Rework AOF system on old King Evaporator

[heus]

Jason,
Thanks! Whats in the works this coming season for your operation?
Regards,
Chris

Chris you know me, always changing. Going back to simpler times. I sold my Smoky Lake evaporator and ordered an A&A raised flue 2x7 evaporator. Selling my RO and going back to about 100 buckets. Crazy, I know but I guess I just yearned for the times when I didnt have to worry about vacuum pumps, reverse osmosis, oil burners, etc. Going to be more work with the gathering, but I will enjoy that.

[Sugarmaker]

Jason,
Change is good! You can now be a consultant for most aspects of making syrup! Enjoy the time in the woods! Buckets are not a bad thing, and every one is a surprise when you walk up to it! Keep boiling! Those A&A rigs will make syrup like crazy! I used one for 15 years!
Regards,
Chris

[heus]

Chris I guess so In the past 10 years I have had 4 1/2 evaporators and 3 ro's!

[Sugarmaker]

Folks,
Just checking in.

Only about 2 months till 2020 syrup time! I am looking forward to testing on the old King arch with the AOF in its new location in the arch. Hoping my boil rate may improve too. And better draw off consistency.

Well the new stainless base weldment for the stack on the old King arch seems to be working well. We are getting a lot of rain lately and I have rain come down my stack. The new base is keeping it out of the arch!

I should be canning some syrup today. 10 gallons of Dark Robust waiting in the canner to jug up for stocking the shelves. Plus another 10 gallon of Amber after that. Have been making Maple Mustard and Maple BBQ also.

Here I was canning some Very Dark. It is just a tad heavy, but that's where its going to be.



Prior to canning I needed to bring some of it up a little in density. So I boiled it on the stove in small batches and added them to the draw off tank. Then added, mixed in the DE, and ran it all through the rebuilt Oberdorfer gear pump, and the Siro canister filter. A good pre season shake down test. Just needed to tighten the packing on the pump shaft.


I am going to try to make some maple candy with tips I learned from Jake Moser at the LEME event!
Hope things are good out there!
Regards,
Chris

[Pdiamond]

Chris
Last year was my first year using my new smokey lake high output 2x4 raised flue evaporator. I really like how it boils. I only had about 65 taps last year and my biggest collection day was 200 gallons. I boiled that down in less than 5 hours. It was so much faster than my old 2x3 divided pan. I do not plan on any type of r.o. system. I plan on growing my tap count this year to 100. My boys and family like to come out and help which makes it lots of fun. I certainly hope everything you have done with your evaporator works well for you this coming season.

[Sugarmaker]

Pdiamond,
Sounds like you have a nice operation to make syrup and have your family involved to enjoy it also!

Yesterday was syrup canning day. 10 gallons of Dark and 10 gallons of Amber:


Great grand boys are here today raising heck!
Regards,
Chris

[Sugarmaker]

Folks,
I was talking to a friend and he said I had my 15 minutes of fame on youtube talking about my old arch rebuild. This was filmed by Peter Greg of the Maple News and Maple Trader.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1aqqJbxR_A

Regards,
Chris

[Sugarmaker]

Folks,
I would recommend not following my lead!

Some local sugarmakers got me excited a week ago. As usual the cold settles in after I tap. Several good things happened. I did get to go see said sugarmakers boil twice. Nice to see how others make quality syrup too. I did get to see how a bubbler system works to reduce the foam up during boiling and how pans quickly boil over when the power goes off! I believe there should be a limit to the number of Sugarmakers in a sugarhouse at any one time! I think the max number should be three. More than that and things start to go bad. Like me dumping syrup on the floor, the power going out and the front pan boiling over. Anyway despite me jinxing them they managed to make 50 gallons of very nice Golden syrup.

While I was boiling on Wed morning the neighbor dropped in and said her family would like to try to tap some trees and collect some sap. So they are stopping up in a hour and I am going to give them the short version of getting sap. Not sure where this is going but I hope they have fun and learn some things about making syrup. By the way I had the limit of sugarmakers in the sugarhouse too. Scott, Jim and I for most of the boil, Then Scott had to leave so old time sugarmaker Gary could come in! With just three things worked very well!

On this refurb of the old King arch.
Insulated door worked well. I did see that the stainless had begun to warp a little.
The rebuild rig preformed very well in all areas.
Stack temp 350 F
Air over fire at correct lower functioned good. Ran it almost wide open.
less heat off the sides of the arch due to insulation and new brick. Therefore more heat making syrup.
pan gasket locator system was awesome. no visual gaps between pan and arch, and the gasket cant move.
New stack functioned as it should. That will give me piece of mind, as the old one was almost burnt out due to over firing years ago.
made 10 gallons of syrup and the pans are ready to go with about 7 gallons of syrup (in process, sweet) still in there.
Rig ran at about 140 gallons plus per hour. Had 840 gallons to start. boiled 6 hours from cold start to shut down.
So the refurb on the arch may have improved my boiling rate a little.
300 sq inches of increased boiling area under the pans around the edges where the pan gasket locator raises the pan off the rail.
The gradient was very good through out the boil, which I had issues with on the old top rail AOF system. (Air was to close to the pan, cooling the area where you were trying to get the hottest).
All in all it was good to get started and get the rig tested on a little. That size run is a little more than I usually have in a day.





Regards,
Chris

[heus]

Looking good Chris.

[ddociam]

I really appreciate this. It’s inspiring to see such excellent work and to see something old being used as it was made for.
My little operation is growing and I’m going from about 130 Taos on buckets to 600 of which 400 is on tubing. Expanding my RO from one 4x40 to three.
I have a 2x4 Smoky lake hybrid that is going to get a workout this year. I have my eye on a 3x12 king but I don’t have the funds for it yet. I’m still filtering with a flat filter but expect to upgrade that next year.
It will be a lot of work this year as I work out the kinks and see where I need the most help. I plan to take the syrup season off from my day job and get a knee replaced on May 5. I can’t wait to get it all up and running.
Jerry


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