Back when I built my sugarhouse, in the first 3 seasons it had a wood floor. I placed 8x8x16 blocks under the firebox and made a large apron out front. I went to a tin shop and made a cover for it out of 16 ga galv. (my friend owned the shop). I covered the entire arrangement and then bent down 1" all the way around. That both held the blocks from getting bumped and moved and prevented hot coals from getting between the blocks and starting a fire. At that time I had a 2x6 wood fired evaporator. I had half blocks under the legs (4) to support everything level.
The next year I made a sort of hoist, by putting a 10' x 1" pipe on the bottom cord of the trusses, put a 1" tee on one end and a 18" nipple on the 2 other parts of the tee, to use it to wind up cables. Each side had the same. I then drilled and attached each end of the cable to the pipe, down under the arch and back up to the other pipe. I used 2 such cables. I then wound the pipe to have 6-8 windings around the pipe, then blocked the handle to prevent the pipe from spinning backwards. I then repeated it on the other end and I turned the pipe the start lifting the evaporator, then I bloacked it from turning and cranked the second pipe. Back and forth a few inches at a time, until I had it about 4' off the floor and blocked the handles to hold it. Then I added a 2x4 down each side from the truss to a few inches below the evaporator (4 such 2x4's) and added a 2x6 screwed to the 2x4 across to the matching one on the other side. I used 3 long screws to attach the 2x6's to each, holding it up against the bottom of the evaporator. Then after those were attached as a safety, I removed the floor, added sand then crushed stone all except where I had poured a slab 4' down and laid concrete blocks ro support the evaporator from below frost level. Inside that foundation I also filled it with crushed stone and poured a slab ober it, then I placed an expansion joint around that slab and leveled the base and poured the rest. Had I thought better I would have put floor drains in, but that thought came too late.
Dave Klish, I recently bought a 2x6 wood fired evaporator from A&A Sheet Metal which I will be converting to oil fired
Now have solar, 2x6 finish pan, 5 bank 7x7 filter press, large water jacketed bottler, and tankless water heater.
Recently bought another Gingerich RO, this one was a 125, but a second membrane was added thus is a 250, like I had.
After running a 2x3, a 2x6, 3x8 tapping from 79 taps up to 1320 all woodfired, now I'm going to a 2x6 oil fired and a 200-425 taps.
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