Air Injection

[aubreybrothers'sugarhouse]

Hey all, I'm an engineering student as well as a maple sugaring addict. . .for my final class project, I have started to create a air injection system out of copper piping. I have some questions as to design, though. First off, is there a general consensus as to the overall effectiveness of air injection? Second, here is a link to a blower I'm looking at. . .should it work?
https://www.thevacuumfactory.com/product/lamb-ametek-116472-13-2-stage-5-7-vacuum-motor-120-volt/
Third, does a filter need to be placed on the blower to pre-clean the air? Fourth, is a 5/32" hole big enough or too big? And lastly, how many and how far apart should the holes be? Hope you guys can answer some of these questions!
Jacob

[Russell Lampron]

I built an air injector a few years back. I used copper tubing to make the tubes that go into the pans and used copper pipe for manifolds. I used the smallest drill bit in my drill bit set to make the holes and the holes are 1" apart. I use a small shop vac for the air supply. Before I built the air injector I made nothing but dark syrup. Since I made the air injector I've made mostly Golden and Amber with some dark as well. You can check this thread to read about it. http://mapletrader.com/community/showthread.php?20529-Bubblemaster-1.0!&highlight=bubblemaster

[billschi]

I built an air injection for my 2x6 pan last year. I did buy a wet vac to fit over a 5 gallon bucket. I built it with copper tubing. It worked well until I used it for birch sap. All my sap turned blue. After talking to Dr. Tim, I found out birch syrup has more acid in it. I ended up throwing out the whole batch. This year it'll be made from stainless steel. I would like to use a dimmer switch to control the amount of air injecting in the pan.