Building a hood. Question

[Johnjenner]

Ok folks. I am making progress. Got my 2x6 wse bricked on Thursday. Had to take a day off from the maple shack setup today to butcher turkeys ( would have much rather been working on the evaporator). Job tomorrow is to start the hood. Wondering opinions on whether to put the hood directly against the flue Pan and elevate the hood over the finishing Pan or to elevate the hood over the flue Pan and finishing pan. Was going to put slider doors on both sides od the hood over the flue. Also wondering if you recommend putting lights inside the hood over the flue Pan. Again, Thanks so much for any advise. I will try to post some pics of my progress shortly

[Super Sapper]

I would go tight to the flue pan especially if you add a preheater. Waterproof lights in the hood are never a bad thing, there are some threads on here if you search to give you ideas.

[maple flats]

I agree, tight on the flue pan and elevated over the syrup pan. 14-16" height over the syrup pan works well. Build the hood with a gutter on the bottom inside of both and make a drain so condensation does not fall back in and need to be evaporated again, and again. Also, build a shallow funnel shape under the steam stack(s) to catch that condensation and channel it to the gutters too. If you don't do those you lose a significant portion of your gain with a hood except to make and utilize a pre-heater at some time in the future. For the stack funnel(s) it(they) only need to be 2-3" top to bottom and need a drain on the bottom, to carry that condensate to the gutter and eventually to a catch bucket to give you some hot water.
When I made my original homemade hood I used 1x1x1 aluminum channel for the gutter. I aluminum (welded) the miters at the corners and then welded a drain spout. To "weld" aluminum I bought some aluminum rod at TSC (Tractor Supply Co), ( It's been a long time but I think it might have been called Alum-A-Weld) cleaned the surface to be welded using a SS brush and then used a map gas torch, somewhat like soldering. I later had to do the same at the end of the drain spout downward because the drips or small stream often followed the spout on the underside back to the attachment point for the drain spout and ran down the outside of the evaporator. A simple 2" down piece made the condensate all fall into a 5 gal bucket I had under it on the floor.

[Johnjenner]

Awesome info guys. Next I am building a preheater so I will drop the back pan

[Haynes Forest Products]

Tight on the flue pan and open on the finish pan. Part of the pleasure of making syrup is watching the syrup cook in the finish pan. Your hood does not have to be some big monstrosity that you can park your ATV in. One 4x8 sheet of Aluminum will be plenty Take the time to make it easy to remove and replace so cleaning is not some laborious chore getting everything disconnected and moved out of the way.