My Homemade Evaporator Photos

[Bucket Head]

Hi Guy's,

Thank's to my sister's boyfriend and his scanner, I can finally share some pictures! Click on the photobucket link and take a look.

You will get to see what my rig looked like when I bought it, and all the modifications I have done to it since 2002. A lot of time and effort went into it over the last five years. Hopefully some of the photo's will help those of you who are building, or improving an evaporator.

There are also pictures of our sap gatherings and "The Early Years", which are from 1985-'89. We did not sugar again till 2002, which is when I bought the evaporator.

I am currently changing the ash pit and blower set up, as well as making the front completely air tight. Hopefully in the future I can post some photos of those modifications.

Steve

[cheesegenie]

Great! Thanks for sharing. Looks like you have pro skills in metal fabrication
and problem solving. Tell me one thing, does the wrap around copper coil
on the stack really work? Didn't for me. Maybe it was too small (1/2") and
would just blow out steam at times and burnt sap.

[Haynes Forest Products]

Bucket Head: I like it. Is the extension on the flue pan welded tight or is it just stiched welded. OK how many time have you taken a HEADER on the plywood floor.

[ronr]

Looks great, nice job. I am dreaming of building something this coming summer and gathering ideas now. You and the other home builders are a real inspiration. Any chance of some close ups of the welding and design of the add on flue portion? What welding process did you use, wow that's a lot of welding to do! Did you use 304 or ? stainless and what gauge?

[Bucket Head]

Thank's for the compliment's guy's.

Cheesegenie- No, the copper coil did not work like I thought it would. It did'nt do what your's did, but it did'nt warm the sap up much either. Maybe if it was sheilded and insulated it would have been better. Despite it being so close to the pipe, there just was'nt enough heat tranfer going on.

Haynes- The extension is just stitched, but the front corners are welded a couple of inches up. I had to do that after because I had a little leaking because of the sap boiling the hardest in the front. As for our plywood floor, we have never gone completly down, but we have done some serious "dancing" trying to catch ourselves after getting tripped up, LOL!

Ronr- I will try to get some pictures of the flues up, but it might not be right away. I used a Millermatic 150 MIG welder with .025 ER308 stainless wire. All the stainless sheet and pipe fittings were 304. The pans themselves were made of 14ga. stainless. Everything I did,the flues, flue pan extension, front pan dividers, and float boxes are 16ga. I wish whoever made the pans originally had used thinner metal. I'm sure I'm losing some heat transfer there. I used the 16ga. because that is what I had access to. Again, probably a little loss there too. I got it at a reduced price from a friend who worked at a milking parlor fabrication company. The metal welded easily because of its thickness. If you were to go with thinner metal, you would have to TIG weld it. Either way, it still boils sap, and its better than the flat pans!

Now I just have to work on a sugarhouse!

Steve

[dano2840]

hey i will let you in on a lil' secret, there are these things called patents. You SHOULD LOOK INTO THAT!, i personally really like your arch design more so than the manufactured ones, your a very crafty guy, you wanna build me an evap just like that just 4x12?

[Bucket Head]

Dano,

I don't understand your "things called patents" response. Are you implying that I copied someone elses design, or are you suggesting that I patent my designs?

I will build a 4x12 for you if you would like. How much money do you have? My time is just as valuable as the factory welder's. Well, actually, my time is more valuable than the factory welders, seeing that I design and engineer my own fabrications and modifications.

Send me your drawings, along with the dollar amount you plan on spending for a rig this size.

Steve

[Bucket Head]

Dano,

I should add that I did not build the arch. I bought it like that. I modified the interior and added the base stack.

Steve