DavyJones
02-04-2008, 10:47 AM
Hello all it's good to be back. I'm starting to get anxious and wish I could start tapping my trees but I'm still at least a week away. I'm going to upgrade this year from my stainless converted half keg to a flat pan. Hopefully this will fair better at boiling then my (takes forever) keg system. Though I have to say it did work but I spent a fortune in propane. So a buddy is cutting me out a 2'x3' flat stainless pan and pre-heater pan and another friend will be tig welding that this week I hope. I visited the scrap yard over the weekend and got some good 3/8 plate for the front of my stove and a bunch of pieces of angle for the frame. I'm hopeful the same tig welding buddy has a plasma cutter, I've not asked him yet that 3/8 is going to be a bear to cut out my doorway and cleanout but I'll get it cut one way or another.
So I've been doing some reading and some of the smaller systems have their pan's seperated so they syrup flows around the pan. I don't get it. Perhaps because I've not seen any actual pictures down inside the pan so I am not sure should I have my buddy make those seperators inside for me? I see the pans my size are seperated into 3 sections so you've got 2 dividers in there. It looks like the dividers, again hard to tell from the photos I've seen, go from one side of the pan to the other and are spot welded on there. The part I can't see is obviusoly there is some hole cut in the divider at some point and I would think that the holes would be at opposite ends of each other. The diagrams I have seen show the syrup flow from the pre-heater pan to the oppisite corner towards the front of the main pan. So I would guess that the hole for the first divider were the pre-heater drips in would be the far side of that and then the next divider would be towards the back. Is it just a hole cut in at the ends? I've also been reading that a good pan you should be able to reverse the flow so you'd have 2 draw off one on each side of your main pan and then you'd have 2 drains on your pre-heater. I guess with that said then you'd have holes on both dividers at both ends and some way to plug one up so you'd be able to reverse the flow.
If anyone has any pictures or can describe how I should cut the holes in my dividers I would appreciate it. If anyones interested I'll be posting pictures as I build my arch too.
Thanks
David
So I've been doing some reading and some of the smaller systems have their pan's seperated so they syrup flows around the pan. I don't get it. Perhaps because I've not seen any actual pictures down inside the pan so I am not sure should I have my buddy make those seperators inside for me? I see the pans my size are seperated into 3 sections so you've got 2 dividers in there. It looks like the dividers, again hard to tell from the photos I've seen, go from one side of the pan to the other and are spot welded on there. The part I can't see is obviusoly there is some hole cut in the divider at some point and I would think that the holes would be at opposite ends of each other. The diagrams I have seen show the syrup flow from the pre-heater pan to the oppisite corner towards the front of the main pan. So I would guess that the hole for the first divider were the pre-heater drips in would be the far side of that and then the next divider would be towards the back. Is it just a hole cut in at the ends? I've also been reading that a good pan you should be able to reverse the flow so you'd have 2 draw off one on each side of your main pan and then you'd have 2 drains on your pre-heater. I guess with that said then you'd have holes on both dividers at both ends and some way to plug one up so you'd be able to reverse the flow.
If anyone has any pictures or can describe how I should cut the holes in my dividers I would appreciate it. If anyones interested I'll be posting pictures as I build my arch too.
Thanks
David