More Burning Questions

[SeanD]

I got around to a test boil today with the new pan arrangement and have a couple questions.

The fire gave off what best could be described at a strong road tar smell or burned rubber like what you get when they put new asphalt down. Then I remembered that I had this same smell from my very first couple of boils this season, but it eventually went away as the season wore on. Is it the gaskets, arch board, or built up creosote? Is it normal? I'm on a block arch lined with fire brick.

I also used palette wood exclusively for the first time today. The flat wood covers a lot of the fire surface area and the flats smothered it a couple times. It was hard to load wood in evenly without the pieces stacking flat on one another. By the end of the hour, a bed of coals was building up from the wood not burning cleanly enough. Any tricks from the palette burners out there?

Thanks,
Sean

[brookledge]

Sounds like you don't have enough of a draft. Especially with pallets you should not end up with many coals as the pieces are always small. Because pallets burn so hot and fast you need alot of air to keep a clean burn.
Think of it this way The pallets offer alot of fuel when you stoke the fire and it is like pulling the choke on a gas engine(alot of fuel and not much air).
Consequently the fire is going to burn black and smell because there is alot of unburnt gasses.
What do you have for grates and how much air can get through them.
It could also be that your fire box is oversized for your smoke stack. You might need to enlargen it
Keith

[Uncle Tucker]

split the pieces of palets with a hatchet. try to keep them 1.5" and criscross them. you will have a hot fire and no coals.

[peacemaker]

i would agree sounds like not enough draft ... also when i burn pallets i use the 2x material and build a crib type fire and then i use the slate wood as filler ..split them small and fire ever 6 mins and when the 2x burns rebuild that and use the splits again ..you need the air space the 2 gives u or u can use a combo of cord wood pallets

[mapleman3]

And... the smell can also be the pallets themselves.. so many have been soaked with who knows what that has been broken or spilled on them... but boy do they burn !!! and they are free!!

[Haynes Forest Products]

I have a few farmer friends that would burn feed bags of old tubing and one burns roof sections with the shingles on it and never smelled it in the evaporator room. With a good draft any smells in the arch should go up the stack. how long it the stack above the roof?

[SeanD]

I'm outside on blocks with a 12' stack for a 5+ foot arch. I thought lengthening the stack from my original 4' would take care of my boiling troubles, but I still could not get the back pan to boil on the test boil.

When I pulled the back pans out after the test boil, the sand underneath had a fuzzy layer of creosote on top of it. What does that tell me? Draft, right? The fire seems to be pulled to the back and the heat seems to really crank out the top of the stack, so maybe not enough air is getting in? It should be clean back there, right?

I'll tackle this all again with a new set of questions when I move inside next year. I'm hoping to get a shed built this summer that can serve as a sugar shack. I'll have to add another 6-8 feet of stack to put it through the roof. then I'll tinker with the fire box size, grates, and sealing up the sides and front. Basically start all over again.

Thanks for all the advice. I'll get this thing figured out sooner or later.

Sean

[peacemaker]

it sounds like draft ...but also could be a few things what size stack ... how close to the sand is your bottom of the pans ... what do u have for grates ...
and are the pallets dry

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Sounds like the sand is not up close enough to the pans to push the heat up to them. Put it within 2" or less and then taper it down some right before it goes out the stack.