Tubing questions

[Maplewalnut]

I am going to experiment a little with tubing this year and convert some 7/16 tap/bucket combo to 5/16 tap drop lines. I have a couple clusters of trees I can probably dump 5 or so taps into a single 15 gallon carboy. I was going to pick up some semi 30P tubing and some health spouts. Can the tubing be attached easily enough for say 30 taps without the tool eveyone mentions? Anything else I should need? The thought is to then tie these drops into a mainline of sorts next year.

Thanks Mike

[jemsklein]

get a thermos and fill it with boiling water and dip the end of the tub in to it for about 30 seconds and it should slide right on also when you go to buy the tubing ask if they have any used tubing if se how much its and see if it is worth it i lucked out on a bunch 2 weeks ago there was a skid of tubing and i asked the gut how much he said i have not cleaned it yet so cuz it is dirty you could have it for $50 well i got it and turned out when i got it all home there was 350 drop lines 3 ft long = $525 worth and then there was 2000' of tubing = $272 and there was 800' of main line $200 so yah bi had to clean it but i got $1000 worth of stuff for $50 any way good luck on you tubing

[tessiersfarm]

I tap about 100 taps a year with no tool 15 to 20 taps into 55 gallon drums.

The Hot Water is the answer, I carry a small thermos with me.

[ploefstedt]

Hi -

I have a small tubing operation, with two separate mainlines, and
I didn't invest in any particularly expense tooling (no one-hand
or two hand installers). Putting T's and taps into the 5/16th
requires a tubing expander (sort of reverse needle nose pliers)
which I paid $15 for, and a tubing cutter (also good for PVC) which
can be had for under $10. The bigger investments are in the tubing
and fittings; for 30 taps, you'll certainly need at least one roll (500
feet) of 5/16th's, which sells for between 45 and 60 bucks, depending
on what you buy. Consider that you need 40 each taps and T's, which
are roughly 25 cents each (or maybe 30), plus an assortment of straight
"joins," Y's and tubing supports. The mainline I used was 3/4 inch,
which was 22 cents a foot, plus the wire, which was $60 for a 900
foot roll. Finally, you'll need some way of transferring the sap from the
collection barrel to a the truck bed/trailer on which your transport
container is mounted. I sprung for a little 1 HP gas pump...

Money money...gets to be an expensive hobby when seen from this
perspective, if not selling any of the syrup to recoup the investment in
equipment. Nonetheless, there is a real aesthetic to a nice little tubing operation, and of course it's a whole lot easier to collect the sap from
one point than from 30 pails. I was lucky to have a little money to play
with, and I just get such a kick out of my tubing operation that I am
very happy to have spent the time and money.

Paul L.

[Sugarmaker]

Maple walnut,
Yes the hot water will work. But on the Leader memory flex it can cause the joints to loosen and come apart under tension, like in getting the sags out. I did not use a tubing tool last year and was not happy with the hot water method. Maybe it will work fine on more rigid 30P? I did go to all 30P this year but also went to installing all the fittings cold with a one handed tubing tool. Some of the tubing has been up since Jan 1 and no failed connections.
That makes me happy!

Yes this tubing stuff is not cheap. Any good equipment is not cheap!

Chris

[jemsklein]

well i have used hot water for 3 years know and only 1 fitting came out of place on because it was still hot so what you do is dip it in snow and then you are good to go but if you do a hole bunch of tubbing then it would be faster using the tool

[pennslytucky]

just putting it in ur mouth for a few seconds will make it alot easier to work with. but its not very soft so you have to work pretty fast. for all the more tubing i do, this works about as well as anything

[maple flats]

Putting it in your mouth is not a good idea. It would soften the tubing but would add bacteria to end up giving lower grade syrup.

[tappin&sappin]

walnut,

I too switched over to tubing this year on about 70 of my taps. Chris (sugarmaker) has been a big help.

I also scoffed buying a tubing tool. Instead I went to TSC, bought a couple cheap pair of vice grips (totaled 15 bucks) and had a buddy of mine fab them up per my request. They work fine, probably not like the ones from the catalog, but I did get all my tubing up w/ them. If interested, I'll take a pic and send to you.

For drops (spile to tee): I used leader memory flex tubing. Made a jig in the garage to hold the tee/spile and was able to push the tubing on by hand.

For laterals (tee to tee or tee to collection container): I used leader 30P. Tried to push this stuff on by hand... forget it! Too rigid. Used the tool I had made up and worked out fine.

As for using hot water. I imagine that method would work fine, as long as you weren't pulling your tubing real tight. If you have short runs from tree to collection container and don't have to pull tight to get 40 yards worth of sags out of it, you might be okay.

Hope this helped.

- Jake

[Maplewalnut]

Thanks for all the replies. Seems like the forum will go pretty quiet in a week or so but I think I still have time to run to a supply house this week and get a 'little line' up this weekend.

Does anyone know of any schematics on what a 'standard line' should look like? with tee's and Y's etc?

[Dave Y]

Maplewalnut,
I depends on how your trees are laid out and how many you have. At the least you would have a mainline (3/4") and laterals(5/16) Mainfold to connect lateral to main line Hook connecters. end rings or end forks whatever you prefer. cup tee's to connect drop lines (5/16) to the laterials and spouts. you may want to hang your main line on a strand of high tenisel wire. remember 3 pincipals of tubing . straight, tight and down hill. If you need any more info send me a pm and and I will give you my number and you can cal me.
Dave

[Sugarmaker]

Maple walnut,
I am learning as I go but the main thing I learned last year that I corrected this year was to have all the drops come down and tee into the horizontal line, this sounds logical to those that have done it but I tried to make some "y's" last year and then drop in to the lateral and it just did not work well.

Chris