First Time, Block Arch, want door and steam hood advice, w/pics

[Chris W]

This is my first year attempt at this already addicting hobby. I've gotten LOTS of great tips/advice just by reading the posts on this great site. I've attached pics of my current progress.

Please don't make fun of my current door (it's an old washer top that was left on the property by the previous owners). I still have to cut an air intake at the bottom of the panel (it is temporarily sitting in place right now). I've struggled with what to use for a front/door and don't really feel like shelling out another $150 if I can help it (I've already invested too much into this temporary set up as I plan to build a steel evaporator next year). Should I insulate and strengthen this front with some angle iron or are there other fairly inexpensive things I can use for a front/door (no welding possible this year)?

I'm in a 10x10 aluminum shed (the new sugar shack). :) I'm guessing steam is going to be a major problem. So I'm planning on fabricating a steam hood using rectangular ductwork stock (like what I used on the arch) and 6" duct through the roof. Any suggestions on inline fans and where I can find them? Any other tips/tricks/plans for steam hoods I should know about?

I plan to transfer sap/syrup from pan 3 to 4, 2 to 3, 1 to 2, and preheat to 1 (4 being closest to the door). I have a SS scoop, but still haven't decided what to do about the pan handles. Should I install handles, put holes in the lips, or just use the ole screwdriver to lift it up.

Thanks again to all the great folks on this site for their contributions and great knowledge sharing. I've been reading this site everyday for the last 6 months.

[Chris W]

Adding the pictures

[C.Wilcox]

If I had taken that much time and care in building my block evaporator I would still be using it this season. That thing looks great and the washer top door is genius. I ended up using a large paving block propped up at an angle to make my door. Air intake was "au natural" from the gaps around the block. If you're sure you're not going to use that set up next year I wouldn't bother insulating the door. It will warp pretty good from the heat, but seeing as how it was just junk that didn't cost you anything what difference does it make? As for air holes, you could just drill some holes in the front near the bottom and use a small piece of tin with a tab bent up for a crude handle to open or cover them as necessary. Just loosely bolt it to the door so that it doesn't swing around on it's own. I think you're going to be surprised how well that set up will boil once you get the blocks hot. I just kept a couple of wooden wedges handy to drive under the edges of the pans. Put on the fire resistant gloves and lift them out. I've mentioned this before, but be careful lifting them out and do it slowly. If you have a hot fire in there the flames are going to want to reach up for the in-rush of fresh oxygen. That means the fire tornado is heading right for you. Not something you want to deal with while holding 3 gallons of boiling napalm, but if you go slow the fire will adjust and you'll be able to keep your eyebrows for another day.

[valleyman]

Hi Chris,

Looks great. Wish my pans still looked like that! Boiled hard this weekend and added more character to mine. I basically have the same setup. If you for my posts (valleyman) you'll find some pics.

As for the handles I bought some galvanized handles at HD and Lowes and pop riveted them from the top. They worked perfectly this weekend.

I agree. Great idea for the door.

[NedL]

Very nice looking block arc. I have something similar, but not nearly as tight. What I do for the door is lie a block flat in front and then put 2 side by side standing on top. That leaves a gap just abotu a brick's width and i fill taht with Brick I have laying around. To refire just pull off one of the standing blocks and toss in the wood. The bottom block I lay with the holes facing out and cover the holes with a couple of large rocks, To let more air in I just pull one of the rocks away.

[Treetapper]

Nice lookin rig!

[TC matt]

Hey Chris, This looks great. Two questions...do you have firebrick on the inside and is the entire interior your firebox or just the front half (w/ the back half built up closer to your pans? I ask, because I'm learning all this the hardway and need to modify my rig (a 300 gal tank) after learning more from this site.

[emo]

I use the same setup. I just use a large screwdriver to pry the pans up. A good pair of fireplace/welding gloves are good for feeding wood in as well as lifting up the pans. For a door I just used a sheet of 22/24 ga. sheet steel from Lowes, attacked angle at the top. The angle has 2 short screws, threaded through, that sit in holes on a piece of flat steel that sits across the top front of the block.

[valleyman]

Chris,

One more thing about securing the front door. Mine is outside so I used two 3'steel surveyer stakes and drove them a foot into the ground. My door is lined w/ ceramic blanket and it's nice and snug. The door did warp a little after 5 hrs of inferno but no biggie.

[Chris W]

Thanks everyone for the great feedback.

Wilcox - Thanks for the reminder about the fire tornado. I read one of your posts about this before.


TC Matt - No firebrick this year so I expect I'll lose a few blocks. I probably went overboard but I packed every cavity in each block with sand. I have the duct panel as pseudo heat deflectors lining the walls. I did build up the "arch" in the back with block and more duct, leaving a 2" gap below the pans. firebox is about 20w X 20D.

I think I'll slap some extra angle iron that I have, on the front to reinforce it a bit. I have rail gasket and plan to use it for the pans and any left over to seal between the washer top and the block. If it doesn't hold up, maybe I'll make one like emo or find something else. I can buy a used cracked (top) Leader front panel with door and cleanout door for $150 if all else fails (not sure if that's a good deal or not).

I can't wait for 40 degree weather...hurry up already...wait, I'm not done yet with my rig. :o I still have to build that steam hood.

[vtsnowedin]

With your blocks full of sand you should start up the first time very carefully. Just normal humidity probably has collected some moisture in the sand and the blocks themselves. If you start right off with a roaring fire the moisture in the blocks turns to steam faster then it can escape through the pours and the resulting pressure will crack the blocks and the inside face can fall right off. Build a nice little smudge instead and control it and your impatience for an hour or so to let everything get dried out for sure then your ready to rock and roll.

[morningstarfarm]

ditto on what vt said..Made that mistake...once

[Chris W]

Excellent point. I think I'll do a test fire this weekend (slowly) to evaporate the moisture in the arch. Looks like Tuesday or Wednesday will be the day that the weather hits the 40s here in MI and will kick off this great adventure. :)

Thanks again!

[Z/MAN]

I read somewhere here in the past about heating a newly bricked arch slowly and I was just going to ask if i had to do that and why. I guess my question has just been answered. I will build a small fire and get that moisture out. Thanks.
Paul

[morningstarfarm]

not just the first time.every time...moisture still builds up in the sand...be patient and you'll appreciate it. A shattered block is a pain to fix with a full pan on it

[RileySugarbush]

Why did you put sand in the blocks?

[red maples]

the reason I started the low fire in the begining was to cure the refractory cement once thats done and all the moisture is out your ready to rock and roll when I start my fire up I start to get the first little rumble of boil in 5 minutes. and I am at good boil in 10 minutes. but really takes the first oh 45 minutes to an hour to get thing really hot and humming!!!

[Chris W]

I filled it with sand for a few reasons (to act as an insulator, to lock in the blocks, and because someone recommended on this forum to fill them). I'll definitely start each firing slowly and ramp up.

[Johnny Cuervo]

If your gonna finish off every day you boil, there's no need to lift or do all that transferring. Just use your back pan as a pre heater and ladle to your front 3. When out of sap, then start eliminating pans from the back and cover each hole with scrap medal , and finish up on pan 4.

[mountaindalemaple]

We are even smaller- 20 taps just built an arch 4 concrete block high- lined with fire brick- 4 steam table pans - with a chimney -had some friends build it for us-before winter.
today- our first day- before we even started -noticed the fire brick pulling away- by the end of our day (5 quarts- our best day ever) the fire brick is falling off- the people who did it did not put a layer of mortar behind the fire brick- just in the joints. Also, the concrete blocks are separating at the joints- do we need to tear it down and start again.
we didn't heat it up slowly as described!
as if you couldn' tell we are kind of newbies.

[vtsnowedin]

We are even smaller- 20 taps just built an arch 4 concrete block high- lined with fire brick- 4 steam table pans - with a chimney -had some friends build it for us-before winter.
today- our first day- before we even started -noticed the fire brick pulling away- by the end of our day (5 quarts- our best day ever) the fire brick is falling off- the people who did it did not put a layer of mortar behind the fire brick- just in the joints. Also, the concrete blocks are separating at the joints- do we need to tear it down and start again.
we didn't heat it up slowly as described!
as if you couldnt' tell we are kind of newbies.
Well that depends on what's at risk. If your inside on a wood floor in a historic mansion you need to stop right now and start over. If your out in the driveway and a catastrophic fire will scorch some gravel and burn up a two dollar blue tarp your good to go.
Are the blocks cracking and falling apart or they just losing the mortar in the joints?

[mountaindalemaple]

outside on 4" concrete base- so no burning of the mansion :) I'm hoping to get thru the season- the firebricks are pulling away from the concrete block- I'll try to upload a picture

[mountaindalemaple]

the concrete blocks are losing mortar- no cracking. Can't upload pic- too many mb for the application or some such stuff

[vtsnowedin]

the concrete blocks are losing mortar- no cracking. Can't upload pic- too many mb for the application or some such stuff
Well as long as it doesn't let the pans get grossly out of level you should be OK. You can leave the fire brick inside just leaned up against the blocks and they will reflect the heat just like they are supposed to. If it goes out of level stop and disassemble it and clean off the remains of the mortar joints and re stack it dry. If you have a level floor to start with you will be close enough. I've done it (A long time ago when I was young and even more stupid) on laid up dry stone wall stones on thawing frozen ground. Every now and then something would thaw out and settle and you would have to pull up on the pan and slide in another thin stone on the new low corner.

[mountaindalemaple]

thanks for the help- feel better now-

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

You may be able to use some wire mess or wire screen to help hold the firebricks in place or even an old piece of metal roofing.

[Chris W]

Wanted to update folks on my first run. Everything went great. Definitely learned some things. I let my sap level fluctuate too much in the 4 steam pan set up which resulted in scorching on the pan over the firebox. I'll try to keep them more consistent (although it was darn near a full time job transferring sap from pan to pan the whole time). I think I got about 6-7GPH boil. I'll gauge it better with the next boil. I didn't push it as hard as I could but I had all 4 pans boiling.

I need to put handles on my pans. That was not fun trying to quickly get the pans out at the end of the batch.

The washer top/door worked extremely well!!! No warping on the first fire. Overall I'm very happy with the evaporator but I guarantee next year I'll have a real pan.

Here are some pics of the first run. Thanks again to everyone for the great input and advice.

[valleyman]

Hey Chris,
Looks great! I have a nearly identical set up. I added some handles to the pans. I have a pic below.

You probably do the same thing but I'll share my routine with you.

When I'm starting to finish starting with the rear pan I remove as much sap and move it up to the next and then add water. I keep repeating that until the front pan has all the sap. I continue to boil until I take it all out of the front pan and add water to that pan. The pans are stuck due so I dont bother taking them off until the next day. I use one of those flat bottom scoops in the maple catalogs and it gets almost everything out of the pans so not much is wasted.

I got mine working great last weekend and I had 3" of golden sap in the 3rd pan, decided to go make a sandwich and got side tracked and came back to flames! in that pan. El Scorcho to the max.:( I'm power sanding it to clean it up

[Chris W]

Yeah I picked up some handles today and I'll be putting them on tomorrow night. I do the same thing as you. I use the scoop to transfer (works fantastic). I also scoop, move forward, backfill with water until its all in the front pan. It was the lifting out of the front pan that was a pain. The syrup snuck up on me FAST and it was a dash to try to kill the fire, and get the pan off without handles. I actually over cooked it but was able to thin it back out with a little sap on the stove. It turned out great. The syrup was a deep amber but tasted great.

I'm considering evenly distributing the sap from the front pan across the other pans so that it doesn't continue to cook and get dark if that makes any sense. It seems that the sap that's been in the longest stays in the front pan where it boils the hardest and continues to get darker. I'm hoping if I can "mix" it up across all pans I'll get a little lighter syrup??????

[valleyman]

Chris,

I was under the impression that syrup loses quality by mixing fresh sap with the nearly finished. But at the same time I know that the longer its on the heat the darker it gets. I dont know which contributes more to a darker product. I think the longer boil would contribute more.

I was thinking along the same lines. But keeping the near finished in the two front pans instead of all four like you're thinking of doing. On my rig all 4 boil well but the two front pans burn a bit hotter. I'm going to experiment tomorrow. I'm afraid it'll be my last boil.:(

If anything noteworthy comes of it I'll let you know.

[valleyman]

Hi Chris,
I forgot to ask you in my previous post. I see you're using the ceramic blanket to snug up your pans. How do you like it? Currently I'm using the flat rope gasket and it's been working fine but I was considering going your route. My concern is that the ceramic blanket will stick to the pans when lifting out for cleaning.

[Chris W]

I like it. It was "Rail gasket" that I bought in a roll from my local maple supply store. It does a good job of sealing the edges so no flames or exhaust escape. It did stick to the pans though in a few spots. I think it was mainly the spots where sap/syrup touched.