valleyman
03-07-2010, 08:37 PM
Yesterday's and todays boil bring me to my fifth boil for the 2010 season. Prior to this morning I hadnt got all 4 pans to boil. I was convinced that I needed to add more air or heat to the mix to get the heat to the rear. So I went out and bought a inexpensive electric leaf blower. I added some sand to fill gaps and also added some sand to bring the floor up a bit closer to my back two pans thinking closer is better. Just the opposite is true in my case. I had about 1" under the two rear pans.
I was pushing a lot of thick smoke out the stack and at first I thought that was a good thing not really understanding.
Today I got rid of the sand, got rid a layer of half bricks off the floor, got rid of the bricks that I had angled between the fire box and rear section which increased the depth of the firebox a little more. Now I have 2-3 clearence under the back two restaurant pans.
And since my pans are set into the firebox I also took mapletrader advise and ran my pans filled deep with sap instead of the 2-3" depth as previous boils.
Fired her up this morning and when she got hot I had all four pans going with a hard boil. Finally. :D
I continued to use a small window exhaust fan as my forced air. Never opened the Leaf Blower.
It was a near perfect mix. There was light smoke with and gases exiting the stack instead of the heavy smoke. The stack was super hot. It was just a lot more efficient overall just by giving the pans more breathing room. I boiled 20 gallons off in a couple of hours and had beautiful light syrup developing and finished on the propane. I had more time set aside today for boiling so I boiled off another 20 gallons of older sap I had gathered over the week. The first twenty I boiled today came form last night and this morning which I kept seperate from the older.)
Again a big thanks for all the shared knowledge here.
Because of one year reading and learning from everyone here at Mapletrader I was a key contributer to a local maple festival and I shared what I've learned with a bunch of interested hobbyists and did a half gallon finished demo on a propane burner. Made some cash on my syrup and nuts too!
I was pushing a lot of thick smoke out the stack and at first I thought that was a good thing not really understanding.
Today I got rid of the sand, got rid a layer of half bricks off the floor, got rid of the bricks that I had angled between the fire box and rear section which increased the depth of the firebox a little more. Now I have 2-3 clearence under the back two restaurant pans.
And since my pans are set into the firebox I also took mapletrader advise and ran my pans filled deep with sap instead of the 2-3" depth as previous boils.
Fired her up this morning and when she got hot I had all four pans going with a hard boil. Finally. :D
I continued to use a small window exhaust fan as my forced air. Never opened the Leaf Blower.
It was a near perfect mix. There was light smoke with and gases exiting the stack instead of the heavy smoke. The stack was super hot. It was just a lot more efficient overall just by giving the pans more breathing room. I boiled 20 gallons off in a couple of hours and had beautiful light syrup developing and finished on the propane. I had more time set aside today for boiling so I boiled off another 20 gallons of older sap I had gathered over the week. The first twenty I boiled today came form last night and this morning which I kept seperate from the older.)
Again a big thanks for all the shared knowledge here.
Because of one year reading and learning from everyone here at Mapletrader I was a key contributer to a local maple festival and I shared what I've learned with a bunch of interested hobbyists and did a half gallon finished demo on a propane burner. Made some cash on my syrup and nuts too!