New 3 by 8 Arch & pans

[MapleChaser]

Has any body tryed to build there own arch and pans. The arch Iam pretty sure of.Should the forced draft be in the back of the arch or in the front? The pans I have got them some what built in my mind. Do you tig or mig stainless steel? Are the flues 7 inches deep or 10 inches deep? Is the spacing 3/4 inches apart or 1 inch? Should the flue pan be 5 foot or 5 1/2 long? Just looking for idea's.

[Sugarmaker]

Maple-chaser,
Our arch was a restoration from old castings ( 3 x 12 King arch cut down to fit the 3 x 10 pans). ( re tinned in Stainless) On a 3 x 8 most I have seen have a 5 foot flue pan with 7 inch deep flues, and a 3 foot long front pan. Get as many flues as possible to increase surface area. Most have 14 in a 3 foot wide arch. Mine only has 10 ( pans were built by some one not sure who).

Hope this helps. I have some pictures on the web site.

Regards,
Chris

[jrthe3]

I built my own 3x8 this year pans arch and all. Tig or mig weilding depends on the thickness of the stainless you will use the thinner the better heat tranfer but harder to weild. I built mine with 22 ga with drop flues 5 inches deep 1 inch wide the drop flues are better to run if you don't plan on haveing a float box witch i don't have i keep both front and back pans at the same level. I made my flue pan 3x6 and my syrup pan 3x2 it worked good the forced draft fan works better in the front but it is in the way of putting wood in the fire put it in the back. When you start to build don't forget to leave room for fire brick also spend the money and get good cast iron grates you will be thanking your self later depending on what you use for a door make sure it seals good if you plan on useing a blower it will blow sparks out the door if it don't seal good and star fire out side arch had it happen to my
feel free to ask meany other ? ttrying to get pics of mine up not having luck

[MapleChaser]

I built my own 3x8 this year pans arch and all. Tig or mig weilding depends on the thickness of the stainless you will use the thinner the better heat tranfer but harder to weild. I built mine with 22 ga with drop flues 5 inches deep 1 inch wide the drop flues are better to run if you don't plan on haveing a float box witch i don't have i keep both front and back pans at the same level. I made my flue pan 3x6 and my syrup pan 3x2 it worked good the forced draft fan works better in the front but it is in the way of putting wood in the fire put it in the back. When you start to build don't forget to leave room for fire brick also spend the money and get good cast iron grates you will be thanking your self later depending on what you use for a door make sure it seals good if you plan on useing a blower it will blow sparks out the door if it don't seal good and star fire out side arch had it happen to my
feel free to ask meany other ? ttrying to get pics of mine up not having luck
I would like to see pics if you had them. I would like to build a float box on the side of my flue pan is there a reason not to on a drop flue pan?

[jrthe3]

I am haveing problems geting the pics from my camra to my computer as soon as i do i will post them
the float box is a little diffacult to build i have not found a good way besides buying the parts from leader if you have a good idea i am open
with a raised flue pan you will need two float boxs one where sap goes into the flue pan and one between the flue pan and syrup pan but with drop flues you only need one and it will control the level in both pans or what i do is i have a gate valve between my preheater and flue pan and just watch the level and adjust the flow on the valve as needed the year once i got boiling i found the swwet spot to say where i got the flow ajusted to the point it keep a pretty nice level in the pans