Tapping frozen trees

[77maple]

Anybody have any experience tapping frozen trees, good or bad?

[Pdiamond]

I like tapping frozen trees. Cleaner hole, just make sure your bit is sharp. To me it seems that I am less likely to round out holes when drilling into frozen tress.

[BAP]

Tapping frozen trees is easier to get nice clean holes. Also, the bit will cut better, leaving a much sharper cut in the wood.

[ennismaple]

I much prefer tapping when they are frozen. You get more taps per battery charge and the shavings are cleaned out of the taphole better.

[ADK_XJ]

This is interesting, I’ve always avoided tapping in freezing weather for fear of splitting the wood but now you have me thinking.

[ennismaple]

You'll only split the wood if you over-drive the spouts. Using a light aluminum hammer held loosely in your fingers you "seat" the spout until you hear the "tunk" sound. Probably 95% of our taps go into freezing sapwood every year and I can only think of a couple trees where we've had split tapholes - and that was a new guy on the hammer.

[DrTimPerkins]

... I can only think of a couple trees where we've had split tapholes - and that was a new guy on the hammer.

New tappers (and youngsters if you use them) should only get small hammers (and be trained how to tap properly). Actually, larger hammers shouldn't be used at all for tapping.

[ADK_XJ]

New tappers (and youngsters if you use them) should only get small hammers (and be trained how to tap properly). Actually, larger hammers shouldn't be used at all for tapping. I’ve landed on letting my kids and nieces/ nephew do the bucket taps because they invariably over-tap and cause leaks…BUT the upside of having them interested and involved is invaluable. Those memories are priceless and maybe one of them will someday want to take it up themself.

[maple flats]

The big operations tap thousands of frozen trees. Even back when I had over 1300 taps, most if not all taps were in frozen trees. The reason was because I had 3 college agers helping and they had to be back to school by Jan 20 or 21, in most years that meant drilling frozen trees.
If you read about official tapping bits, they are designed to drill into frozen wood. Don't fool around using the basic hardware store drill bits, there is a huge difference. The point angle is 90 degrees instead of 135 degrees and the flutes are much deeper which pull out the drill shaving far better.
Hardware store bits are designed to drill metal and sort of do fairly on wood, but not good enough for maple tap holes.

[DrTimPerkins]

I’ve landed on letting my kids and nieces/ nephew do the bucket taps because they invariably over-tap and cause leaks…BUT the upside of having them interested and involved is invaluable. Those memories are priceless and maybe one of them will someday want to take it up themself.

Nothing wrong with that at all, in fact, it is quite laudable. You just have to accept the consequences. It is not the same as a commercial operation that is trying to maximize production and economic return.

[DrTimPerkins]

This is interesting, I’ve always avoided tapping in freezing weather for fear of splitting the wood but now you have me thinking.

Splitting is/was far more common with 7/16" spouts which are shaped like wedges and can split wood if trees are tapped when frozen. That is much less a problem now with 5/16" spouts that have far less taper (the shafts beyond the top are basically straight).

Splits are typically not real common, but do tend to happen more with thin-barked, smooth-barked trees and especially with red maple. However, these splits tend to be very superficial and don't extend into the sapwood. They mostly affect the cambium and typically heal within a few seasons. https://mapleresearch.org/pub/m0216tapholeinjury/