Leaking around spile

[JPL]

I am new to sugaring. Got a kit for Christmas. I tapped two trees on Friday 03/02.
on Saturday the wind blew all by buckets, lids and spiles down. Yesterday(Sun) I reinserted
everything and used electrical tape to hold the buckets to the trees. Last night was a good cold
night and the sap is flowing. But one of the trees is soaking wet and dripping around the spile
while the spile is bone dry. I tryed to tap the spile in tighter but it didn't work. Any suggestions
to cure the problem? Can I retap the trunk 2 inches lower directly under the leaking hole? I don't want
to damage the tree.:(

[Grease05]

Don't pound the tap in very hard, it will crack the hole out., a split hole always leaks.

[mathprofdk]

Grease05 is right, though I do want to mention that I've had problems not tapping in hard enough, and then having the spile fall out with my bag full of sap in it. :cry:

Are you sure your tap hole is perfectly round? I had to re-drill out a few of mine this year because I didn't go deep enough (only my second year and still figuring this out), and I had some leaking around a couple of them. Finally figured out that they were likely out of round because of the re-drilling. I was still getting some flow, though.

Definitely don't re-tap if you're at the maximum allowed.

~DK

[JPL]

Mathprofdk,
You're probably right about the out of round hole. It's the very first hole I drilled and like a jerk I didn't charge up the drill batteries th night before, so I was leaning on the drill to get it to cut into the live wood. Also, do holes dry up over night?
The other tree I tapped is dry as a bone today. It had about an inch of sap on Saturday, but I lost it all
when the wind blew it down. It's a different type of maple.
----------------------------------
Just went out and pulled the spile and I think its a combination. The hole is oval, but the top of the spile is peaked
and like Grease05 said it likley split the hole when I reset it all yesterday.

[mathprofdk]

They will absolutely dry up. They only flow when it freezes at night and gets above 40 during the day.

[Brent]

First it is not unusual for taps to loosen. To some degree because of bucket flailing around in a big wind and secondly when there is a real hard freeze they tend
to pop out a bit.

Different species of maples run a slightly different timing through the season. I don't recall which one come first or last. There are threads on this forum that discuss it in some detail.

Remember the it is not called hammering .... it's tapping. Use a light hammer, ours have plastic caps, and use wrist action only. To be safe only tap when the temperature is well above freezing. If you tap when the tree is frozen you can split the bark and it will leak for the rest of the year. Do not re-tap. One hole per tree per season.

Not well known is the amount of hydraulic pressure in a tree. You can put a pressure guage on a tap shaped adaptor and put it in a tree and it can go to just above 20 psi on a sunny afternoon and then cycle to about 8" of vacuum at night. If you fracture the tree bark, that much pressure will have it peeing out anywhere it can.

[Brent]

PS start your drilling at 90 degrees to the trunk to keep the drill bit from skidding around. As soon as it starts to bite, tilt the drill SLIGHTLY down so the hole goes upward. You only want a small angle. My wife tries to drill (or used to ) at nearly 45 degrees. It's hard to get a good seal around a tap at a steep angle and it certainly will help the spile fall out .... precisely when it gets really full of sap.:cry:

[jmayerl]

PS start your drilling at 90 degrees to the trunk to keep the drill bit from skidding around. As soon as it starts to bite, tilt the drill SLIGHTLY down so the hole goes upward. You only want a small angle. My wife tries to drill (or used to ) at nearly 45 degrees. It's hard to get a good seal around a tap at a steep angle and it certainly will help the spile fall out .... precisely when it gets really full of sap.:cry:

you can just drill straight in. Many people feel that the hole needs a downward angle to help the sap drain out, this can't be farther from the truth. When a tree is running there is a lot of pressure inside the tree pushing the sap out. Just drill in at a 90, the tap will hold a bucket much easier.