homemade evaporator project

[valleyman]

I'm thinking about constructing an evaporator for my small time back yard operation. I have 2 resterant pans about 12x16 each x6 deep. I'm going to use angle iron to build a frame, sheetmetal to cover the frame, buy one of those barrel kits for the door and stack. Buy some fire brick to line it. Do you see any obvious shortcomings with my idea? and What about the inners? Do I have to put something between the sheet metal and bricks? or just cement them right to the metal?

[Fred Henderson]

When I started many ago I started just like you are doing. I use cement blocks and let the edges of the pans sit on the blocks. I made up a makeshift grate so I could get some air under the wood. The blocks were longer than the pans and I covered the opening with a piece of 1/4" plate cut out to take 6" stove pipe. My firing door was another piece if 1/4" that was kept in place with a piece of 2" pipe. Beleive it or not we made 4 1/2 gallons that year, all 73% Brix. I was using the apron method to tell me I had syrup.

[KenWP]

I made 20 gallons fo syrup this year useing a 16 inch x 18 inch SS sink that I had the hole in the bottom welded up on. Once I got the preheater idea worked on I could keep a constant boil for 15 hours a day on it. I only sank the sink about 2 1/2 inches into the fire so the burn line wasn.t to bad on the sides but front and back had a small amount. I need to hunt down one more sink this summer hopefully or some other kind of ss pan and make a flue pan and I should be able to boil about twice as fast. If I could find a sheet of SS I could bend up something most likely also.

[PerryW]

I'm thinking about constructing an evaporator for my small time back yard operation. I have 2 resterant pans about 12x16 each x6 deep. I'm going to use angle iron to build a frame, sheetmetal to cover the frame, buy one of those barrel kits for the door and stack. Buy some fire brick to line it. Do you see any obvious shortcomings with my idea?

No, except the concrete block idea seems easier that messing with sheet metal. Also, if you are serious enough to consider spending the money on the barrel kit, I would try to get some more S.S. pans. With your numbers, you will only have a 16" wide x 1.5 ft. Seems like a lot of money to spend on the barrel kit, bricks, sheet metal, stack, etc for such a small pan area.

and What about the inners? Do I have to put something between the sheet metal and bricks? or just cement them right to the metal?

No, just cement them to the wall.

[valleyman]

thanks Perry. Yeah, I tend to overdue.

[BarrelBoiler]

Just a suggestion make a stove from a barrel and buy a 2x3 pan to evaporate with.

you didn't say how you were going to build the frame etc. if you can weld or have a friend who can, this could be an alternitive. Two people have 2x3 pans on ebay( dealt with one :confused: :mad: :( ) and there are used ones around also. the divided ones let you get a gradiant going and it is not so big that you can't just use it as a batch system. a 55 gal. drum is somewhere around 33inches tall so some tweeking is needed to fit a 2x3 pan depending on how the side is opened

In the "evaporator" section of maple talk thread titled "half pint demensions" Stoweski found what I have used and has a good picture of it you might want to check it out

good luck an dmost of all have fun

[birdmancf]

Valleyman, you've found the right spot then!! We're all trying to balance our tendencies to overdue with those things that have the greatest benefit. I think Perry hit it close to the mark, improve surface area the best you can and then tighten it up for efficiency.

I started witha barrel stove 2 seasons ago and then put guts in it this year like fire brick, a shelf to keep the flames up, a grate under the fire with some forced air above and below the flames. I saw small improvements but in the end a change to my preheater ending up being a shot in the foot, it kept the sap pan from really boiling the way the improvements would've intended by leaving the fresh sap a bit cool.

I work with restaurant pans as well and am next looking at adding drop tubes or flue pipes to the sap pan if I can find the time and money to justify it.
Have fun with whatever you try, and try not to let on to the rest of the family that you're thinking about it the whole year through!;)

[BarrelBoiler]

birdman
how did the shelf work out? never thought to try that even though my wood stove has one did the bricks, built a wall to push the flame up, had a preheater did about 8 gph with it.

irelised the sad face i put in before might reflex on quailty of the pan, it doesn't ....haven't seen it yet but the pictures look good

[birdmancf]

It's hard to say how much the shelf helped since the first year the area was simply occupied by coals and ash. My firebox did become smaller, it looked fine on paper in the planning stage, but I may not have been generating/keeping as much heat in the fireboxas in the past.
The grate and fan certainly helped the most. I had previously mounted a bathroom ceiling fan into a box with pvc pipes coming out the top like stacks to hang my hip waders over to dry the insides. I converted this to be my air source this year by mounting a dimmer switch to it and connecting it to my air manifold on the back of the stove. That with the grate combination allowed me to really regulate the the boil. I'm sure I could've done more with a bigger blower, but I used what I had on hand.

If I add drop tubes or pipes to the sap pan this next year I may have to drop the shelf to accomodate the flues. Good thing I only put it together with rivets!