new taps and new bags

[tuckermtn]

just hung the first 5 buckets of the year with the new 5/16 stainless taps and
2 mil poly bucket liners. Need to come up with a good system of keeping the liner close to the hole in the bucket (and of making a hole in the liner) The new taps w/ the flange near the end means that the drip out of the tap is just barely inside the bucket.

I just tried a small strip of duck tape dbled over just below the hole and we'll see how that works.

other solutions?

-tuckermtn

[super sappy]

Double sided tape over the hole. Then stick your liner onto it. Then cut out the hole. This with a large rubber band around the rim and you should be good to go. You have to stack a nut behind the ring on the new taps so that the ring hangs into the bucket. I put out 35 of them and they all leaked some.They are a great Idea and I will cross over to them when they put a little tit in the end.-SS

[Maple Hill Sugarhouse]

Use a Rubber Gourmet to seal the bag to the hole in the bucket/ Right- Royalmaple(Where's the light bulb signs we used to have?) slick and nasty for your invention...

[Russell Lampron]

Matt better hurry up and get a patent. It looks like you are letting the cat out of the bag.

Russ

[royalmaple]

Must be all the warm milk I put out. Starting to draw them in.

Hey kevin I got two more tree rats this afternoon in the watch tower. HA.

[hard maple]

tuckermtn
Are you talking about the new 19/64 IPL stainless bucket spout??
I just tapped a tree two days ago with one of those...not impressed.
If the hole in the bucket is too big and the hole was drilled on a slight angle into the tree the sap dribbles along the bottom of the spout and then on the OUTSIDE of the bucket!!
The flange needs to be wider and a groove into the flange about .050 would do the trick.

[Maple Hill Sugarhouse]

Seems as though you could get a gourmet to seal the bag to the bucket and be able to put the spout through the gourmet to hang the bucket ??

[tuckermtn]

hard maple- yes- they are the ones with the flange on the very end. I was also thinking of using a dremmel w/ cutting wheel to score the shaft of the tap.

Also could use a few o-rings up next to the flang to keep the bucket back toward the tap hole. I'll stop at the hardware store and try the o-ring then it looks like you can get a bag of 100 from mcmaster-carr for $4.

still sucks that you get something new and still have to tweek it to make it work...but seems like thats what sugaring is all about...

might also search Mcmaster for some type of grommet set up for the hole/liner combo...

[tapper]

Tuckermtn,

I am thinking of trying the liners this year. Were they ok to use once you figured out the tap hole issue? Did the liner stay in place ok while emptying buckets? Seems to me not having to wash buckets and ease of changing the liner mid season would be a big plus for the liner or did you find otherwise?

[royalmaple]

I was very happy with the liners, they worked very well. I didn't get too high tech on a gromet or anything. I just draped the bag over the sides, and slid the cover on the top, which helped keep the bag in place. THen just took my knife and cut a hole where the tap would enter the bucket. Clean up was a snap at the end of the seaon. And if you just poured the sap out of the bucket the bag stayed in there fine. I guess if you did a complete flip flop when you were collecting the bag could just fly out.

[tapper]

Thanks Matt! Where did you get the bags. I found a few places online but wasnt sure what size to order.

[tuckermtn]

The jury is still out for me on the bag-in-bucket deal...

We had problems with sap getting under/between the bag and the bucket...mostly from drips getting hung up because the bag got hung up on the end/underside of the tap...once we figured it out, it was fine...but for me it took a little longer to get those buckets on and off the tap...if your doing 20-30 buckets not a problem, but if your doing 150, it starts to add up...

but I think I'll give the bags another shot next year...

I got my bags from Matt, who I think got them through uline.com 18x24 I think?

-tuckermtn

[royalmaple]

Mine were from Uline, I think I bought 500 or 1000. I can't remember. But check under the old posts and I think I posted the measurements and the stock number. I think anyone can order from uline. If you can't I have an account and could have them drop ship to you. But I don't think you need an account.

I only do a few buckets, I try to stick with pipe where at all possible. I think I had like 75 or so last year. And I'm thinking of putting up some seasonal tubing to cut that number down.

[tappin&sappin]

I am planning on trying out the liners for the buckets this year as well. I will have out about 70 buckets.

Here is the link to the post Royalmaple was referring to: http://mapletrader.com/community/showthread.php?t=2493&page=8&highlight=bucket+liner

I think that will take you to the post. Looks like Fred Henderson used the 18x24 liners and Royalmaple used the 18x18.

I'm going to probably end up getting the 18x18 from Uline.

Here is the link:
http://www.uline.com/ProductDetail.asp?model=S-8495&ref=154

Minimum order is 1 carton (250 count), cost is 97 bucks. About 39 cents per bag. I think it would be worth not having to clean buckets or worry about them leaking, lead or rust.

[tapper]

Thanks guys! I had done a search for the bags a few months ago and had the uline site saved. I thought you guys might have had a better lead on them but looks like we are all on the same page there. I am going to be close to 400 buckets this season and none of it is feasible for tubing so I am really going to try to make this bag thing work.

[cncaboose]

I tried the 18x24 Uline bags last year in our first year of sugaring it. There are clearly plusses and minuses. Plusses include keeping rust out of the sap, maybe keeping lead out of the sap with galvanized buckets, being able to replace or just pull them midseason to get a clean start with the buckets. Down side includes that they add extra handling when tapping and collecting, (2 of my sap collecting volunteers took half the season to figure out that the tap had to be all the way thru the bag hole when rehanging a bucket so the sap doesn't all run down the outside) many leaked for what ever reasons, we still had to wash buckets at the end of the season anyway, they seemed to grow a lot of bacterial slime, and we had to dispose of all the slimy bags at the end. We'll probably use them again this year because we still have enough and they're paid for, but after that I'll have to reevaluate.