Duffy's Lane Maple
by
Jen and Brent Roberts
15271 Duffy's Lane, Caledon, Ontario
905-880-7876

The 'new-to-us' evaporator for spring 2011 season..

Leader evaporator in Ohio
This a picture of the same evaporator that we are preparing.    It is 2 1/2 ft wide and over 8 ft long ( 75cm x 250cm).   This larger rig will need 350 - 400 litres justfor the initial filling, which will weight about 300 Kg ... just for the sap.  The weight of the evaporator itself will be considerably more than or current rig, so we have replaced the wooden floor a new concrete slab.   We expect the new evaporator to turn out from 3 to 10 gallons of syrup an hour,   compared to 1 to 2 per hour for our old rig.  This will give us more time to work in the bush during the season and allow us time to filter and bottle syrup as we go.

Here are a few pictures of the evaporator in use in it's former home near Corinth, Vermont.

new 8 foot maple syrup evaporator with steam-away
A view of the new-to-us evaporator. 
The top of the steam hood is 85", (2160mm) off the floor.
The pans are 30" (750mm)  wide and it is 9 1/2 feet ( 2.8M) long.

Drawing maple syrup from the evaporator
Here is a picture of the previous owner drawing syrup from the
evaporator in their Vermont sugar shack.

Making maple syrup
This is Lee and his son preparing to start boiling.

firing the maple syrup evaporator
Here is Lee's father and brother firing (adding wood) to the evaporator.
Three generation of sugar makers in their family.

Below: loading the evaporator arch on the trailer
Loading the maple syrup evaporator

The picture below is the whole evaporator loaded up on our trailer
ready to head home.   Even with many pieces nested, it
still filled the 7' x 12' deck and the SUV was filled too.
Maple syrup evaporator on trailer

Rebuilding the evaporator
We found the frame of the evaporator needed some work
so we stripped it down to this, sand blasted it and repainted it.
stripped frame of the maple syrup evaporator
painted-frame
The frame is painted.  We added several more angle iron
frame parts to strengthen the frame then .....
... we are fitting the new stainles steel sides.
new stainless sides on our Leader maple syrup evaporator


chart comparing insulating values of different materials
Most evaporator arches have firebrick insulation.  As you can see
from the above chart, it is a relatively poor insulator.  Ceramic fiber
is a very good insulator for the cost.  This is what we chose and you
can see the fitting of the Unifrax Duraboard in the pictures below.

This material kept the sides of the evaporator cool enough that you
could put your and on it anywhere, even after 3 hours of hard boiling.
The door still had hot spots but the whole evaporator was much safer to work around thanks to this ceramic board.

This is the beginning of the process of fitting ceramic insulating boards. Without these the sides of the evaporator would be so hot you couldn't stand anywhere near it.   After fitting the insulation we cover it with fire brick to protect it from wear and tear as firewood gets loaded.
Inuslating the Leader evaporator with Unifrax Durafrax RG Ceramic board

Only one more peice of insulation board to go
in to cover the stainless sheet.  The stainless tubes
are for the pressurized air injection for the fire.
Leader evaporator assembly with Steam-Away suspended and the flue pan standing on end beside it.
Here you can see the SteamAway suspended from the rafters
and the flue pan standing on end, ready to go on.
Leader evaporator with the flue pan mounted.
And here the flue pan has been put in position.
This "pan" is 1700mm long and weights about 100 Kg.
The SteamAway is the same length and about
the same weight.