New to this, looking for some help.

[striker3636]

Hello everyone, I'm brand new to sugaring and looking for some help specific to some equipment I picked up. This will be our first year with our new home in the middle of a 17 acre sugar bush, and we're looking to start sugaring with our kids. I picked up a used evaporator setup with about 120 pails, taps, covers, and everything else really cheap, but unfortunately the guy I got it from had never run it (estate sale) so couldn't answer any questions.

The arch that I got is 4' x 2' and was homemade by a machinist/welder and it's all very nicely welded and fabricated out of 1/4" plate steel, and fully lined with firebrick. It looks like this; I'll put the pans in the next post.


IMG_6292 by striker3636, on Flickr



IMG_6291 by striker3636, on Flickr



IMG_6288 by striker3636, on Flickr

Some of my questions are;
Do I need to have a grate in the bottom to raise the wood?
The stack opening has no baffle or anything, will that be a problem?
The stack opening is oval and is designed for 6" pipe, which I guess you just bend into the oval shape. Would I be better off on this small of an evaporator going to a larger pipe size? Would it burn better if I welded a plate steel rectangular box, the full width of the evaporator, on top to replace the oval, and then put an adaptor on the box to take 8" or better?
The draft slide in the door seems kind of small, will it allow sufficient air in? If, down the road, I wanted to put a small blower on, would I just mount it on the door?
I just got finished wire wheeling and painting it with high temp, that's why it looks wet in some of the pics.

I'll post pics and questions on the pans in the next post.