Equipment purchase thoughts....

[Ntatar]

I work at Olin College, a small engineering school just outside of Boston. We're enjoying our second season and I'm thinking ahead to to 2019. I'd love to hear your thoughts on next steps in terms of equipment. What's at play:

we've got 40-60 red maples on campus that are spread around a wetland area. too spread out and too flat to run tubes from tree to tree.
we've got 30+ mature sugar maples in a neighborhood across the street. too many driveways and sidewalks to run tubes from tree to tree.
Access to the College's walk-in dining hall freezer and refrigerator
access to gas stoves and vent hoods in dining hall kitchen 2x a week (1 day for boiling and 1 day for finishing)
purchases to date include: 25 x 7/16 spouts (cheaper spouts...), 25 buckets w lids, 2 hydrometers with cups, 2 cone filter set-ups, sailer hat jig for holding filters
home made PVC rack for holding cone filters during finishing phase


thoughts or advice on next purchases?
Advice so far:

new spouts and tubing that will gravity feed sap to a bucket on the ground (not off a hook)
refractometer
murphy compensation cup
better finishing equipment


Such as:
http://www.wfmasonwelding.com/finishersbottlers.html
https://www.smokylakemaple.com/product/cone-filter-tank/
https://www.leaderevaporator.com/p-6-gas-fired-filter-and-canning-unit-16-x-16.aspx
https://www.smokylakemaple.com/product/complete-steam-bottler-system/


Thoughts or feedback?
Thanks!
Nick

[Bucket Head]

Wow, you have access to almost everything that most of us on here wish we had! You can boil, finish and do pancakes and sausage at the same time within a few feet of each other! Lol! However, limited access to the needed tree's is a small hurdle. We suffer with that too.

You have some eager (and strong and able also) students who are willing to gather buckets since tubing can not be run? If so, maybe a conversation with the grounds keeping manager would be the next step. Maybe they would allow you to use a pick up, tractor, golfcar-like utility vehicle, etc. for an hour a day to gather sap? Or maybe a grounds staff member could be freed up to drive it around for you while the others gather?

As a former grounds manager at a higher learning institution, I would have loved to help out with a project like that if I could! If help from the grounds dept. is not an option, who else owns a truck?

[Ntatar]

Grounds guys and dining staff have really been enjoying this. Students have been pretty good too - I've gotta core group who are all in. Some growing pains along the way but hoping year 3 will keep the momentum going. Learning so much from the posts on this website!
I've flirted with wood-fired evaporators (smaller sizes) but we don't have easy access to cheap, quality wood... that's why I'm thinking the filtering/bottling end of this is the next step (after upgrading the taps and getting some tubes to the buckets on the ground).

[groomer_guy]

Sounds like you have a great start. All of the options you listed are nice. Small wood fired evaporators are out there second hand or if you can new is always an option. I have the wood from my property so the wood is no problem. I use a combination of split hardwood, softwood, slabwood, and dismantled pallets (these burn hot!!) Good luck to you and hopefully you have a great season. If you were to get a wood fired evaporator something around 2x4 should be good. There are many options from all of the manufactures.

[maple flats]

My suggestion is to use 5/16 taps, they are far better for the trees than 7/16, they heal up quicker. If you go with a wood fired evaporator would the fire be an issue? Are you paying for the gas used in the kitchen? If no, a bigger flat pan to cover more burners might be a better approach, but only if the gas is costing you $.

[Bill@mysticmaple]

An engineering college...how about putting together a small RO unit. It will shorten your boiling time considerably!

[Sugarbush Ridge]

Next purchase of spouts go 5/16 less damage to tree and they will heal over in less than a year. No holes showing for 2-3 years

[Ntatar]

An engineering college...how about putting together a small RO unit. It will shorten your boiling time considerably!
Now that would be awesome ;-)

[Ntatar]

...a bigger flat pan to cover more burners might be a better approach.
Now that's something I hadn't thought about... I'll measure the range we've been using in the kitchen. Right now we're cooking down on gas with some monster soup pots (25 gallon pot and 3-4 10 gallon pots).

[maple flats]

Maybe in the off season the grounds dept could set aside a place to save all of the limbs that get cleaned up around campus. Then as the pile gets to time to process, sometimes maybe weekly, others maybe monthly. Get a few pallets to stack the wood on and cover the top to keep rain and snow off. A sawbuck and a bow saw will make fast work of it, the engineering students could draw up and fab one easily.
For an evaporator, quality wood is any and all that is split wrist sized and dry, hardwood, soft wood, junk wood makes no difference. If you did the "home made R.O. and got a good 2x4 wood fired evaporator you could make more syrup with less time spent, plus the students would enjoy making the R.O. Lots of those on this forum have made their own RO, with no engineering background at all.
As far as wood, you could also put out a call to the alumni of the college, some would donate wood I'll bet, at no cost to the program.

[Biz]

Well since you have engineers eager to build and test things, how about setting up a small diaphragm pump on a group of taps, doesn't have to be all of them it can just be a dozen or so, and letting the students design a temperature controller for it? You can check out some of my videos for ideas. They can also gather data and compare the differences in sap production for buckets vs. vacuum, 3/16 tubing vs. 5/16, perhaps 5/16 taps vs. some of the new smaller ones starting to show up. Lots of things to tinker with. Maybe one of them will be inspired and invent something useful for us!

Dave