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Thread: Mounting a Steam-Away

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Apr 2005
    Location
    Cayuta NY
    Posts
    776

    Default Mounting a Steam-Away

    This past year I picked up a new Steam-away for my evaporator. I didn't buy the lift kit that Leader sells for them, seemed like alot of money for the parts that came with it... I wanted to see what others have done to mount there units, my thought is to have the support cables hooked to a trolley that rides on a barn door track so I could lift the steamaway and move it to the side if I wanted to clean the flue pan. Anyone else have a similar system? Thanks
    Jeff

    470 taps
    Torr Vac TV40D High Vac with Lapierre Horizontal releaser
    Leader 2x6 Patriot raised flue
    Leader 2x4 Steamaway
    Wildfire arch
    MES Dolly 300 3 post RO
    DG 7" 5 bank filter press
    and still lookin to get bigger

  2. #2
    Join Date
    May 2009
    Location
    UVM Proctor Maple Research Center, Underhill Ctr, VT
    Posts
    6,391

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by nymapleguy607 View Post
    Anyone else have a similar system? Thanks
    We have two steel I-beams (black in the attached photo) running across our sugarhouse above the evaporator (steam-away and backpan section). Trolley's (orange in the photo) are mounted on that with a crank lift system. We can connect to any part of the evaporator system, crank it up, move it off to the side (or above a truck backed into the sugarhouse) and then let it down again. Saves our backs quite a bit.

    Would have been really nice back when we had our 5' x 14' soldered (HEAVY) evaporator. Moving that thing was a real chore, and we couldn't get a truck into the building at the time either, so we had to lift it off the arch and carry it the whole length of the sugarhouse, across a ditch, and then lift it up onto the truck. What a PITA (and back).

    Attached photo taken by Dr. Gary Graham, Ohio State University Extension.

    PMRC-Evap.jpg
    Last edited by DrTimPerkins; 12-16-2014 at 08:28 AM.
    Dr. Tim Perkins
    UVM Proctor Maple Research Ctr
    http://www.uvm.edu/~pmrc
    https://mapleresearch.org
    Timothy.Perkins@uvm.edu

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Nov 2005
    Location
    smithville flats ny near binghamton
    Posts
    600

    Default

    Although I don't have a steam away (yet), a trolley system is the way to go. I have one for taking off my steam hood and 5x10 Max Flue pan. When the pan needs to come off I can take it off by myself in about ten minutes. Mind you Leader says that pan weighs close to 1000 pounds. I elected to use small chain binders to do my lifting. They give a vertical lift of about 1.5 inches. Just enough to get it off the arch. I used trolleys from Harbor Freight and for track I repurposed some old track out of a barn. Essentially it is two pieces of 1X1x3/16 angle iron welded together with a spacer in between to give you the width you need for your trolleys. My system runs perpendicular to my trusses, unlike Dr. Perkins. So the rails are suspended from the trusses at or very near webbing junctions.
    shrunken producer, from 8,000 taps to 4,000 to 5800 to 9500 to 11,000 vac
    5x16 woodchip fired evaporator with 5x10 max flue and 5x6 revolution front pan
    CDL 20+ RO
    Double 10"filterpress

    sp-11, bb2, airtech L63, L160, L230 vac pumps
    CDL low profile electric releaser
    MES 8000 electric releaser
    CDL 4000 tap mechanical releaser

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Mar 2005
    Location
    Albion PA
    Posts
    5,099

    Default

    I think your on the right track. (pun intended) We used (2) 2 x 10's across the sugarhouse, then added barn door track to each one and custom built a trolly from 2" x 4" steel thin wall box tubing. Attached a HF winch and two cables through pulleys to lift the steam away.Then it can be rolled off the arch for cleaning the rear pan. May be pictures on here some where?
    Regards,
    Chris
    Casbohm Maple and Honey
    625 roadside taps + Neighbors bring some sap too!
    3x10 King, WRU, AOF and AUF
    12" SIRO Filter Press.
    2015 Ford F250 PSD sap hauler
    One Golden named Maggie, Norwegian Forest Cat named Lucy
    Too many Cub Cadets
    Ford Jubilee and several Allis WD's, and IH tractors
    1932 Ford AAB ton and a half, dump truck

    www.mapleandhoney.com

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