50" press brake build

[Dwerden]

Well this morning I went and picked up some material for my bigger die and for another setup I wanted to try, first i fixed my floppy punch situation with 5 rosette welds in the punch plate, this just keeps the laminations from opening up when the set screws are tightened



Then i used a piece of 1/2 flatbar to make this punch, i know its not pretty but the clock is running out



Then I bent the bottom of my new syrup pan, I was racking my brain how to make all of these acute bends and the only thing i could think of was to pre bend to 90 first



After that i switched to my new die that is basically just a long square opening and bend them all down to 30ish degrees





So this is the floor of my new syrup pan, my old one is a flat bottom pan and the 15x32 pan has a surface area of 480 sq. inches. The new pan with all of the folds essentially uses 48" of material in the same 15" width so that much more surface area for fire to hit and boil the sap, not sure if it will boil 3x as much but it should ramp up production a bit

 

[2oolhound]

Nice work on this project! and did I mention I'm a professional maple syrup taste tester? and out of respect for your work and valuable contribution to this forum I'd be willing to provide my taste testing of this season's batch for free.

Some photos of some tree's being tapped would be awesome!

 

[Dwerden]

This morning I cut and bent my sides


Then I drew the end plates in cad and then cut and bent them



The press is working good, what a time saver. I used to cut all my stainless and take it to a buddies house to bend on a sheet metal brake thats really not meant for 18 ga. SS so there would always be a big rad in the corners

 

[NASTYZEN]

You are a trooper dude! Great job on the press and real nice work on the pan. It's good to see your ingenuity here.

I always get to fix some pans in the spring for people. I charge them in Maple syrup.

 

[Dwerden]

Nice work on this project! and did I mention I'm a professional maple syrup taste tester? and out of respect for your work and valuable contribution to this forum I'd be willing to provide my taste testing of this season's batch for free.

Some photos of some tree's being tapped would be awesome!

Thanks! It was a lot of work but it is worth it now thst im using it.

 

[Dwerden]

I

You are a trooper dude! Great job on the press and real nice work on the pan. It's good to see your ingenuity here.

I always get to fix some pans in the spring for people. I charge them in Maple syrup.

Thanks man, I got to build last year for a guy that tried to fix his pan by brazing a crack, it was torched alright haha

He didnt even want to use it

 

[bullnerd]

Yeah , great job on the pans!

The deep bends with the radius-ed bottoms is beautiful!

 

[Dwerden]

Yeah , great job on the pans!

The deep bends with the radius-ed bottoms is beautiful!

Thank you sir!

 

[Bigblue&Goldie]

You should do a thread going over the process of making the syrup.

 

[Dwerden]

You should do a thread going over the process of making the syrup.

That is a thought as a cold blooded canadian it is just second nature but im sure there are a lot of southerners that have never seen the process

 

[bad_idea]

I have been scratching my head since you started posting pictures of the pan you are making, trying to figure out how that works and what it does. I was hoping the final product would explain itself, but I am even more confused.

 

[dr_clyde]

I have been scratching my head since you started posting pictures of the pan you are making, trying to figure out how that works and what it does. I was hoping the final product would explain itself, but I am even more confused.

The more hot surface area exposed to the sap, the faster it will boil down into syrup. That piece has way more sq inches of surface are per linear foot than flat plate.

 

[bad_idea]

The more hot surface area exposed to the sap, the faster it will boil down into syrup. That piece has way more sq inches of surface are per linear foot than flat plate.

More confused than before. I thought the pan was for the collection of the syrup. I thought you stick a hole in the tree and syrup comes out. Now I'm off to youtube to watch some videos on this.


Edit: Youtube to the rescue. I watched a video from the Discovery Channel outlining the basic process. Learned something new today. I have rarely had maple syrup, it just isn't common down here. Want to send me some?

 

[Dwerden]

More confused than before. I thought the pan was for the collection of the syrup. I thought you stick a hole in the tree and syrup comes out. Now I'm off to youtube to watch some videos on this.

Nope you collect in a bucket, this pan goes ontop of the evaporator to boil the sap

I could possibly send a bottle, we are using syrup as wedding favours so im not sure how much will be left

 

[bradpac]

Awesome fabrication.

I would love to see the process as well. I buy a bottle of maple syrup on occasion, but down here in TX, we probably don't even get real maple syrup.

 

[bullnerd]

We had some "real" maple syrup a few days ago on home made waffles.

First time my daughter had tried it.

After dinner (yeah dinner) I see her looking at her phone and she says "Do we have any maple trees in our yard ?, This stuff doesn't look too hard to make."

Lol! I told her I know a guy! lol!

 

[Dwerden]

I bent up my cute little finishing pan this morning, this will be trippled next year when i build a new arch but for now im working with the size evaporator i have



Here are the 2 pans together, the big pan does the major boiling then the finishing pan with the dividers will have 3 conpartments of syrup with different levels of completion, there is a float valve so the finishing pan stays at a consistant height



This is the warming pot that straddles the chimney, there is a drum with a pump that pumps into this pot and the level is controlled by an electric float switch, this pot dumps into the back of the v pan with another float switch to keep that level consistant but not before it goes through 10 wraps of copper tubing around the chimney, last year I had to put a bypass on the heating coil dumping back to the holding tank because i was getting a boil in the coil






Heres a shot of everything in its place



And a shot of the flues in the firebox, you can see the tube on the bottom of the firebox, it has a bunch of holes in it up on angles and i have a blower that forces air under the fire

 

[Dwerden]

We had some "real" maple syrup a few days ago on home made waffles.

First time my daughter had tried it.

After dinner (yeah dinner) I see her looking at her phone and she says "Do we have any maple trees in our yard ?, This stuff doesn't look too hard to make."

Lol! I told her I know a guy! lol!

Haha start tappin! It is a very simple concept, you can make a batch on a bbq or turkey fryer