SevenCreeksSap
02-05-2012, 09:03 AM
Finally had enough sap to do a shake down cruise on everything. And finally got everything hooked up so we have gravity from our hill, through line to the holding tank, to the feed tank inside, plumbed into the evaporator, and only had 1 small drip on one of my soldering joints. It only drips a small drop about every 20 seconds so I'll wait to fix that.
Everything else worked great and boiled about 60 gallons in 5 hrs, so I'm at about 10-12 gal. hr with no blower or anyhing. only draft through the ash door. I want to do a few boils and get comfortable with the stack and everything but I'm sure upgrades are coming. I think I should get closer to 25-30 gal hr but right now all I have is firebrick. Sides get hot but not unbearable or glowing red.
All in all I'm pleased so far and if we get a run today I'll boil it off and do a draw off. Wife said she could tell I was a happy boiler. I'm just glad to have it all working. Last year at this time there was nothing at our property but an old camper and 2 buckets on taps. This year an office trailer set up, sap shack built, evap built, tubing on 90 trees and 16 on buckets, and about 5 cords of wood cut and split. It's been a long year.
Now just need to figure out the new finishing and bottling process.
http://photobucket.com/sevencreekssaphouse
Everything else worked great and boiled about 60 gallons in 5 hrs, so I'm at about 10-12 gal. hr with no blower or anyhing. only draft through the ash door. I want to do a few boils and get comfortable with the stack and everything but I'm sure upgrades are coming. I think I should get closer to 25-30 gal hr but right now all I have is firebrick. Sides get hot but not unbearable or glowing red.
All in all I'm pleased so far and if we get a run today I'll boil it off and do a draw off. Wife said she could tell I was a happy boiler. I'm just glad to have it all working. Last year at this time there was nothing at our property but an old camper and 2 buckets on taps. This year an office trailer set up, sap shack built, evap built, tubing on 90 trees and 16 on buckets, and about 5 cords of wood cut and split. It's been a long year.
Now just need to figure out the new finishing and bottling process.
http://photobucket.com/sevencreekssaphouse