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Thread: PolyFelt Filters

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Mar 2014
    Location
    southern maine
    Posts
    49

    Default PolyFelt Filters

    I was looking to upgrade filtering process. I have a very small operation and I wanted to move to the next level past cheese cloth.
    I have seen wool felt filters in the online stores. I have also seen polyfelt filters. I found polyfelt at the fabric store and I was thinking of doing some testing when I get my next batch of sweetness in the pans. If it works, I have a quilter in the family and we could come up with some designs. Have any of you worked with polyfelt before? How did it go?
    2014- 27 taps

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Feb 2011
    Location
    maine
    Posts
    88

    Default

    I am one of the cheapest fella out there and I even think your working to hard to save a few$, 27 taps, 5 qt cone filter, 17$ I think, will serve you well. If you go ahead with your plans, I'd say, get your tray or filter cone made or think of how you will suspend the filter and then fit it from there.. Originally I was the filter rack and just held the filter till syrup ran thru
    Half Pint, 44 taps, 16 chickens, pig pen
    2014 2x4 Mason HO evaporator, 80-100? taps, 15 chickens, 2 pigs in the freezer keeping the frozen chicken company

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Aug 2004
    Location
    Windham, Maine
    Posts
    1,128

    Default

    Buy the cone filter made for filtering maple syrup. They are food grade and safe to use. If you take care of them you can easily get several years out of one. Fabric store materials are not likely food grade at all, you never know how the material made, treated, dyed, cleaned or made from recycled products.
    1700 Taps /1600 on Vac. 3x10 King evaporator
    20 head Charolais cattle
    8 head Lowline Angus
    28 Miniature horses
    90 hives honey bees
    JD 4430 tractor

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Feb 2011
    Location
    NE PA
    Posts
    1,564

    Default

    You're unlikely to find food grade filtering material at the fabric store. Most dress good fabrics have added surface finishes and sizing. Who knows what they're made from and may be near impossible to remove with washing. A few years ago someone here posted instructions for making polyfelt filters. Thinking I'd try it I went to the store and read bolt ends. All were made from recycled material. It's highly unlikely the source was all food grade but may have included recycled oil and chemical bottles. Not going near my syrup!

    That said, I've seen food grade filtering material in flat sheets in several sizes carried by many maple equipment suppliers. You might want to look into that though the pre-made filters may be cheaper in the long run with construction time and material waste considered.
    “A sap-run is the sweet good-bye of winter. It is the fruit of the equal marriage of the sun and frost.”
    ~John Burroughs, "Signs and Seasons", 1886

    backyard mapler since 2006 using anything to get the job done from wood stove to camp stove to even crockpots.
    2012- moved up to a 2 pan block arch
    2013- plan to add another hotel pan and shoot for 5-6 gallons
    Thinking small is best for me so probably won't get any bigger.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Mar 2009
    Location
    Sumner, ME
    Posts
    499

    Default

    If you want to go cheap, just get the paper prefilter. It will do a pretty good job and you'll lose a lot less syrup in it. They wash out easily, too. The syrup will be a lot clearer than cheesecloth.
    Steven Abbott
    Over 900 taps on vacuum
    30" x 10' D&G Woodsaver evaporator with Steamaway
    Half acre market garden
    2 farmers in training

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Mar 2014
    Location
    West central PA
    Posts
    32

    Default

    There is a resent picture on this forum of another who tried this with material from a fabric store. His syrup was blue in the end. Not sure I would experiment with it just easier to purchase the food grade.

    Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk
    2014 - Pots, Pans, and Chaffing dishes on 3 burners, 10 trees with 20 taps - 120 g sap produced 3 gallons syrup
    2015 - custom pan and warmer on 2 - 212k propane burners, 17 trees with 40 taps - 150 g sap to date syrup production in process
    2016 - desired 10 gallons finished product, need more better storage!

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