Bad tap hole?

[Tigermaple]

Around here and other places I've read you want to clean white shavings off the drillbit for every taphole you drill. That is what I try for but of course every now and then I find brown nasty shavings. My question is, do you just deal with that hole or do drill all new one? If you drill another one how far away you should it be from the bad hole in order to get good vacuum?

[unc23win]

If the brown hole produces it will not produce as much as another hole would. If you move 6 inches over and 6 inches up or down you should be fine unless the tree has a large portion of bad wood. If you tap from year to year and can can see the previous years hole you might be able to tap closer than the 6 inches to a previous hole. A spiral pattern works well to make sure you hit good wood over the years.

[Tigermaple]

Thanks for the reply. I have redrilled before but I was worried about vacuum leaks in the cambium layer through a non healed taphole and beating up the tree to much.

[WestfordSugarworks]

Some producers tap low when they hit bad wood. perhaps you hit compartmentalized wood on a tree that has been tapped for a while, you can go below the normal tapping band in order to preserve more of your tapping band, avoid two tap holes in your tapping band, and prevent leaks within the tree. I've seen and heard where an old tap hole or crack in the tree sucks air through the tree to your new tap hole. I would definitely drill a new tap hole if your first yields brown shaving, as Jared mentioned you will get much less sap from a tap hole drilled into dead wood.