aka boiling off a bunch of water.
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aka boiling off a bunch of water.
I thought that most commercial operations use reverse osmosis for maple sugar production.Quote:
Originally Posted by lynchdogger
7-8 cords of wood would likely be cottage not commercial. 160 gallons? exactly how much would that yield?
glademaster that is a healthy amount of work you put in. Some woods the only way to make healthy progress is to go with the splitter.
Fixed.Quote:
Originally Posted by acinpdx
Congrats. Next: the threesome hookup.
Even with RO, you still have to boil. Sap from the tree is about 2% sugar and syrup is about 66%. Small scale RO, like me, goes to 8-10% by removing 3/4 of the water so we use about 1/4 the wood. Large scale, like many thousands of taps, go as high as 26%, so considerably less wood/gallon or more likely oil/gallon.Quote:
Originally Posted by DougW
We are adding an RO this year. Last season we boiled raw sap.
Very close. We made just over 170 gallons last season. We retail it all so still cottage, but we're growing.Quote:
Originally Posted by Hugh Conway
that makes sense let the RO do the bulk of work on the easy to remove water. If you jack up the recovery too high I would think you would have fouling issues.Quote:
Originally Posted by Generalstark
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7318/...b1645434_c.jpgStokedwm by Tim_NEK, on FlickrQuote:
Originally Posted by bodywhomper
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7162/...3249d0de_c.jpg
I help my neighbor with his hobby operation. Shown here is an arch (part where the fire is), and a boiling pan. This pan is a flat bottom and we figure it can boil off between 14-16 gallons or water per hour. He made 27 gallons of syrup last year and burned 4 cord of mixed hard and soft woods. We have to stoke the arch every 7-10 minutes depending on the wood that went in last. He works as a line cutter for the local power company and gets lots of free wood.
Next spring the plan is to have a fluted pan and blowers in the arch to cut down on the 1-2AM evenings of boiling during peak sap flow.
We are headed down a very deep rabbit hole here but this is what we boil with:
https://www.tetongravity.com/images/...rig__forum.jpg
that's sexy.
Can I get that at the rental place? And can I tow it home?Quote:
Originally Posted by Meadow Skipper
Sugaring looks like fun. Thanks.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Meadow Skipper
If I read your reply with a certain amount of free association, this is what happens:Quote:
Originally Posted by acinpdx
-Yes, you can:
http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopo...was2798123.jpg
If it floats, flies, or fucks, rent it.
You're telling me. Took about 16-17 hours of running the hydraulic unit, with someone running the controls, another guy placing the round and tossing splits, and a third keeping the placer supplied. Great looking wood, and my entire yard is hanging heavy with the scent of cherry and apple wood. Stacking starts today.Quote:
Originally Posted by cat in january
Quote:
Originally Posted by Generalstark
x2. Hot model you got there :biggrin:.Quote:
Originally Posted by Hugh Conway
My wife calls it evaporator porn.:D Nothing like a room full of stainless steel.Quote:
Originally Posted by From_the_NEK
I think I see some sanitary triclamps there .. sexy:fmicon:Quote:
Originally Posted by Generalstark
Wood burning sugaring operations also make for good nighttime photography subjects...
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7453/...660edbdb_c.jpg
Finished wood for the year with 13 cords in shed should be enough for 3 years
That photo is terrifying. No chimney should look like that. Ever.Quote:
Originally Posted by From_the_NEK
What if it is a really short chimney? In boyscouts, it wasnt a good fire in our stove until we had flames coming out the top. Bugs the shit out of me i cant think of what those little cooking stoves were called.Quote:
Originally Posted by glademaster
Edit - Sheepherder
Totally normal with a wood evaporator. Wouldn't be a bad idea to have a spark arrestor, but notice the metal roofing. Essential on a sugarhouse. VT isn't the desert southwest.Quote:
Originally Posted by glademaster
There's no baffle in the top of them to prevent flame impingement into the chimney? Why the fuck not? That's insane. Not saying I don't believe you, I am however saying that there has to be a better, safer way to design an evaporator. Do you run thermocouples in the stack to monitor flue gas temps? You must have to replace that Class A chimney every season after exposing it to heat like that.Quote:
Originally Posted by Generalstark
We're getting into that rabbit hole. I can't speak for From The NEK's neighbors setup, but with a traditional naturally aspirated wood evap., people generally use a single wall pipe, or maybe metalbestos, through a "roof jack" and are careful with their install and clearances. It is typical to see flames out the pipe. This system was developed by New England subsistence farmers in the late 1800s and has carried on through the generations, but sugarhouses burning down is, let's just say, not unusual in historical record. I suspect a hobby rig like the one shown by NEK is not reaching the high temps like a larger commercial rig, until they put a blower on it. Remember, we are trying to boil water off as fast as possible here.Quote:
Originally Posted by glademaster
My rig, pictured above, however is state of the art and instead keeps the heat under the pans instead of out the pipe. We do monitor flue gas temps, which reach 1800F under the pans, but only 800-900 in the stack. With an air tight fire box, AOF (air over fire) and AUF (air under fire), a high cfm blower and serious insulation, we achieve pretty high efficiency and a very clean burn. Notice the difference in wood consumption noted above. We can actually gasify with this rig if we tune the air flow correctly, but it won't boil as hard. We use a single wall stainless stack through a roof jack with safe clearances from combustibles in the roof, and a little ceramic blanket to be safe.
We do still get sparks out the stack but we do use a spark arrestor, and it is primarily a result of the blower, especially when we turn it up at the end of a load of wood to max the flue gas temps.
Evaporators are not wood stoves, and basically follow a different set of "rules".