Leveling evaporator

[steve J]

I am getting ready to buy a new evaporator and my surgar house sits on cement blocks that shift with the frost thus causing me to have to relevel evaporator each time I boil. Also it shifted during a boil this pass week causeing syrup to puddle in the rear vs near draw off. I am currently using a 2x3 and want to go to a 2x6 . But this larger units look like they be a bit tricky to relevel anyone else dealing with similar issues?

[GregMVT]

On my old 2x6 it had two legs in the back for leveling. It was kind of a pain to set up but I didn't have the issues that you do.

Greg

[Haynes Forest Products]

First I would set the legs on angle iron to spread the load so your not pushing on only one block per leg. Get thru the year and plan on a cement floor for next year. Get some angle from a bead frame or just some 2x6 will help. Question is how do you walk around in the shack if they are all moving around SNOW SHOES?

NOW if someone says to to put the evap on SONO tubes have them call me at 303 8105501 so I can ask them just how that works!!!

[TF Maple]

If you don't want to spend the money cementing the whole floor under the 2x6 you could just do some corner posts. Dig holes at the 4 corners with a post hole digger maybe 3 feet deep or so. Take a piece of rebar about 5 feet long and pound it into the hole to get some more depth, if it doesn't go in far enough (maybe hits a rock) just cut it off. Then dump in bags of QuickCrete adding water as you dump them in. That should give you some fairly stable corners to level off of, once a year.

[PerryW]

I set up my 3x10 temporarily in my sugarhouse 21 years ago. Needless to say, temporary appears to have become permanent.

I poured a 3-4" unreinforced slab right in the dirt and blocked up the base for the firebox and just set cinderblocks in the dirt for the back legs sooooo, it also moves around a lot during the season.

I just take a normal hydraulic floor jack and cut a hunk of 2x6 the right length to catch the bottom of the angle iron rails of the evaporator. It's a simple 5 minute job to jack up a corner of my rig (even while boiling) and slip in a metal shim or two to level it. You can also tuck in some arch rail gasket under the firebox to get rid of the gaps.