Skid of Vacuum Pumps.

[Whitetail24]

This Skid of Vacuum Pumps were in an Auction at the Sterling Truck Plant Closing Sale.
I had worked there in the Maintenence Dept so our inventory fella made up a skid of vacuum pumps, including the rebuild kits,and vacuum generators which all ended up in the sale and were not shipped to Mexico.
The Auctioneer Sold this skid and along with 10 other different skids of crap for $350.00 dollars. And I did not buy it , I would have spent at least a week taking the other skids to the scrap jard. Anyways I decided to leave a note on the skid so the buyer when he came to pick the stuff would see. He called yesterday and all he wanted was the 3 phase motors off them and when he ask what I wanted the pumps for I told him to make Maple Syrup. He gave the skid to me all I had to do was take the motors off, so we loaded up up the skid in my truck and I brought them home and removed the motors. Today I met him at the plant and gave him back the motors along with a jug of 09 syrup. We ended up a Both being happy with the deal and I got my pumps for free.

Now the delema begins to decide which pump to use. This past season I switched over to gravity tubing which was a learning experiance.

[KenWP]

I just love auctions. Hesitate bidding for 4 seconds and they put all the junk in with it and your stuck with a truckload plus what you wanted in the first place. Around here they don't have many auctions. When I lived back west the paper was full of farm auctions every spring.

[brookledge]

Do they have any specs on how many CFM's they are? Can't really see what size they are from your pic
You will need a minimum of 1 CFM/100 taps @ your desired " of Hg.
Keith

[Whitetail24]

The pumps on the skid include:
-One Leybold D40B factory rebuilt in 2008 and not used since, test report was included.
-Two Leybold D16B both were just taken out of service.
-Two Edwards E2M18 one brand new and was never used, also 1 in use
included.
-Two Edwards E2M40 both rebuilt and not used since 2007-2008
-Two PIAB MM-400 vacuum generators.
-One small liquid pump cast iron with bronze gears.
-One rebuilt AC filling pump for use on bulk AC.
Lots of parts and rebuild kits for all the above.

Just picked up today 6 plastic 110gal livestock tanks that were in the scrap pile at Sterling Trucks, some were never used (Got for free).

Now I have to decide how to adapt the pumps for use in the woods no hydro at the sugar house and I have been setting up things using Solar power.
I have been looking at the pumps and am looking at putting a scrap Permant Magnet DC motor that has shafts on both ends then using a pully on the end to a 5 hp Honda. As the original motors were all 1725 rpm, the Honda would only run about 1/2 speed. The wires off the DC motor would then charge my bank of batterys. The inverter that I currently use runs the basics, Blower on the evaporator and lights.

I would be easy to just purchase a new motor and a bigger generator but the it comes down to cost.

Somethings to think about before Spring 2010.

[KenWP]

For the price you paid for the pumps you have some room to play around it looks like. As long as you can get vacuum out of them cheaply go for it. You could even if you have to tie two toghether if you can hook them up and get where your going for vaccum. I had to do that for a system to move hog feed once and it worked out well.

[brookledge]

Whitetail
Have you looked up the specs on those pumps to find out how many CFM's they are?
Keith

[Whitetail24]

Keith
I have most of the info for each pump, I had gotten the info before I was laid off in Nov 08. These pumps that were in service would run 24/7 only shut down for maintenence.

Still trying to figure out just which pump I will end up using.

I do have a 56C frame dc motor rated at 1 HP,that will fit on the smaller pumps. I had planned on making a windmill with it but just never got that far.
I inquired about a speed controller for this motor today and there is one available for approximately $130.00 dollars and it will work of my inverter setup in the sap shack.

The larger pumps require a 3 hp motor with a 182T frame motor and I am still pondering how to adapt these.

Any Ideas?

Just checked on the CFM's and the smaller ones rated up to 10 cfm/min and the larger ones are up to 40 cfm/min.

Whitetail

[brookledge]

Whitetail
How many taps are you looking to have on vac.? As I said before A minimum of 1 CFM per 100 taps. Are those vac pumps designed to run continuously at high vac. like 25"? Make sure the specs are at the high vac and not at open flow(0"Hg.). Just like an air compressor the higher it gets cranked the less the CFM's.
Next you will have to get a releaser. You may be able to sell the extra pumps to pay for other things.
Good luck
Keith

[Haynes Forest Products]

Remember the higher the vacuum you get on your system means a good tight system so CFMs are secondary

[Whitetail24]

Keith

I have not put much thought into the number of taps. I played around with 150-200 taps this spring on gravity tubing and for the most part was happy with the results. Even tested a bulge pump sap lifter in one area of the bush lifting 10 feet, using just a 12 volt battery and a small solar panel. Used the siphon effect to drain the tank which transfered the sap 600 feet to my main collection point. It ran for 1 1/2 months with no issues.

The bush at farm has about 85 acres of very steep hills and is situated on Lake Erie. The slopes face both north and south, which with the lake being so close I found makes for a longer season this was the main reason for switching to tubing was that one slip and you are at the bottom.

The problem I have is boiling sap down, I made up a 4 pan evaporator out of an old oil tank a few years ago and in 2008 modified it to accomodate 2 more pans.I built this unit so it would easily converted to a 2x8 raised flue at some point in time. But I think I am past that point and am looking for something a little bigger. The price of new pans scares me.

I am looking into a releaser or at least building my own unless one is for sale cheap.

The pumps that we used at the plant would evacuate the coolant or ac system down to 28" to 29" in 1-2 minutes then hold it there for another min which tested the truck for leaks, then they would use the suction on the system to fill them. Each system always sat at full vacuum during idle time as there were less issues with the pumps. It was neat to watch hoses go flat during the process.

You will laugh at this. A former work buddy of mine dropped by today at the sap shack and gave me 3 Welch 1402 pumps in like new condition. Turns out he got a maintence job at an area research building and his first job was scrapping out a room that included these pumps, he said he had a use for these and they gave them to him.I think they are rated for around 5 cfm/min at 1x10-4 torr. So they should work.

I may have to start up a vacuum repair shop with all these pumps.

Whitetail24

[KenWP]

You should be able to do fine. One thing you have to remember is that higher vaccum dson't really give you more syrup in the long run. If you read the posts the this year guys with high vaccuum ended up with poor sap also. As long as you can supply good vaccuum you are away. Sometimes big isn't allways better.

[Haynes Forest Products]

Whitetail It always happens that way for me. You hunt and scrounge and dream of the things you want and when you finally get one they start to drop out of the sky. look im getting a second set of finish pans.

KenWP You must not have read my threads because this year I had good consistant HIGH vacuum all the way out in the woods and I had my best year.

lets look at this a differant way if tap holes dry up/closeup because of microbs clogging the capilaries then doesnt it act like clogged fuel filter? and doesnt a clogged fuel filter restrict the flow? And doesnt a strong fuel pump have a better chance overcoming the restriction? The word of the day is pressure differential. liquid and air will move from high pressure to low pressure in a closed system faster and stronger as the pressure differential increases.

If you have alot of restrictions in your sap lines Bags, fittings, small lines, tap holes that are closing, wood chips in the 5/16 lines, long runs its both HIGH vacuum and CFMs working together that help overcome the restrictions. I would always pick the HGs over the CFMs and get my system tight.