Make a steam pan for a round filter/canner?

[jdircksen]

How would I go about making a steam pan for a round filter/canner? I've been staring at the complete steam bottler system from Badgerland (https://badgerlandmapleworks.com/shop/badgerland-complete-steam-bottler-system/) but I really want to have vacuum.

I want it all! Let's say I get the CDL 9" vacuum filter, how could I make sure my stove doesn't create niter?
There are 9" cake pans (Measures 9” inside top, 8” inside bottom, 1.5” tall/deep). It might fit inside, but I'm concerned the top heavy filter/canner will tip over. I'm guessing that's why the steam bottlers are square.

It seems easier to modify the 16"x16" steam bottler system to add vacuum. Get a 15"x15" bottomless pan made to sit on top of the filter tray. Find some fancy clamps like CDL's version to hold the top pan in place. Add a bulkhead for the vacuum hose.

Any ideas?

20378

20377

[bmbmkr]

I'm sure you can find the right size pan to fit under it. It doesn't take much. I made a double boiler canner out of a 20 qt stock pot and a 12 qt stock pot, I used a 4" long stainless nipple that I got from a brewing supply store, punched holes in both pots. The inner pot hole is as close to the bottom as I could get the nut to turn, the outer stock pot hole is about 1 1/2" from the bottom. I put 3 1" copper caps under the inner pot to keep it off the bottom. I drilled holes in these so it wouldn't steam up and blow. I put nuts and gaskets on the inside and outside of each stock pot on the 4" nipple. it was a pain to get them tight in the small space between the walls, but I finally got em to stop leaking. I used a 1/2" Stainless ball valve- not the best for bottling, but I've used it for 3 years. The draw back to my system is when I fill the boiler half full of water and the syrup gets low, the inner pot starts to float. I need to put a bolt through the back at the top to hold it down, and also put a drain on the boiler pot to empty it. I just turn it upside down.

The stock pots I got were in a 4 piece set, 20, 16, 12 and 8. I took the 16 qt lid, traced the bottom of the 8 qt and cut it out. The 8 qt pot sits about 1 inch into the lid, I cut the bottom out of the 8 qt, I put my cone filters in the top. I got some 1/8" stainless rods and bent them like a "W" . They hang inside the 8qt pot under the cone, so the bottom of the cone is pushed up in the middle. The cone filter fort of looks like a sailor hat. Someone on here is selling them, it increases the filter surface and really works good as far as cone filtering goes. I have about $50 in my double boiler and filter pot.

Good luck!

[DrTimPerkins]

For anyone who does make their own vacuum filter out of stock cookware, be sure that you incorporate some sort of relief valve or that you regulate the vacuum in some way so you can not pull too much vacuum and implode the cannister...especially when it is full of hot syrup. The CDL vacuum filter unit is very heavy walled...much thicker than a regular pot. A round pot is much more resistant to that than a rectangular unit of the same wall thickness.

I was close to a very small vacuum chamber (for infiltrating/fixing plant tissues for microscopy) that imploded. It is not something I wish to repeat. It was impressively LOUD, and scattered parts at high velocity all around the room. Just seconds before I had my face inches away observing bubbles coming from the leaf tissues (to ensure the fixative was infiltrating the tissues properly). It was just dumb luck that a student walked in and asked a question and I had turned away to answer when it imploded.

[jdircksen]

Thanks for the info. I'm going with the CDL 9" vacuum filter. We'll see if I can create niter after filtering and then I'll worry about a steam pan.