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I think if the sun was out this week, we'd be done. The weather is saving us. I collected a fair amount of sap (for us) on Tuesday this week, which was surprising. My cold maples were still...

A nice intermediate size container between a 5 gallon pail and a standard 55-gallon drum, is a gatorade/home depot/lowes cooler that comes in a 10-gallon size. You can use the flip style spout and...

All-
I had Randy Worthen build me a 2x6 evaporator last year. He makes a good finished product. It is a bit rough, but the price is right. Not sure he has availability to build any this year or...

I ordered one of Randy's 2x6 arches last year and have yet to put it into use this season, but very much looking forward to it. Very good construction for the price he charges.

Too bad to hear that you are done, its been a wacky weather season for sure. The latest snow saved us and we are still running strong up here (nearly a foot of new snow!). Seeing the kids get...

You gotta start somewhere. Just be careful because it becomes addicting if you upgrade anything. I started with 10 trees, then 40, now 90 and we may have access to 100 acres of maples across the...

I think we are all a bit concerned about this warm up. Especially due to the predicted above freezing temperatures at night for nearly the next week. I'd love to hear other people's thoughts on...

I contacted him and answered my own question. He does sell arches only in whatever size you desire. I have one being built right now and will give a review once I have possession of it.

We're relatively new to the hobby as this will be our fifth season, but we do keep a lot of data on our trees. The average start date for us is right around Valentine's day. We are on gravity and...

Does he sell these units without the pans, arch only? Just curious if anyone knows.

We pulled the plug yesterday. Ended up learning a lot this year, like which runs like the 3/16" tubing and which ones I should've left as 5/16" tubing. Got about 75-80% yield of sap from last year,...

We went RO when we couldnt handle the sap volume anymore. That equation will be different for everyone. Once we started getting more sap than we could store, we went to RO. I built it with the...

I got 40 gallons from my 84 taps yesterday, which for us being in the shade with smaller trees, was a record day. I probably could get a bit more out of my trees if i change some of the low gravity...

Tom-
I have seen this phenomenon myself this year where the sap either hangs out in the tubing or actually will run in reverse. I never saw this with the 5/16" drops. It would be nice to hear from...

Is there any empirical evidence showing whether or not a 5/16" drop to a 3/16" line yields more or less sap than a 3/16" drop to a 3/16" line?
I know there are several other factors involved such as...

Just to clarify, i normally do not blow into the taps unless necessary (most are too high anyway). We also consume our own syrup, so we are not selling it. On top of that nearly every bacterial...

As an update to this thread. I pulled several 3/16" tees to find that 90% or better of them were not blocked with anything. It turns out my problem was with the taps. I am using white 5/16" to...

We could sure use a big thaw. We've only been sugaring about 5 seasons. Anyone remember a season when it was this cold for this long to get going? It was -4 in the bush this morning at our place. ...

Would a can of compressed air work properly? I have a brand new stainless steel bit, but still apparently got some chips left in the hole.
In commenting on the other part of this conundrum, have...

Thank you all for commenting on this. I went out and checked on 20-30 of my tees yesterday and about 1/2 of them had some sort of blockage due to schmoo or woodchips. I should've cleaned the holes...

I am actually having somewhat of a similar problem which I don't know if it is related to vacuum or not. I pulled the end of one line out of the bucket and tried to suck a vacuum through it, and the...

All-
I am having issues with my 3/16" tubing having some sort of flow problem in them.
All of my lines are 3/16" tubing, but I replaced the drops with 3/16" tubing and tees from 5/16" tubing and...

I barely got any sap on Saturday, a bit in the rain on Sunday, and things shut down on Monday. Looks like a slow week until at least Friday/Saturday when things might pick up a bit.

Everybody who has never used a homemade RO will love having one. I cant thank Hodorskib enough for this idea/thread as it allows you to get a lot of time back doing regular life things.
I am also...

Well I finally pulled the trigger and got a SL 2x4 divided pan with feed pan. I'll just build the block arch again, and then go all in next year with a new arch. Can't wait for the new pan to show...