Help with a hood

[Milbags]

So I built a homemade arch this week. And I have a 5 ft by 2 ft pan . I want to add a hood to the setup. Now I have some question If I just make a box over my pans with no chimney would it be beneficial at all .. and have like say a Chanel to capture evaporator water .

[Bucket Head]

Milbags,

I don't see how a box with no chimney would do anything for you. Your trying to capture and direct steam up and/or out, right? And every hood I've seen, factory or home made, had a drip rail/channel around the perimeter to catch the condensate. There will always be water forming on any hood and gravity will have it all over you and the floor, or back into the pan- which is worse than having it on you and the floor.

Steve

[Chickenman]

I believe it's hodorskib that built one and shows it on his website.
https://sites.google.com/view/mattatuckmadnessmaplesyrup/outdoor-steam-hood

[maple flats]

I guess if you boil outdoors one like hodorskib's is fine, but for inside a sugar house of any type you want a steam stack. When you do that, make sure you either put a catch tray or oversized funnel under the stack to catch and drain condensate to the gutter and then out of the hood. If you don't you will be putting a large portion of the condensate right back into the pan to boil again and again...

[maple flats]

With out a steam stack the steam would find an escape but it would likely be near the bottom of the hood unless your seams leak. At any rate the steam would be a problem.

[Milbags]

Ok I think I got it. I’ll do a chimney out of the hood I guess . What size of pipe is everyone using to have as chimney. And how would u do a drip rail in the inside of the hood. Just put a gutter on the inside near the bottom and slightly drain to the front ..??

[maple flats]

It can be perfectly level, then make an outlet to drain off. On my first 3 homemade hoods I just used 1x1x1 aluminum channel and pop riveted it on the bottom. On the corners I mitered them and then used aluminum rod to "weld" them using a mapp gas torch. That is available at TSC and likely others. If I was doing it again I'd get 1.5 x 1.5 x 1.5 aluminum channel for more capacity in the channel. When I pop riveted it I drilled thru the top edge of the channel, about 1/4" from the top and with the side of the hood fully down in the channel I drilled thru the hood, then put an aluminum rivet in. I had a rivet about every foot. You might also be able to make your own gutter too if you want. High temp silicone would seal the seams too.

[In da bush]

I made a "quick and dirty" hood out of a SS dryer drum cut in half that sits in a SS gutter,it’ll have a preheater in it and should be a lot better than a preheater feed pan.195001950019501

[maple flats]

In da, am I missing something, I see no steam vent?

[In da bush]

It’s outside and I was going to cap the front off and let the steam roll out the back,gutters installed