Maple Syrup Contraption

[220 maple]

There is a very short video on Youtube of a homemade vacuum releaser made from a old 10 gallon milk can. Does anyone know where this video came from or has anyone on here made one like this? I believe once you go to Youtube and type in Maple Syrup Contraption you should be able to view the video.

Mark 220 Maple

[pelz]

wish i could see more. appears a rod runs up the outside of it to the top, hard to tell. brighter minds need to explain it to me.

[Grade "A"]

I think I have it figured out. It looks like the milk can is hung from a bar with a counter weight on the other end of the bar (like a set of scales). The cover on the bottom is hook to something that will not move. So this is how it could work. The counter weight is holding the milk can in the air, when the weight of the sap coming in is more the the counter weight the milk can falls. Now that the milk can is falling the bar hooked to the cover can not move downward so it is pryed open releasing the sap. After the sap/weight is gone the counter weight pulls the milk can back up forcing the cover shut again. This should be clear as mud!

[pelz]

well done matt, would it be loosing vacuum then?

[Grade "A"]

It you had a check valve on the sap/main line it should only loss the vacuum in the milk can like all the other releasers do with the main line still under vacuum.

[twobears1224]

that video has me thinking. how about a counter balanced empty can.have one of those tank fill valves on the top of it and have that hooked to a adjustable rod hooked to the storage tank buildings rafters counter balance the stopper so it goes back up as the sap guits running out
the tank would empty when it got enough weight in it to pull the fill valve open,then the valve on the bottom would be pushed down by the weight of the sap.

delbert

[Dennis H.]

here is a link to it so you don'y have to type it in

http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfmadtYqWew (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfmadtYqWew)

[Dennis H.]

It actually sounds like the vac is goin all the time, I think I can make out the sound of suck vac while the flap is open. It might even help suck the flapper closed.

Pretty cool idea. I wouldn't use a milk can though.

[twobears1224]

i wonder if you could build a cage with a spring loaded platform have the platform spring loaded and adjustable instead of a counterbalanced arm.
when,summer gets here and i,am only working one job i,am going to work on this idea.

delbert

[KenWP]

To bad we can't find out where it comes from and find out how it works. Has to be some kind of counter weight idea. He has a fair size holding tank so it must produce a fair amount of sap over a period of time.

[Dennis H.]

I believe there is a counterbalance, if you pause it just before it ends you can see the weight hanging behind the milk can, sort of looks like bricks.

It almost looks like that the flapper arm linkage isn't attached to the weight or milk can. It looks like th elinkage is attached to something that doesn't move.
So as the milk can fills and gains weight it starts to lower and since the flapper arm is hinged to the milk can and the linkage is attached to something that doesn't move with the milk can it is forced open by shear force of the weight of the milk can lower. Then once the weight is gone and the milk can rises back to it original position the flapper is closed with vac helping to keep closed.

Now this is my take on what I see there. Maybe someone else sees something different.


A attached a pic of what I think it looks like.

[twobears1224]

DENNIS:i agree with you that plug on the bottom has a rod going up along the can and it,s hooked to something that doesn,t move.
you really don,t notice the can move down as it fills but,when it dumps you can see it move back up quite alot and the flapper closes.

delbert

[PATheron]

One thought I have is if a guy makes one get it working with lower vac levels first. Then even though you have to adjust things work your way up to high vac if you ever are to use high vac. I can tell you from experiance 25 plus inches is kind of scary. You dont want that thing just slamming open when it shouldnt be or anything. Back during season I destroyed my double bernard by opening the flap by accicent with that side charged and it dang near blew the float right out of the releaser. Broke every bit of linkage on it. Theron

[Haynes Forest Products]

PATheron Are you serious you really did cause it to self destruct? Like other members have said they could sit and watch theirs work well. I guess im like you I cant just let it work I have to sit and work the levers and pull the flap open.

[PATheron]

Haynes- I often have trouble with ice in my releasers in the morning and I had been up a lot in the night and was really tired. I wasnt thinking and went to check the outlet port for ice, if its the one not with vac you can just lift it up, and it happened to be the one with the vac on it and when I lifted the flapper the inrush of air was so powerfull it sounded like a bomb going off. It shot the float toward the top of the releaser with so much force it snapped all the linkage on the top of the releaser. That much vac is a powerfull thing. Im a little edgy around the belly releaser I have. Its pretty amazing. The first year I ran the ring pump I had a coupling freeze up on a one inch mainline. I took my tubing tool and hooked it on the line and loosened the clamps and started running it backwards pulling the tubing off of the coupling but in a controlled manner. I got the ice out and the pump was running and then the sap started coming full pipe in the tube. I had the mainline about an inch apart and the sap was runing out of the line through open air and right back into the suckline with out missing a drop. It was running full pipe through open air. Thats some serious power. I wouldnt take one apart now to open up a ice block Id just wait for it to thaw out but it was when I was first getting accustomed to things. Theron

[Haynes Forest Products]

PATheron That makes sense. Im just trying to make sure I learn from your mistake. I to have pulled some bonehead mistakes. I tried checking the oil on a running briggs on a customers driveway, And this is right up your alley. My old DeLaval vac system had the oil resivoir and I removed the vac regulator and had my hand over the port and under full vac I pulled my hand off and the incoming air blew the oil cap off and drenched me in the oil head to toe:mad:

[220 maple]

I'm amazed, I thought someone out there in Mapletrader World would know where this contraption is and who designed it? I'll have my son who is a computer whiz try to located the person who posted that video on YOUTUBE. We need to find this thing before someone from the Maple equipment manufactures finds it and buys it then destroys it like a oil refiner would destroy a carburator that gets 100 miles to the gallon. Lol....



Mark 220 Maple

[twobears1224]

i think the poster was just visiting somebodys sugarhouse and thought it was cool and took some video.you can click on the posters name and email them.

delbert

[nhmaple48]

I believe what you have is a Mitchell milk can releaser,one of the first designed for a vacuum system.

[Haynes Forest Products]

KENWP is part of the conspericy he thinks this produces sap so maybe we need to get to the bottom of this

[Brush Buster]

Researching the youtube video, I think it came from Neal and Brenda Ripley of New Brunswick Canada. I found an newspaper article that described their sugar house with many odd contraptions. The article said they did 16,000 taps and used a water wheel to power the vacuum pump. I also did a search for maple producers and got a phone and address for them. The releaser is a neat and simple idea. More info and video would be great. Maybe someone from up north would know them?

[maplesyrupstove]

Watch for the sugar maple sap bursting out of the can. This upside down milk can is part of an elaborate pumping system that moves maple sap around the woodlot before it's boiled into syrup. The pump is powered by a water wheel. Neil Ripley's Maple Syrup Camp, Fenwick, Nova Scotia, April 2009.
Category: Travel & Events

Tags: maple syrup fenwick cumberland nova scotia neil ripley sap woods forest spring pump milk can

[maplesyrupstove]

Go to Google maps and in Search Maps type (Fenwick,Cumberland;Subd.B,Cumberland County,NS ) to see were Fenwich is.

[220 maple]

Maple Syrup Contraption
Great work Maplesyrupstove and Brush Buster. I knew if challegend maple producers can get to the bottom of any issue involving Maple Syrup. I watched the video again and have printed still pictures of that 1000 dollar releaser. Lol.. I have a 15 gallon stainless steel beer keg on my scrap metal pile, now I believe I've found a use for it. Sorry Leader, DG and the others.

Mark 220 Maple

[maplesyrupstove]

Kevin McCormick Sales and Service sell supplies for D@G and might know were Neil Ripley's camp is. Some of the members of MPANS might know him to. http://www.novascotiamaplesyrup.com/mapleinfo.htm. Kevin web site is (www.maplepower.ca) Darrell

[twobears1224]

i wonder if there might be a set of plans for the milk can releaser in some dept of ag bulletin and/or some old maple assoc mag?? i tryed doing a search and didn,t find anything so far.

delbert

[KenWP]

I would give a body part for a SS beer keg. I will have to prowel back alleys like you guys and find one I guess.

[lpakiz]

I found a couple at the scrap metal (junkyard) place near heere.
Arm yourself with a couple pints of syrup and watch the doors open....

[twobears1224]

KEN:i need a whole bunch of replacement body parts so just how much is a ss beer keg worth to ya?? :lol: :lol:

delbert

[twobears1224]

DENNIS:i just noticed your drawing.if you add a rod going from the flapper arm to the top of the can then a chain from there to the ceiling you got it.if you look close you can see the rod hidden behind the can..i figured out how to make the video a full screen still pic and i can see it pretty good.
they used half a cement block as a counter weight on a three to four foot long arm by the looks of it.

delbert

[woodshillmaple]

Do you think that it is under vacuum? I am not too sure. I think it is just a neat dumping device that adds interest as the sap is pumped into the inside. (sort of a rube goldberg device) It sort of looks like there is only one line that comes into it. There is a second one but that is folded over and taped. I am curious to know what the short line is on the side that just loops from near the bottom to the top is.

[PATheron]

Listen to the hiss before it dumps. Theron