Welded Front Pan

[FarmerJohn]

I'm interested in the assembly details of a standard welded front pan. A friend is a SS fabricator and he offered to try his hand at a replacement for my old Small Bros. soldered pan(4 x 4 size). Anyone have any picts and /or details of how the welded pans are made? Thanks for your help.

[WF MASON]

If your friend is a sheetmetal welder / fabricator that tig welds , and has the equipment to do the bending and notching , and has you pan to use as a pattern, then it should be a 'piece a cake'.
There are two ways two make it , the first is to use one sheet of steel for the sides and bottom of the pan , like making a box, then drop in the partitions , then makeup the float boxes and weld them on.
The secound way is the way your pan is made, in sections , bend up the two outside sections,then the third section, then the forth section can be made either wider or narrower to get the exact width you want. The section ends and top need to be welded the entire length to seal them from leaking.Then cap the ends of the pan, and put on the float boxes.
Noth'in to it. And use 22ga. stainless.(NO WARPING ALLOWED)
If your friend is a mig /stick welder used to welding 1/4'' plate , you might want to look elsewhere.
Hope this helps.

[FarmerJohn]

Thanks for the input. I guess my question really concerns what happens when the heat hits a welded pan. Will it warp or fail(leak) due the normal uneven heating most evaportor pans seem to receive. Should the pan be annealed before use to take out any residual strain left by the welding process?
As for construction, we could make a pan just like my old Small Bros. soldered pan, but is that the best use of welding? Shouldn't a welded pan be a box with the channels welded in? How are the commercial welded pans make? Thanks,

John

[WF MASON]

A welded pan will not leak, one local farmer drained his front pan and cleaned it , poured the sap concentrate back in , got the fire going with a good boil, went out to feed the animals , but, he forgot to turn on the valve going to the front float. When he got back the partitions , 3, were laying over on each other. He bent the partitions apart with his hands , took a block of wood that would fit between the partitions and moved it back and forth as his farm hand pounded the block with a sledge hammer on the cement floor. After flatting it the best possible, put it on the arch , and boiled , NO LEAKS, this is one of many I've seen , burnt and warped and no leaks. The pan you have can be used as a pattern , the corners welded instead of the lock seam with solder. The top flange needs some bends to make it stiff.

[FarmerJohn]

Thanks for the input. I'll let you know how the fabrication works out. My friend is an accomplished tig welder, so I don't think welding a box of 22 ga SS will be a problem. Are the new pans 304 SS? My old pan is 400 series SS, which as you probably know is more conductive than 304. Wonder what changes I'll see in finishing rate, etc?

[mapleman3]

most of the stuff now is 304 ss, that may have to do with boiling capability also

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Everyone has went to the 304 series because it is less corrosive than most other grades. Don't know for sure, but it is what I have been told. :?

Stainless will definitely corrode if it doesn't have much Chromium in it. Of course, the more Chromium, the less the conductiveness.