Auction Relic

[Father & Son]

My wife and I went to an auction Saturday and I came across an old sap tank that I just couldn't let go to the scrap pile. It was listed as 400 gallons but I think it's somewhere between 150 & 200. It's in great shape, not a single rust hole in it. The neat thing is the wood bottom. Does anyone have any idea how old it might be? The gentleman that owned the farm had passed and his grandson who is 50 didn't have even a guess as to how old it is.

Jim

[KenWP]

Haynes probbably used it as a kid so he would know. I was at a place near here and they had this sap tank that had to be pretty old. Was wood but the inside was sheeted with galvinized metal and it was hardwood with runners under it.

[Father & Son]

This one is that way too. The bottom on the inside is a metal sheet over the wood. The wood must be for strength.

Jim

[3rdgen.maple]

I have the same exact gathering tank my grandfather bought new. Cant tell you the year he bought it as he passed away several years ago. Ours is 125 gallons and is used every year since the year he got it. The wood bottom has been replaced once on it. The wood is there because of the rolled lip that holds the sides to the bottom sticks out like 1 inch, so instead of putting all the weight on the lip and causing the bottom to sag wood was installed on the bottom. It is a great tank. I always thought it was a 200 gallon tank until I actually did a 5 gallon pail count once and it took 125 gallons.

[Jim Brown]

Hey Jim; Nice Tank!! Remember the one I told you about that is sitting in that sugar house we talked about -Same thing!. Go over and see the guy you may have a matched set!

Nice talking to you over the weekend

Jim

[ennismaple]

Nice find. We used 2 of those for gathering until about 20 years ago. I think they were about 125 gallons each. I think one of them is still around.

[brookledge]

In the old days all tanks where sized by "barrels"
I still have a galv storage tank that I don't use that is 10 barrels.
One barrel = 31.5 gal So that tank is probably a 4 barrel tank. I had one like that about 20 years ago and it is long gone now.
Keith

[Haynes Forest Products]

KenWP looks like my first hot tub. I set it on fire trying to keep the thing warm:mad:

[Sugarmaker]

Jim,
This is a really nice piece of maple history! I agree don't let this stuf go to the dump! Good condition and with the strainer too!
Like those old pans I bought that day we met. I use them for shelves in the sugarhouse!

Chris

[Father & Son]

Chris,
Friday after work I went to an estate sale north of Norrisville and was snooping around in the barn and stumbled across a set of pans. Complete set consisting of a 30" x 4' raised flue pan and 3 30" by 16" syrup pans which were just like the ones you bought and use for shelves. They were in the back corner of the barn almost completely hidden. Got them home and took the garden hose to them and they cleaned up real nice. I loaded the gathering tank and the pans into the truck and Terri and I took them to the Hurry Hill Maple Museum so that they could be enjoyed by many. (The truth is if they would have stayed here I probably would have piled stuff in them and ruined them.)

Jim

[Haynes Forest Products]

Didnt that style pan have siphon tubes to transfer the sap from pan to pan. Better go back and start looking. They do look nice and dent free nice find.

[Father & Son]

The siphon tubes were long gone. The brothers that were having the sale said they took the sugar shack down years ago. I asked if the castings for the arch might still be around and they said the pans were it. Nothing else was saved.

Jim

[vermaple]

I think that I have one or more of that type of cross flow pan out in the barn and some of the horse shoe shaped siphon tubes that set in the boxes to transfer sap from one pan to another.

My Grandfather and then my Dad had an old Grimm evaporator with those pans on it. Dad built a sugarhouse and moved that evaporator to a back lot and sugared there for quite a few years after Grampa bought a new King evaporator. Dad sugared on that rig one year after Grampa past away which was the only time that I ever saw it used. I was about 7 years old and remember how wierd that old rig looked drawing syrup from the very back of the evaporator.
Having grown up sugaring with Dad in my youth, many many years later I took the castings from that new King arch, had the arch rebuilt bought new pans and started sugaring on my own using the same technology that Gramp used. Truly amazing the changes in sugaring that I have witnessed through the years.

[Father & Son]

It's very exciting to come across this old equipment. My son and I have only been sugaring for 5 years so alot of this old stuff I have never seen before other than in catalogs or magazines. One of the members in our local maple association has converted one of her buildings into a museum and I have taken these finds to her so others can see the history of our addiction.

Jim

[KenWP]

Just how did the siphon tubes work. I would like to figure out a way to move sap from on pan to the next with out useing holes between the pans at the moment. I haunt garage sales around here and watch for auctions that might have maple stuff but so far not a whole lot of results yet. Friend bought 300 plus buckets and spiles at a sale for 30 bucks. Now he wants me to hang them all. Wonder if these guys have any idea just how much sap 300 buckets produces.

[Haynes Forest Products]

The siphon tube is a U shaped tube that has a vent on the top that you could seal with a cap and it went from the side box on the pans. It was the early way of getting sap or syrup to move from pan to pan. You would install it in the box and suck the liquid up into the siphen tube and seal the port. When the levels in the pans would lower due to evaporation sap or syrup would flow from pan to pan. The reason that they are on the side box is because there isnt any air bubbles from the boiling sap/syrup in them allowing the siphen effect to work. If you tried to use these in the boiling sap they would fill with bubbles/air and stop working. They could be tempermental because you had to check them and keep a close eye on them.

[3rdgen.maple]

I have 4 siphons sitting in the sugarhouse that I was using up till this year. Just like Haynes described but they have petcocks on the top. Open the valve and either suck sap into them and close it or just dunk it in a pail of sap and close the valve while submerged. The ones I have were made to sit directly into the pans. They have a big cup soldered on the bottom about a half inch high that stops the boil around the bottom of the siphon. They work very well. Only one had to be watched as the valve is getting worn. You alternate sides of the pans you put them on also. They are made out of tin.

Ken you could also just make some out of that copper you have as well. Just solder in 2 elbows and make the legs a little higher than your pans. Take a cap for a larger peice of copper and set one leg into it, leave a space at the bottom and solder it to the side. Skip the valve on the top. Just dunk it into a pail tip it upside down to get all the air out and carefully lift it out of the pail, As long as you hold it steady and don't spill sap out of the cap on the bottom it will siphon for you.

[vermaple]

Thanks guys, although I have no intentions of ever using them it is nice to know how to make the siphons work.

[Sugarmaker]

Jim,
Another nice find for the local maple museum,
Hope to see you there Sunday.

Chris

[KenWP]

3rdgen where pray tell do the elbows go unless you use them to make the u shaped gizmo which would actually make it square on top. I can sort of figure this out now if that's the case. I was thinking of useing tubeing and to just bend it in a u shape instead and then solder the caps on the bottom of the legs.

[3rdgen.maple]

3rdgen where pray tell do the elbows go unless you use them to make the u shaped gizmo which would actually make it square on top. I can sort of figure this out now if that's the case. I was thinking of useing tubeing and to just bend it in a u shape instead and then solder the caps on the bottom of the legs.

Ken, U shape was not in my description. Mine are square. But you could probably just bend a U shape. I would personally just solder the elbows on. Put a peice of pipe about 3 or 4 inches long to join the elbows at the top. Make sure when and if you do that the legs are parralel to each other so they aren't wobbly. I would suggest using atleast 1 inch pipe just to make sure you get enough flow through them, but I don't know what your evaporation rate is. Good luck and fill one pan with water stick the float in the 2 pans and let me know how they work.