Home Made Stack

[darkmachine]

We are having a stack base made for our 72" arch. The specs say that the outlet is 24" diameter. Now as much as I would like to purchase 20ft of double walled insulated stainless steel to complete my stack for this season, it's not in the budget. The question I pose is this, could one weld "fuel" drums end to end and have it serve as a make shift stack? I have seen many barrel stoves and barrel evaporators, I even seen sheet metal sections of stack patched together, so can it take the heat? I am not expecting this to be a permanent solution, think it will last a whole season?

I'm interested to hear every ones thoughts

btw the diameter of the barrels is about 23" and some change, so a decent fit but not perfect.

[3rdgen.maple]

What in the world are you trying to put a 23 inch stack on that is HUGE.

[Haynes Forest Products]

Why the heck do you need double wall for? I understand if your going out the roof close to other wood BUT all the way Why? Get yourself some Galvanized 14" it will last forever if you dont store it outside all year. I have been using it for 6 years and its as good as the first season. You can go to Home Depot and get the 5' sections of 8" and put 2 together thats 2 of them poped together for a bigger diameter. If you grimp the ends with a hammer they wont want to come apart. If your going out the roof make a roof jack out of just plain sheet metal flat as the roof. Bend the metal up along the opening so water will run around the hole and cover every year with a garbage can lid with bricks over it to hold it down. keep a good clearance from the wood. Man you got ta hang around farmers more they will teach you a thing about KEEPING IT SIMPLE S(*&(&*^&^%^%$

[Gary R]

You said "the specs say 24" dia.". Have you not seen it yet? It is possible that the base outlet is oblong, being 24" wide. Most arches transition from oblong to round with a stack base.

[smitty76]

24" is huge, what size arch?

[Dave Y]

He said It was a 72" arch. That would be a 6X Have you seen a 6x stack? yeah its 23''! You dont need double wall , all you need is a proper roof Jack and Stack made for an evaporator. Try to keep you stack minimum of 2ft away from any wood. If that is not possible put some Kaowool around the wood. It will keep it from getting to hot!

[mapleack]

If this is going to be for your 40" by 6' pan, you only need a 12" stack diam, 10" should work fine too. The "specs" that say you need 24" for a 6' wide arch are intended for 15' or 16' long by 6' wide arches. In your homemade arch size you will do better to compare your square footage of pan (20sqft) to conventional arches to pick a stack diameter. You're falling between a 2x8 and a 3x8' surface area. Look to see what size stack is recommended for a 3x8 and go with that. my two cents.

[maple flats]

If your signature is correct you have 112 wooden spiles and a 40"x6' pan. With these you should make a tapered base of heavy galvinized from 24 or maybe even 30" wide down to about 14". This transition can be anywhere from 3' to 6 or more feet long. From there use single wall heavy galv. stack pipe, no damper. Where yo go thru the tent you must protect it from the intense heat by either lots of air space (36" all directions) or for every single layer of tin with a 1" air space you cut that in half (ie, 1+18", 2 layers = 9", 3 layers =4.5" etc.) Another way is to insulate the pipe where it goes thru the tent wall or roof. For that I would suggest high density ceramic blanket, available usually on ebay. Good luck!
Dave

[HHM-07]

i have seen folks use metal culverts for stack and it seemed to work just fine , it pays to do some cheap thinking from time to time.



Dick

[Haynes Forest Products]

OK guys this will freak you out My flue pipe is running at about 550 degrees single wall and with 10" clearance from wood thru the roof and then it runs 4" along the Coupla and it leans against the shingles with 2 layers of blanket for safety:emb:

[darkmachine]

Ok, here are some things that might clear up the picture. We have a different arch this year than last. We bought two 6x6 syrup pans to join on one side at the float box. Our plan is to buy a raised flue pan after the 2010 season, to finish up a 6x16 wood fired arch. We hope to have about 600-1000 taps this season, it depends on if we can get another lease on trees. We are having the stack base fabricated out of stainless so even if the 24" diameter at the top is overkill for this season, we wont' have to make another one. Our arch is block, and we have a King style cast iron plate for the stack base to sit on, and based on that I looked up the dimensions in the catalogue for the stack base.

we spent our budget this year on the pans, a stainless 2500 gallon milk tank, the stack base, and firebrick...so the barrels are looking really good for the stack, just needed to make sure they wont' colapse under the heat. I've seem some low stack temps, but also some high. Some old timers around here suggested we install a damper and tie a piece of bailing twine around the stack when we have a boil on, and close the damper until it wont' burn off the twine, lol, not sure about that.

It's a big piece of equipment, but can't afford an RO, and we have LOTS of free fuel. :)

[mapleack]

Go with the drums for a year or two then. They're probably similar or heavier gauge metal than a comparable galvanized flue pipe. Good luck with all those taps on flat pans, good that you have the maple bug going for you!

[3rdgen.maple]

Yes sir the old bailing twine trick is what my grandfather had on his stack. Back then it was a Leader sales rep that tied it on his pipe. I ave to think if a thin galvanized sheet metal stack hold up those barrels should be fine.

[maple flats]

That changes things. Go with the barrels until you get the 6x16 set. Realize you will burn the same amout of wood as when it becomes a 16'er. After 1 season check the barrels. I think they would last several years if needed. Make sure you protect combustables from the heat of the stack. For every story about how close their stack may be to shingles or whatever, there is another horror story about the worst day someone ever had making maple.

[darkmachine]

Thanks everyone for your input, I'll post some pics after we get everything assembled. We'll be working in the snowstorm this weekend as long as we can stand it, running out of days fast.....

[Haynes Forest Products]

Use old sap buckets and give it that retro look something out of the "Cat in The Hat" or a spiral culvert so the flue gas spins and goes higher up like a scrubbing chimmny

[darkmachine]

buckets would be a nice touch, lol. People in the area already think there is some arcane magic going on to make syrup out of clear "water". Since there are few producers in the area it's a mystery how it's done to most.