Door for homemade evaporator

[Cjadamec]

I'm using 6 inch deep full size steam table pans, I managed to get 5 into the arch without too much fuss. I got a box of 6 pans from amazon for 75 bucks. Down the road I will go to a flat or divided pan, I had a lot of things to buy this year to get up to speed.

I lined the entire inside of the arch with 1" thick ceramic wool. In the firebox there is a layer of firebrick to keep the wood from hitting the insulation. I would say I used about 18 feet out of the 25 foot roll to do everything. I kept the extra to make repairs if I need it. The sides of the firebox stay cool enough to touch for a second without getting burned but they do warm up a bit just not warm enough to keep me warm when outside while I'm evaporating.

There is AUF from a 6 inch inline duct fan feeding the air into the back of the fire box the fan is inside the void space under the back pans and stack. Right now I'm getting about 10-15gph depending on how good everything is running. I'm using white pine for wood because it was free and already split for me so that isn't ideal but it's getting the job done. I'm still getting the kinks worked out and adjusting my draft/airflow thru the back end of the arch. It probably would have been better to do an angled transition for the flue gas instead of the hard 90 (maybe for next year). Hopefully I will have a copper tube preheater set up before my next run. That should keep all 5 pans boiling and up my rates a bit.