New and Improved!!

[sap seeker]

Well the old Ashley just wasn't cutting the mustard so I robbed some parts from it a threw it on a barrel. Burnt the paint off fri. night and boiled Sat. It did 24 gal. in a 7 hours using mostly half wet pine. I think it will easily do 4-5gph with good wood. Didn't arch it up either, thught about it, but just covered the bottom and side walls with fire brick. May not be much, but better than I had. We need some cold nights here to get it started again.
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r106/gamefisher_photos/DCP_2122.jpg

[Mac_Muz]

I wuz wondering where my bob house sled got off too. :D

When I can get 40 gallons of sap I can drive it off in the same time you do 1/2. My pan is bigger and divided to 3 sections. I have 4 sections of smoke stack to increase air draw, and the fire is on a grate 4 inches from the bottom of the barrel.

I try to set the stove to face the wind, and aim the stack down wind.

My wood is rotting stand dead white pine, no sap in it at all anymore, all washed out long ago.

I didn't know you were in Maine. Are you at all close to Tamworth NH?

[3rdgen.maple]

Hey you gotta do what you gotta do. Make some syrup on that there rig and be proud. Only advice I got for ya is split that wood smaller. More like the size of your wrist. It will burn hotter and faster.

[sap seeker]

Thanks for the info. guys. I just got that thrown together to finish out the season with, it needs some tweeking for next season but still much better than the first effort. Mac - I have my rig set so the wind off the lake provides the draft, stack is downwind. 3rdgen. - what you don't see in the pic is an axe to wack it again before putting in the stove. I never even got the wood split until Nov. so its not what you would call dry for sure.:D I'll be much better prepared next season and have learned so much from everyone on here. :cool: I think I may have Mr. Mason build me a pan that will cover the entire barrel although the lasanga pan may be sufficient for 12-15 taps with dry wood.

[BarrelBoiler]

good looking quick rig. the first time we used the barrel we let the ash and charcoal build up in the back and ended up with a slope keeping the fire toward the front. after that we put some fire brick part way back and used crushed rock to make a firebox and slope it helped alot.

the barrel set up was like the half pint now a 2x3 pan (actually 24x33 as a 55 gal drum is about 34 inches lip to lip) and a pre heat pan. made alot of syrup on that rig. with a little tweeking it should be possible to get a 2x3 on a barrel. it's only 3 iinches, but I'd change the door to one more like a regular stove. the door on our rig was just a piece of sheet metal, hinges welded on the barrel and the door covering a rectanglur hole cut in the end. the latch was flat bar with a short 90 bend bolted through the door catching a slotted catch welded oon the barrel. the door had a 2inch flap on the bottom, hinged for draft control.

stackwise we went 4 or 5 sections high. that much pipe needs some support a the elbow and needs to be guyed off to keep it from falling over. it's not hard to do have to use wire. we used cement blocks, buckets filled with water, even trees to tie off to. jusst make sure to flag the wire real good so you know where it is. to keep it up the stack i put a damper handle in so the wire wouldn't slide

above all keep making syrup there are many ways to get there and some of the fun is tweeking your rig and making it go

good luck

[BarrelBoiler]

oopps forgot something who ever built our barrelstove used angle iron welded around the opening to set the pan on, and around the wood door to keep the edges of the door opening from getting beat upfrom loading wood


again have fun

[Dennis H.]

I also agree with spilting the wood small. Heck I found that the wood scraps from splitting the wood was like rocket fuel!
I guess that is why I think the new wood chip evaps will be awsome firing.

Anyway great looking rig that you got thrown together.
I am always amazed what people here on the trader comes up with.

[TapME]

nice, just think of the sap you can boil in that rig.

[sap seeker]

I learned so much from all of you on here about maple syruping in general. Before I got into this, I thought my Ashley woodstove idea would be perfect for my needs but quickly learned it wasn't. The barrel will work much better for sure. I had sand to add to the barrel but knew i was going only to get one or two uses out of it this year so didn't bother. I had enough firebrick from the woodstove to line the entire bottom and somewhat up the sides. I took Mac Mugz idea and re-installed the flame deflector by the flue. It helps to keep the fire in the barrel just that much longer for sure. The door idea really didn't work that bad, stolen from Rink Mann's book. I'll add another length of pipe next year barrelboiler, thank you.

The best tip I learned was how you could bring syrup back to life when you didn't get it right the first time. Previously i had always assumed that if you screwed it up, that was it!:D I also learned that a $2.00 sheet of pre-filter was much better than cheesecloth for filtering. We made some great tasting syrup, just wanted it to go a little longer, it's a lot of fun for sure.

I don't really have the opportunity to expand further where I live but that's O.K. 12-15 taps gives quite a bit and even this year gave us the chance to give our friends and family a taste in which they all loved.

Thanks again everyone for all their help and input.

[Mac_Muz]

getting items made from Mr mason is worthy, but I don't think I would get him to make a pan for a barrel. That would end up with needing another pan for when you buy one of his evaporators.

Common mild steel from NAPA, and a hammer can make all the pan you need. It would help to have access to a mig welder to get the corners tact up hard, but still solder over them.

It is good to get air where you can get it... Once i made a stack top from 5 cabin spikes , 6 inch pipe , a section of 8 inch elbow pipe and one little bit of sheetmetal shaped like some WW-1 vintage airplane tail.

The 8 inch elbow always faced down wind no matter what the wind did.

I run 4 sections of 6 inch pipe for this rig and would make the air plane tail except this stack just barely stands as it is and i added chains (really light stuff) and cut a screen door spring in 1/2 to help hold it all.

At night when blue flames come out it is a sight fer sure...