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Thread: Building my Drum Evaporator

  1. #61
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    Feb 2007
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    McFalls Me.
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    Dennis, is the gas is for finishing the syrup on a turkey fryer?
    best outdoor syrup made in Maine...... loosing that title as we are moving indoors to a 12x16 sugar shack with a new to us 2x6 .
    Making syrup.

    http://s724.photobucket.com/albums/ww248/TapME/

  2. #62
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    Mar 2005
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    Albion PA
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    Dennis,
    Grates look very good, Should hold the fire well too. Don't be surprised if they do warp some.
    On the steam pans seems that they should work with the hole 1/4 larger in the plate. Then you can remove it and handle it easier than a big pan. Maybe save the plate cutout and add a lip to set it back in the hole to finally finish with one pan?

    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

  3. #63
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
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    Elliottsburg, PA
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    2,222

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    I was planning on using propane to finish, I have one of those large 3 burner stoves and thought I would have a little more control of the heat. The last I checked, it's been a few months, propane was over $3 a gal around here! Wood is free. So I just figured if I could make something work on the evap I would be better off. I guess right now using the electric stove would be cheaper than propane.

    I kind of figured the grates would get a little deformed with all that heat so that won't bother me to much.

    Hey Chris that is an excellant idea of using the cut-out. I am planning on placing a pan on the back half of the plate,to warm the semi-concentrated sap, while I was finishing the syrup in the steam pan on the front half with the hole cut-out under the pan.

    Checked the weather, doesn't look good for a test boil on Sunday. They are calling for rain/freezing rain most of the day, Monday is looking better.

    I am realling looking forward to the test boil, I want to find out what kind of evap rate I will have or if the thing will evan boil water.

  4. #64
    Join Date
    Jan 2007
    Location
    Ashland,Wisconsin
    Posts
    45

    Thumbs up

    Dennis

    You did a super great job. Enjoyed the pix. We are in process of completing conversion of a 265 gallon oil drum and look forward to improved effeciencies over our flat pan up on concrete blocks. For cutting fire brick, if you have an angle grinder w/ mason disc, you may be able to cut angles and get close to rounded flue collar.

    To others reading this and interested in drum arches, does any one have a source for a heavy duty 8" flue collar w/ backing ring. Can not find one locally. Volksvang sp ONLy makes 6". With larger wood box 38" long, we know we need at least 8". We need a flat one that goes out the upper back as our pan covers the entire top length of the 265 gal. drum. If you know a source for 8" flat flue collar you can hit us direct at blueoak@ncis.net thanx
    Ahnohta Farm Sugar Bush
    Moquah, (Ashland) Wisconsin

  5. #65
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    Oct 2007
    Location
    Elliottsburg, PA
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    Talking Test Boil!

    Well I was able to get out there this morning and do a test boil. Man was that cool!

    Once I got it out of the garage and set up with water in it, 2" depth, I fired it up. It took about 15-20 min to get to a good rolling boil. I checked the temp, today it was around 208 for water to boil.
    Once I got the rolling boiling I slowly put somemore water back in till it was right at 2" deep.

    Then I started my timer for 1/2 an hour. In that time I had evap'ed 1 1/8" of water. So if my calculations are correct I was evap'ing right around 6.6 gals/hr. (pan=20"x34"=2.94gals/in depth, 2.25"x2.94=6.61 gals/hr)

    I hope that is a good evap rate. Since I will only be able to boil every other day I should be able to do the amount of sap I will collect in those two days in about 2-3 hrs.

    The grates held up great. Now I did only fire it for about 1 1/2 hrs, but they still look good.

    Ahnohta, I made my own flue collar. I did get the collar from Vogelzang, I just couldn't make it work. So I made my own. I got a 3" piece of steel pipe(6") and a piece of 1/8" steel plate. I cut a hole in the steel plate and then welded the steel pipe into the hole. Worked great.

    The 1st pic is right before I fired it up.
    The 2nd and 3rd pics are at full boil, Its sooo cool when all that steam is coming off.
    And the 4th is of the grate after the test fire.

  6. #66
    Join Date
    Apr 2004
    Location
    Orwell,Vt.
    Posts
    1,126

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    Dennis,
    When I was a teenager I built one similar to yours, though not nearly as nice!! You can take a great deal of pride in this--It looks awesome!!
    Good Luck and Happy Sugarin'
    2 1/2 x8 Lapierre Waterloo-Small (oil fired)
    Leader Steamaway
    1200 gph Lapierre RO
    1800 taps
    http://s268.photobucket.com/albums/j...ks/Sugarhouse/


    Mike Christian
    505 Main St. Orwell, Vt.

  7. #67
    Join Date
    Mar 2005
    Location
    Albion PA
    Posts
    5,099

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    Dennis,
    Congratulations on the successful test boil. I was talking your construction up to a local sugarmaker Frank James in Girard PA. He uses the steam pans on a drum arch too. You have gone to great lengths to set yours up right and the boil rate sounds good. So at that rate about a gallon of finished product every 6 hours.

    Nice job and thanks for sharing the nice clear pictures. Include one of you and the rig too.

    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

  8. #68
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Location
    BECKLEY, WV (SUGARHOUSE DAWSON, WV)
    Posts
    6,621

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    Dennis,

    You should be able to do a little better than that as it takes a while for the firebox to get good and hot and as the sap cooks down, it will develop more sugar content which will boil faster than just water.
    Brandon

    CDL dealer for All of West Virginia & Virginia
    3x10 CDL Deluxe oil fired
    Kubota M7040 4x4 Tractor w/ 1153 Loader hauling sap
    2,400+ taps on 3/16 CDL natural vacuum on 9 properties
    24x56 sugarhouse
    CDL 1,000 2 post RO


    WEBSITE: http://danielsmaple.com

  9. #69
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Location
    NE Pa
    Posts
    2,209

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    Dennis- Your going to have a blast with that thing. The quality is tremendous. Your going to find the syrup is going to taste great too becouse its there boiling for quite a while. Ive been doing mine on a similar rig, not near as nice, for years and everyone loves the syrup. That is one beautiful evaperator. Theron

  10. #70
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    McFalls Me.
    Posts
    1,189

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    Dennis very nice rig it makes mine look like an amateur built it. Welcome to the sickness.

    Ahnohta, have you thought about adding a small section to the back of the oil drum and making the pipe come out after the pan. You could use store bought parts after that. Something shaped like a v with an 8'' cutout for the stove pipe.
    best outdoor syrup made in Maine...... loosing that title as we are moving indoors to a 12x16 sugar shack with a new to us 2x6 .
    Making syrup.

    http://s724.photobucket.com/albums/ww248/TapME/

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