my homemade maple evaporator

[markct]

here are a few pictures of my homemade evaporator, i made the arch from a 100lb propane tank which i split the top and folded open, then welded up a door for the front and added a piece of well pipe for a stovepipe thimble in the rear. the pan was made from stainless steel salvaged from a large restraunt refridgerator and i then formed it carefully over a piece of channel iron with a deadblow hammer. the corners and baffles (added after the first pictures) were all mig welded with stainless wire. it works pretty well for the amounts i have been doing. it will boil very well with not a huge fire. i also added a 2 inch pipe with holes in it to act as a air grate in the bottom and that helps it alot. that also was added after the first pictures

[markct]

heres a few pics, sorry there not too clear, of the evaporator once i installed it in my sugar shack, also built of a large amount of salvage materials, floor and roofing were all free, as well as windows,door and much of the framing, just some of the T11 plywood for the walls was bought. also you can see that there is also a stainless steel tubing loop to help preheat the sap before it enters the pan.

[maplwrks]

Looks great Mark!!! I'm willing to bet that you won't have any problem staying warm in your new shack either. Tell me----what did you use to cut your gas tank? Did you pull the valve out first? Did you use a sawzall or torch?

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Mike, you are too funny! LOL! LOL!!!!!!!!

[markct]

yes the shack stays comftorably warm, about 70 or 80 with the windows and door open, and of course the flaps at the top. to cut the tank i used a plasma cutter, but to be safe i took the valve out adn stood it on end and completely filled it with water, then cut out about a 6 inch hole in the end and then drained the water, this way i could steam clean the tank and with a larger hole in the end there isnt the risk of explosion just a flash at worst, i then laid it all out and split it and folded up the top and welded it all together and put angle iron around where the pan would sit.

[Sugarmaker]

Brandon, I agree, Mike cut it out:)
MARKCT That is about the most streamlined evaporator I have ever seen! Very Nice job and sounds like you played it safe on the heavy fab work too.
The sugarhouse look very nice and you should be able to handle what, 100 taps or so??
Keep in touch as the season starts, as to your boiling rates.
Pan looks like it will preform well. Whats your draw off method?

Regards,
Chris

[325abn]

Looks great.

What is your feed pipe made of? Does the sap heat up in the pipe?

[Grade "A"]

Markct let me ask you this because I built a pan this summer. If I understand you right you put stainless steel wire in a mig welder but did not tig weld it right? If yes, did it work good for you because I would give it a try if it did.

[markct]

yes i used .030 stainless wire, 308 i believe was the alloy number, i fed it with my lincoln 135 mig, a small 110v unit. for shielding gas they say to use some odd gas, like 98 argon 2 percent something else, but i just used the normal co2 argon mix for steel and it worked great. took a bit of practice and adjusting on scraps to get it set right on the thin stainless steel that i was working with, but after a bit i got it working well. tig sure would be nice, i had access to that at my last job but not anymore so mig was the next best option, but it came out well so i cant complain. i also made a 8 inch tall hygrometer cup from the stainless draw tube that is inside of a beer keg, and welded it to a square stainless base and added a handle

[MR Electrician]

well looks like a nice evaporator marct.
smart move in cutting that tank ,
the life you saved maybe your own.:rolleyes:

[royalmaple]

You need to use "tri-ox" is the gas for welding stainless with a mig welder. I've tried it before and is a little tricky but when you get the gas right it can be done. Then just use the stainless wire.

The gas is a special blend but should be able to get it at any welding supply shop that would normally fill your tanks.

[Lwood]

If I remember correctly the gas to mig stainless has helium mixed in with argon and carbon dioxide. Been a while though.

[Fred Henderson]

Around here we call it star gas.

[jemsklein]

it looks very good you did a great now what are you going to use for grates and how are you going to firebrick it

[markct]

i lined the bottom with firebrick,about the bottom half, as far up the sides as they would stay sitting against the walls, used the this firebrick, for air it gets fed in the center thru a long 2 inch dia pip which has rows of half inch holes in it, and seems to make for a pretty even fire, there are no real grates like to keep the fire off the floor just the air fed down the center but it burns well. the pipe i added after the first pics, i will try and take some more soon

[mikeb]

I also have a question about adding firebrick to the inside of a drum evaporator. In my case it is a 55 gallon steel drum (see the attached picture) with room for 3 stainless steel pans sitting on top... approx 600 sq. inches. I planned on cast iron grates on the bottom and firebrick up the sides. There is also sand, banked up toward the flue (not shown in the picture). But do I need to protect the upper side walls of the drum? And if so, how?

[tappin&sappin]

mike,

I would try to put some bricks up high. It will make your arch last longer, keep more heat inside the arch, and also help keep your legs from getting fried.

With regards to the 'how', hmm. I had a 55 gallon drum that I used one year w/ half pint pans. The arch (drum) was made by the guy I bought it from. He had bricks all the way up the sides. Basically just had the bricks stacked in there and then at the top had a piece of angle welded in place so that it would keep the top bricks from tipping over. It seemed to work, except the bricks kind of shielded the outer edge of the pans from the heat.

Ideally, the inside edge of your firebricks are lined up w/ the outside edge of your pans. That way the heat from the fire has access to the entire surface area of your pan.

- Jake