bringing this thread up on the Autumnal Equinox of 2017, although it is going to be 95 degrees today and not in anyway fall weather. However we are seeing red leaves and leaves are falling...
I have a 6 burner commercial stove in the basement to boil sap and do very small runs maybe making a few gallons of final product a year for personal use and to give away.
My goal this year is to have better pans to boil down in. We were using metal roasting pans which worked OK but limited the future use of those pans for sure... I would like to make some custom stainless pans with pipe and valve piped in the front for easy draining.
The dimensions of my cooktop is 31x36. I have 2 options I'm weighing out.
I can make 1 stainless pan, 4" sides (would you go 6"?) 30x36 and cover all 6 burners at once. This is cheapest in terms of fabricating time and cost but would be a little heavy/bulky to ship.
Or I could make smaller pans that would fit over one set of burners (front and back) at 12" x 30" and do 2 or even 3 of them side by side. If I did 3 then figuring in width of the sides I would probably have to do 11 or 11.5" x 30" so they all fit side by side. Cost per small pan is about $150 plus maybe $20 shipping. If I make 3 of them group shipping might be $30.
rough cost for the single large pan is about $275 shipped.
(for those who understand these numbers this would be 18 gauge stainless steel of the 304 variety)
We aren't in any race to boil fast, we tend to just start it in the morning and tend it all day. If it isn't done we have been known to turn it off let it sit overnight and start again the next day although having confessed that, I hope I don't expose our extreme ignorance on the chemistry of boiling sap and not ruining a batch..
Should I consider thicker gauge steel?
Thanks for your advice in advance
