Purchased a leader half pint yesterday.

[buckeye gold]

It will not take you long to become disenchanted with the half pint if your planning on expanding. I ran one for three years and was up to 60+ taps. I was pretty frustrated with 60 taps on it. I added AOF and it helped a lot. I could get 6-7 gph peak and on a lucky day 8. I spent a lot of hours boiling. Before my 4th year I decided I was upgrading. I bought a hybrid pan from Smokey Lake and modified (lengthened) my arch to make it work better, and added a better air system.
I now run 100+ taps and still have some long days, but can usually finish in 5-6 hours. The good news is there is always some one looking to start that will buy your half pint pan. It only took me about a week to sell mine once I listed it. I'd say run the half pint a season or two then upgrade. You'll learn a lot using it. It gets tricky trying to adjust the sap feed with the preheater tank, so run a little deeper until you get used to it or you will burn your pan pretty quick; your going to burn it sooner or later (yes you will) so just take my advice and make it later.

[johnallin]

I am looking for any tips or advice. Marked the trees that I’m going to tap. Going to try and start out with 32 taps. Thanks

I think you made a great decision! You'll have a blast with that half pint.. Don't worry about production or how long you'll be boiling - boiling's the fun part. Focus on making the best syrup you can-not how much you can make-that will come later. I boiled 2 years on one of those, ended up with 60+taps and made some award winning product. Moved up to a Leader 2x6 Patriot with 195 taps and still have it.

My advice:
Keep your wood small and dry, fire it often, research some of the threads on here to see how to maximize the bricking setup and you'll do just fine. Keep your collection equipment spotless, don't hold sap too long and you'll make some amazing product on that rig. Get too big and it's just too much work to keep it all tidy and clean.
Enjoy it, it's a great rig and will hold it's value forever.

[Nogden3929]

Any suggestions on how to seal the door on a leader half pint when you add AUF? Got lots of blowing ash last year.

[Maplemonkey]

I am currently boiling for about 20 taps on Propane with a pan made to fit my two burner camp stove. I can get to almost 3gpm by preheating on an electric single burner. I just obtained more property and would like to go to 30 taps. Have the funds to obtain a hobby type evaporator. Have unlimited access to free wood on my property

1. Seems only worthwhile to about double or more the GPM to 6-7 gpm from what I currently have, given that I would now be factoring in the time spent on getting wood to the boiling location - does this make sense?

2. On evaporator supplier websites they list even up to 10 gpm for 2x4 hobby evaporators. How legitimate are these claims?

3. Is a divided pan worth it?

4. What are the extras that really are must haves?

5. I am in Upstate NY - Finger Lakes. do you have any suggestions or preferences on a 2x4 evaporator - wood - divided pan as far as manufacturer?

Thanks!!!!!