Greetings!

Long time lurker, first time poster. Last year we tapped 15 trees, and ended up with 6-7 gallons of syrup (can't remember, slept since then) and pulled out about 3 or 4 weeks early as we couldn't keep up with our three turkey fryers running every day; they had a measly boil off rate of 3-4 gallons each per day.

So, flash forward to today, were planning on tapping 25-30 trees, and converting an old 275 gallon fuel oil drum to a wood fired evaporator. Weather permitting we're hoping to do 25-30 gallons of syrup, so 1000-1200 gallons of sap?

Dad seems to think a pan measuring 27"x48" would work swell on the top of the fuel oil tank. My question is, is it worth trying to make it a continuous flow pan, or keep it a flat pan based on the amount we're doing? Or would you scale down the pan a touch, and do some form of a pre-heater to feed the the continuous flow?

End goal was to get away from trying to use the turkey fryers every day, and boil just on the weekends.

Also, metal gauge, I'm looking at using 18 or 20 gauge stainless for the pan...I'm not a professional welder, but it appears scrolling the threads that a thicker gauge is less desirable but more forgiving on projects like this, thoughts?

I'll gladly post follow up photos of the project. Did a hog roaster out of one of these fuel oil drums a couple summers ago and built the trailer it sits on...keep diving in head first with these projects.

Thanks for the feed back and input.

Dan