how much firewood?

[beeginer]

Hi,
New to all this. Used to help others when I was a kid, but not been around it for years. My buddy and I got the bug to get into this. We built an arch out of an oil tank as a lot of others I have seen on here have done. I thank you all for your posts on here as it helped us more than you know.

I have attached some pictures of the arch we took as we were moving it across the lawn from the garage to the sugar house. (At least I think I have attached them, I am not sure if it has worked as I see lots have trouble attaching pics - we shall see if it works)

The question I have today is:
How much firewood should we plan on. The firebox is around two feet by two feet. It has 3 1/2 inch firebrick. We have a 2 by 4 stainless steel divided pan coming. We plan on taping 150 trees. We have access to free rough cut softwood plank discards which we have cut to fit the firebox. We just have no idea how much wood to plan for. We have about 3 cords cut so far Any ideas what we should have. I know it depends on the sap run, however we have no idea at all. Would hate to have a bunch of sap with no wood!

Thanks.

[beeginer]

This picture didn't post. It is the inside prior to adding the firebrick, but after we had a test fire with a few beers the night before!

[Thad Blaisdell]

Wow... that is just about the slickest rig. I can not help you with the wood part as I burn oil sorry. But... you could build a flat top for this and have a hell of a griddle/BBQ for the rest of the year.

Very impressive. Good Luck!

[TRAILGUY]

i would be very surprised if you burned two cord but you never know. I taped 200 and burn less then one cord.

[Dennis H.]

They say, well who exactly are they anyway, that 1 cord of wood per 20 gals of syrup. If it is all softwood I would guess alittle more wood/gals. I think 3 cords of softwood would be plenty for you.
Do you have any hardwood to burn? If you do mix them. put a little hardwood in with the soft. And split them small. They again say, about the size of your wrist or forearm. Smaller the faster and hotter it burns.

By the way nice looking rig. They only concern I have for you is your grates. I am not sure that the expanded steel will hold up very long. I made a grate out of 1/4" angle and it got so hot that it sagged by about 1" in the middle by the end of the season. I ended up getting rid of the metal grates and use fire bricks with holes drilled in them. worked so much better. When I lifted the bricks out this summer to clean it out the steel supporting the brick were not even discolored from heat.

[Maplewalnut]

Just keep splitting. You'll be at 500 taps with a 2x8 in two years anyway. Seriously here is the math most use....150 taps X .33 gallons of syrup per tap=almost 50 gallons of syrup. 1 cord of wood will generally yield 20 gallons of syrup so you are somewhere around 2.5 cord. I would split four cord if you can to be safe. And like Dennis said mix in some hardwood, some pallets, some soft. You'll find a good mixture to fire once you get going for a few boils.

Youll find two commonalities among sugarmakers.... everyone has burnt a pan (whether they admit it or not) and everyone at some point has run out of wood at some point in their career.

[red maples]

I would say 3 cords too you may only use 2 but better to safe than sorry. if you have more time and energy do more. cover it and what ever you don't use this year you have it for the next!!!

nice looking rig!!!

[farmall h]

Sturdy looking rig. Where abouts are you located...can't see it on your profile. Maybe we are neighbors?:)

[Randy Brutkoski]

Or maybe he could be neighbors with me. But more than likely up your way. There isnt a whole lot of guys that tap down this way.

[brookledge]

Like Dennis said the expanded metal will not hold up to the heat. You would be better to look for some cast iron grates now and set it up before sugaring season. Better to do it now than after your first boil
Keith

[Farmboy]

If you don't have a blower I would advise burning all softwood and maby a little hardwood but not much. If you burn to much hard wood way too many coals build up and you won't have much room for a fire. I would say 3 cord should be pleanty but it's nice to be 2 years ahead.

[3rdgen.maple]

I think you guys are way off he needs to get 10 cords cut and deliver 8 to me then he will have enough.

[SilverLeaf]

My take is that you will actually be cutting it close with 3 cord of wood, and you might want to have more on hand.

It all boils down to your boil rate (pun intended). :lol: The higher your boil rate the less wood you'll use. You've got a 2x4 flat pan, so your numbers are going to be much different than, for example, TRAILGUY up above. It's an apples & oranges comparison. He has a 2x6 with a raised flue. Don't know what his boil rate is, but it's probably 30 gal/hr, which is why he burns less than a cord of wood. You'll be in the 8-10 gal/hr range.

For another comparison, here were my numbers last year: 108 taps, a 2x6 flat pan (with about a 12 gal/hr boil rate). I ended up with about 24 gal syrup and burned 2 cords of wood (a 50/50 mixture of hard & soft).

[Jeff E]

I agree with Dan, evaporator effieciency (boil rate) has a just as much to do with it as how much sap you have.

I would think you want 3 cords ready to go, maybe more if we have a big year next year. You could be up to your eyeballs in sap if you get several good days back to back. Think about getting 150+ gallons of sap for 4 staight days. You will be boiling for 16 hours every day during a run like that. That will eat through your wood pile pretty quick!!!

[beeginer]

Thanks everyone for all the info. Lots to think about. First thing we are doing is installing a cast iron grate to replace the stretched steel. Also some asked where we are located and it is Waterbury/Duxbury VT. Thanks again to all who provided info, it is greatly appreciated.

[steve J]

Good luck to you beeginer we are nearly neighbors as I am in Middlesex not far from the Waterbury line.

[C.Wilcox]

Thanks everyone for all the info. Lots to think about. First thing we are doing is installing a cast iron grate to replace the stretched steel.

You can also use heavy steel "C" channel turned so the channel faces up. The channel will fill with ash and insulate the steel. That's what mine are made of and they work "grate". Terrible pun intended. :) Nice part is they're cheap to make and replace if necessary.

[farmall h]

Beeginer, sorry we are not neighbors, but great to see another Vermonter jumping in on the syrup production. Won't be long you guys will be getting a bigger rig and more beer.....maybe just more beer for now.;)