SmellsLikeSyrupNH 2019 Thread

[SmellsLikeSyrupNH]

Happy New Year everyone!!!

After being away in the Middle East last season and not being able to make syrup I am excited and ready to roll for 2019!! One good thing about being away is I was able to buy some new items that I probably wouldn't have been able to buy without some serious budgeting.

Upgrades

2x6 Smoky Lake Raised Flue pans
Smoky Lake Simplicity Auto Draw
Maple Jet Filter Press from the Maple Guys
Carlin 301CRD oil burner
1 handed and 2 handed 3/16" tubing tools
My best addition, a beautiful new wife/sugaring partner named Puren.


I spent a day last weekend and a few hours yesterday installing my 1st attempt at using 3/16" tubing. The properties where I tap do not really have the slope needed to run a good tubing system without a pump, but im trying it anyways. Having a central collection point as opposed to dumping 300 sap sacks manually really made me decide to do this. As im getting older and my son not having as much time available after school and on weekends made me decide to try it. I am still going to have about 100 taps on Sap Sacks, but thats a lot better than 300.

1909719098

In addition to that I have decided to go with an oil burner this season as opposed to wood. I got a good deal on a Carlin 301 and im running it with a 3.0 60 degree nozzle. I got the tank a few weeks back and then started working on the burner and trying to figure it all out. All I had was Youtube videos and reading this site to go off of. I had a buddy cut the hole in my evaporator door and Irving Fuel come and inspect the tank and connections for me. Seems to work great, although I really dont know if the flame is tuned properly or what I should be expecting. I filled the evaporator with water and ran it at about 1.5" above the flues and in the syrup pan and it came to a full boil in about 10 minutes and 30 seconds. I was happy with that. The fire box is fully contained now with fire blanket, the video was done while I was just testing the unit out.


https://youtu.be/x20uiCP_9Kw

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Lastly I am still looking for someone who sells sap in the So NH area, if anyone knows someone please let me know. THANKS!!

Cant wait for the sap to start flowing!!

-Scott

[DrTimPerkins]

Welcome back and congratulations on all the new equipment and sugaring partner. Best of luck for the 2019 season.

[Russell Lampron]

Happy New Year Scott,

Your lines do look pretty flat. When you tap try to create as much artificial slope as you can. Tap the upper end tree as high as possible and lower end tree as low as possible. I set up some 5/16" lines that way before I went to all vacuum and it worked pretty good.

Good luck with your 2019 season.

[maple flats]

On days when the sap flows well, you will get sap, but as flat as your woods are you will get little if any help from gravity. That being said, if you can add a diaphragm pump it will help, but even then the line friction will slow the flow some.
However, I have a few 3/16 runs where my vacuum pump pull sap from lower sections in one bush, then up 12' in one tree, across a driveway and finally down to a mainline with 26-27" vacuum on it. The 2 lines that did that last year were a joy to watch the march of the sap up one tree, across the driveway and down to the mainline. To my surprise, when I first connected them, I started each drilling and tapping at the low end and working towards the "sap ladder". As I was connecting the point where it was joining the mainline, the sap was running up and over by itself. While it will not get the most possible, you will still like the results, but maybe only if you can put some vacuum on it.

[SmellsLikeSyrupNH]

Im planning on tapping as high as I can at the top of each line and let it flow downwards. My collection tank is about 10 ft below the tree line, so im hoping that will give me enough of a slope just to keep it all going. I wasnt expecting to get much vacuum out of it and really the goal was a central collection point.

Thanks!



Happy New Year Scott,

Your lines do look pretty flat. When you tap try to create as much artificial slope as you can. Tap the upper end tree as high as possible and lower end tree as low as possible. I set up some 5/16" lines that way before I went to all vacuum and it worked pretty good.

Good luck with your 2019 season.

[DrTimPerkins]

To my surprise, when I first connected them, I started each drilling and tapping at the low end and working towards the "sap ladder". As I was connecting the point where it was joining the mainline, the sap was running up and over by itself.

Stem "pressure", at least initially, is equal to the height of the sap column in the tree, which is essentially equal to the height of the tree. So if you have 80' tall trees, and the sap has to run uphill 20' to a mainline, you will undoubtedly get some sap flowing down out of the tree into the tubing and it will run all the way up and into the mainline. This will continue until the pressure is equalized between height of the sap in the tree column and the height of the mainline as the sap drains downward and out of the taphole. Of course this assumes you have enough trees to fill the lines with sap also.

When it equalizes, you'll still have some stem pressure (about 20', the height difference from the taphole up to the mainline), so if you pulled the spout, more sap would come out. So by doing it this way, you'll get some, but not as much sap from the tree as you would with a bucket or if you didn't run the tubing uphill.

Now put a vacuum on the end and things change considerably. You've artificially "lowered" the mainline "height" with vacuum, so more sap will come out.

Conceptually, fill a piece of 5/16" tubing about 1/2 full of water. Put one end down low (this is the tree end, currently frozen) and put your thumb over it and hold the other end higher. Now put your hand with your thumb over the end up higher than the other end. To simulate a thaw, take your thumb off the other end. The water will run out the "mainline" end until it is equal in height in both sides of the tube. If you suck on the mainline end, you'll get even more out.

[SmellsLikeSyrupNH]

Going to try and get something rigged Dave, just not sure what I am going to do yet. I have a SurFlo 12v pump I could get going with a temperature switch and building a manifold for the lines to feed into. Just something I need to work out.

Thanks!
Happy New Year!

On days when the sap flows well, you will get sap, but as flat as your woods are you will get little if any help from gravity. That being said, if you can add a diaphragm pump it will help, but even then the line friction will slow the flow some.
However, I have a few 3/16 runs where my vacuum pump pull sap from lower sections in one bush, then up 12' in one tree, across a driveway and finally down to a mainline with 26-27" vacuum on it. The 2 lines that did that last year were a joy to watch the march of the sap up one tree, across the driveway and down to the mainline. To my surprise, when I first connected them, I started each drilling and tapping at the low end and working towards the "sap ladder". As I was connecting the point where it was joining the mainline, the sap was running up and over by itself. While it will not get the most possible, you will still like the results, but maybe only if you can put some vacuum on it.