Raising sap pan

[red/one]

Hey guys, having a brain f@6t. I am raising my sap pan to accommodate a homemade float box on a home built arch. I'm using half bricks and an extra pan gasket. I need to cement the joints of the brick and have no way to keep it warm in the sap house. Can I just build a small fire for a couple hours? Is there maybe another way to get the sap pan higher?
21723 Thanks

[Pdiamond]

You may lose some of your fire to the bottom of the pan, but could you put brick on the rail of the arch and then lay gasket material on top of that. I do not know what kind of pan you have oyu may want to make sure it would fit.

[red/one]

If you can see it in the photo, I have cut and placed brick on the rail. Under the ceramic insulation I've built up with vermiculite. My back pan is a flat divided pan. I'm not concerned about the space under the back pan. I was worried about the possible risk of having the unsealed seams between the bricks. I have refractory cement but cant heat my sap house up to temp to fill the seams. Can I fire my arch to dry the cement? Is there a better way to raise the pan?

[tcross]

you can fire your arch to dry the cement! start with a very small kindling fire and work up from there. you just don't want to heat it up too quickly. you actually don't really even need to put cement on your bricks. many folks don't. my old arch didn't and it worked fine. my newer one does, but probably would be fine without!

[red/one]

So you say you don't have to cement the bricks? Even if the bricks are on top of the rail?

[Pdiamond]

I believe you can use your cement between the firebrick. that will seal the sides. I wouldn't use it on the rail of the arch, incase you get a different pan. once you get them cemented in as tcross said use a small fire to heat the arch make sure the pan has some water in it.

[red/one]

Great! Thank you for your replies. I plan on now cementing the brick joints only and placing a gasket below and on top of the bricks. I will start a small fire to slowly dry the cement.

[red/one]

Continuing with my thread, I did my first boil yesterday with the new float box and raised rear pan. It went well except for one issue. My new float box is between the rear and front pan, the inlet to the float box is as high as I can go but the sap is higher than the inlet. I noticed once in a while the float was not working due to what I believe was vapor lock. I have a ball float and Roberts Valve. Can I install a "T" before the float box and vent it above the sap level? 22074