August journal

[sjdoyon]

Finished getting up 1,200ft of 2" wet/dry line after dropping the 1 1/4" wet/dry line last weekend due to being undersized. Plan to run the 1 1/4 into a upper section of about 400 taps.

[tuckermtn]

My brother was up for four days last week with his JD 35d excavator and he and Mark got a ton done. Built a boulder retaining wall and prepped gravel for the 8x16 addition on the east side of sugarhouse. This addition will house auger and day bin for pellet arch and 1/2 of new slab will be silo anchor pad. Trenched and placed conduit for 200-amp service. Trenched and set-up drain for RO room addition (6x12 room)

Spent sunday jugging up a barrel of dark A. Sales are picking up as the cooler fall weather approaches. Nice to have a bit of $$ coming in, as it has been a lot of $$ going out with maple upgrades lately...

[chrismxz583]

IMG-20130810-00022.jpg Sp11 IMG-20130820-00056.jpg Sp22 IMG-20130820-00054.jpg Ingersoll Rand

I found a second vacuum pump and now I have a choice of which one to use in the sugar bush. The one is a SURGE SP-22 and the other is a Ingersoll rand v235 twin piston. Has anyone had any experience with the ingersoll rand style pumps? My surge sp-11 worked like a champ last season, but this year I am expanding the bush from 200 taps to 400 taps......(90 of them will be on a 15 foot sap ladder I still have to build). According to what I find surfing the web the sp-22 is rated @ 11 cfm at 15in vac. The Ingersoll rand is rated @ 21.6 cfm @ 29 in vac. Does that sound right? I put a vac gauge on both and they both showed 27 + inches of vac.(I bought a few more gauges today because I don't trust the old gauge) I have heard other's say they had great luck with the surges ( I did as well) but really don't hear much on the Ingersoll rand in the maple community. Thanks for the input.

[K.I. Joe]

I got one for free but havnt put it into service yet so I cant offer any help but would love to hear from others who have.

[maple flats]

The Ingersoll Rand is likely no good, you can ship it to me and I'll dispose of it for you. I'll even pay the shipping.
All kidding aside, I am not familiar with the IR vacuum pumps, but their compressors are good. As long as it has proper lubrication and cooling it should be good.

[BreezyHill]

The surge units are as near bullet proof as possible...as long as you use vac oil. Too many think oil is oil. It is not. Some oils are designed to cool, some to lubricate, some to polish will cooling and lubricating. Some oils are designed to vapor off easily and others not so easily. The worst is if you use an oil that is designed to encapsulate the oil and it wont separate out well and you can drain it off. Motor oils encapsulate...dont use in a vac pump. Some hydraulic oils will work well but vac oil is designed to polish, lub, cool and vaporize. These are good for vane pumps. Liquid ring is better with hydraulic type oils.

IR is a descent pump as long, as with any pump, it has been loved. Run it out of lub and the lovin ends. Scored cylinders don't make vacuum very well for high vac.

A better test than just valve closed and read gauge is set up a milk pail to vacuum down. Suck it down and open the valve a crack. See how it handles a few cfms then try some more.

If I had the two units and the time. Set them both up with a valve to isolate them. It is great to have a back up unit all set to go. Besides if #1 is unable to keep up thro on #2. A good swing check valve will protect her well but a ball in line also will isolate 100% when not needed.

Ben

[chrismxz583]

Thanks for the input. Dave you should be seeing that pump any day now just mailed it this morning. Got a chance to do a quick static test on both newer vacuums and also the old sp11. Picked up 3 new vacuum gauges from fw webb for $7 each. Got some good readings as I used all three gauges and they all concurred. The sp22 clocked in @ 26 in-hg. The old sp11 , surprisingly, clocked in a little stronger @ 27 in-hg. The Ingersoll rand also clocked in @ 27 in-hg, however it did so almost twice as fast as the other two (only talking a couple seconds)

Ben, I have heard others using different oils but I choose to stay with regular vacuum oil from tractor supply. Must be it works. I pulled the sp11 out of our old barn last year, cleaned it up, changed the oil and put in service for the season. It still pulls 27 in-hg and i know the farm has not milked in 30+ years. I don't think that is too bad considering that the pump is probably 3/4 a century old, not to mention, the price . I am hoping to get some time next weekend to experiment with cfm's like you mentioned. Is there some type of meter to measure cfm cheaply?

[Yellzee]

enjoy the last long weekend of summer maple folks! Too much planned this weekend for me to get in anything maple except maybe pouring it on some pancakes. My humour of the day was a guy that just called me about firewood.. and asked how many trips I thought it would take to move a cord of wood in his mini-van....

[Flat Lander Sugaring]

Added legs to my bottled and a adjustable shelf to set jugs on to bottle. Once I vet a stainless shelf made I will have the whole thing powder coated. I have also started building two RO stands, one for my three 4" towers and once I get that set I'll be building a second one for one 8" tower.