August journal

[jimsudz]

Just finished sawing the framing lumber for the new wyoming county maple producers building that is going to be built at the western ny gas and steam show grounds . Now it's time to get ready for the wyoming, and erie county fairs.

[SeanD]

I reached the half-way point of getting the 2014 wood put up in the sugar house. Hopefully the second half goes quicker and I can get going on the 2015 wood.

Sean7916

[silveradomaple]

Took the ride over to Bill Mason's in Maine today to get my new 2x4 evaporator. Thing sure does look awesome. Thanks Bill. Now I need to get to work and get it set up. Anyone wanna come help? LOL79177918

Bill tells me I should get 18 to 20 GPH out of it. But I have read other posts here that say Bill estimates a little low. My calculations come up with about 23 GPH

[bowhunter]

Looks great. Remind me what's the boil rate on this unit?

[maple flats]

Looks great, you'll enjoy boiling on that for sure. Looks like the flue pan in 2.5' long and the syrup pan 1.5' long, is that correct? Looks like a sweet rig.

[chrismxz583]

793079307919Added two more surge pumps to the arsenal today. An sp-11and sp-22. Good example of you never know unless you stop and ask.

[bowhunter]

Completely off topic. I'm looking at hot tubs. Any recommendations either for or against a particular brand. I'm looking at an 8 foot ECCO which is a store brand. Looks like a good value, but not sure if I should stick with one of the top rated brands like Bull Frog, Hot Springs or Coast...maybe even Jacuzzi?

[Yellzee]

I like the look of that evaporator silverado maple... is it a flat pan or does it have drop/raised flues? looking at their website all pricing is on flat pans.


Been a busy summer doing everything but maple so far. Need to start getting into the woods to check lines and see if I'm actually going to run my pipeline to the shack this year. And build tree stands...

[lakeview maple]

What a busy summer ,wonder how I get anything done when Im running in 3 different directions, LOL. The wood is all done has been for next season for about a month, we have been looking at expansion. I was looking at a 3x10 and adding taps ,we still have almost 500 left that are not tapped on our side of the mtn ,and I had a new road put in just to tap these trees. I also have been thinking RO instead of bigger evaporator ,ray ginggrich has some really nice stuff at a great price,,,,,hmmmm . I really like our 2x6 ,I have it all tuned in and it boils like crazy ,so any thoughts out there in maple land ? Which direction would any of you go ,bigger evap or RO ,my shack is a 12 by 20 and I have power,110 power and ray has a 110 unit . Hope all is well with everyone and that your having a great summer ,God Bless and take care ,Al

[500592]

Al I would get either the bigger evap or a 250 ro but that would require 220 so I would maybe just get a bigger evap because that allows you to expan even more.

[maple flats]

Ray's 120V rig is too small to be practical if you plan to add many more taps, however he make 250 gph units that are gas powered, I have one. I used it 2 yrs as a gas rig but I now have 240V power in the sugarhouse, so I converted it to a 240v motor. With an RO you could easily handle over 1000 taps with a 2x6. You will burn less wood than you did at 400 taps boiling raw sap and you can spend more time in the woods, where the money is made.

[PARKER MAPLE]

How does one get in touch with Ray regarding these gas ROs? I would like to chat with him about them. My summer has been busy doing everything other then maple, I have plans to build an RO this fall but time is running out and still have an addition to put on. Any help would be great. P.m me his contact info
MR

[maple flats]

Ray's # is 440-422-3047. The phone is in his shop, no phone in his house. He does have an answering machine and he will return calls. Ray is a good man to deal with and he will answer all your questions.
Dave

[PerryFamily]

I have been splitting wood like is my JOB!! Hoping to doubly my production so I want to be ready. Picked up 7 skids of cutoff units from where my truck hauls lumber. They are 2' cutoffs from whole lumber units. Most are 2x10 but 3 are 2x4= no splitting!! Already cut to 2' and kiln dried spruce. Should burn great mixed with pine.

Hoping to get started on my RO room. The electricity last year running the heater killed me. Should be able to heat this room (8x12) with a small propane heater. Maybe even get a small gas hot water heater.

[maple flats]

Even on propane it is costly if you use 20# bottles. Try to get a bulk tank set there. I did and then I ran a supply line in 3/4" black pipe with hook ups for my canner, finishers (2), a weed burner torch (lights the fire real quick) and my hot water heater. Propane bought in little bottles costs 2-3X as much as bulk delivery. If you don't get bulk, at least get a automatic change over set up where 2 tanks are connected and one is used up and then automatically switched to the other tank. That way your heat won't shut off and let the RO freeze.

[500592]

Perryfamily I wouldn't bother to split the kiln dried stuff I burn kiln dried spruce sometimes 2x12 and it burn so fast I don split it. But I put it in there every 4 1/2 minutes or else the fire dies down because of how fast it burns.

[jimsudz]

Dropped off my maple products to be consigned at the Wyoming County Maple booth and my exhibits at the Wyoming County Fair on Saturday.Returned in the evening to get results of competition,was delighted to find out I won 2 blues and 4 red ribbons. Dark amber and granulated were 1st's and medium amber,molded,cream and my display took 2nd's. My daughter and nephew will be showing their hogs all week,and I will be manning the maple booth on Tuesday evening. The meat auction will be on Wednesday , so come out and bid.

[PerryFamily]

mainer- If my evaporator was bigger I wouldn't bother to split it either. There is only so much room in the 2x6!! 2x4 wont get split, 2x10/2x12 wil be split in half. Plus I want to mix it with hemlock and pine. I am buying another 4 skids this week.

flats- The cost is very true. My mother works for a local propane distributor and told me I can get propane at her price. But I do a lot of work for their competition and buy my oil from them so I will price it out. Plus my "fire guy" is a master plumber with all the certifications including gas so hopefully he will locate a heat source ( small modine type hopefully) and can pipe it up lickidy split. I always had a vision of using gas for ro room heat, gas refrigerator, cook stove ( various reasons....ok i get hungry ) and for the canner . But I only have so much room. I also use a weed burner. My buddy asked for the lighter one time...I showed him the weed burner.....he said 'shut the f up'....he wont use anything else now!!

[Yellzee]

All right everyone... Enough slacking and enjoying summer. Stacked some wood today and went up back and cleared the trail. Huge tree broken in half hanging over the trail i probably didnt win any safety awards for but its down. A couple trees down on lines but nothing major. Only intersting find was that the property owners behind me have built a really nice trail to our shared fence and fixed the cedar rail fence a bit. Think i will leave them a note introducing myself as with the woods and size of property i cant tell what house/farm they are on the concession behind me.

[PerryFamily]

Got the majority of my wood split and stacked. Picked up the heater / hot water for the RO room. Still TONS to do. Will be here before you know it!!

[sjdoyon]

Finished getting up 1,200ft of 2" wet/dry line after dropping the 1 1/4" wet/dry line last weekend due to being undersized. Plan to run the 1 1/4 into a upper section of about 400 taps.

[tuckermtn]

My brother was up for four days last week with his JD 35d excavator and he and Mark got a ton done. Built a boulder retaining wall and prepped gravel for the 8x16 addition on the east side of sugarhouse. This addition will house auger and day bin for pellet arch and 1/2 of new slab will be silo anchor pad. Trenched and placed conduit for 200-amp service. Trenched and set-up drain for RO room addition (6x12 room)

Spent sunday jugging up a barrel of dark A. Sales are picking up as the cooler fall weather approaches. Nice to have a bit of $$ coming in, as it has been a lot of $$ going out with maple upgrades lately...

[chrismxz583]

7942 Sp11 7940 Sp22 7941 Ingersoll Rand

I found a second vacuum pump and now I have a choice of which one to use in the sugar bush. The one is a SURGE SP-22 and the other is a Ingersoll rand v235 twin piston. Has anyone had any experience with the ingersoll rand style pumps? My surge sp-11 worked like a champ last season, but this year I am expanding the bush from 200 taps to 400 taps......(90 of them will be on a 15 foot sap ladder I still have to build). According to what I find surfing the web the sp-22 is rated @ 11 cfm at 15in vac. The Ingersoll rand is rated @ 21.6 cfm @ 29 in vac. Does that sound right? I put a vac gauge on both and they both showed 27 + inches of vac.(I bought a few more gauges today because I don't trust the old gauge) I have heard other's say they had great luck with the surges ( I did as well) but really don't hear much on the Ingersoll rand in the maple community. Thanks for the input.

[K.I. Joe]

I got one for free but havnt put it into service yet so I cant offer any help but would love to hear from others who have.

[maple flats]

The Ingersoll Rand is likely no good, you can ship it to me and I'll dispose of it for you. I'll even pay the shipping.
All kidding aside, I am not familiar with the IR vacuum pumps, but their compressors are good. As long as it has proper lubrication and cooling it should be good.

[BreezyHill]

The surge units are as near bullet proof as possible...as long as you use vac oil. Too many think oil is oil. It is not. Some oils are designed to cool, some to lubricate, some to polish will cooling and lubricating. Some oils are designed to vapor off easily and others not so easily. The worst is if you use an oil that is designed to encapsulate the oil and it wont separate out well and you can drain it off. Motor oils encapsulate...dont use in a vac pump. Some hydraulic oils will work well but vac oil is designed to polish, lub, cool and vaporize. These are good for vane pumps. Liquid ring is better with hydraulic type oils.

IR is a descent pump as long, as with any pump, it has been loved. Run it out of lub and the lovin ends. Scored cylinders don't make vacuum very well for high vac.

A better test than just valve closed and read gauge is set up a milk pail to vacuum down. Suck it down and open the valve a crack. See how it handles a few cfms then try some more.

If I had the two units and the time. Set them both up with a valve to isolate them. It is great to have a back up unit all set to go. Besides if #1 is unable to keep up thro on #2. A good swing check valve will protect her well but a ball in line also will isolate 100% when not needed.

Ben

[chrismxz583]

Thanks for the input. Dave you should be seeing that pump any day now just mailed it this morning. Got a chance to do a quick static test on both newer vacuums and also the old sp11. Picked up 3 new vacuum gauges from fw webb for $7 each. Got some good readings as I used all three gauges and they all concurred. The sp22 clocked in @ 26 in-hg. The old sp11 , surprisingly, clocked in a little stronger @ 27 in-hg. The Ingersoll rand also clocked in @ 27 in-hg, however it did so almost twice as fast as the other two (only talking a couple seconds)

Ben, I have heard others using different oils but I choose to stay with regular vacuum oil from tractor supply. Must be it works. I pulled the sp11 out of our old barn last year, cleaned it up, changed the oil and put in service for the season. It still pulls 27 in-hg and i know the farm has not milked in 30+ years. I don't think that is too bad considering that the pump is probably 3/4 a century old, not to mention, the price ;). I am hoping to get some time next weekend to experiment with cfm's like you mentioned. Is there some type of meter to measure cfm cheaply?

[Yellzee]

enjoy the last long weekend of summer maple folks! Too much planned this weekend for me to get in anything maple except maybe pouring it on some pancakes. My humour of the day was a guy that just called me about firewood.. and asked how many trips I thought it would take to move a cord of wood in his mini-van....

[Flat Lander Sugaring]

Added legs to my bottled and a adjustable shelf to set jugs on to bottle. Once I vet a stainless shelf made I will have the whole thing powder coated. I have also started building two RO stands, one for my three 4" towers and once I get that set I'll be building a second one for one 8" tower.