Can any one help me design a small maple syrup evaporator. It must be 18 inches wide and 7 feet long. What thickness of steel would be needed and it must be fire brick lined.

-- Kevin Lewis (llewis@vianet.ca), February 27, 2002

Answers

why does it HAVE to be that size? and why firebrick lines? Most arent,, and you can use a large pot,, or an old hot water heater,,use whatever you have or can scrounge

-- Stan (sopal@net-port.com), February 28, 2002.

Kevin, My hubby is just finishing up our home built evaporator. He and our neighbor used an old oil storage tank (about 200 gal. or so). They turned it sideways, put 4 legs on it with some old pipes, put a door with hinges on one end (which includes a draft control), and cut 2 large holes on the top. We will set our pan on top of the holes to boil down the sap. He is also going to put sand inside on the bottom towards the back to direct the flames up to the bottom of the pan. It should be interesting to see it all working!

-- Maggie (ruby@isp360.net), February 28, 2002.

The bigger you build it the longer it will take to get to the end product. I would make it shorter in length. My son-in-law many years ago made us one out of sheet metal. Probably about a foot wide and 3 feet long if that. Place it right on an open fire outside and let it go. You can keep adding the sap or let each "batch" boil down into syrup. Depends how much time you have to work on it that day. If this is your first time doing syrup I would start with a small pan to control and easier to pour into smaller pot when finished too. How would you lift this size pan to pour it out ??? Good Luck !!

-- Helena (windyacs@npacc.net), February 28, 2002.