re-drilling old holes

[michael marrs]

my friend called me and asked this today. any thing wrong with that, if it is mended?

[Haynes Forest Products]

I always laugh when I hear that term. Its right up there with re tap a warn out stripped bolt hole. First re tapping removes any threads that might be left or smears the crappy ones back into place to fail later. Now My theory is if you re tap it your just smearing around the slimy mold that is causing the low flow. Now Reaming it out is a term that make me believe your going to widen the hole to get to "new wood" for better flow. Will you be installing new bigger taps. To me its like boring out an engine block and throwing the old pistons in the holes.

I think reaming will get you a little more life but it will close up soon.

[michael marrs]

what I meant by this, and don't really think I got an answer , was year to year do you re-tap old hole. I really should have been more specific

[MISugarDaddy]

No you don't tap the same hole twice. You always want to tap new wood each year.
Gary

[lords sugaring]

No you don't, you always move to the right or left of the old hole by at least an inch and always higher or lower than previously by a few inches. The old tap hole might run a very little bit but better to tap fresh wood. If he drills the hole and the wood looks brownish tap a new hole to where the scraps coming out look nice and fresh. Again if he moves the location over and down/up from previous years it should be nice clean looking wood. The other issue with not clean looking wood is it could be a dead spot in the tree. Try not to tap a bunch of holes in one tree if you can't clean wood

[DrTimPerkins]

what I meant by this, and don't really think I got an answer , was year to year do you re-tap old hole. I really should have been more specific

Tapping in the same hole will result in little or no sap. Tap at least 2” to the side and 6” higher or lower to avoid old tapholes and associated areas of non-conductive wood.

[michael marrs]

Thanks all, that is what I was looking for, I was not specific enough to my first responder, and know it was my fault why his answer did not make sense to me