hobby evaporators

[maplekid]

i was thinking that there is a lot of people just starting and some of them dont have evaporators to suit there needs and i was thinking that if i made small hobby evaporators that that could be my ticket to buying a profesional evaporator. what i maen is that some maple suppliers dont make any thing over 2 ft long and i was goin to make evaporators that only max out to 3 foot long. and minimize to only 2 ft long.i dont know how to size the front but i think i can get away with cutting the legnth of the evap inb half and go from there.
any suggestions will help.

[Pete33Vt]

It sounds like a good plan, but you have to realize how much work and money will be involved.Its fairly easy to throw together a small rig and try to sell it but (will it boil correctely), does hold enough sap volume to continue boiling, what I mean is can sap come in as fast as it boils. Then you have to look at the legal aspect is it the same as another companies, If it is you could be sued. Applying for your own patent cost major time and money.I am not trying to kill your dreams just giving you some things to think about. If I were you I would work on building the best rig you can for yourself. Boil with it. Note any problems or changes you need to make. Redo in the off season.Then boil with it again. Keep doing that till it operates correctly. Then look into other companies and see if they have anything the same. If not then try for a patent. I wish you luck. Most suagring equipment was built out of trial and error. Once all the bugs were worked out then they became equipment we all try to get.

[John Burton]

another thing to consider is the start up costs involved. I know in the past you indicated that you have quite a bit of fabricating equipment. how ever you would need to have quite a bit of materials on hand Ie flat stock sheetstock and stainless on hand and if you have priced any of that out lately its not all that cheap.mk I am not trying to curb your dreams just trying make you aware of some of the costs.now a good used evaporator only costs two to three thousand dollars. one good summer job and your set. if you are going to build you own you may have to sit on the copies you make for some time before you can sell them ... are you prepared to do that... unless you could pre sell what you are going to make and that would be hard to do given your age and experiance with out a product to demmo. Being self employed is great dont get me wrong,but when noone knows who you are or what you can do and being young it will be a long up hill battle alot of hard work and head scratching when my family started in buisness my wifes parents worked for 9 years before they even took a vacation and were almost 20 before the knew they were going to make it.. i guess what im saying is talk to different buisness people you know(doing similar work to yours) and see what they say good luck

[TapME]

MK, You should always have a business plan(no matter how small the undertaking)so that you can look at it and make any ajustments and see them. Ideas are a great start, puting them to paper makes the plan come to life, and cost a reality. Then you have a spot to strive to. Best of wishes

[brookledge]

didn't you already discuss this issue a few months ago?
Like eveyone else said there is alot to going into business. You can't copy other designs because they already have patents. Another thing is appearence and efficiency, If you build your own appearence doesn't really matter but if you are going to sell them than you want it to look good and hold up for along time. Are you prepared to offer any warranty or stand up to your product if something cracks or doesn't work as you said it will.
I think you should do as pete33 said build one for your self and after a few years it is still in good shape then maybe start marketing it.
You need to do R&D before you can sel a product.
Keith

[maplekid]

you do have a point brookeledge but i am going to fashion one that is diferent from the others. i havent heard of anyone making a 2ft evaporator. and most small produsers that are starting only have 5-10 taps and they want something to meet their needs. the promblem is that evaporator i will be build is far fetch to the eficient models of today. i dont know how to accomidate such a small flue pan so as far as that goes it will have 2-3 pans and connection valve to feed a specific amount of sap in to the pan. the method that this evaporator uses will make darker syrup depending on how much sap you have but if i can get a bussiness pratner than i could be set.

[royalmaple]

Something to consider also is if you are going after the guys with 5-10 taps or a bit more. You got to consider how much are these guys going to spend to boil sap for 1/2 pint production per season. Most people in that category will either get in and out in a week, or be crafty enough to make something out of found materials. There may be a very good reason why there aren't that small of evaporators on the market.

You may find that you can sell more pans of various sizes to people starting out. Then they can mess around with some sort of an arch, block or what ever on their own. Your not going to have as much to deliver or ship, and don't have to worry about engineering proper draft and firebox size for combustion. Sell them the pan and wish them good luck. I think you'd be better off starting out like that than full blown evaporator packages. Then you don't have to design float boxes etc.

People will definately buy just pans. And they can be pretty simple and work.

[802maple]

As someone that builds arches for customers, I can tell you that it costs nearly as much in labor to build a small arch compared to building a large arch. If I didn't have large arches to build I couldn't survive on small ones alone. I don't have the profit in a small one that percentage wise as I have in a large one. If I did I would never sell one. On a 2x6 I usually only make anywhere from 4 to 5 percent so you can see I don't like to sell many of them