Tubing w/ buckets

[valleyman]

I'm thinking of running some short lengths of tubing from tap to 5gal pails on the ground. My question is when I have two taps in tree, I want to join them with a "T" and run a single line to the pail. But the T's in the catalogs have a plug or a two stage plug. whats that for? What T should I buy?
Thanks
Greg

[steam maker]

the cups on the tees r for plugging the spouts to at the end of the year if you are leaving the tubing up. by the way u describe ull be taking it down and washing the tubing then storing it till next year. so i guess my answer is whatever tees u get will work cause u probly wont be using the cups anyway

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Use a "Y" insted of a T so the sap has a constant downhill slope and lines drain better and won't freeze up at night at the fitting as bad. The plug or cups on the "T" are for putting the spout at the end of the season for year around installation.

[Father & Son]

Greg,
Just run both pieces of tubing into the bucket and skip the "T" or "Y". It will save buying the "T" but most importantly save steps.

Jim

[valleyman]

Thanks guys for the quick responses. Problem solved!
Greg

[Tweegs]

Last year I did just that, forget about the T’s and run right to the bucket.
I used the tap drill bit to punch a hole in the lid of the bucket, it was a perfect fit.

I would recommend however, that you don’t run any more than 3 taps to any one 5 gal bucket. This year I am going to only put 2 to a bucket, had some overflow problems last year.

[valleyman]

Hey Tweegs,
Have any picks of your operation? I love to see it. I use a block evaporator too. I'm still in the design/modify/improve stage. Thanks for the info. Seems like it'll be a good way to go for some of my trees.

[PerryW]

A tee should work just fine to combine two lines without having any sags. I do it all the time on my "take-down-each-year" tubing.

Personally, I would rather combine the taps using tee's or y's and just have a single line running into the pail than having multiple lines.

[Stickey]

I did some individual lines into ground buckets last year, all home made including taps, worked fine. I was thinking of putting my best cluster of trees into a 55 gallon drum this year.

[maple flats]

Whichever you like. Either will work. Tees work good but some might have 1 some 2 some 3. If you take down each year you might try the individual approach because using several different configurations makes sence in year 1 but the re install in year 2 never goes as easy. I use to trash bag mine, 1's, 2's and so forth but it was still a mess to work with. A bunch of all singles has a lot going for it, maybe 2 lengths but all singles.

[TapME]

valleyman, put the tee's in wheather it is 2 or 3 or more and run one line to the bucket. I go one step further and put a tap on the end that goes in the bucket. It cost a little more but when you drill the hole in the tree you use the same bit for the hole in the bucket and the tap fits snug into it. Here's the best part you bring an empty bucket with you and change the bucket out with the new one and off you go, quick and easy. Been working for me for years with the same buckets. I do a block arch also

[buxtonboiler]

I do that on a bunch of my trees. I found it better to drill a hole, just large enough for the tubing, in the side of the bucket instead of the top. This will help keep out rain water, which will add to your boiling.

[TapME]

I've never had any water in the bucket from the top a 5/16 hole and a health spout and the seal is like it's in the tree. My biggest problem is keeping the buckets empty, they seem to fill up faster than a regular bucket and spiles do.

[wcproctor]

Half of my taps a that way and I have the same problem as others the buckets fill to quick ( this is a good problem ) and a good quick fix to this is , I bought 5- 15 gallon tanks the clear ones with a small hole on the top and the big on the other side on top. Then you can ether roll it to the truck or I pump it to the truck in my 150 tank. I have some big trees that I put 4 taps on them 2 on one side and 2 on the other with a tee in the middle. Work great. Good luck. I just made my first Qt for 2010.(very impatient)

[Tweegs]

Hey Tweegs,
Have any picks of your operation? I love to see it. I use a block evaporator too. I'm still in the design/modify/improve stage. Thanks for the info. Seems like it'll be a good way to go for some of my trees.

This will be the last year for the block arch, too many taps for it to handle. Last year I only tapped 95 and had a lousy 7~10 GPH evap rate, which equaled a bunch of time running the arch. Making some improvements to it this year and hope to get 20~25 GPH or better using the same 2X6 divided pan.

Got my heart set on a Leader 2X8…raised or drop flue I haven’t decided yet, but it will go in the shack we are putting up this summer.

Right now my wife is putting together a bunch of video and still pics for our website, which we plan to launch here within the next week or so. Since we are not yet licensed or selling anything commercially, I hope it will be OK with the mods if I post a link, but I’ll ask one directly before doing so.

Basically, I’m an amateur, making mistakes and learning along the way. I can already see that I’ll need to make changes in the tubing for next year, too short on time to correct some of the things I’m not quite happy with this year. We’ll “see how the sap flows”, so to speak. :D