Adding plates to press

[tonka]

Have anyone of you guys ever try running more then 7 hollow plates in one bank on a filter press? I can't see it hurting anything or will it be too much for the motor?

[OGDENS SUGAR BUSH]

you can do this but you need to add the solid plate also and lengthen the bolts that hold it together

[maple flats]

It would actually be less strain on the motor since it has more surface to force the same amount of syrup thru.

[tonka]

So then in a sense as long as one adds the recommended amount of filter aid, more syrup could potentially be ran through the press because of the surface area? I have 2 wesfab 7 inch presses, one has a gear pump and the other just the bank, 12 sets of plates total, the benifit of 2 banks is if something goes wrong with the one all I'd have to do is switch banks, but then there's being able to run 40 to 80 gallons of syrup through one press without recharging it in between barrels. I'm thinking after next season I will be upgrading to a 10 inch press.

[Russell Lampron]

I'm not positive but I think that Wes Fab uses the same size gear pump and motor for both the short and long bank presses. My new Wes Fab press has 8 sets of plates. If the bolts are long enough fill up the space, it will work.

[tonka]

I would assume the motor and gear pump would be the same since you can order extra plates to add to the smaller banks. It just seems that nothing is bigger then 8 plates so it got me thinking if I could add more plates or not and be able to run more syrup through in one charge.