Steam Hood pulley system

[Maplewalnut]

Any pointers or experiences on putting a steam hood on a pulley system? I would really like to be able to raise the hood and stack for maintenace and the like without dissassembling the whole thing and lifting it off.

Thanks Mike

[RileySugarbush]

Make the steam stack telescope to allow the hood to be raised. Mine has a 6" sliding into a 7 inch stack. Since my hood came with a 6" adapter, the 6" is on the bottom. The downside is condensate can drip out the bottom of the 7" and onto the top of my hood. Put the small one on top if you can.

If you have a preheater, the feed line needs some slack so you don't need to disconnect it. Don't put in any more slack than you need so you don't end up with low spots when you drain the line.

I use four lines to lift it, one to each corner of the hood. each runs straight up to turning blocks in the rafters a they combine to a single rope that cleats on the wall. It is heavy but possible to lift by hand. I will add a counterbalance or winch this year.

[maple flats]

I made mine to raise on a pulley system. My hood has 2 -12" steam stacks that are riveted to the hood take off to keep them upright. Above this I have 2 10" stacks that are suspended by a steel rod thru the center and terminate up into the cupola. These 10"ers are riveted together so they will not fall and the 10" slides down into the 12" ers below. Then I attached a light weight SS cable to each corner of the hood and mounted a pulley directly above it at ceiling joist level. After the cables pass thru those pulleys all 4 are routed totards the end wall where i have a cheapo winch mounted. When I need to raise the hood i just crank the winch handle and it raises. On mine I can get almost 22" height before the 12"er hits the 10"er support rod. If I needed to I could for more room easily remove the rod and 10" sections but that would take about 5 minutes and one more person to hand it to as i let the 10" loose or i would not have enough hands. As it is even my 7 yr old (at the time) grand daughter has raised the hood (to see how it works). To lower it I just release the winch click tooth and it lowers right back in place ready to go.

[Bucket Head]

I once saw a hood lifting system that was mounted on barn door roller tracks.

The channels that the door hanger/rollers rode in were mounted on the rafters. There was a wooden frame the size of the hood mounted on the rollers so it was just below the rafters and above the evaporator. The hand cranked winch and cables running down were mounted to this frame.

This allowed the hood to be raised and then pushed, or rolled, off to the side. I thought it was pretty clever.

I do not recall if there was a steam-away there. It would probably lift one of those too, providing you had the clearance, and your rafters/supports/cables/winch/hardware was capable.

Steve

[Sugarmaker]

I used a slightly different approach. I have 10 inch very heavy wall sst steam stacks 14 feet high. I pop riveted a handle on the side of each pipe. I bought 2 heavy boat winches from Harbor Freight, mounted them on a convenient place on the wall. ran the winch cables through 2 pulleys to get up over and down to the handle. I then raise the stack and allow it to disconnect from the hoods. The I can get enough clearance to remove the hoods from the pans. The winches never move when they have weight on them, so there is no lock, they just stay put. I do have clearance in the roof jacks for the steam pipe to slide up through.

Regards,
Chris

[Haynes Forest Products]

I can push the steam stack up into the Coupla and dont have to telescope it into another pipe. Do you leave your pipe in year round if not make the roof jack hole bigger so the pipe slides up and down easy.

[brookledge]

My steam stack just goes up into my cupolo so I can raise the hood with out having to do anything to the pipe. And I used a good quality nylon rope to all four corners. My preheater goes with the hood and the preheater is mountedwith 3/8 threaded ro so you can get the right slope
Keith

[ericjeeper]

Will steam travel over, out and then up? I do not wish to cut a hole in my new roof. I was thinking of 45° then over and then a 45° and then up? Will this work or do I need to go straight up?

[RileySugarbush]

That should work fine. The upper part of the telescoping steam stack on my setup has a 45 to shoot the steam over to the cupola.

[Haynes Forest Products]

Ericjeeper Keep in mind that your evaporator with a steam hood is a low pressure steam boiler and if you put a fan blade over the steam stack and it turns you would have a steam engine. a very low teck low pressure steam engine. Steam that is escaping out of the steam hood is under very low pressure so it will move to a lower pressure out the stack. Steam will rise because it is hot but not real well and as it cools it sinks. Having a open evaporator will allow the steam to go up down and all around the evaporator room it will go down as much as up. If you have a cupola then threw convection the hot air will carry the steam up and out. With a cupola and no hood you will need to bring in outside air to get good air movement. With a steam hood you dont need outside air to make it move.

[ericjeeper]

what about using insulated flex duct? It is insulated and has a plastic liner.. Not sure how water tight it would be though.. I will need some sort of way to get the steam out.. Or it will likely drip onto me and my woodpile..http://www.pbase.com/ericjeeper/image/108199062

[Haynes Forest Products]

What do you mean get the steam out the pipe does that and why would it drip on you. I think you will end up with moisture getting traped in the insulation layer and molding over time.