Warped Syrup Pan

[Amber Gold]

I have a syrup pan that is slightly warped on the bottom. Not sure of the age, but it is soldered, not welded. Is this a concern for syrup moving across the pan or anything else? Currently there's only one divider in the middle and I was thinking of having someone weld two more diveders is to help flatten the pan out and to help prevent back flow of the syrup.

Thanks

[mapleman3]

it depends how warped.. mine has some ripples in it... but still makes super syrup !! I'm sure there are alot of pans with pucks and bumps

[ibby458]

Mine has a 1/4" bump in the third channel from the right. When I'm drawing off on that side,I gotta run it one notch deeper on the float. Still makes good syrup.

[Amber Gold]

It lifts up about 1/4"-1/2" in the middle of both sides and it pops like a mason jar top when it's been opened. Wasn't sure if it was a big deal or not.

Josh

[Brent]

just make sure you keep enough depth over it. a partition might keep it from poping it.

[Mike Van]

I have some warps in both my front pans [1x2's] - Like Brent said, I just make sure I keep them covered.

[Justin Turco]

Maybe an old "hotrod metal worker type" could heatshrink that bump out. Heat put the bump in there, maybe heat could take it out. Heat it from the top, quench it from the bottom. (Don't try that...I'm just thinking something like that.)

[lpakiz]

Absolutely, I just had it done 2 weeks ago. Went to church with about 3 inches in pan and small fire. Got to gabbing after church and came home to TAR! Got it all cleaned up with a 7 right angle grinder and wire cup wheel. Then some steel wool pads on the cup. Hey, the wire wheel drives the steel wool pad really nice. Made sure I had a thin layer of water to "swirl" over (under) the steel wool.. Cleaned up like new, but warpped bad. The bottom would be "up" or "down" but would not stay very well. Also, the corners were not level--either 2 of the corners were up and the other 2 down, or vise-versa.
I knew a body man who had shrunk some metal in a truck cab so I called him up.. I watched him do it, but I believe it is mostly voodoo. He heated a spot about the size of a dime, then hammered on the top onto a hunk of steel "dolly" underneath. He swung the hammer kinda sideways, always toward the hot spot. After a dozen quick hits, he quenched it with a dripping wet shop rag. About 3 hours later--tight as a drum.. So I know it can be done. Seems the trick is not the hammer/water stuff, but knowing where to heat each time. I think he could do it blindfolded, because he always would feel the metal with his hand to find the wrinkel before heating the next spot.

Larry

[Haynes Forest Products]

Thats how they strighten out the sides of steel ships HEAT HIT and COOL

[benchmark]

Well warped my pan this-morning, the pan was needing a major cleaning so I figured I would take advantage of not being able to boil on Easter and let the pan soak with some vinegar water. So went out early today and every thing was scrubbing up good except for a few spots on the bottom so I mixed some more solution, covered about an 1" of the bottom and lit a small fire. Figured I had enough time to run up to the house to grab some coffee and come right back before anything stared to boil. Guess not. Came back there was no liquid in the first channel and was starting to warp.
Oh well at least it warped down so i can still run everything at the same level as before. I suppose better water/vinegar then burnt syrup/sap.

[Haynes Forest Products]

Sounds like the class of 2009 sugar makers just got another Graduate Welcome :lol:

[Justin Turco]

Well.......in what would qualify as my most shameful moment in the sugarhouse....., I joined the club a few days ago. My 11 year old "pristine" front pan is now warped in one maybe two, of the 4 channels. I haven't had a chance to drain / clean and inspect the damage yet. But I am going to need a little Voodoo magic to fix this. If anyone has any information on heat shrinking "how to". I need it.



You just wouldn't believe what I did.

[Haynes Forest Products]

Well Justin were waiting! The rest of the class would like to know just what you did and please MR TURCO please stand before the class and tell us all the details so we can all learn from YOUR mistake and dont hide behind the desk.

[Justin Turco]

Ok.. but don't tell ANYONE else. This is just between you and me...(And what?..1500 or so...of our close sugaring friends.)

Got my kindling going... went in the woodshed to fill the wheelbarrow. And about midway through that task, realized what I was doing in the other room. (The adrenallin rush of the year.)

I had just built a fire under a syrup pan that didn't have one Blessed drop of liquid in it!!!

(I had cleaned it a few days earlier.)

[lpakiz]

JT,
I am afraid you are not a full-fledged member unless you scorch your pan with SYRUP in it--empty pans do not count. You MUST experience the task of removing about 1-2 gallons of tar/syrup from the bottom of your pan before you discover the severity of the warpped pan.

SORRY.......NICE TRY!!!

[Justin Turco]

There are those who have and those who will! I've done everthing else that could be done wrong in the sugarhouse. It's only a matter of time before I will qualify with vigor. I'm sure.

[benchmark]

I wouldnt recommend trying to become a full fledged member- I thought it was bad enough warping my pan while I was cleaning it, then 3 days later guess what: sizzled it again but this time with syrup. Needless to say took me hours of scrubbing to get that burnt crap off, only to realize I warped it even more. :cry:

[Haynes Forest Products]

The hillbilly with a sand blaster was the only way I ever saw the bottom of my pans again man are they hard to scrub clean now. I think Ill just get a portable bead blaster and just keep cleaning till I can see thru them.

[Justin Turco]

The pan cleaner that leader sells will loosen a black spot so that might be an option to break through a layer of petrified syrup in the bottom of a pan. You'd have to mix it very strong. Just don't use the pan cleaning crystals. I etched my so called pristine front pan last year using those. (Gave the remaining crystals to my cousin and he ended up with welts all over his face, neck and hands from working in the steam.) An etched pan pan boils with hot spots. Can't really describe it, but instead of a nice quiet steady boil. It would just pop! here and there. I spent one whole day polishing out the etching with 220 / 320 / 600 / 1000 grit sandpaper. Worked good but a LOT OF WORK. Anyway, I do like the liquid acid.

Another option which is fairly destructive to a shiny finish, is a 3M pad set up to use in a drill. You can buy them with a "shank" in them. Probably get them in different coarseness. Had to do that to a flat bottom pan on my old barrel stove evaporator (back in the day). One of those pads in a drill will take out just about anything. I would know. Had to do it more than once! (So you see, I've been a member of the club for a long time.) Just haven't burned any in "The Lightning". Thank the Lord.

JT

[KenWP]

I find it hard enough to clean the preheater where it touches the smoke stack. The top part burns the sap to a nice black crisp after a few days boling. I have to scrub pretty had to get it clean again. I usually do it more often but with this last run I wanted done so just cleaned the pan every couple of batch's and left the preheater.

[Haynes Forest Products]

Those pads are a nice tool (napa) they work great on a die grinder high speed and you can work your way down to a polish.

[Daren]

Not sure how bad it needs to be to qualify, but on my next to last boil of last year (the first with the new evap) I got a really "sweet" smell in the sugar shack......started sniffing around a little more to see that my pre-heater had vapor locked. by the time I dumped some raw sap into the front pan I had already smelled a little more than just caramel. There was a small ripple to the bottom of the nearest channel to my drawoff side and some pretty black stubborn stuff on the bottom. First go around with acid cleaner got most but not all of the black stuff off. Boiled all year this year with no obvious issues and the spot came completely clean this year with the acid cleanup. I now have a hard time telling which side the burn occured on....shiney bottoms make the ripples nearly dissapear.....I hope that is the worst I will have happen. Always check the float box!!!!!!!! If it isn't comming in.....its gonna get smokey!

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

The best way to overcome about all of these problems is close to 2" of liquid in the syrup pan. It also takes care of sudden temperature spikes too unless you have a heavy layer of nitre buildup, then you might have a small issue with spike in temperature.

[lpakiz]

The way I cleaned the burnt syrup/tar off my pan was to put about 1/4 inch of water/acid in the pan and heat it up to very warm-not boiling. Then took my 7 inch angle grinder with a 5 inch wire brush cup wheel (from the auto parts place). Use a face mask and apron. Final polish was with a 1/2 of a Scotch-Brite pad driven by the cup wheel. Shiney as new, but not nearly as smooth....