Nylon Tee's

[Amber Gold]

Does anyone know where I can get nylon tees? At the tubing seminar, Leader is building there wet/dry boosters with 2" semitransparent nylon tees. The benefit w/ nylon is it doesn't breakdown when exposed to UV and becuase you can see through them you can watch the sap flow. The tees have stainless collars for reinforcement (or something). I didn't think to ask the presenter today where they can be bought.

The other option is to use an ABS plastic tee like this:
http://plumbing.hardwarestore.com/52-298-abs-fittings/abs-test-tee-with-plug-632080.aspx

A couple of thread bushings would need to be glued in, but it would work as well.

[maplecrest]

josh, your money would be better spent using stainless steel tees. not nylon

[red maples]

can't say I have ever seen the type your talking about I have only seen white nylon fittings.

[Homestead Maple]

Try www.uscosupply.com/

On the home page in the left column click on fittings. Then click on Spears. In the search use item # 4805-020SR. This is available in natural and black. Brad had the natural.

[Maplewalnut]

Josh- I was interested in them also. Obviously you can probably get them from Leader but not sure where else. Never did meet up with any traders, it was a decent talk I thought. Alot of focus on tree pressure vs the number of taps. Never saw tree pressure numbers put to predicting sap run before. Interesting

Also interesting that Brad commented on tapping straight at the tree and no longer at a slight angle upwards. My nine year old couldn't wait to tell his mother that we have been tapping WRONG for years!

Mike

[Amber Gold]

Thanks Homestead. Found them...they're not cheap. List price is $20. Were you at the presentation?

Maplewalnut, I met another trader from Nottingham there. I agree, it was a good presentation. I was glad to see some of things I currently do are good practices and I picked up some new things.

Thanks again.

[Homestead Maple]

Yes, I was there yesterday. I sat right next to the projector table so that I could lean on that in case I wanted to take a nap. Brad did say that the tees cost him $19 I thought. I was talking with David and Kevin Bascon after wards and they asked me what the advantage of the tees was. I told them it was suppose to be a stronger tee. Kevin said he would stick with brass ones. I found some 150 class s/s ones on ebay from a place called Mainland Valve and Fitting. 2 inch class 150 tees are $12.61 right now and 1 1/2 are $9.82. I tried the 1 1/2 and I wasn't concerned about turbulence inside because there isn't suppose to be any if you take care of the leaks, right? If you buy a single one the shipping is $14, so that's no bargain. If you buy $75 worth of fittings the shipping is free, so I bought enough to get the free shipping. The 150 class fittings are a lot lighter but we aren't looking for really high strength in building these. They certainly are stronger than plastic or nylon. These have really clean cut threads and with some teflon tape there's no concern about leaks. The picture of the 2 inch tee makes it look as though it's real heavy but they must have used a class 250 or 350 for the picture. http://cgi.ebay.com/TEE-150-304-STAINLESS-STEEL-2-NPT-FITTING-743WH-/200432770213?pt=LH_DefaultD

[sapman]

Could someone elaborate a little on how these boosters are constructed? Is the dry line simply attached to one end of the tee, wet to the other, then the lateral main coming off the side?

Thanks

[sapman]

I'll try this again. Can someone explain how these boosters were constructed?

Thanks

[Maplewalnut]

Sapman-

Hard to do in words which is why no one probably responded but I'll give it a shot. The 2 inch T is placed as a booster on wet/dry setups anywhere you have a conductor mainline coming in to your wet/dry setup. Remember you should avoid tapping directly into the wet line with laterals hence you will have a lot of side conductors coming off your main trunk. The booster is configured with the sap conductor line coming into the center 'port' on the 2inch T which has been reduced down with fittings to match your conductor (3/4, 1inch) The top and bottom port on the 2 inch T are similiarly downsized to match your wet and dry line with a plastic T fitting and attached to wet line on bottom and dry line on top. This allows vacuum to maintain a straight thru path to and from releaser and last tap. The theory is the sap comes in middle port and is collected in the 2 inch t before it falls into the wet line. Vacuum is maintained the whole time and turbulence is redcued in this larger T creating better vacuum dynamics


Mike

[Homestead Maple]

I tried four times yesterday and some the day before and I'm not able to post. I'll see if I can today.

I tried sending pictures again but no luck. I get a message that says "internal error". I'll try again later.

[Homestead Maple]

How about now?

[maplecrest]

those are expensive to make, and freeze and split. the other problem is if tree comes down they shear right off at tee. a simple tee in the wet line and 3 feet away another tee in dry line. that looks like a loop!using same size pipe as wet dry. then tee the lat line into loop. no freezing no troulbe with down trees for every thing flexes. cheep to make and 3 tees and 1 valve needed

[Homestead Maple]

Here are some pictures of the type I use. I also have some made up with stainless tees. The large top tee is for the 1 inch dry/vacuum line. The lower tee is 3/4 for the sap line. The side line into the booster/entrance tee is 3/4 inch out to your laterals. I drill my lateral valve and tap it for a vacuum guage, so I can check for leaks in the system easier. Others do this also.

[Homestead Maple]

those are expensive to make, and freeze and split. the other problem is if tree comes down they shear right off at tee. a simple tee in the wet line and 3 feet away another tee in dry line. that looks like a loop!using same size pipe as wet dry. then tee the lat line into loop. no freezing no troulbe with down trees for every thing flexes. cheep to make and 3 tees and 1 valve needed

Would you have any pictures to share so that he could understand how they work? I think he'd like to set some up.

[Homestead Maple]

those are expensive to make, and freeze and split. the other problem is if tree comes down they shear right off at tee. a simple tee in the wet line and 3 feet away another tee in dry line. that looks like a loop!using same size pipe as wet dry. then tee the lat line into loop. no freezing no troulbe with down trees for every thing flexes. cheep to make and 3 tees and 1 valve needed

http://s487.photobucket.com/albums/rr240/jasongrossmantubing/

Are these the type you are referring to?

[Buffalo Creek Sugar Camp]

I agree with Maplecrest. The first woods that I ran tubing I used the plastic boosters. The first year I had a few break, it seems like the threaded connections always leaked vacuum, no matter if I tightened more, or used thread sealent. I started putting the stainless Y's in and haven't had any problems. They don't restrict flow in the wet line, and will last a lifetime.

[Amber Gold]

Maplecrest, please post a pic of the manifold you use.

Homestead, why do you have the second valve on the manifold? I know why you have one on the branch line, but not the other.

[Homestead Maple]

It's for washing purposes, so that you can isolate the dry/vacuum line from the sap carrying line. Brad doesn't use this because he, like others, uses his vacuum to pull cleaner back through the taps to clean his lines. I don't know if this works well to clean both the dry/vacuum, and sap main line but he seemed to be satisfied with his cleaning results. Some people don't even clean their lines, they just let the sap turn acidity and let that disenfect the lines.

[Homestead Maple]

I agree with Maplecrest. The first woods that I ran tubing I used the plastic boosters. The first year I had a few break, it seems like the threaded connections always leaked vacuum, no matter if I tightened more, or used thread sealent. I started putting the stainless Y's in and haven't had any problems. They don't restrict flow in the wet line, and will last a lifetime.

I would definitely try these if I could see some better pictures of how they are constructed. They make more sense as far as practicality. Even though I haven't had any of what I use now freeze up and slip, or lose some to branches, I'd still try the others.

[Buffalo Creek Sugar Camp]

Homestead- The connections are plumbed exactly like you see in the pictures in Jason Grossmans photobucket.

[maplecrest]

jasons pics are how i set mine up with the y.s in the wet line tees in dry with loop

[Homestead Maple]

Homestead- The connections are plumbed exactly like you see in the pictures in Jason Grossmans photobucket.

Okay, I understand now. I didn't see any valves on the lines but I suppose it depends on how a person washes their lines or doesn't. I would probably put a valve on the lateral so that I could install a vac gauge to check for leaks. A friend tells me that some people can check for leaks without gauges. Haven't tried that yet.