Heres What I Have What Is It.

[The Maple Men]

Hello All,

i Introduced my self a few months ago,but have not posted since. so i will give a little refresher and a update. i got a oppertunity to take over a operation that has not been in use for about 4 yrs there is currently 900 taps that run to the sugar house. i have fixed line on about 500 so far and added another 75. i have done my best to correct theseas they wer defintly not ran the right way. 575 of the taps are on a 1" main line about 1500' long the other 400 are on 3/4" about 1700' long i have gottn the latterals dow to the most taps on one are 29. i am running out of time so i figured next year if needed i can reduce further. i have keep atleast a 5% slope on what i have done to date. all ther trees seem to be ok nothing special u can tell they have been taped for many years with what seems to be no care for tap location or in somecases how many per tree.then a very poor loging job took place 3.5 yrs ago. so nothing special but in my opion tapable tress and could be alot better with a few years of cleaning up around the which it appears at some point the maples were the only thing in this bush. so i still have about 400 taps to straightn out before this parts is done. i have no ro or vacume.

First question does this all sound ok to you guys?

Next Question attached are pic of evaporator what is it and how do i run it?
i have Sugared for about 10 yearsso i got an idea but never on an evaporator
so if at all possiable please pretend i know nothing and if you could explain things to me that i should know good and/or bad.

Is there anything else i should do that i haven't, what can i expect.
I have 2 tanks of oil ready
a large about of jugs both plastic and glass
i think there is 2 full boxes of pints 1 of quarts and 1 of half gallons and three boxes of glass.

all help that your willing to give i would like to here

Thank you All

[peacemaker]

is that a piggy back or a hood

[The Maple Men]

piggy Back

[NH Maplemaker]

Maplemen, From the Pics it looks like a oil fired 2x6 with a piggy back!! That burner is a 301 carlin which is the same burner that is on my 3x10 dalair. That should get the job done!! Were is Antrim ?

NH Maplemaker

[peacemaker]

maple man do understand the concept of a piggy back

[DS Maple]

How big is that? 3 by something? Better have a big oil tank for a Carlin 601. That's really going to suck down the oil. It looks like it was a wood fired GH Grimm converted to oil, so how about converting back?

[peacemaker]

thats bigger then a 2x6 isnt it

[DS Maple]

Looks like 3 feet wide based on sizes of the four partitions in the syrup pan. Maybe 10 feet long?

[NH Maplemaker]

Yes DS Maple is right 601 not 301 !! Don't why I put 301!! Ours is a 601, and burns about 4 gal per hour. Switching back to wood another year may work, If you don't have a lot of dry wood around there isn't time for this year!

Nh Maplemaker

[peacemaker]

i would say its 3 or 21/2

[The Maple Men]

it measures 42" by 12' long.
Antrim is next to hisboro about 25 min south west of concord
i kind of understand piggy back.
i have 2 full tanks of oil ready to go
at this point i need to concentrate on taps repair not wood cutting/trying to find wood or buy it. and i did not know i had the option of converting.
i am very excited. i have the bug bad and now i have this oppertunity it seems that it is all i can think about for the last 2.5 months. my wife is already dreading the start of the season

another questions is on a average year what am i looking at for boil times.
how much syrup should i be prepared for i am thinking around 200 gal based on what i am reading on here.

how do i sell all this if it is true. can i sell wholesale during the season in case i need quick cash for oil or it does not work this way and i should have all oil money ready before season starts.

[NH Maplemaker]

Looks to be in real nice shape!!! Hard to judge size in those pics!!

NH Maplemaker

[The Maple Men]

Ds where abouts in marlbrough are u? any where near Mr webber? i live in Swanzey

[peacemaker]

maple men how many taps are gonna have online 900?

[peacemaker]

have you tried to boil water on it

[peacemaker]

lt what do u think with a rig like that he should get a invite no?

[The Maple Men]

that is may goal and to get them all online i figure another 7 days of working on them and i should be good but now with snow comming it may take a little longer

with that being said what would be min to run this evaporator?

[peacemaker]

whats the size of the flue pan

[The Maple Men]

no running the evap yet i have been focused on the taps.

[NH Maplemaker]

Maplemen, if you got the bug them your in the right place!!! Looks like you got some real nice equipment to start with!! We had a dirt floor, old rusted out evaporator, and had to build as we went !! more and more every year until we ran out of trees.

NH Maplemaker

[The Maple Men]

this is where my lack of knowledge comes in to play. which one is considered Flue?

[peacemaker]

if its a 8 ft flue pan around 210 gals a hour

[DS Maple]

I'll actually be back in Marlborough in about two weeks, but yes I am relatively close to both Bernie Weber (Marlborough) and Steve Weber (Harrisville.) The sugarhouse is actually at Coll's Farm in Jaffrey though where I co-run the operation for both them and Dublin School. I'll be more than happy to come take a look at what you've got, but I know nothing about running oil. We run a 3x12 with a SteamAway (similar to Piggyback) but it runs on wood.

[peacemaker]

the back pans where your piggy back is

[The Maple Men]

i do have the bug bad. i and i got real lucky with this. it is something i have been trying to build towards for 10 years i boil about 3 gals a year on a homade rig and sell alot of sap ttrying to get to this point them i met this guy who bought this land with this setup tried to run it for 1 year and had no intrest in it. i have wathced it empty for 2 years so i want to talk to him this summer and he said go for it he would love to see i used and taken care of instead of sitting there going bad. so here i am

[DS Maple]

Forgot this:
We've run as few as 700 taps on hours cranking around 175 gallons per hour. You might not be able to boil every day it runs, but this is OK too.

Peacemaker:
do you mean 210 gph overall (whole evaporator including piggyback?)

[The Maple Men]

i belive the back pan measured 7.5 feet it might have been 8 though i really have not study the boiler to much yet

[peacemaker]

well that is the steam away chart they say with out the steam away on a 40 x12 with a 8 ft flue is 130 per hr and with steam away 210 7 ft flue is 185 ... i have to say ever rig a bascoms is rated lower then what leader says ... maybe they want you to buy bigger

[The Maple Men]

Ds,

Bernie is who got me hooked. i hate to ask for help with nothing really to offer i return but i would sure feel alot more comfortable if someone who had knowledge would spend a couple of hours with me to make sure i am atleast taking steps forward. so if you had a few hours someday that you would like to take a ride and look at the unit and maybe even a walk up my lines to make sure things apperar ok. i would sure apperciate it

[DS Maple]

Now I get it. I thought you were talking about the evaporation rate of the pan all by itself.

[peacemaker]

nope sorry i was clear about that ...

[caseyssugarshack93]

looks like a steamaway/piggyback.


Nate

[danno]

Maple Man - if you have not boiled on an evaporator and this is your first - I 2nd Peace's suggestion and boil some water to get the hang of this system. See if you get get an experienced syrup makor to fire it up with you. When you start your boil, make sure you have ample sap available, that no floats are stuck and no incoming sap lines are even partially frozen.

That rig will boil some sap - to the tune of 50 gallons or better every 15 minutes.

[peacemaker]

especialy if it isnt yours ... not cheap to replace ...

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Best advice I could give you is to get someone to give you a hand the first couple of days that has experience boiling with a steamaway or a piggyback and knows how to adjust an oil burner. A day boiling with someone that knows what they are doing would be worth it even if you have to pay them for their expertise.

[peacemaker]

if u run water and have someone come then you wont be putting them behind in the boil day ...