"New" Evaporator

[C.Wilcox]

Some pics of my "new" evaporator...a real beauty if I say so myself! I managed to pick this up for free from a guy just a few miles north of me. He posted it on our local craigslist and I called within about 5 min. By the tme I got there, maybe 30 min. later, he said the phone had been ringing off the hook with guys looking to turn it into a pig roaster. I will admit that I enjoy roast pig to a nearly sinful degree, but people, pigs can be cooked in the ground, maple syrup cannot! Priorities please!

[Haynes Forest Products]

There is a guy in Rockford Michigan that has about 20 of those 275s on trailers and he has them full of pigs cooked and ready to be towed away to your party. They do make nice cookers.

[KenWP]

I know of 3 laying around right now just would have to find 3 SS sinks to fit the top. Word to the wise do not take a woman along when your thinking of buying anything to do with Maple.maple syrup or almost anything else that goes on in your shop.

[Dennis H.]

She sure is beautiful lying there on her side!!:o

[mapleack]

I know of 3 laying around right now just would have to find 3 SS sinks to fit the top. Word to the wise do not take a woman along when your thinking of buying anything to do with Maple.maple syrup or almost anything else that goes on in your shop.

Ken, I'm not married and I know that! At least I'm lucky though, my girlfriend says "we need more taps".

[C.Wilcox]

They do make nice cookers.

Blasphemy Haynes! ;)

My wife was actually pleased when she got home and saw it, despite not even really knowing what it was for. She's definitely a keeper. :)

It may not be much to look at right now, but I think it has some serious potential. Now all I have to do is find enough trees to supply the sap that I'll need to fill the pan. I'm planning on tapping about 30 trees next year, but I'm still not sure that will be enough to keep a 2X3 or 2X4 flat pan busy enough. Any of you more experienced folks have any thoughts on that?

Is putting your pan before your sap like putting your cart in front of your horse?

[BarrelBoiler]

Ah Mr Wilcox, you do have a fine start there, might I suggest careful planing before cutting. We sliced the top off ours with one expectation and now may have to add some steel back to meet a different plan:(

As to 30 trees (taps?) depending on how they give sap , will keep you hopping alright. A 2x3 with preheater half pint was rated at 50 taps if I remember correctly. I know our barrel stove 2X3 plus kept us busy at that amount (30) of taps

good luck

[KenWP]

I have one box elder that is 3 feet or more wide at the base and then splits into several trunks. It alone gives me about 10 gallons and more sap per day when it gets going. I wish I had more of them. When I bought the place the fellow who lived here before suggested I cut it down becasue of the seeds which kept getting into the greenhouse and garden. With me it's got a pardon as I find it usefull.
I would say haveing a place to boil sap beats haveing sap and no place to boil it. I started out planning for 35 taps there abouts and ended up with 150. Only the last week or so did they over power me and I ended up with a job instead of a hobby. I need to increase my boiling rate as it I can only boil 3 gallons an hour with mine and that's with 4 different preheaters to get the sap hot enough to dribble in the pan and keep it boiling constantly.