Pan Depth

[obsessed]

Hey Y'all

I am currently boiling in batches on a 55gallon drum type stove, using two of the hotel type serving pans. I have a line on some cheaply priced 18 or 20 gauge SS and am thinking of welding up one large pan to increase my surface area. I'm planning on putting a drain hole and I'd continue to batch boil. The only problem is I think my pan would be limited to a depth of 4" (based on the material available to me).

Is it worth the effort of making the pan and modifying the drum if the pan will only wind up being 4" deep? I think i'd be adding something like another 20%of surface area.

Thanks
TJ

[Andy VT]

Well, I'm one of the less experienced folk here, but it doesn't sound worth it to me. I think it would be an improvement on the hotel pans, especially if they are also 4" depth, and only as long as you don't plan on keeping sap in there at higher sugar concentrations that may boil over, but if I was going to put hours of my life into making a pan, I'd want it to be just the thing I needed.

My main pan is a vevor 24"x36"x6" (which is under $200) and it works well for me but 6" seems the absolute bare minimum. Once the sap gets sugary enough to foam up it's in another smaller but deeper pan on another burner.

Have you made sure there is nothing to suit your needs on vevor dot com or okhardwarestore dot com? A day or so of moonlight handyman work would probably get you something on one of those sites. (Note that vevor has pans that they advertise as divided but they do not have any divided pans; only ones that look divided in pictures due to a strengthening member. I suspect they just are just trying to copy something they saw in pictures and don't understand what divided means).

Just my thoughts though. Good luck!

[Andy VT]

Though admittedly I didn't realize the pans from both suppliers are 16 guage. Pretty thick. Probably has to be that thick to be strong enough with all square/ rectangular construction. Even then pretty floppy. So there's that. But check 'em out anyway.

[30AcreWoods]

I am not a welder (although I have a couple and am a working blacksmith), but welding stainless is not easy - even if you have or have access to a TIG machine with a high frequency start. An 18 or 20 ga material would be o.k. if you are doing a divided pan or raised flue plan, but probably too floppy for a flat pan of any size. Depth, as noted already, will be an issue once you get boiling hard. Personally, I'd save my money and buy a purpose built pan and/or get yourself a small, affordable RO. Investing in an RO is far and away a more efficient and effective investment than is purchasing stainless steel.

[maple flats]

I agree, 4" depth is not a good idea. I had my pans for my 3x8 custom made (years ago) and I had the syrup pan made at 14" depth, the flues pan was 24" deep, but it was a raised flue and had 10" high flues, then I ran it 1/2" to 3/4" above the flues, thus about 13" above the sap level. At 16" I still got a little boiling sap that would jump over the sides as I got to a rapid boil, but not on the 24" deep flues pan, but only because I had a hood on it which added another 2" which then fell back into the pan. If any jumped higher it landed in the hood drain and fell into the drain bucket and was lost, I never thought that happened much,
On the material (SS) that you can get, can you weld a seam to make it taller, at least 8", or better yet 10 or 12"? Also, bend it inward near the top, that helps deflect jumping sap inward as well as making the pan stronger.