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Thread: 2x3 pan from smokey lake

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Sep 2012
    Location
    Dresden, ME
    Posts
    163

    Default 2x3 pan from smokey lake

    I was looking at the 2x3 hybird pan that smokey lake produces. Has anyone run one or seen one in action?
    2010 - barrel stove & a steam table pan. 10 - 12 trees
    2011 - same deal as the year before. My son is now hooked along with me.
    2012 - Took over the garden shed and set up a Mason 2x3. Hoping to tap 30 - 50 trees. Ended up with 100 taps out.
    Finished the season with 16 gallons made
    2013- - Purchased a Smokey Lake 2 x 3 Hybrid pan. WOW, what a difference!!

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Mar 2012
    Location
    central new york
    Posts
    6

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    I bought the 2x4 hybrid pan for this year and I can tell you Jim's claims of at least 250% evaporation rate over a flat 2x4 pan are true. I boiled on a cinder block arch in a tee pee and if I fed the fire every 10 minutes with wrist sized wood. I got 20 gal/hr and that was with a leaky front and cold sap affecting the boil. Very happy with the pan.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    May 2009
    Location
    Cheshire, CT
    Posts
    385

    Default

    ditto on the 2x4 I bought. 24gph at the end of the season after tweaking throughout. bricks layered one inch below drop flues, warming sap. it was a work in progress but it surely delivered as promised.

    41.457 x -72.907 148 elevation
    2x4 wood fired evaporator with the "Hercules Blower"
    hybrid pan and backflip preheater by Smoky Lake
    103 taps. 44 on gravity
    All sugar Maples
    7" filter press
    10 x 12 sugar shack
    two very helpful kids
    a wife that thinks I'm nuts

    https://youtu.be/7MiY8qzBKk8
    https://www.wunderground.com/persona...d?ID=KCTCHESH7

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Sep 2012
    Location
    Dresden, ME
    Posts
    163

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    I am trying to decide which path I should take. Very interested in the homemade ro route but with an unheated shack and limited space for additional tanks at this time the pan might be a better although more expensive choice. It would be lower maintenance and less worry about freezing. Now if I could refrain from burning it I would be all set. A couple of times I couldn't boil fast enough to keep up with what I was collecting and I'd like to cut down on the marathon boils.
    I'm thinking that a hybrid pan, preheater and hood may be the way to go. I don't have the space for anything bigger than a 2x4 evaporator in the shed.
    2010 - barrel stove & a steam table pan. 10 - 12 trees
    2011 - same deal as the year before. My son is now hooked along with me.
    2012 - Took over the garden shed and set up a Mason 2x3. Hoping to tap 30 - 50 trees. Ended up with 100 taps out.
    Finished the season with 16 gallons made
    2013- - Purchased a Smokey Lake 2 x 3 Hybrid pan. WOW, what a difference!!

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Dec 2010
    Location
    Lum, MI
    Posts
    54

    Default

    I am in the boat as you sg5054. I am pretty much a one man operation and with a regular job working 40-60 hours a week I would like to cut down on the weekend marathon boils too. My shack isn't very big and its not heated so an RO isn't in the works for me as of yet. I would like somebody to post video or pics of one of these hybrid pans in action. I am very interested in one.
    Leader supreme 2x4 evaporator
    20'x24' sugarshack
    New Holland TC25 sap hauler
    1 black lab named Murphy

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Oct 2009
    Location
    Maine
    Posts
    292

    Default

    Im getting ready to order a 16X30 flat finish pan from him to go on my new double burner set up. His stuff looks really nice!.
    24x56 heavy timber post and beam sugar house. 2013 CDL 2.5x8 deluxe airtight raised flue 750 taps on vacuum. CDL reverse osmosis, Wes Fab 7" full bank press. Eastern Maine CDL sales rep.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Sep 2012
    Location
    Dresden, ME
    Posts
    163

    Default

    Polished stainless is always really nice. They make it that shiny so you can't see the price tag until it's to late.....
    2010 - barrel stove & a steam table pan. 10 - 12 trees
    2011 - same deal as the year before. My son is now hooked along with me.
    2012 - Took over the garden shed and set up a Mason 2x3. Hoping to tap 30 - 50 trees. Ended up with 100 taps out.
    Finished the season with 16 gallons made
    2013- - Purchased a Smokey Lake 2 x 3 Hybrid pan. WOW, what a difference!!

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Sep 2012
    Location
    Dresden, ME
    Posts
    163

    Default

    I hear ya sugarman.
    I boiled pretty close to every night and all weekends for about 5 weeks straight. I made myself pretty comfortable with wireless internet, netflix, and a 19" flat monitor I found surplus. I became the chef boy o' boy of the sugar shack and cooked many meals out there for my son and I (and no it wasn't all sap dogs!). We had a great time but wow was I tired towards the end. I took a couple of days off after 3 weeks into it when I set the pan on fire....
    My dad came up and helped a couple of times but I was still there and had to be "on" anyway. No real downtime.
    Now how to come up with the scratch to get that pan. I can sell mine so that will help some.

    What's a 2x3 pan worth?
    What else do I have that isn't bolted down or nailed to a wall that I can sell.....
    2010 - barrel stove & a steam table pan. 10 - 12 trees
    2011 - same deal as the year before. My son is now hooked along with me.
    2012 - Took over the garden shed and set up a Mason 2x3. Hoping to tap 30 - 50 trees. Ended up with 100 taps out.
    Finished the season with 16 gallons made
    2013- - Purchased a Smokey Lake 2 x 3 Hybrid pan. WOW, what a difference!!

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Oct 2008
    Location
    south new berlin,n.y.
    Posts
    125

    Default

    I would like to get some info on the hybrid from smokey lake,would someone please give me a contact address,thanks.I also would like to cut my boil times down,I then would collect more sap.
    homemade barrel evaporator 2 x 4 divided flat pan 40 taps 10 x 8 sap house hood and pre heater

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Mar 2012
    Location
    central new york
    Posts
    6

    Default

    Jim at Smoky Lake Maple will respond to messages sent via his website and give you quotes on equipment. http://www.smokylakemaple.com/contact/. Last year I was in the same boat you guys were in, long boils.
    I took a chance on the hybrid pan and made 6 times the syrup in half the time boiling.

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