wet/dry vacuum lines where do i begin???

[ajstarr2288]

i just got a job working for a new sugaring operation and we are running wet/dry lines. i was wondering if anyone has any good resources that they can let me in on or just where i can start to look.

[vtmapleman]

ajstarr2288 - not sure what you are asking for?

[ToadHill]

Get a copy of the "New York State Maple Tubing and Vacuum System Notebook" by Steve Childs and the Cornell Maple Program. Also, attend one of his workshops. He usually speaks at the Winter Maple Conference in Verona, NY. You can get the manual from the Cornell website or from Bascoms. Good luck.

[PerryW]

i just got a job working for a new sugaring operation and we are running wet/dry lines. i was wondering if anyone has any good resources that they can let me in on or just where i can start to look.

Sneak out in the woods and look at how someone else does it. Buy them a beer and they might even give you some good tips. BTW> I'm pretty sure the dry line goes on top.

[spud]

i just got a job working for a new sugaring operation and we are running wet/dry lines. i was wondering if anyone has any good resources that they can let me in on or just where i can start to look.

What I did was walk several sugar woods in my area to give me a good idea. I ask a lot of questions to a lot of people because this is how I learn. Proctor has a great site and you can learn a bunch from them. One thing I ask people is how many taps do you have and how much syrup do you average per year. This tells me if their close to the 1/2 gallon per tap that I am shooting for. If you want to be a great sugar maker then get your advice from great sugar maker's There's a bunch of them out there and most are willing to offer help or advice. The one thing I found is some sugar maker's and equipment dealers will bash Maple research like Proctor and Cornell. They will tell you the researchers don't know what they are talking about and they just sit in an office and have never sugared. If you run into people like that just close your ears and walk away. If you look at Proctors production for the last 5-7 years you will be impressed. There's not many that can beat their numbers (but there are some).

Spud

[GeneralStark]

What I did was walk several sugar woods in my area to give me a good idea. I ask a lot of questions to a lot of people because this is how I learn. Proctor has a great site and you can learn a bunch from them. One thing I ask people is how many taps do you have and how much syrup do you average per year. This tells me if their close to the 1/2 gallon per tap that I am shooting for. If you want to be a great sugar maker then get your advice from great sugar maker's There's a bunch of them out there and most are willing to offer help or advice. The one thing I found is some sugar maker's and equipment dealers will bash Maple research like Proctor and Cornell. They will tell you the researchers don't know what they are talking about and they just sit in an office and have never sugared. If you run into people like that just close your ears and walk away. If you look at Proctors production for the last 5-7 years you will be impressed. There's not many that can beat their numbers (but there are some).

Spud

Good advice. I have learned so much from walking other sugarmaker's woods and Proctor's as well. Steve Child's work is excellent as well.

My advice would be to use stainless y's and t's to create manifolds and not PVC for connecting wet/dry mains to lateral mains. Pvc will break and stainless lasts forever and is worth the cost.

[sjdoyon]

I fully agree with Spud. We did our research for five years before diving in and one of our best investments was attending the weekend seminars put on by the Proctor Research Center. You have plenty of individuals who made syrup 20-30 years ago but those methods are very much outdated. You want to maximize your production so if you speak to someone who's on vacuum and producing 2 pounds per tap, don't walk away, run. Try to find someone who is averaging around five pounds per tap. We also had a rep from a maple equipment producer come out and ribbon out our wet/dry lines and main lines. Excellent investment. The top of our sugarbush is over a mile and a quarter from the sugarhouse, we currently have 27lbs of pressure at the sugarhouse and 26.5 at the top of the bush. Also, become a believer in "Strive for Five".

[OldManMaple]

sjdoyon is right. It's about ROI of money, time, and fuel. I've turned into a vac snob. I won't tap them unless i can plug them in to vac. The research has been done to improve sap production and if you follow the recommended guidelines you will increase production. High vac is part of it.

[Vermonner]

Get in touch with Leader Evaporator and WH supply. They are both known to hold educational seminars about setting up a bush with tubing. I met 2 forum members at WH Supply last September in a "how to tube your woods" seminar which was eye opening and really well presented. I understand Leader does the same. I then got to work on a 17,000 tap bush this year, which helped me in terms of understanding big picture layout, which I bet you got this past season. Sounds like we're doing the same thing in a different order. Between the 2 experiences, the whole tubing and "wet/dry" thing has been demystified and I'm ready to start going out there to make mistakes and earn experience.

[maple flats]

I set up a new bush last year with wet/dry. I started by asking my dealer to visit my woods to help design it. It had one set up in mind, the dealer improved on that. Then my dealer took the design to Leader who made more changes (and actually cut the cost while improving the layout and system efficiency. I installed Leader's design and it worked well (at least the portion I installed) I am continuing by adding 4-600 more taps this year and then next at which time I think the bush will be fully set up. The dealer nor Leader charged for this service but the expectation was and they did get my business on MOST components. A few parts I got from our The Maple Guys because I liked what they offered better than the Leader product.
I encourage you to contact your dealer and the manufacturer you deal with. They all offer this service and they design to be most profitable to you, the maple producer, because in the end, that is most profitable to them too.