Tim gets my vote for "Best Innovation of the Year", small producer category. Well done!
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Tim gets my vote for "Best Innovation of the Year", small producer category. Well done!
Yes, Please. or more pics of the details. If I had to guess, for the top pot, you cut off the bottom and somehow made small corrugations like stove pipe sections to get them to fit. If so, then the filter is just pinched between and won't go anywhere, even without clamps, but they probably help. Then the bottom pot just has the bulkhead fitting?Quote:
Originally Posted by Michael Greer
I neglected to put together a "stock pot" version of vacuum filter and now sap is flowing, so while washing buckets the other night I wrapped tape around the base of one so it only fits into the one below it by a few inches. Drilled about a hundred or more holes into the top one and cut flat filter medium to fit and a few layers of prefilter and fit them into the base of the top bucket. I drilled a hole just below where the top bucket meets the bottom that a small diameter shop vac fitting will fit into, with a piece I screw into the top of the vac fitting that keeps the syrup from getting sucked in (also, no holes drilled in a portion of the bucket above where the vacuum hose is). I installed a lead free spigot on the bottom of the bucket so I can hang it over the edge of the shelf a few inches and with its slight angle it will pour right into bottles. From my research, food grade plastic buckets are safe at long periods up to 230 degrees, and since I will only be filtering 2-3 gallons at a time the heat loss will be minimal as I bottle so I should stay over 180 unless the vac process cools it too much. This (not counting what I had on hand) is what appears to basically be a free vacuum filter that will save me tons of time and more importantly for a small scale guy MUCH less syrup wasted in the filter as it appears to suck almost all of it through. Anyone care to tell me what I've missed or doing wrong here? It seems too easy...
I made something similar to Andrew, but used a large coffee urn as the base. I bought a stainless steel bucket, and drilled a bunch of holes in the bottom - this bucket just so happens to fit nicely in the top of the coffee urn with a nice tapered fit. I cut a hole in the coffee urn for the vacuum hose, and made a fitting that points down inside the urn (to keep the vac from sucking up the syrup as it comes through the bucket).
Haven't tried it yet, but have about 10 gallons in the fridge ready to filter and bottle, which hopefully I'll get to this weekend. I'll post some pics afterwards!
This is my version of the vacuum filter. I still need to install a few springs to pull the top colander used as a ring down onto the filters sitting on top of another colander to make a better seal. I may have to increase my vacuum storage. Would like an air tank but I had there E size medical gas cylinders on hand.Attachment 19359Attachment 19360
Finished up my filter. Hope to give it a test drive this weekend. Attachment 19369
I ro'd about 100 gallons of sap to about 9% and boiled it down tonight. Poured it through a couple of filter papers at about 60% and then finished it off and poured it into my redneck 5 gallon plastic bucket shop vac filter. Crystal clear and much less liquid wasted in the filter medium...and MUCH faster. Game changer for a little guy like me!
V2.0 is ready to go...
My original version didn't have enough vacuum after the second boil. Now it's obvious to use a shop vac! Duh!
-Tim
We would like to try this. Do you have a parts list?
I put links to the pots and parts used to make V2.0 in the description of the video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnRftiNn8FM