Scotty, for insulation in the arch above, I put Roxul behind the firebrick. I used half the thickness of the Roxul so I wouldn't loose too much firebox space. It worked better than I expected - the sheet metal sides were warm but not hot - you could touch it bared-handed most of the time. You can also buy a roll of a woven gasket material that is +1" wide and maybe 1/8" thick to go between the pan and the side rails of the arch. And here is a bigger home-built tweak: http://www.uvm.edu/~pmrc/Combustion.pdf Think of it as your woodstove secondaries with a blower on them!
Yeah Scotty, I have a bunch on my property and have bought taps and tapped for a couple years now. I believe that as close to the ocean as I am, I just don't get the freeze/thaw 24 hour cycle that creates that flow. At least, that's my theory based on what I've read. I'm going to keep trying, but I have at best gotten about 1/2 gallon from 20 taps or so, and this year we really didn't drop below freezing much at all. I know folks tap them successfully, although I'm guessing they are either higher in elevation or farther from the ocean. I'll keep at it!
Shawn, you need to wrap that setup to keep the wind off it and the heat on it. Even a few wraps of rockwool insulation will cut your fuel use and get your temps up to boil better. I used to sugar years ago with my neighbours, he's been dead for years and new guy owns it now but I bet the pan is still in the bush with the shack rotted around it. Think I might just get back into abit next year, grandson is getting to be close to a year old now and it's time he started his farm education. We don't farm anymore but that doesn't mean we can't teach him a few things.
Looks great Flamestead ! I could've used the roof yesterday..... because the 7" of snow that was on the above branches probably added an hour to my overall cooking....... looks like a great setup there man!
Shawn Curry they look great! I ate so many pancakes this morning I couldn't move after! Enjoy your hard work!
Our small batch last weekend was very light. This weekend we cooked down much much more and it had a nice medium amber color. We already gave away 7 for family and neighbors....... one more boil down next weekend and we'll pull the taps.
First gallon in the books. Sap wasn't running today but I have another 15 gallons or so uncooked yet. Hoping for another good week!
Looking good Shawn! It should be another good week for collecting. I'm hoping for enough to cook down to 2 gal this week. I feel the sugar content was high this past week, which certainly helped things. Happy sugaring!
Looking good Shawn Curry! The sap didn't run as good as expected for me this past weekend but we still ended up with almost 5 gallons of syrup from Friday til last evening.....we have a total of almost 9 gallons of syrup for the season so far. I'm going to collect sap until Wednesday or Thursday, then I'm pulling the taps. Hoping for another 3-4 gallons of finished product. We'll see if the temps cooperate. Today SHOULD be a good run. We shall see. The sugar content is very high in my trees this year, I'm averaging around 35-40 to 1. Look at this picture of sap that was freshly dumped into the evaporator, you can see the sugar content swirling around in it......
That would be an ideal tree for two or even three taps.......perfect sugar tree! Get a dozen of those double tapped and you'll be up to your ears in sap!
I'll pull whatever is filled up Wednesday night and get it into the drum in the snow pile to keep cold. Thursday temps around 60°F. Temps back down Thursday night after some thunder storms and we'll be back in business. Collected around 15 gal today.
Thanks for this suggestion! This solved 2 problems for me. I was getting a lot of carbon buildup on my pan from the burner, because I had to run it too high to keep it boiling. The carbon was from propane that didn't burn completely, so I thought I needed to raise the pan up a little. I had a large ceramic ring from the firebox of my Big Green Egg, and I thought it might be able to help me with raising the pan slightly and insulating at the same time. It's working beautifully - I can get this pot to a rolling boil with probably 1/4 of the fuel as before.
I have 7 taps and have collected around 60 gallons of sap here are some pics of how I started out I enden up inside the barn like the next pic used alot less wood and didnt take as long After cutting it in half went to a round pot on a propane burner to cut it in half again.Then to the stove to finish it up have only 6 pints so far but more to come.
Nice work .like the pics being from ia I don't see this kind of stuff around were I live so very interesting to me .
Glad it worked for you Shawn. After seeing all these pics here I'm going to have to get some supplies ready for next year. And I'm not really a fan of syrup ( I hate getting sticky fingers, wings are worse) but I like doing the work.
Boiled around 60 gallons last night and just finished off around 1.5 gallons of syrup on the stove this evening. Taps are roaring the past several days, expect the same overnight because of a warm front coming in, they'll probably shut off for a day or so then. I had originally planned on puling them tomorrow but looking at the extended forecast, I'm gonna run them through the weekend, even though I'm totally exhausted with it. We've made almost 9 gallons this season so far, I've got enough sap in the shed for another 1.5 gallons of syrup and if we get a good run Saturday and Sunday, that should give me 3-4 gallons more. Might have to give a couple pints away here on FHC, stay tuned!!
