oil tank evaporator for $150

[jrobida]

I'd like to share pictures of my oil tank evaporator I just built for $150. Here is how:

I got the oil tank for free and cut it at the seam with a sawzall (no explosion). I used 5 blades for all the fabrication which cost $17.

Bought some used angle iron (2x2x1/4) and welded it around the top for pan and flue support. The steel cost $20.

Found some 16 ga stainless which was in the junk pile and came from the rear panel of some machine at my brothers work. Had it cut and bent for $50 and had it welded for another $50. The pan is 27"x44.5"x6" which is the maximum I could get out of the material. I thought this would be a good size for 30 to 40 taps, we'll see.

Cut apart an old ashley stove which was last years evaporator. Took off the doors and cast iron flue. Welded the doors to the face and bolted the flue to a sheet of aluminum. The flue is 6" diameter which I'm not sure is big enough.

For the interior of the arch, I cut up the top of the oil tank and drove over it with my truck to get it flat then welded it in. Not perfect but functional.

Painted the tank for $13 of stove paint.

All I've got left is the brick and connecting my flue pipe. Does anyone have any isdea what I should get for evaporation rate out of this rig? 8-10 gph?

I provided a link to my photobucket. I hope it works.

http://s570.photobucket.com/albums/ss144/jrobida/

[Sugarmaker]

jrobida,
This is a very nice arch and pan combo. And probably will exceed the 8-10 GPH rate. But time and several other factors will tell.
I did not notice or missed it. Do you have grates? The inside with the ramp up looks about right. Look at GARY R's unit! he is one of the resident experts on these type of evaporators.
I like the Kobata in the back ground!

I would think about having some more trees available too:)
Regards,
Chris

[Clan Delaney]

That's a beauty. And all for $150? Nice. Very nice.

Looks like you still need a grate in the firebox. Do you have plans to fab one, or did you pick up something used?

To your question about GPH - I'll pass on some knowledge I gathered at a conference a few weeks back. The max evaporation rate of you pan can be calculated this way: heating surface (in sq. ft.) * .75. Looks like your pan is 8.34 sq.ft, so that would put it's max evap rate at 6.25 gph. This assumes that you keep that firebox roaring. (Page 2 of this thread (http://www.mapletrader.com/community/showthread.php?t=5128&page=2) has some notes from the conference on increasing the efficiency of your wood fired evap. Give 'em a read. Good stuff.)

Now, if you add some kind of pre-heater to the setup, your overall evap rate will increase. I think you can hit that 8-10.

[Cardigan99]

Clan, I'm not sure that calc works. We had a 10' square pan (27" * 54") that averaged 12+ and hit 15 gph on occasion. By that math we should have been hitting only 7.6 gph.

Todd

[Clan Delaney]

Clan, I'm not sure that calc works. We had a 10' square pan (27" * 54") that averaged 12+ and hit 15 gph on occasion. By that math we should have been hitting only 7.6 gph.

Todd

No preheater? No RO? Flat fan or flues? I'm curious....

[Gary R]

jrobida,

Nice looking and great price too! I'm no expert, I just stole idea's off the other trader's here. I'm thinking 10 gal. or so also. Do you plan to insulate also? If you like to tinker, this stuff is going to drive you bonkers. Next thing you'll be thinking hood, preheater, blower etc. All of which isn't needed, just fun seeing how well we can make it boil:)

Like sugarmaker said, look for more taps, 'cause it's just starting.

[mfchef54]

Gary
what are you getting?

[jrobida]

If I can get 10-12 gph for this setup, it would be great. I had some doubts about the flue location may be causing the back corners of the pan to not boil. I will try a baffle or something.

For the grate, I'm using an old heavy catch basin grate that I still need to cut. This year, i'm going to use red brick and vermiculite for the inside. Next year, I may invest in arch board and fire brick,

[Gary R]

mfchef, I don't know I haven't boiled on my new pan yet. Last years was 18X48 and I got up to 9 gal./hr. You really had to keep after the fire to boil throughout the whole pan. I had to much space between the bottom of the pan and the brick. This years pan is 24X54. I only have an inch of space under the pan and I have a blower that blows up through the grates. I also have a barrel for a feed tank this year. I will measure the amount of sap proccessed for the day and divide by hours of boiling. Hoping for 15+.

jrobida, see what I mean! Your already planning on next years before this ones done:) Good luck and enjoy your syrup.

[tessiersfarm]

I had a 27" x 40" flat pan on a barrel arch last year and we got 10 gals per hour. 12 after we put forced air in it. We tapped 80 trees last year but we can only boil on the weekends, and it was a little too much sap a couple of weeks. If I could boil at least once during the week it would have been great.

Good luck!!

[Cardigan99]

No preheater? No RO? Flat fan or flues? I'm curious....

Clan, Flat pan (275 gal oil drum setup). Sold the rig to mfchef54. Pictures should still be in the classified section.

Todd

Edit: Pictures are gone from the classifieds here, but it's the same one on craigslist that you emailed me about. maybe three weeks ago..

Also some pictures on one or two of my older posts under this forum.

[maplejeff]

hello i was wondering? how many brick did you used on that rig. and could you use regular brick. and how far up did you brick 1/2 or all the way to the pan. just wondering because im building one like tha this year. thanks jeff

[mfchef54]

Jeff,
I have carrigan99's rig now. I don't know how many bricks I used, but I did brick up to the pan. I also brick under the grates. I have some fire bricks in the back of the fire box and the rest are regular. for two reasons. I have a large and free supply of reg bricks

[maplejeff]

thanks for the info ill try to keep in contact with you and try to keep you up dated on this project.jeff

[maplejeff]

forthe interior of the tank you said you used the top of the drum and drove over it till it was flat and welinded it in. okay is that the piece that looks like it divids the fire box and gos to the back of the drum. that looks like an up side down L . thanks jeff ps im sorry i sound a little dumb but this is my first time building some thing like this. i have only ever boiled on block arches. and i thought it was time to change the style of boiling. don't get me wrong iv done syrup for 5 years. thanks jeff

[cheesegenie]

I am trying to build an arh out of a 250 drum also. I also have been using a
block arch, but I am moving it closer to the house, vandals on ATVs are now
a problem. They go in my shack and smoke up and play with my stuff. I discovered a drum is really hard to work with. There is no square corners
or flat sides to measure from perfectly, so a lot of "eyeing". To make up
for that, one thing I done was to put a leveling bolt on each leg. I learned
that as you boil in the spring, the frost comes out and had to always be shimming. Now I am to the ash door to cut out then the inside firebox
and ramp. My pan is a flat bottom, and I'm not sure how much space to
leave below?

[jrobida]

Maplejeff,

I'll try to explain to you what I did on the inside of the arch.

When I cut the oil tank at the seam, I kept the top of the tank for scrap steel. Since the top of the tank had a nice curved flat section on each end. I cut one of them off and welded it in as the back of the firebox. From there I cut off steel sheets (were curved but I made them flat) from the top of the tank and used them for the rest of the arch interior.

[maplejeff]

thanks all i did was ask . sorry but one question how did you weld it mig or regular weld

[jrobida]

I used TIG welding.

[jrobida]

I had my first boil last Saturday on the oil tank evaporator and averaged 11 gph. I made 3 quarts... now just got to wait for better weather.

You guys were right...the red brick I lined the arch with really cracked and popped. Gotta go get some firebrick.

[Farmer Mike]

Jrobida:

I want to thank you for inspiring me to get back into maple syrup production after four years of being idle. Our last oil tank evaporator fell apart on us and there never seemed to be the time to build a new one. When I saw your posting I knew it was time.

My kids and I built our cooker last weekend and we made 5 quarts of syrup last night. We had a 10 ghp evaporation rate without a way of preheating the sap so I'm very happy. Our pan is 55x32 and fit's perfectly on the top.

Thanks again for the inspiration!

[jrobida]

Great work farmer Mike....I like your setup.

Just think... with a flue pan we could probably get 20 gph. I think you have the disease too.

[Farmer Mike]

Funny you should mention that. I was going to pick up some copper tubing today and build a pre-heater around the flue. I'm also having my pan modified so that I have a narrow pre-heating section on the flue end of the pan. It was obvious that having cool sap entering the hot pan greatly impacted cooking time.

Even though this is just for fun, staying up until midnight can get old when you have work to do the next morning!

Have a great day!

[Farmer Mike]

O.k., I've made a preheater our of 50 feet of 1/4 inch copper tubing wrapped around the flue. I mounted a 5 gallon pale at the top to hold sap. I'm getting about 5 gallons per hour flow rate. That's a bit slow. I was hoping for twice that. Any tips on the size of tubing I should be using?

Thanks in advance.

[PerryW]

You have two options to double the flow rate.

1) Double the head. (I.E. lift the 5 gallon pail so it's twice as high)

2) Cut the existing coil at the half way point so that you have two coils (an upper coil and a low coil). Put a TEE in the line above the coils and feed each coil separately. Since each coil will be shorter, there will be less flow resistance.