Hi ya'll
Any suggestions on what would be the best way to outfit a 55 gallon plastic food grade barrel so that I can flow sap into my warming tray on my evaporator
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Hi ya'll
Any suggestions on what would be the best way to outfit a 55 gallon plastic food grade barrel so that I can flow sap into my warming tray on my evaporator
If it has a removable lid use a bulkhead fitting and pipe it in from the bottom. If you have bung holes just get pipe bushings and lay the barrel on its side in a cradle and pipe over to your warming pan.
What I do for a head tank is cut the bottom out of a 55 gallon drum and set it upside down with a 3/4 inch nipple through the knock-out in the bung.
I have a plastic 55 gallon drum and bought a threaded pipe fitting which fit in the small hole in the lid. I plan to remove the big lid to fill the tank and when ready to boil I will lay it horizontal strapped to a skid and lift it with the tractor on a frame to let it drain by gravity to the evaporator. I have to buy some small diameter soft copper tubing which I will wrap around the chimney to warm the sap water before it goes into the pan. I will have a valve at the end of the tubing to adjust the flow rate. There is a valve at the tank to stop the flow into the tubing so that if I stop the flow I don't boil or burn the sap in the tubing around the chimney.
I always like having my head tank outside and in the shade, it keeps the concentrate (or sap) cooler. I built an elevated platform attached to the north wall on the sugarhouse, to the west I have hemlock trees for shade. My head tank is butted right against the sugarhouse. A pipe comes off my head tank and enters the sugarhouse thru a square cut out hole (about 8x8") then I have my main valve and the line feeds the preheater. I have my head tank bottom about 2' higher than my pre-heater inlet and outlet pipes. Just after that main valve (1") I have a tee with a 3/8" clear vinyl hose extending straight up and out the top of the wall then back down 8-10'. That is to see the concentrate level and it vents air as I first open the main valve. After that I also have a tee (1") where I have a drain/recirculation line back to my RO. As my feed line approaches the pre-heater I have 2 valves, one sends concentrate thru the pre-heater, the other bypasses the pre-heater and goes to the inlet float valve entering the pre-heater line after it exits the pre-heater and a temperature gauge.
a little frustration setting in and perhaps the forum can advise....I use two 55-gal barrels at the bottom of my hill to hold sap. I have them lying on their sides with a ball valve connected to a quick disconnect to drain them. This also allows the freezing to always take place at the top away from the outlet valve. I use a 1/10 HP pump to empty them into the barrel in my truck bed to get the sap up into my storage tote. The 3/4" line with the 1/10 HP pump takes 20-25 mins to empty a barrel. I would like to speed up this throughput so accordingly I have a 1 HP water transfer pump with 1 inch outlets. What I cannot find is adapters to attache a 1 inch ball valve to either the buttress outlet or the npt thread. I think the slow throughput is a function of my 3/4" diameter hoses vs the 1/10 HP pump. A) am I wrong about the cause of the slow drainage? and 2) does anyone have any suggestions on the methodology to go from a 2 inch bunghole to a 1 inch ball valve?
If the 2" hole is buttress thread, there are fittings on amazon that go from 2" to barbed fitting. That could work for you to add a section of poly pipe then add the ball valve.Quote:
Originally Posted by eustis22
We had one that we flipped upside down, threaded an elbow and valve in the large Bunge. They we cut half of the bottom out to fill.
BascoUSA also has what you need https://bascousa.com/drum-accessories/drum-plugs.html
I have my tank on a stand that is higher than my float box but not alot higher due to the small area. I cut the top off my barrel and put the lid on upside down. Sorry about the sideways pics, I don't know how to make them the right way.