MaineMapleDave
03-13-2006, 02:04 PM
Thought I would share my revised Sap Management Plan for the hobbyist. This might get long, but there's a point--honest!!!
I gather sap from about 35 taps with a couple of sap gathering pails--one from Leader one from Small Brothers. So, I carry every drop of sap some distance.
In years past, my dump tank was inside the barn. Actually, it was a 12x20 finisher that we never used, and i had it hooked up to an aquarium pump and UV unit that I use to recirculate and sterilize the sap. So, the biggest problem with the system is that I had to go down the slippery-when-wet barn ramp with about 90 pounds of sap, into the stall where the dump tank was, heft the buckets up about shoulder height to dump into the tank, where the pump took over. Most annoying when I was on snowshoes, because a good run meant 5 or 6 trips into the barn, removing and putting them back on.
Inspired by some correspondence with Johnny Cuervo here last spring, I rigged up a 12-volt Rule bilge pump with a float switch in an old storage tank. I traded a jar of maple syrup for the battery at work, set up a little dumping station outside the barn, and I am in business with an improved Sap Management Plan.
I set the tank up on some concrete blocks to a comfortable height, and the little pump pumps the sap up about 7 feet or so in through the cap on my overhead storage tank, which feeds via gravity into the evaporator when I'm not recirculating and sterlizing the sap.
The little pump will pump about a gallon and a half a minute, which is perfect for me--a typical "gather" is two full pails, so about 9 gallons. The 10-gallon capacity tank works great, and I filter out the sticks and bugs and stuff through an old maple pre-filter.
By the time I get back with the next load, the tank is empty.
There are photos posted on my photo link.
A friend at work re-named me Maine Maple Scary when he realized the true depths of my affliction.
I gather sap from about 35 taps with a couple of sap gathering pails--one from Leader one from Small Brothers. So, I carry every drop of sap some distance.
In years past, my dump tank was inside the barn. Actually, it was a 12x20 finisher that we never used, and i had it hooked up to an aquarium pump and UV unit that I use to recirculate and sterilize the sap. So, the biggest problem with the system is that I had to go down the slippery-when-wet barn ramp with about 90 pounds of sap, into the stall where the dump tank was, heft the buckets up about shoulder height to dump into the tank, where the pump took over. Most annoying when I was on snowshoes, because a good run meant 5 or 6 trips into the barn, removing and putting them back on.
Inspired by some correspondence with Johnny Cuervo here last spring, I rigged up a 12-volt Rule bilge pump with a float switch in an old storage tank. I traded a jar of maple syrup for the battery at work, set up a little dumping station outside the barn, and I am in business with an improved Sap Management Plan.
I set the tank up on some concrete blocks to a comfortable height, and the little pump pumps the sap up about 7 feet or so in through the cap on my overhead storage tank, which feeds via gravity into the evaporator when I'm not recirculating and sterlizing the sap.
The little pump will pump about a gallon and a half a minute, which is perfect for me--a typical "gather" is two full pails, so about 9 gallons. The 10-gallon capacity tank works great, and I filter out the sticks and bugs and stuff through an old maple pre-filter.
By the time I get back with the next load, the tank is empty.
There are photos posted on my photo link.
A friend at work re-named me Maine Maple Scary when he realized the true depths of my affliction.