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Thread: Adding a blower

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Apr 2014
    Location
    Connecticut
    Posts
    41

    Default Adding a blower

    I have a homemade 2x3 wood fired evaporator and I want to add a blower
    Do I mount it to the ash clean out door so it blows under the grate and will this cause the
    Hot ash to blow out the stack wildly
    Thanks

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Mar 2018
    Location
    Two Harbors, Minnesota
    Posts
    134

    Default

    I installed a blower on my small unit as well. As it did work, as long as there is a fire grate for it to blow under the wood, I found I needed a way to control the amount of air that gets pushed in there depending on how hot the fire is. One can use a potentiometer or a simple disk over the air intake of the blower to restrict the amount of air as needed. I pivoted the disk on a screw.
    2016- 32 taps, 3 1/2 gallons
    2017- 150 taps, 13 gallons after building an evaporator
    2018- goal is 240+ taps. 20+ gallons.
    2018 Reality- 235 taps, 5 gallons of syrup. Average 50 birch taps and 3 gallons of syrup.
    2019- 180 maple taps, 20 gallons of finished syrup.
    ~ 160 birch taps, 13 finished gallons of syrup.

    Latitude 47.278150

    www.facebook.com/livingoffmyland2015

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Feb 2017
    Location
    eau claire
    Posts
    101

    Default

    i had a 50 cfm bathroom exhaust fan blowing up under my grating on a barrel stove and it worked super well. i never emptied ash. I never seen any in the area i cooked. my pan was roughly 2x3. make sure you raise up the lower back section and insulate/firebrick. it gets very hot inside.
    2016 7 taps= 1-2 gallons of syrup
    2017 135 taps making 17 gallons syrup
    2018 75 taps =50 gallons syrup
    2019 70 taps making 20 gallons. Single 4x40 RO
    2020 bought 40 acres installed 250 tubing taps, 100 bags. 70 gal
    2021 500 taps with guzzler. 80 gal syrup + sold sap
    2022 600 taps 27 gal sap per tap on guzzler!!! 110 gal + sold sap

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jan 2011
    Location
    Southern Ohio
    Posts
    1,349

    Default

    I personally prefer Air over fire. I have a modified half pint arch (extended) with a Smokey Lake drop flue pan. I use an old leaf blower with a variable speed control in the shack and have it outside the shack for noise reduction. I have it plumbed into a 1 1/2 inch manifold to the front of the arch then I ran1/2 inch black iron into the firebox on each side, capped the ends and drilled small holes in the black iron to disperse the air over the fire. I can turn it up, down or off with the controller. It will make the arch rumble. I had to go to triple wall pipe though because my stack temps went up a lot. If I'm attentive to my firing and using good wood I can make the sap almost jump out of the pan. Oh I bypassed the switch on the blower so it's full power when on and rely on the controller for speed, I don't know what CFM I'm running, but I'd guess over 100. My first blower died on me mid season a couple years ago and I bought the leaf blower at a second hand shop for $15.00 as an emergency and three years later I'm still running it. I was going to get a regenerative blower, but hey why spend the money. I think I'll hit the junk shops and get me a spare leaf blower ready for when this one bites the dust. At $15.00 I can buy a bunch of them for the price of a commercial blower. I have watched yard sales and second hand store, even auctions and you can buy the blowers dirt cheap just about any time. I did see a bounce house blower in a yard sale once and wish I'd bought it for $10.00, but passed then went back and it was gone. So check shops, yard sales and auctions and you can get off pretty cheap. It takes a little modifying but you can hook the leaf blowers up to PVC pretty easy then convert to iron. I use fernco fittings like this https://www.lowes.com/pd/Fernco-2-in...ngs/1000075331
    125-150 taps
    Smokey Lakes Full pint Hybrid pan
    Modified half pint arch
    Air over fire
    All 3/16 tubing
    Southern Ohio

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