 hood can be hoisted up with a pulley system.
with the way its built and the thin material do you have plans for a frame to help support the steam stack?

[mol1jb]

Looks real good, that is what I did for my first 2 hoods, on my 3rd I bought sheet aluminum. Do you have a gutter around the bottom to channel condensation out? I can't tell in the pictures. If you need one yet, what I used was 1x1x1 aluminum channel. I mitered the corners and used aluminum "soldering type rod" I bought at Tractor Supply. Then at one corner I left a 3-4" extension out that carried the water out. I ended up needing to "solder" a drop tube on to keep the dripping fron just running bach and down the outside of the pan.
If you try that the instructions that came with the rods were enough. Then I used a map gas bottle on my propane torch, the propane was not quite hot enough. Good luck.

Hey Flats,

Thanks for the kind words. Yes it does have a gutter around the bottom. I still need to plumb some sort of bulkhead fitting to drain any condensation.

[mol1jb]

Nice job well done. I have a very light hood that is the 2nd generation of the first. I did away with my drip channel because all it ever collected was dirt and bugs. Because the hood is so this and of a smaller profile it heats up and doesn't cause condensation to build up on it. My 3x10 hood can be hoisted up with a pulley system.
with the way its built and the thin material do you have plans for a frame to help support the steam stack?

You are right in suggesting a stack support. The hood is quite light and with out support the stack would dent it almost certainly. I am thinking up some plans to have both stack and hood support that can be raised for pan access. Any ideas would be appreciated.

[maple flats]

My stack needs no support, but my hood is raised and lowered by just cranking on a boat type winch. I have 6 fasteners on my hood, one on each corner and the last 2 are at the front edge of the flue pan portion of the hood. Directly above that (I used a laser but a plumb bob would do as well) I placed 6 small pulleys, which turn the lift cables all towards more pulleys in line with the cable that pulls them. My hood then goes up and down easily. I also have designed mine with "telescoping" stacks (the 2 hood SS stacks are 15" each, and go up about 5'. Above that, from in the cupola I have suspended 2 aluminum stacks of 13" diameter, which hang down about a foot into the 15" ones going up. To raise, just crank. I get very little steam where the 13" goes into the 15", but what does heads straight up and vents out the cupola.

[Sugarmaker]

Very good job on the new hood! You will have a lot less steam in the sugar house this year!
Regards,
Chris

[mol1jb]

My stack needs no support, but my hood is raised and lowered by just cranking on a boat type winch. I have 6 fasteners on my hood, one on each corner and the last 2 are at the front edge of the flue pan portion of the hood. Directly above that (I used a laser but a plumb bob would do as well) I placed 6 small pulleys, which turn the lift cables all towards more pulleys in line with the cable that pulls them. My hood then goes up and down easily. I also have designed mine with "telescoping" stacks (the 2 hood SS stacks are 15" each, and go up about 5'. Above that, from in the cupola I have suspended 2 aluminum stacks of 13" diameter, which hang down about a foot into the 15" ones going up. To raise, just crank. I get very little steam where the 13" goes into the 15", but what does heads straight up and vents out the cupola.

Thanks for the info I was thinging of something similar.

On your old flashing hood, how did you pipe out condensation from the gutter? I am a bit stumped as this material is so thin it limits my options.

Thanks for the kind words Chris. Hopefully this will help others plan out their hoods.

[Haynes Forest Products]

Sounds like Maple Flats and I were on the same page as far as hood lifts. I have a massive Cupola so my stack slides straight up into it. I also used pulleys straight up from the corners. You might consider a skeleton of Aluminum angle around the outside corners that will allow screw eyes. Mine raises by small parachute cords run thru pulleys that around the rafters to a central point. I can pull it up one handed 5 ft and that makes power washing the flue pan out every few days.

[maple flats]

I made a hole and used a lead free brass bulkhead fitting, then added a piece of 3/8 vinyl tubing to that. The tubing was the braid reinforced type, but only because I had some already. Google bulkhead fittings, for your hood a 3/8 or 1/2" is big enough. The only issue with that is you can't get it at the very bottom of the gutter. It leaves a little depth in the gutter at all times. As long as the gutter is deep enough that will not be a problem, but if it is quite shallow it might. The larger the fitting the more width to the seal, so keeping it smaller helps.
On my later hood, where I used 1x1x1 aluminum channel (about 1/8" thick) because then I could make the drain extension essentially flush with the bottom.

[mol1jb]

I made a hole and used a lead free brass bulkhead fitting, then added a piece of 3/8 vinyl tubing to that. The tubing was the braid reinforced type, but only because I had some already. Google bulkhead fittings, for your hood a 3/8 or 1/2" is big enough. The only issue with that is you can't get it at the very bottom of the gutter. It leaves a little depth in the gutter at all times. As long as the gutter is deep enough that will not be a problem, but if it is quite shallow it might. The larger the fitting the more width to the seal, so keeping it smaller helps.
On my later hood, where I used 1x1x1 aluminum channel (about 1/8" thick) because then I could make the drain extension essentially flush with the bottom.

Thanks for the tip Flats.

If I were to put my gutter drain outlet right on the edge of the syrup pan where it could be installed on the bottom of the gutter and look like below do you think that would work well in terms of location? I would like to install it on the bottom side of the gutter and I can only do that somewhere over the syrup portion of the pan but I don't want the drain to get in the way of other things. Let me know what you think.

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[Waynehere]

I know this might be a little off topic, but does anyone have ideas for a light inside the syrup hood? 1st year for mine that we just added and I noticed during our test boil how dark it was in the pan. Finding something that is heat and moisture proof seems a bit difficult.

[mol1jb]

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Another option I have been thinking about is drilling a 1/2 inch hole in the back corner of the gutter and running an extension gutter to take water out and drip into a bucket. I would attach said gutter with rivets and food grade silicone. This way I could have the drain at the bottom of the drip gutter for very little standing water. Thoughts?

[mol1jb]

I know this might be a little off topic, but does anyone have ideas for a light inside the syrup hood? 1st year for mine that we just added and I noticed during our test boil how dark it was in the pan. Finding something that is heat and moisture proof seems a bit difficult.

LED would probably be your best bet. Most kitchen grade LED are moisture resistant but not sure about heat resistant.

[Haynes Forest Products]

Get a shop light and remove the lens and cut a square hole smaller than the lens cove. The attach the lights on the outside and and the lens on the inside. You might want to put weather stripping on both sides because the original one wont really work for this application.

[Waynehere]

LED would probably be your best bet. Most kitchen grade LED are moisture resistant but not sure about heat resistant.

Yeah, looked at them but couldn't find much that was heat resistant much above 120 or so.

[Waynehere]

Get a shop light and remove the lens and cut a square hole smaller than the lens cove. The attach the lights on the outside and and the lens on the inside. You might want to put weather stripping on both sides because the original one wont really work for this application.

That sounds like a good idea...