Best and Worst Improvements for '09

[danno]

What changes did you make for this season that turned out best and worst?

Best:

First place - Ran 300' of 1" hose on the ground from my gathering tank to my sugarhouse and used an electric sump pump to pump sap over. Used a compressor to clear hose after I used it to keep it from freezing. I used to use my tractor with 2 275 gal. caged tanks and tractor it over. Huge time savings and I could keep boiling until ALL sap was gone.

Second place - Based upon some help from you guys on the Trader, I found a $30 float switch at Graingers. Float switch turns on pump to fill feed tank when it starts getting low. Made me a little nervous but worked like a charm.

Worst: Installed a second fan under evaporator. Now have a 1100 CFM under the fire and 550 CFM over the fire. Did not see any increase in evaporation rate nor reduction of wood use. Also changed my grates this year and I think that may have negated any improvement in evap. rate.

[KenWP]

Started out with the idea to use a 32 quart stock pot to boil with untill I did the math. So went to a larger surface area object to boil in and no preheater. That changed real quick once I found out how long it took to boil 40 gallons of sap. Made one preheater that worked but never got enough sap hot enough so made another and ran two which almost kept up. Then made a pre-pre heater that warms sap to go into the preheaters so that sap from them comes out extra hot. I now have all that I can out of this evaporator and plans to build it better before next season.

[Haynes Forest Products]

My boiler preheater was a bust didnt have enough coils in the flue stack but had fun building it will iron out the details and be better this year.
Commercial coffee maker was the best $100 I spent will improve next year with the barn find I got at Roth Sugar Bush $100 for a 6 head power packer bottler that has vac system to fill bottles with vacuum.
BEST was my $250 vacuum pump and a new releaser so all trees are on vacuum.
Good was a sap ladder that lifted 12 ft and scared the hell out of me having 10 old timmers wondering what I was doing and having it work. That I owe to this site with all the info.

[Jerome]

best was a separate condensate tray to catch the drips from my pre heater I can lift the hood without lifting the pre heater.
next would be the light ans windows in the hood now tat I have found out that the windows should not be caulked but that thee air coming in around them keeps them clear.

[03weim]

Best copied Davey Jones evap. plans and got a pan from Patrick Phaneuf

Worst the flexable water jugs to transport sap in my car they are too easy to puncture

[DanE.]

This was my first year getting back into sugaring after 20 years absent. So back then I was using a 2x4 flat pan on an old leader arch in batch dumping 10 gallons of cold sap in at a time. Tap were all on pails

Improvements since then that when well: divided drop flue back pan (18x18), divided finishing pan (18x18). Draw off valves. Understanding the syrup needs to be really hot (200+) to filter. Running the pans with 1.5 – 2 inches of sap. All taps on tubing, still need to learn more, but easy to gather the sap.

Improvements I made during this season that went well: Adding a preheater, 20 feet of 3/8 copper wrapped around the stack - helped, but need more heat. Using a coffee urn to filter and fill the bottles with, huge difference. Moving away from the 110 volt pump to transfer the sap from the holding tank in the wood to the back of the tractor to a 12 volt self priming pump with quick connects. no more cold sap baths.

Things that did not go so well: Trying to boil while I had work responsibilities I had to attend to. The preheater vapor locked and the finishing pan over boiled a gallon of syrup down the side of the arch and on to the ground, what a mess, caught it before it burned the pan.

Things that went well this season: I made 5 gallons of syrup. My daughter and I spent time gathering sap boiling, testing (lots of taste testing), bottling and tinkering to make improvements.

Changes for next year: Make a better preheater - I’m thinking water jacket on the stack. Add insulation between the pans and arch. I have enough stainless steel to make taller pans (currently 5” sides), so new pans. Fire wood cut before I need it, damp wood does not burn as hot as it should. The sugar shack finished and the arched moved in. Add an air gap on the edge of the grates to promote boiling on the edge of the front pan. Add air gap between the edge of the flues and the arch to get the flue pan to promote boiling on the edge of the pan. A couple cans of heat resistant spray paint to stop the new metal from rusting any further. Add force air to the fire box. RO <-- this all Brent’s fault, this will only happen if I can pick up all of the parts for a song.

Dane.

[Rhino]

best improvements were arps half tracks on case 530 tractor, thing goes through anything. buying power from neighbor for the months of march and april instead of running vac. pump with generator. custom made sap bags that hold 5 gal. of sap for my 4 tap line networks. but one draw back is that they are hard to lift off the taps when full. worst is not having enough wood made for banner year that we are seeing. made enough dead and down wood for hopefully 4 more barrels.

[ennismaple]

The double spider sap ladder we built over one of our haul roads was our best improvement. It speeds up our gathering time and the guys on the ATV's like not having to bend their windshields down to get under it anymore!

[jrthe3]

best steam hood worst vacuum

[Russell Lampron]

My best improvement was getting out of my parents woods and setting everything up in my own woods. It was so much easier not to have to go over there to maintain lines and gather sap.

Other improvements that worked well were the pump line so that I can pump the sap up to the sugar house and the 2 pipe vertical sap ladder that I built. Both worked well and saved a lot of time and hard work.

On the not so good but it works side the 1" mainline that is anchored 25' up into one of the end trees. In an effort to keep the mainline straight I chose to put it up that high. In the off season it will take a turn and follow the face of the hill so that it will be easier to attach lateral mainlines to and to maintain.

[chrisnjake9]

the best was my new hobby releaser, 500 gallon stainless tank, switching to oil, made 10 more gallons than last year and after this year thats pretty good

[Parker]

Best-8 feet more stack-air tight front- elec. in the sugarhouse big blower head tank outside,,,

[Dave Lister]

I had a few good improvements this year
-Actually getting a cupola on the roof of my sugar shack. Its a converted bunk house so prior to this year, I had no vent and used fans and steam was always down to my shoulders.
-Continuing my mainline all the way to my shack. Had to use a transit to get it to just barely 2% in some areas, but it worked awesome.
NO MORE BUCKETS ! ! ! YAY
-Putting a sump-pump in my collection tank. All I had to do this year was feed the evaporator and flip a switch for a half a minute till the warming tank filled up.
4 and a half gallons of syrup. The most I have ever made.

[NH Maplemaker]

Our best improvement was the auto draw off. It worked flawless. Made being alone in sugar house a lot less stressful. Then fallowed by the new (new to us) commercial coffee urn. Keeps syrup at a 190 degrees with no problem, Even hotter if you want! Then there is the 1500 feet of 1" main line that we put up in the orchard next door. It replaced a 1/2 "main line. Yes alot more sap!! Last but not lest was the 1" drain pipe I added to the steam hood to drain the condersent from the pre heater. Last year we had a very small pipe that only drained about 1/3 of what was made and we reboiled it over and over !! This year had so much hot water that we were dumping it down the drain !! Jim L.

[Haynes Forest Products]

NH Maplemaker man that coffee maker was sweet for bottling two at a time and it was nice not worring about boiling the syrup. I did pick up a vacuum bottler at Roths over the weekend so Im going to complicate it

[Sugarmaker]

Hum,
Best improvements:
1. Another 86 good taps on the same route I travel!
2. Purchased a new sap hauler after the last run of 09. F-250 Super Duty Crew cab with a few of the creature comforts that make you want to run out and take it to The Valley Freeze for ice cream in a blizzard! Should look good hauling sap in 2010!
3. Bought A200 Hobart mixer that took all the work out of making crumb!
4. Helped grandson tap 30 buckets around sugar house, Mike had a ball!
Worst for 09:
1. Hurt my right elbow tapping 380 taps with cordless drill in one session. Not sure what happened to that still not 100%:(
2. Didn't put enough time into compressing pallets for 09 and had a lot of dead air space which limited my syrup totals:(

Chris

[elmcreekmaple]

692

Any opinions on how this will work? The Arch is homemade this year, 6' X 2.5'. The pan sits in angle iron and is 60" x 30" with no dividers. We had a problem trying to get the sap hot enough so I thought up this plan. One problem I have is that I would like to put dividers in then have another smaller pan sit on top as the preheater - like the picture, but would it boil evenly under the pan, and how would it be for shlooshing it through with the scoop? Another idea I had was to seperate the pans into maybe 3.5 and 1.5 x 30" sections but how would I get the sap to run from one to the other if the are on the level?

Since I am asking questions - why do I see Archs with the divided, "finishing pan" right above the firebox and the bulk of the boiling sap farther back the flue? I would think you would want the finishing sap/syrup to be at lower heat so you would lessen your chance to scorch.

thanks, aaron

[elmcreekmaple]

Any advice on which brand and where to get a commercial coffee maker and how to modify?

thanks, aaron

[Amber Gold]

Best:
Upgrade to a real evaporator.
Vacuum, vacuum, vacuum.

Worst:
Improperly bricked arch
Tarps, tarps, tarps. Ended up with 1/2 the wood damp/frozen.

[Haynes Forest Products]

elmcreekmaple Why dont we move post over to the bottling section and evaps. We can chat there go to the bottom of the page and find the cat. that fits

[Father & Son]

Best - Tubing and 3 pump stations to eliminate buckets in my woods (next year vacuum)

Worst - using ratchet tensioners on the high tensil mainline wire and breaking it. Rehung mainline and side tied for tension.

Jim

[kirkhedding]

Everything better this year: New sugarshack 12x20, New to me 2x6 raised flued Waterloo/Small, 250gal. elevated feed tank, and a 2 cone leader filter/bottler. Things are much more fun with the right equipment!

[Jeff E]

Best-good grief, the whole thing. Going from 350 buckets cooking on a 2x8 outside to 1750 on vac in new sugarhouse!!!
Building it so sap get delivered to me in the sugar house. Come home from work and fire up the RO and evap. Making syrup at a rate that had daily totals equalling annual totals from past years, + making better syrup do to cleaning process and speed of evaporation.

Worst- Freeze ups on transfer lines I did not drain in time, thus losing hours of sap waiting for transfer line to thaw out. My guts would tighten right up on these mornings! Next year, thinking of having 2 transfer lines in tandem so I have a backup path to switch to if need be. One morning of lost sap will pay for the lines. So I should go for it.

[dano2840]

Best: built a sugar house, poored a slab in it, good idea deciding not to run vacuum it just wouldnt have worked well in this bush, keeping the chains on tractor till the end of the season, (they work well in snow ice ,AND MUD) putting blower on the evaporator

Worst: trying to drain my tank up in the woods down to the tractor tank using gravity and a 1" line, ( not only did it take 45min to 1hr and a 1/2 with alot of sap but i had to put my tank on a stand up 3 ft for it to work and when the ground thaws on one side of the stand and not the other the tank falls off and breaks, putting feed tank on cribs above the door to sugar house (not my idea its not where i wanted it, you had to duck to come into the sugar house, its getting moved) not putting ratchet tighteners on both ends of the main line wires

[gmcooper]

Best for 2009 was having to buy new releaser. Gained 5" vacuum just changing over from the old CDL to new Lapeire. Vacuum stayed over 22" all season and mostly was 24-26".

Worst was not nearly enough sap storage capacity. Had to shut down vacuum pump too many days as there was no room for sap. Increased boiling capacity or an RO would solve some of that issue.
Mark

[maplecrest]

after today i am going to take out all the 30p in my woods and throw it away!!! every leak or pulled apart tube has been involved with 30p junk.

[tapper]

Best... New for 09 300+ taps on tubing. M6040 Kubota mannn I like that tractor!! And for the 1st time ever my dad helped gather buckets. He was usually here and ready to go before I was in the morning.

Worst... The pump station I built for the utv. The only reason for worst is with new tubing the pump station and the utv never were used for gathering otherwise I'm sure it would have been above with the rest.

[mountainvan]

Best- 1,000 more taps on vacuum, my own work ethic.
Worst- Lapierre hobby releaser, almost killed a vacuum pump and cost me? in lost sap.

[Homestead Maple]

after today i am going to take out all the 30p in my woods and throw it away!!! every leak or pulled apart tube has been involved with 30p junk.

I'm surprised to hear that you've had so much trouble with 30P. I wouldn't use anything else for a vacuum system. It's the only tubing that you can easily see through under all conditions to check for problems, and problems not meaning with the quality of the tubing. I've tried other tubing and the other is either smaller in diameter or stretches more once put up and I have a very hard time seeing sap movement in it.

The best improvement this year was adding a dry line.... by far. The worst was using tubing other than 30P. Hard to see sap movement.

[maplecrest]

i have a lot of deer going thru my woods and the 30p does not give. i added pieces of 4 seasons in trouble areas. but did not solve problem. going to put in 4 seasons. you can see thru it

[dano2840]

learned to not stuff the fire box because there wasnt enough air to combust all the gasses in the fire box, 1/2 full fire box boils just as hard and 1/2 the wood

one of the best things i did, deciding to say "srew it i will boil tomarrow" when i saw martin von trap was boiling, i went met him and now we are pretty good new friends and he gave me a metal framed 1000 gal tank its got alittle rust on the bottom but he has 2 that he doesnt use so he gave me one, i had known him for a week, when he did that

[Homestead Maple]

i have a lot of deer going thru my woods and the 30p does not give. i added pieces of 4 seasons in trouble areas. but did not solve problem. going to put in 4 seasons. you can see thru it
I have moose that go through my woods and I used the 4-seasons and talk about something that grips a fitting. I gave it up after moose got tangled up in it and dragged lines half way across the bush. I also found some where they stretched it to the point that the tubing was reduced to about the size of trimmer string, so I went with a rigid tubing and that pulls off sooner without the damage.