Reaming Results

[Maplewalnut]

As promised

Reaming study results

Let me provide a baseline first:
---taps originally drilled about 4 weeks earlier (7/16 standard spile)
---two weeks without freeze, some highs in 60’s
---all sugar maple roadside trees (buckets)
---reamed 1/64 bigger and less than 1/8 deeper
---hard freeze (low teens) just after reaming
---study included 125+ taps (100 reamed, 25 unreamed)

Collected 400+ gallons over an 8 day period from 100 reamed holes. (Of the 25 unreamed holes only three had a bottom full of sap 24 hours after reaming and then nothing else.) No correlation to direction, 10 holes faced north, 5 south ,4 east and 6 west


Same tree reamed vs undreamed
---Reamed holes provided sap immediately upon reaming. Unreamed holes on same tree provided nothing. Again, no correlation to direction. North facing taps produced just as well as south facing taps once reamed.

Sugar content (on three different trees) showed:
Before hard freeze after reaming- 1.2, 1.0, 1.6
After hard freeze- 2.0, 2.2, 2.4
Week after freeze-1.1, 0.9, 1.2


Grade of syrup produced after 2-3 weeks of 60 degree days
---Even after cleaning all tanks and evaporator, produced B grade the whole time.

Conclusion
-- definitely worth it if the weather is right. Not saying I would do it every year but this year almost 10 gallons of syrup from 100 taps over an 8 day period. Again, this was only done on buckets to provide worse case, I would expect better results from a vacuum system after reaming.

[Haynes Forest Products]

MW You need Clan to do a spread sheet on this. Good info thanks

[TF Maple]

Thanks for taking the time to do the research and for publishing it. I still wonder if reaming is worth the effort or not for two reasons. First there is other research that says it is not worth doing. Second, I had trees tapped for 4 weeks and when the weather was perfect for sap runs, they really ran good. I had 4 days of perfect weather in the last days of the season and had two trees producing a gallon and a half one day and filling the 4 gallon pail the next day. The next two days they did that same cycle. Now if I had happened to ream the holes on those two trees I would have come to the conclusion that reaming holes is a great idea. Or it could have gone the other way if I had them as trees I didn't ream. I'm not trying to put down your research, just saying the weather is really important. Thanks again for the research.

[Haynes Forest Products]

I think because he had 2 taps in the same tree it eliminates most of the doubt about weather or happenstance

[Maplewalnut]

There were actually 5 trees where one tap was reamed and another was not. 2 faced north, 2 south and one east. All had the same results.

TF Maple- please see my conclusion. I acknowledge weather is everything in this hobby. My feeling is that there is a time and place for everything-this seemed like a good year to try reaming.

To be clear-not trying to sway people either way, just communicating some numbers from admittedly a down and dirty unscientific data set study that alot of people have pm'd me looking for.

Enjoy

Mike

[Sugarmaker]

My 2 cents: To Ream or note to ream that is the question:)

I had never reamed a tap hole in the almost 50 years of making syrup. This year I did.
We had made 63 gallons up to March 20 and 21 Our open house weekend. Weather was way to warm all buckets had stopped. Sap run on Friday March 19 was 170 gallons off 500 taps. Not good!

Sunday night March 21 I decided to scrub all the gathering containers and rinse them. March 22 I chose to ream all the tap holes. What the heck I did not have anything else going on! Sap sure wasn't running, temp was 60 ish. I got 400 done that night. It froze that night. Next day I reamed and gathered the remaining 100 taps and gathered the rest. Not a great run but better than I expected. Next run was the most we had all year of 410 gallons.
We made another 41 gallons of syrup after the taps were reamed and I think at least 50% of that was due to reaming the tap holes.
I would agree that it is somewhat weather related. I did not do a trial of some areas not reamed.

Did we pull a rabbit out of the hat! Or just luck of the weather?

Regards,
Chris

[Z/MAN]

Maplewalnut, I also benefited by reaming. I tapped late this year and used all new tree saver spouts and adapters along with new drop lines so I thought I would be all right. After last Friday nights deep freeze I couldn't believe I had no flow. So late Saturday I reamed all my holes 1/64 larger and about 1/4" deeper. Before I could put the spouts back in, most holes were running. I collected another 100+ gallons of sap in the next few days. This saved the season for me. Although not a great season at least it wasn't a disaster. Under the right circumstances I would ream again.
Paul

[Dave Y]

Reaming tap holes is worth it if you have the weather! This is the second time I reamed holes and it paid off both times. But you need to time it with the weather. right be for a freeze. We collected 6000 gal of sap after reaming off of 2700 that we reamed. I was picking up buckets yesterday and some of the buckets that where reamed were full.

[tuckermtn]

Dave Y- how was your season with the new rig?

[Gary R]

Maple Walnut, thanks for posting:)

Reaming did not work for me. I reamed about 85 out of 96. I did it 2 or 3 days before the hard freeze. About 60% of those were reds. That may have been part of the problem. I have found that there comes a point when they just quit producing. Also my temps were higher than most of you guys. If you were in the 60's, I was in the 70's. Overall less than 4.5 gal. of sap per tap hole for the entire season.:cry:

[Haynes Forest Products]

When you guys REAM are you going bigger into new wood or just scrapping out the gunk? I wonder is not going big enough on the reaming might just SMEAR the gunk and slime into the tap hole walls.

[Dave Y]

It would have been wonderful except for a few things. One this was the worst season for sugar content in maybe 30 years.(that what i have been told) season average was 64-1. Two sap production was terrible! I produced around 3000 less gallons of sap than last year. This year I had 400 more taps and added vacuum to 2100 taps. The rig ran well It takes a long time to get it up to speed though. I could get 200gph out of it, not the 250 -300 that was claimed by sales people. but I was satisfied with that. I boiled around 27000 gal of sap on 20 cord of wood. Last yearI boiled 30000 on 40 cord of wood. I Was able to fire every 35-45 minutes depending on the quality of the wood. I did not have any wood that was recomended as being the best for this evaporator. Cut one year 20% mosture. My wood was much drier than that. I think that it would do better on wood consuption with greener wood due to more gases to burn. All in all I am happy with the Force 5. I think I will be even happier when I put an RO in front of it.

[kiegscustoms]

I think reaming the taps was the only thing that kept this season going for us. We reamed the day before the freeze and throughout the next week produced more sap than we did for the entire beginning of the season. I have a giant sugar maple outside my sugar house which did some odd things this year. First half of the season all taps ran equally well, with a sugar content about 4.2 at the beginning and dropping to 3.6 right before the freeze. I did not ream these holes but the 2 buckets on the south side slowed down a lot after the freeze and produced 2.2 sugar content, where as the 1 bucket on the north side filled a bucket once every 12 hours and had 3.1 sugar content right up until last weeks summer weather. ???

[TF Maple]

I think that it would do better on wood consuption with greener wood due to more gases to burn.

I didn't know there were gasses in green wood that contribute to the BTU's. I thought green wood provided less BTU's of heat because of the water that gets evaporated so there is less heat for whatever you are trying to heat up. What are these gasses in green wood?

[gomish]

When you guys REAM are you going bigger into new wood or just scrapping out the gunk? I wonder is not going big enough on the reaming might just SMEAR the gunk and slime into the tap hole walls.

I think most guys that gave this info said they go 1/64 larger. That is the same as 16 thousands of an inch, or 8 thousands of an inch per side. Cutting that small amount of wood, the bit had better be really sharp to cut a tiny sliver out of the hole, instead of smashing the fibers. Since this is my first year, I didn't know a lot, tried to use a standard 5/16 steel bit (with a brace), which hogged up my holes out of round (the bit clogged and would not cut, and I had to push way to hard). I knew at that point for next year I had to do something different. After looking at the pictures of the tapping bits to see how they were made, I found some at Surplus City outlet near Altoona PA, that looked exactly like the 20$ bits, for $1.65(Vermont American Brand surplus (wood/steel bit)). The flutes were cut deep and wide to allow the shavings lots of room to push out and the cutting tips were very sharp. I tested them on a large fresh limb I trimmed the other day, and they cut so clean, shavings feed out of the hole great, and I had to hold them back, as opposed to having to push like crazy with the standard steel bit. One is 5/16 and the other is 19/64 so, I will start with the small one and then ream the extra 1/64 if needed with the 5/16.

[3rdgen.maple]

Well I will say reaming helped me alot this year as well. I did 2 out of the 4 bushes I have. The holes were pretty much dried up. The 2 bushes I reamed gave me more sap after the freeze and the 2 bushes I didn't gave me nothing at all. Then the weather went warm again and it all shut down. A week later I pulled taps and the ones I reamed looked as fresh as the day I did it and the ones I didn't were nasty black and slimy. Haynes what I did and have done in the past is the initial tap goes in at 1 1/2 and I ream with the same size bit and go in another half inch. It seems the holes close up enough to cut out the black nasty wood and get the holes back to fresh. I just have to wonder if the research on reaming was all part of the strategic selling point of the sales of the taps of the future. All I can say it works for me and has many times in the past.

[Haynes Forest Products]

gomish I wouldnt use the old brace type bits because the only sharp part of the bit is the face of the bit. The sides then smear the wood fibers. NOW I cant say that it close the fibers from sap transfer. What if we used a smaller bit than the 7/16th we use and then ream? my taps would fit in a smaller hole.

[3rdgen.maple]

Haynes the only thing that ever concerns me when I ream holes is not getting a nice round hole to seal against the tap. I tried the smaller bit deal once and did not like the results. So just how do you center the bigger bit in the hole ism my question. Atleast with the sam size bit it fits better and does not have the tendency or atleast not as much to wobble all over the place. Now if you could have a pilot bit welded on the larger bit you might be onto something.

[Haynes Forest Products]

But then the pilot section would penetrate the dead wood. I alway keep my drill at high speed when I have had to retap a hole that some little helper was doing.

[maple sapper]

I reamed some holes myself. Had good success. I do agree the weather working with you makes it worth the effort. Also noticed holes that were dry. Onces reamed were welling up very quickly. Just like the original tapping day. So right away, I knew it was worth it. I do think that the long warm trend is what made the reaming an ideal thing to do especially with the nice freeze. I did not go larger on the bit. I used the same size and it was amazing that the hole on the far inside was already filling in, based on the amount of material coming out.

[gomish]

gomish I wouldnt use the old brace type bits because the only sharp part of the bit is the face of the bit. The sides then smear the wood fibers. NOW I cant say that it close the fibers from sap transfer. What if we used a smaller bit than the 7/16th we use and then ream? my taps would fit in a smaller hole.

Haynes, the brace I have was fitted with a standard chuck years ago. It takes a standard round bit, not the square chuck bit commonly associated with the old braces. The Vermont American wood/steel bit I will use next year looks like one of the expensive maple bits like this, deep flutes (to allow wood to clean out), not much steel in the twist, sharp edges, http://www.leaderevaporator.com/popup.aspx?src=images/Product/large/63056.jpg

[Haynes Forest Products]

OK I just remember the first year taping and the bit and brace was old as dirt and the holes were all ragity and fuzzy on the inside. Next thing we will find out is KenW is hitting each hole with a copper fitting brush from HD......Yea food grade

[ennismaple]

You mean silver ion brush, right? I'm sure Theron is looking for one right now to try to squeeze a few more gallons out of his trees!

[argohauler]

My season sucked so much, I didn't have anything to lose. I reamed out most of the hard maples and a couple of the best soft's, but only on the buckets. I use a 7/16 Irwin wood auger bit in my gas drill. I went a half inch deeper and the ones reamed, ran not great, but the others not reamed gave an inch or 2 at the most if they ran at all. I more than doubled the amount of syrup I had before the warm spell started. 24 gallons before the ream, 56 total after.

It works for plugged up prostates, why not maples.:rolleyes:

[DrTimPerkins]

It works for plugged up prostates, why not maples.:rolleyes:

I'm just hoping that if I ever have to have my prostate reamed, I don't see a 7/16" drill bit mounted on a gas powered tapper anywhere around the room. Of course, given the medications they have now, after a couple of shots of those, who would care (until later)?